The Donald Trump campaign is counting on “undercover voters” to win in November.

Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway outlined her vision of how the Republican nominee could win in November despite consistently trailing in polls, during an interview with Channel 4 in the United Kingdom for the documentary President Trump: Can He Really Win?

Conway insisted that Trump’s support was not reflected in polls because of the perceived social stigma of supporting the Republican nominee. “Donald Trump performs consistently better in online polling where a human being is not talking to another human being about what he or she may do in the elections … it’s become socially desirable, especially if you’re a college educated person in the US, to say that you’re against Donald Trump,” said Conway.

“People who are supporting Donald Trump, who have not voted Republican in the past, who have not voted in quite a while, are so tired of arguing with family and friends and colleagues about their support of Donald Trump that they just decided not to discuss it.”

Conway insisted: “We give people a comfortable way to express that maybe they don’t want to vote this year and why that is.” She described her method as “proprietary”. She said that as a result, she could reach these undercover voters “in many different ways”. She said: “We go to them where they live, literally.”

Conway’s statement echoes what in American politics is known as the Bradley effect, a phenomenon that describes the willingness of some white voters to tell pollsters that they are voting for an African American candidate while preferring the white candidate in the voting booth.

It is named for former Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, who was favored in polls in California’s 1982 gubernatorial election over his white Republican opponent, George Deukmejian, before suffering a narrow shock loss on election day. However, while its existence is disputed, anecdotal evidence for the phenomenon is mostly concentrated in the 1980s and 1990s. Conway’s argument is that something fundamentally similar is happening in the US in 2016.

Speaking to Channel 4 earlier this month, Conway buoyed her claims by citing the UK’s experience of the EU referendum vote.

Polling suggested the UK would remain in the European Union, but it became clear on election night that the vote was going the other way.

Conway said: “Voices are silenced in polls that really should be included because people are too reliant on lists, and they’re excluding people who maybe feel so passionately about that issue, Brexit, or so passionately about this candidate, Donald Trump, that they’re going to vote for the first time ever in many, many, many cycles.”



In the past week, Trump has begun to ditch his previous unscripted style, using teleprompters on stage at every rally. That is despite repeatedly bashing the technology in the past, saying in August 2015: “I say we should outlaw teleprompters … for anybody running for president.”

The shift toward making Trump a more predictable candidate came as Conway took control of the campaign. The top aide outlined the message she thought Trump should continue to emphasize: “The best Donald Trump is the Donald Trump who is talking about national and homeland security, economic growth and prosperity, ethics and why so many Americans dislike and distrust Washington and all its adjuncts, its consultants, its donors, its lobbyists, its politicians, its way of doing business.”

However, despite his adoption of teleprompters, Trump still veered badly off script in a rally in Akron, Ohio, on Monday night. The Republican nominee said: “You can go to war zones in countries that we are fighting and it is safer than living in some of our inner cities that are run by the Democrats.”

He continued to claim that if he were elected, “we’ll get rid of the crime. You’ll be able to walk down the street without getting shot. Now, you walk down the street, you get shot.”

Just as there may be a cohort of undercover Trump voters waiting to emerge in November, it seems that despite Conway’s best efforts, there is an undercover candidate who won’t let a teleprompter keep his penchant for controversial statements hidden.