RNC chief: Donald Trump's late momentum "a little bit of a surprise to everyone"
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Sunday that the momentum of the 2016 presidential race heading into the final days belongs to GOP nominee Donald Trump -- which is “a little bit of a surprise to everyone.”
“There’s a lot of surprises here in the end,” Priebus told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “I was surprised myself last night we pulled ahead of Democrats in vote count in Colorado, the actual vote count itself.”
Priebus said the fact that Trump is contesting traditionally blue Rust Belt states like Minnesota and Michigan -- he’ll be in both on Sunday -- reflects the “dead heat” the RNC is seeing in polling across the country.
“It’s also, I think, a little bit of a surprise to everyone involved that Donald Trump is closing and he’s got the momentum going into Tuesday,” Priebus added.
Asked whether he was concerned Trump is wasting his time by heading to these blue states -- like Mitt Romney’s late push in Pennsylvania in 2012, for example -- Priebus said 2016 is not a regular year and that Trump has a special kind of appeal in Rust Belt states.
“We’ve got a candidate that appeals to a lot of voters that haven’t engaged in a long time, and he actually appeals to a lot of folks in the Midwest,” he said. “I’m from Wisconsin, I know what it’s like to lose factories where I grew up and that’s the way people feel in Michigan and he gives those people hope.”
He added that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has “a heck of a bad narrative cooking up” in the final stretch of the race. “It’s plaguing her campaign,” he said.
Priebus said Trump has been making an effort with minority communities across the country, which builds upon the RNC’s years-long work to engage Hispanic and black voters for the party.
“We need to give him credit for all of his attempts,” Priebus said. “He’s the one going into Little Haiti in Miami ... he went to Detroit, he went to Cleveland. So he has been talking about school choice, and money for small business owners and getting people back to work.”
Though he and Trump have presented a united front in recent months, Priebus had his fair share of tension with the GOP nominee during the primary -- but he said he’s not concerned about Trump turning around and blaming him if he loses on Tuesday.
“Listen, it’s politics, I don’t really care, what I care about is winning,” Priebus said. “I care about keeping the House and the Senate and winning the White House. Post-Tuesday -- I’m not worried about that.”
“If you would have said two months ago that we’d be here today arguing over Michigan and Pennsylvania, I think most people would have been shocked,” he added.
