Trump may campaign in state for midterm
President Trump is not popular in California, but a top national Republican said there’s still a chance he’ll make a last-minute campaign swing through the state before the Nov. 6 midterm elections.
“Everything is on the table with the president and the party,” Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, told The Chronicle’s John Wildermuth while she was campaigning in Orange County with GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. “He has kept the last week of the campaign clear, and he’ll be where he is needed.”
Trump has come close to California in the past week, making campaign stops in Elko, Nev., and Mesa, Ariz., for Republican U.S. Senate candidates. But Trump is more popular in those states than in California, where only 27 percent of voters approve of the president’s job performance, according to a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll released last week.
Trump did appear last week with four Central Valley House members facing competitive re-election campaigns — but they had to travel to Arizona to be photographed with the presi-
dent. As he was flanked by Reps. Jeff Denham, David Valadao, Tom McClintock and Devin Nunes, Trump signed a presidential memo intended to divert more water to farmers and “reduce regulatory burdens.”
Denham is locked in a tight race with first-time Democratic candidate Josh Harder, and said the president’s action would help him in his heavily agricultural district in and around Modesto. He said he would also appreciate a Trump visit to his district, where 43 percent of likely voters approve of the president’s performance, according to a Berkeley IGS Poll released this month.
Then again, Denham said he would have encouraged former President Barack Obama to visit, too.
“I’ve been very clear that I’d welcome any president to come here,” Denham said Saturday during a campaign stop in Banta, a San Joaquin County town just outside Tracy. “I said I’d welcome the last president to come here (too), because they need to understand the impacts that government regulations play on our community.”
Politically, a Trump visit could have an unpredictable outcome in California. He would probably whip up enthusiasm among Republican voters. But Trump’s approval rating isn’t above 49 percent in any of the GOP-held Orange County and Central Valley districts that Democrats are trying to flip, according to the Berkeley IGS survey. There’s a chance that his presence in the state might sway undecided independent voters — who generally don’t support him in California — toward the Democrats.
Trump might be more effective weighing in on California races via his most familiar campaign perch: Twitter. That’s how he conveyed his backing of John Cox for governor before the June primary, an endorsement widely seen as providing the San Diego-area businessman with the momentum he needed to qualify for the Nov. 6 general election.