Dogged by impeachment questions and poll turbulence, President Trump has found the ideal way to escape his Washington woes: On Thursday, he will visit a new Louis Vuitton workshop, making purses that sell for as much as $2,200, before firing up the faithful at a “Keep America Great” rally in Dallas.
It marks Trump’s sixth visit to Texas in the past year, an unusually high number for a state that until recently could be relied on to vote Republican.
Democrats sense vulnerability, but Trump allies say the reason for the visit is as much about the president’s psychology as electoral math.
“A Louis Vuitton factory followed by a rally among red-blooded Texans? What a way to get away from Washington’s swamp,” said a senior administration official.
Trump’s daughter Ivanka, her husband Jared Kushner, and three Cabinet officials are due to accompany the president to the Louis Vuitton factory to emphasize the administration’s job creation record. It is eventually expected to employ 1,000 people.
Then Trump, 73, is due to appear on stage at the 20,000-person-capacity American Airlines Center.
It marks his third Texas campaign rally in the past 12 months. He also held a fundraising swing through Houston and San Antonio in April, visited El Paso in the wake of a deadly shooting in August, and joined Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a rally in Houston last month.
Elizabeth Oldmixon, a political scientist at the University of North Texas, said it made sense to visit Dallas. In 2016, Trump lost Dallas County to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton 35%-61%. But the area is surrounded by much more competitive counties, where his reelection campaign and down-ballot Republican office-seekers are likely to benefit from the fundraising push. In the 24th Congressional District, a suburban area between Dallas and Fort Worth, the upcoming retirement of GOP Rep. Kenny Marchant leaves a hotly contested open seat.
But not all of the visits are necessarily strategic, Oldmixon said.
“I don’t know if the president wakes up and thinks about his role as a party leader,” she said. “People who work for the administration and the RNC are thinking about those down-ballot races. But for the president, I think it’s something that he really loves to do. He’ll draw a lot of support. Especially when he’s facing an impeachment inquiry, this is a place where he will be energized.”
He may need the energy after what could be a pivotal day in D.C.
Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, is due to testify before Congress on Thursday. He’ll be grilled by House Democrats in part over text messages, in which he said there was no “quid pro quo” between Trump and the Ukrainian president, linking security assistance to an investigation into the Bidens — the central question in the impeachment inquiry.
Reports suggest Sondland will say he had no independent information clearing Trump but instead was merely relaying the president’s claim.
Either way, the repeat visits have Texas Democrats sensing GOP vulnerability, as changing demographics and low presidential approval ratings turn a red state purple.
They point to a Trump campaign that has frequently said the president is its most effective weapon to be deployed in the states where he can make a difference. If he is coming to Texas, that means less time to be spent in the more obvious battlegrounds of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Manny Garcia, executive director of Texas Democrats, said hard work and investment might be enough to turn Texas blue, after supporting only Republicans for president starting in 1980.
“Texas is the biggest battleground state. Trump knows he is vulnerable,” Garcia said. “Several polls in a row show Democrats defeating Trump in Texas, and a Quinnipiac poll a few weeks ago showed an astounding 48% of Texas voters definitely will not vote for Trump in 2020.”
Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 spokesman, said he hoped Democrats would divert money from vulnerable states, such as Minnesota, to Texas in the vain belief they could win.
“President Trump has held rallies in many states he won in 2016 and plans to carry again in 2020, Texas among them,” he said. “The Dallas rally signals his intention to win Texas again and is a good opportunity to highlight the president’s positive record and show how devastating the Democrats’ proposals would be on the state’s economy.”
Trump, Murtaugh said, “has also held rallies recently in states where he came close to winning last time and which he intends to place in his column next year, including New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Minnesota.”
