Donald Trump's plan to turn New York red in November? Bumper stickers.

(Image credit: Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

published 9 June 2016

Donald Trump has boasted he will turn traditionally blue states red in November, claiming his campaign is "going to play heavy, as an example, in California." Trump also said his home state of New York could potentially flip for him, despite the fact that the Empire State hasn't voted for a Republican since 1984. But even as Hillary Clinton is well on her way to establishing teams in battleground states, Trump's campaign is still looking to be a rather bare-bones operation, according to sources who spoke with CNN:

In New York — Trump's home state and a blue bastion he badly wants to win — the campaign is counting on anti-Clinton sentiments upstate and efforts to pick up Democratic voters who are [feeling] dissatisfied with their own party.Carl Paladino, the campaign's co-chair in New York and the 2010 gubernatorial nominee, said they will also rely on conventional get-out-the-vote efforts and blanketing the upstate region with signs and bumper stickers."Upstate will give us a wave in this election, and my instruction from HQ is really simple. It's one word: Win," he said. "And that's what we intend to do." [CNN]

While it might not be the most complicated political strategy to ever be rolled out, some Republicans think all the excitement over states like New York is a waste of time and effort. "If you have 10 staffers in a place like Washington, which traditionally has been a long shot for Republicans, that's 10 staffers that you don't have in a place like Ohio and Florida. Every dollar that you're spending somewhere else that you're not spending in a battleground state is potentially a wasted resource," GOP strategist Kevin Madden said.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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