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.”

Trump will be doing a rally Saturday night at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., a wealthy, well-educated, liberal town about an hour outside of Manhattan.

The decision comes after days of bad news for Trump, in both battleground states and in states that are not typically considered competitive.

For example, earlier this week, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the Trump operation in Ohio was still struggling to open a campaign office and to find local leadership to guide his efforts in Hamilton County, a critical area in southwestern Ohio where Trump must run up big numbers. A spate of polls show closer-than-expected races in deeply Republican states from South Carolina to Kansas. And on Thursday, Trump spelled out his challenges in states from Utah and Virginia to Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Many Republicans are skeptical that Connecticut could make up any shortfall from poor performances in more traditional swing states.

“I don’t know if he can win Fairfield…whether he can win Connecticut, it’s historically a Democratic state,” said Tom Flynn, a Republican district leader in Fairfield who previously supported Jeb Bush and then John Kasich, and wants to hear more from Trump before getting behind him. “But it’s always exciting when you have any presidential candidate come to your hometown.”

A high-ranking Connecticut Republican, granted anonymity in order to give a candid assessment of Trump’s chances in the state, went further.

“I really question the value of the visit,” the source said. “Maybe there’s a gap in the schedule and they said, ‘Let’s go there,’ there’s some rationale behind it…but it would be like Hillary Clinton going to Montana or something. What’s the play? I don’t get it.”

Still, Flynn noted that General Electric headquarters, long a major employer in Fairfield, recently decided to relocate to Boston amid frustrations with tax increases under Democratic leadership in the state legislature, potentially making some in the area more receptive to a conservative message.

“Certainly there’s a Republican opportunity to talk about high taxes in the state, the loss of a lot of business,” Flynn said.

But the prominent Republican source questioned whether Trump was the best messenger, noting the state’s sizable populations of women and college-educated voters—demographics with which Trump has struggled—makes for a less receptive audience. Romney, with his business background and one-time reputation as a moderate governor from a neighboring state, was a much better fit, but he still lost big.

“Romney was a total gentleman, God I liked him a lot, and he struggled here,” the source said.

Trump, like Romney, won the primary in Connecticut handily, but the source dismissed those results as a small sample size not indicative of statewide results in November.

“Well, please. Romney won the primary,” the Republican said. “You won amongst a small sliver of the electorate. Please. They try to delude themselves. This is the big leagues now.”