The Trump campaign is optimistic about their chances in Texas in 2020, according to Trump Campaign Communications Director Tim Murtaugh.
In an interview with Texas Scorecard ahead of President Donald Trump’s “Keep America Great” rally in Dallas on Thursday, Murtaugh emphasized the importance of Texas in the upcoming presidential election.
“Texas has a big role. It’s certainly part of the map that made the president the president in 2016, and we fully intend to win all the 2016 states again in 2020 and add some states to that pile,” said Murtaugh. “States like New Hampshire, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Nevada.”
“The president won [Texas] by nine points last time. This is not a state we’re going to take for granted. We are going to have a presence here, an aggressive campaign here with people on paid, full-time staff and financial resources devoted to ensure the president wins it again,” he added.
Murtaugh said the campaign’s focus on Texas was a lesson learned from the failed Hillary Clinton campaign of 2016.
“Hillary Clinton thought she had Wisconsin in the bag, and so she never went there, didn’t do anything about it, and she lost. That will never happen to President Trump in any state,” he said.
Murtaugh did acknowledge the close-call election between U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and former Congressman Beto O’Rourke in 2018, in which Cruz narrowly won a three-point victory in his re-election bid.
“People point out that in 2018, Beto gave Ted Cruz a scare. Well, 2018 is not 2020. In 2020, President Trump will be on the ballot … and that makes all the difference in the world.”
In response to comments made by Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen during a backroom meeting in which he expressed that Trump was “killing” Republicans in urban and suburban districts, Murtaugh said the campaign completely disagreed with Bonnen’s assessment.
“No, we just don’t see that,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you live, you enjoy a good strong economy,” adding that people in suburban areas care about jobs, having their retirement secure, and living in a safe community—pointing to efforts made by the Trump administration to stop the flow of criminals and illegal drugs across the southern border.
When asked the best way supporters could help the campaign, Murtaugh gave a simple answer: volunteer.
“We’re going to have a robust volunteer program. Last time, in 2016, in conjunction with the RNC, we had about 700,000 volunteers nationally. This time, we’re going to have two million,” he said.
Murtaugh encouraged those interested in getting involved to visit the Trump campaign’s website.
