What’s Donald Trump doing in deep-red Texas? Money, ego and reviving the ‘Summer of Trump’

AUSTIN, Texas — After weeks of campaigning in mostly battleground states like North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, Donald Trump takes his insurgent campaign for the presidency here Tuesday night, with a public rally scheduled in the heart of the Texas.

But the open question for many Republicans in Texas and beyond is why? Neither Mitt Romney nor John McCain visited the state so close to Election Day in 2012 and 2008.

For a candidate who often likes to tout his history-making bid for the White House, Trump is again breaking convention, investing time and money in a state that has been reliably Republican territory for the last nine presidential campaigns. The last time Texas voted for a Democratic nominee was in 1976, when it went blue for Jimmy Carter. And even amid continued Republican angst over Trump’s bid and an influx of new Latino voters who could lean toward Hillary Clinton in 2016, almost no one believes the state is going to play a decisive role in November.

“This is not Georgia or Arizona,” a Clinton aide said, referring to a pair of red states where Democrats have started to invest money in staff and ads, and where polls have suggested that Clinton has a chance.

Meanwhile, a local GOP official who declined to be named criticizing the candidate, told Yahoo News, “I am glad he is here. But I don’t know why he’s here.”

So why is Trump in Texas? Part of the reason is money. Facing a massive fundraising deficit against Clinton, the celebrity businessman turned politician is scheduled to headline two fundraisers benefiting his campaign and the Republican National Committee.

But the other reason, according to Republicans close to the campaign, is that Trump, who has taken an unusually hands-on role in guiding his schedule and strategy, simply wanted a big rally in the Lone Star State. Instead of meeting with donors and flying to headline an event in a swing state, the GOP nominee argued for a public rally in Austin, as well as in Jackson, Miss., another Republican stronghold where Trump is scheduled to campaign on Wednesday night.

“I think part of it is an ego thing. He wants to feel the love, and he’s going to places where he knows he will,” one Trump adviser said. Pointing to the massive rallies that occurred last summer, taking the party by surprise, the adviser said, “He wants to feel like it’s the ‘Summer of Trump’ again.”

The decision to divert the candidate’s finite campaign-trail time from critical battlegrounds has raised eyebrows among aides at the Republican National Committee, who have privately expressed frustration with the candidate’s “all-over-the-place strategy,” as one put it. And it exemplifies the struggle that Trump’s new campaign team faces in trying to reign in an inexperienced political candidate who has often bragged of being his own best adviser — particularly as the election enters the final stretch.

Earlier this month, Trump, who has previously suggested he didn’t need a ground operation because he wasn’t a typical candidate, personally ordered the RNC to open up joint campaign offices in all 50 states. It was a last-minute request that party aides believed could potentially undermine already-stretched resources in battleground states like Ohio and Florida, where the Trump campaign already has a smaller presence than Clinton.

At the same time, Trump has continued to say both publicly and privately that he can reshape the electoral map. Trump argues, as he repeatedly did in the primaries, that he can win traditionally blue states like Connecticut, where he campaigned earlier this month, California and New York — in spite of polls showing Clinton well ahead there.

Next week, Trump had been scheduled to visit Oregon and Washington, two other mostly Democratic states where he’s argued he can win, for both fundraisers and rallies. But on Monday, the Trump campaign abruptly scrapped the swing — as well as other planned events on the schedule this week in Colorado and Nevada — a shift an aide credited to the Trump campaign’s new brain trust, including campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, as they try to plot out how to best position the candidate for the little over two months before Election Day.

The move potentially suggested a new willingness by Trump to rely more on aides to determine the upcoming calendar. And it marked another compromise for the famously unpredictable candidate, who has relied on teleprompter speeches at rallies over the last week, in a new effort to stay on message.

Though Trump pushed for a Texas rally, the decision might also attract attention to one of his biggest problems heading into November — the angst that many Republicans continue to feel about his candidacy, particularly in Texas.

While some current and former public officials are expected to join him here, many prominent Texas Republicans won’t be present. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is out of the state, recovering from burns he suffered to his legs last month. A spokesman said Texas Sen. John Cornyn is also traveling out of state.

Earlier this month, George P. Bush, the Texas land commissioner and son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, broke with his family and publicly called for Republicans to back Trump. But he, too, is not expected to appear in Austin.

Perhaps the most prominent no-show will be Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has pointedly declined to endorse his former primary rival. In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly insisted he doesn’t want Cruz’s backing, but has still bitterly complained about it, reminding the public that Cruz promised to back whoever became the eventual GOP nominee.

At a Monday rally in Akron, Ohio, Trump, reading from the teleprompter, made no mention of Cruz or his other GOP rivals, but insisted he no longer cared about Republicans who oppose his campaign. That list includes Ohio Gov. John Kasich, another former primary rival.

“I wear their opposition as a badge of honor,” Trump said.