With under three weeks to go before the election, Joe Biden has a comfortable lead both nationally and in the swing state of New Hampshire. But some Republicans in the Granite State say they are confident President Donald Trump will win re-election.
New Hampshire Trump campaign chair Al Baldasaro thanked volunteers working to re-elect Donald Trump Thursday.
"You've got to make phone calls, you've got to get out and door-knock, we've got to win New Hampshire," he told a crowd in Manchester.
Baldasaro and other top Trump campaign officials addressed a packed room of volunteers to rally the troops as election day approaches.
The president's supporters sought to discredit polls that show Trump trailing.
"How many people are drinking the Kool-Aid that the mainstream media is feeding you?" Trump campaign co-chair Fred Doucette asked the crowd. "How many people are believing these polls?"
Polls show Biden 10 points ahead of Trump in New Hampshire, and the former vice president is also leading in other key battleground states. The polls show Biden winning elderly voters and suburban women in large numbers. But this crowd didn't believe any of it.
Politics
"I went back and looked when the Los Angeles Times told us that Hillary Clinton is going to get 352 electoral votes. Didn't work out so well," senior campaign advisor Corey Lewandowski said.
Does Lewandowski think Trump could have a blowout win on election night?
"I have predicted that we're going to have a larger electoral margin of victory then we had in 2016 because we're going to have the opportunity to pick up the state of Minnesota," he said.
The latest polls show Biden leading by nine points in Minnesota.
Despite the Trump campaign's lofty outlook, not all Republicans in New Hampshire are on board with the president.
Former New Hampshire Attorney General Tom Rath has been actively involved in Republican politics since 1964. He was a delegate to nine GOP national conventions and served 10 years on the Republican National Committee. But this year, he'll be casting his vote for Biden.
"To me, the fundamental issue in any campaign is character," Rath said. "What really defines a president's term is his or her ability to set the tone for the country and a moral direction for the country and a character and ethos of the country. And Donald Trump, in my judgement, has failed to do that."
Rath says Trump's approach has been to divide people — to set one group against the other. Rath says Biden's style is very different.
"He has an ideology and he feels strongly about it, but he's inclusive, he's honorable, he is decent, and I think at the end of the day, I will trade all the programmatic stuff in the world for someone who can set that kind of example."
Rath has a message for those Trump supporters who say Republicans like him should hold their noses and vote on the issues, like taxes and the Supreme Court.
"You can win a lot of issues, but you could lose the soul of the country," he said.
Despite supporting Biden, Rath does not plan to give up on the GOP.
"I would love to be part of how the Republican Party puts the pieces back together and get back to the Republican Party that I've known, and we've known, for so many years," he said.
