The last Republican to pull it off was Ronald Reagan.
But yesterday, former President Donald Trump vowed — if not guaranteed — that he would do it again in November.
Per a Newsmax report, Trump said ahead of Wednesday night’s a rally in Uniondale, New York, that he told people in Washington, D.C., he was going to be campaigning in New York — a state which no Republican presidential candidate has won since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
“They said, What do you mean New York? You can’t ever … nobody can win … Republicans can’t win,” Trump told a crowd at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in a rally that aired live on Newsmax yesterday.
Trump: "We're going to win New York. And if we win New York, the election's over. We take over the country." | @LawrenceBJones3 @FoxandFriends pic.twitter.com/zg7F3ZPVfH
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 24, 2024
It should be noted that this was Trump’s first campaign rally since the second foiled assassination attempt on him in two months.
“I said, ‘I can win New York,’ and, ‘We can win New York,'” Trump said. “We’re going to win New York.
“With your vote, we are going to rescue our country. We are going to rescue our Democrat-run states. We are going to start by saving the great state of New York. Is that good?”
The crowd emphatically responded with cheers and roaring chants of “USA! USA! USA!”
“If you vote for me, I’m going to reduce your taxes, reduce your crime and reduce your levels of stress,” Trump said. “The only thing that I will increase are your incomes and your love for your state.”
If history is any indicator, realistically taking New York will be a tall order for Trump.
Trump lost New York by nearly 23 percentage points in both 2016 and 2020, and no Republican has come close to taking the state since George H.W. Bush lost to Michael Dukakis by 4.1 points in 1988.
According to a Siena College poll released today, Vice President Kamala Harris holds a 13% over Trump with New Yorkers.
However, another poll released this week found that Trump is much more favored across the Empire State than it’s current, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Trump’s assertion of taking New York could also be banking on recent history in the state where Republicans successfully flipped four New York House seats in the 2022 midterms that secured the GOP the House majority, and by the performance of former Rep. Lee Zeldin, who lost to Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul that year by 6.2 points, the best performance by a GOP gubernatorial candidate since George Pataki won in 2002.
During his rally, Trump went out to tout New York and the resiliency of its people.
“Throughout American history, from generation to generation, New York has always set the standard for American life, and it has been a high standard, too,” Trump said. “Our cities were the center of business, arts, culture.
“Our streets, ports, waterways were the arteries of American commerce. Our towns like Uniondale, Levittown, Hicksville, Huntington … these were great, great towns where you grew up and you loved and you stayed. But look at what has happened to New York and the other states all run by radical left Democrats.
“Our heavy Industries have [been] exported overseas, and our middle class has been eviscerated right here at home.
“Housing costs are out of control. Inflation has cost a typical family $28,000 … and we have horrible, disgusting, dangerous, filthy encampments of junkies and homeless people living in places that our children used to play Little League baseball, which they don’t get to play very much anymore. … There’s been a 29% increase in robbery, a 36% increase in felony assault, a 42%, increase in grand larceny, a 75% increase in carjackings.”
Trump then returned to a slogan he used when trying to rally support from Black voters in 2016.
“So, I say to the people of New York with crime at record levels, with terrorists and criminals pouring in, and with inflation eating your hearts out, vote for Donald Trump. What the hell do you have to lose? What do you have to lose?”