Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says he could make a play for California, Washington and Oregon — three West Coast states that haven’t voted for the GOP presidential candidate in a general election since the 1980s.
“I’m going to make a real run in California, OK?” Mr. Trump said at a rally in Sacramento Wednesday.
“Now, everybody said that for a Republican to run in California — it’s not going to happen,” he said. “But I’m sort of different, you know?”
“We’re going to come in — we’re going to work California hard. We’re going to work the state of Washington hard,” he said. “We may even work Oregon hard because we’ve been really treated up there great.”
Recent polling has suggested that Mr. Trump could scramble the electoral college map and compete in states that have trended Democratic in recent presidential elections like Michigan and Pennsylvania.
“We’re going to work a lot of states that you wouldn’t work, and we’re going to work [them] hard,” he said. “We’re going to be here a lot.”
But polls have also indicated that California, as well as New York — another state he has said he’d like to put in play — could be out of reach.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday had likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton leading Mr. Trump by 24 points in California, 55 percent to 31 percent. And a Sienna College poll released this week put her up 21 points over Mr. Trump in New York, 52 percent to 31 percent.
Mr. Trump effectively wrapped up the Republican nomination when he won Indiana on May 3. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, his top GOP rival, dropped out of the race that night and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, his lone remaining Republican opponent, ended his campaign the following day.
But Mr. Trump has made multiple appearances in California recently and urged supporters to still get out and vote for him on Tuesday, when California and a handful of other states hold primaries.
“On June 7, go out and vote,” he said. “Even though I’ll say the competition [has] ended, right? It’s ended. But you got to go out and vote because we’re looking for records.”
“It’s really nice to have a mandate. We’ll have a big, beautiful mandate so that when we win, we win with strength,” he said. “So get out and vote.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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