Trump zeroes in on 2020 battlegrounds

A handful of upcoming races will reveal the president's strategic path to reelection.

By GABRIEL DEBENEDETTI 10/08/2017 06:55 AM EDT

President Donald Trump’s campaign operatives and other allies have begun surveying the political landscape for his 2020 reelection bid, viewing a handful of upcoming midterm races as especially insightful to his strategic path three years from now.

There’s been a flurry of activity in those states in recent weeks. Aides from Trump’s 2016 effort have signed on to work campaigns in Ohio and Florida, giving them footholds in two essential battleground locations. Trump himself has repeatedly returned to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan, the quartet of Democratic-leaning Rust Belt states that helped propel him to victory. And on multiple occasions in recent months, Trump has welcomed Republican committee chairmen from politically powerful states like Iowa, Virginia, Arizona and North Carolina into the Oval Office for sit-down conversations about local problems, wishes and upcoming races.

The stepped-up attention to 2020 is partly a recognition that dozens of Democrats are already seriously eyeing presidential runs of their own. But it’s also a reflection of the near-obsession with keeping Trump’s base voters on his side — a mind-set that permeates the White House, said multiple Republican operatives and lawmakers.

What’s unclear to Trump-backing Republicans: the degree to which the president’s base support in the industrial Midwest is waning or holding fast; whether the young minority voters who failed to show up for Hillary Clinton after supporting Barack Obama will return to the next Democratic nominee; and whether the power of Trump’s political celebrity is wearing off.

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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/08/trump-2020-battlegrounds-path-reelection-243567