Donald Trump speaks at the New York State Conservative Party Presidential Convention on Sept. 7. | Getty Trump insists he can win New York

Donald Trump renewed his vow Wednesday evening to compete and ultimately win in New York, a state that has not voted Republican in a presidential election since 1984.

“Just so you understand, we are going to play New York. You know, we’re not just doing this for fun. We’re going to play New York,” Trump told the New York Conservative Party at its convention Wednesday evening.


“We are going to play so hard and win. We are going to win this state,” he added as he wrapped up his speech. “It’s going to shock people, and by the way, you know if we win this state, it’s over. We win, OK? We win.”

Despite his promises to win the state, polls show Trump struggling in New York. The Real Clear Politics polling average for the state shows Hillary Clinton with a 19.3 percentage point lead over Trump.

Still, Trump said that as a longtime New Yorker, he is uniquely qualified to help the state. He said he was proud to have won the state’s Republican primary in a landslide “because nobody knows me better than New Yorkers.” But he also said that campaigning statewide in New York offered him a chance to see parts of it that he described as blighted by the departure of jobs. Trump said electing him to the White House is the only antidote for what he saw.

“It’s so sad, when I toured the state during the primaries, and I got to see every part of the state. I was in Syracuse and I was in Albany and I was everywhere,” he said. “And I saw those great, beautiful buildings that were empty and rotting and falling down from the wind and the rain and the snow and they’re all over the state. And there’s no hope. There’s no hope other than if I become president, because there will be great hope. There will be great hope.”

He also criticized Clinton’s bona fides as a true New Yorker, the state that elected her to the Senate in 2000. Relative to the former secretary of state, who also claims roots in Arkansas and Illinois, Trump told the adoring crowd that he is “a real New Yorker.”

“Don’t forget, Hillary, she’s not a New Yorker, and by the way, in Arkansas, and she’s really not from Arkansas either, but in Arkansas, what do I have, a 25 point lead? I think I have a 25-point lead,” he said. “You know, she is from Arkansas, but she’s really from Illinois. I’m a real New Yorker, folks. I will say this, you will never get more of a New Yorker, if you want a president, than you’re getting with me.”