Has Donald Trump given up on Virginia?

Trump campaigning in Roanoke in September.
(Image credit: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)

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.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

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."

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.