[Hoot Gibson]

Stunts like campaigning in states like Connecticut will just re-ignite suspicions that Trump entered this race to help Hillary win it. Why hold rallies in a state that was last won by a Republican presidential candidate in 1964, when he is trailing in states where Republican nominees have rarely lost?

Trump’s run at blue Connecticut

Struggling where he should be leading, the GOP nominee diverts to a state that Republicans do not win.

Donald Trump’s poll numbers are faltering in deep-red states from South Carolina to Georgia, his organization is a mess in perhaps the most important county in Ohio, and he admits that he has a “tremendous problem” in Utah, which hasn’t gone Democratic since 1964.

And yet, on Saturday, Trump is hosting a rally in Fairfield County, Conn., a county that Mitt Romney lost to Barack Obama by 11 percentage points, in a state that hasn’t voted Republican since 1988.

It’s a move that is flummoxing and infuriating Republicans who believe Trump should be spending time and resources in winnable states, not in a place that few consider to be competitive.

“At this point, Florida looks in trouble, North Carolina looks in trouble, they don’t even know who their people are in Ohio,” said Charlie Harper, a prominent conservative writer who runs a think tank in Georgia, where Trump is sliding in the polls. “He can go have lunch in Connecticut and be home for supper, but the map is changing rapidly in the opposite direction. Hillary Clinton is not going to move in to defend Connecticut just because Trump went there.”

It’s unlikely she’ll need to, given the strong Democratic bent of the state, which has a Democratic governor, an entirely Democratic congressional delegation and voted for Obama by 18 percentage points in 2012. Former GOP Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut has also recently endorsed her over Trump.
Clinton does, however, have a fundraiser scheduled in tony Greenwich, Conn. on Monday—candidates often come to the moneyed New York suburbs located in the state for fundraising.

Trump’s spokeswoman didn’t respond when asked if he would also be doing fundraising during his swing through the state, an activity that veteran Republicans said would be more strategic than the planned rally. But even then, they questioned why he would spend significant time doing public events in a state—and region--he is unlikely to win.

“No one in the world thinks he has a shot in Connecticut,” said Stuart Stevens, Romney’s 2012 chief strategist. He went on to add, “I mean, he’s not going to win any state within that media market.”