Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry predicted during a private phone call Wednesday that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could carry more than 35 states in the November election.
“The more I spend time with him, the more I talk with him, the more I see how he has analyzed this country properly at this point in time, I feel very comfortable that we’re going to win,” Perry told donors during a conference call hosted by the pro-Trump Great America PAC.
“I think we have the potential to win overwhelmingly,” he added. “I’m talking a 35, 36, 37-state victory. Just a powerful win in November.”
Perry also said he doubts Trump will select a running mate simply to carry swing states like Ohio or Florida in November because the billionaire is capable of “carrying states himself.”
“Donald Trump has a talent that very few of us in this business [have], and that is to observe [and] to assimilate to what’s going on and then both in a policy way, but also in a verbal way, really catch the attention, the excitement and the trust of the American people,” Perry said.
Perry told donors that he plans to help Trump in any way he can, “within reason,” between now and November, but would not explicitly say if he would accept a spot on the bottom of the ticket. The ex-White House hopeful, who suspended his campaign last September, also predicted that Trump will successfully unite Republicans between now and the GOP convention in July.
“You’re going to see as unified a Republican party as you have seen in a long long time,” he said during the call.
