Could Trump win New Jersey in 2024? Vows ‘heavy play’ for Democrat strongholds

🔵 Trump says he will make a "heavy play" to win New Jersey

🔵 He made similar claims in 2016 and 2020

🔵 Trump leads other Republican nominees in NJ

Former President Donald Trump is making a big push in this year's upcoming presidential election to win New Jersey and other states that have voted blue for decades, he claims.

Trump wants to turn Democratic strongholds like New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Minnesota, and Virginia into battleground states, he said in an interview with Breitbart. The leading Republican nominee said he would make a "heavy play" for those states with rallies and speeches.

"I believe we have a chance to win New York. I believe we have a chance to win New Jersey," Trump said.

New Jersey hasn't voted for a Republican for president since George H.W. Bush in 1988. None of the states Trump listed have voted to put a Republican in the White House since 2008; the last time Minnesota voted red nationally was for Richard Nixon in 1972.

New Jersey chose Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election by a fairly wide margin. He won with 57% of the vote, getting 725,000 votes more than Trump.

Trump said he could win New York before

Trump has had aspirations to turn blue states like New York into toss-ups before.

Two months before the 2016 presidential election, Trump promised that he would "shock people" and win New York, Politico reported. Hilliary Clinton won with 59% of the vote.

In 2020, he said to the New York Post that his campaign was “putting New York in play." He pointed to crime and taxes as reasons that the state could go red, though he acknowledged it was an uphill battle.

Biden won New York in 2020, and outperformed Clinton, with 60% of the vote.

Trump leads NJ Republican primary polls

While winning New Jersey in the general election may prove challenging for Trump, a November poll showed him leading the state among Republican nominees.

Trump was the first choice among 66% of likely New Jersey Republican voters in the Morning Consult poll, according to poll aggregator 538. Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis each got 10%. Vivek Ramaswamy received 7% support.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie received 4% in the poll.

The Morning Consult poll surveyed 764 likely Republican voters in New Jersey over a period from Nov. 1 to Nov. 30, 2023.