Donald Trump's campaign is closing up shop in the key battleground state of Virginia, NBC News reported Thursday. The decision, which NBC reported was confirmed by two staffers, was announced in a conference call late Wednesday.
Resources will be reallocated to the races in Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio, battleground states that are seen as more competitive for Trump. At this point, Trump is "running essentially a four-state campaign," a person "with knowledge of the decision" told NBC News.
Still, another Trump staffer insisted the decision to pull out of Virginia was not yet a done deal. "There have been conversations about shifting resources, but I haven't gotten any definitive answer on anything," this staffer told NBC News.
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If Trump does pull out of Virginia, some — including Trump's former Virginia chairman Corey Stewart — contend Trump would basically be handing the state's 13 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton. Stewart, who was fired recently for staging a protest outside Republican National Committee headquarters, slammed the decision as "totally premature" and said it would make it "next to impossible to win the state."
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