INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on speech by Trump campaign manager in California (all times local):
4 p.m.
President Donald Trump’s campaign manager predicted Saturday that the president and his family will become “a dynasty that will last for decades.”
Speaking to a convention of Republican Party delegates in Indian Wells, California, Brad Parscale also said the campaign’s goal is to build a national army of 2 million trained volunteers, far beyond the president’s 2016 organization, that in California could help the GOP retake a string of U.S. House seats captured by Democrats last year.
Parscale later declined to elaborate on his prediction of a coming Trump “dynasty,” or whether the president’s children could become candidates for public office.
He told reporters, “I just think they are a dynasty. I think they are all amazing people with … amazing capabilities.”
Parscale also declined to respond when asked if Trump would campaign for candidates in the heavily Democratic state. He said that would be the president’s decision.
He also acknowledged that California was not a target for Trump in the 2020 campaign. The president lost by over 4 million votes in the state in 2016.
“This is not a swing state,” Parscale said to laughter from the capacity crowd.
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9 p.m. Friday
California’s diminished Republican Party gathers this weekend to map out an election strategy in an increasingly Democratic state that President Donald Trump lost by over 4 million votes in 2016.
The outlook for 2020 will be challenging.
The party’s struggles in California over recent years are well-documented: Democrats control every statewide office, both chambers of the Legislature and hold a nearly 4-million edge in voter registrations. Both U.S. Senate seats are in Democratic hands, and the party has a 46-7 edge over Republicans in U.S. House seats in the state.
Meanwhile, the GOP has withered to third-party status, with its voters significantly outnumbered by Democrats and independents. You’d have to go back to 1988 to find a Republican presidential candidate who carried the state, George H.W. Bush.
Nonetheless, party leaders attending a state convention say they plan to make an aggressive push to gain ground in 2020, including an effort to win back U.S. House seats that Democrats picked up in 2018, including several districts all or partly in Orange County, a one-time nationally known GOP stronghold southeast of Los Angeles.
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