Where’s the Love? Even in Deeply Red Texas, Republicans Turn Cold Shoulder to Donald Trump

GOP Strategist Calls Nominee’s Decision to Visit State Next Week ‘Clinically Insane’ 

He’s trailing in all the major polls (that’s right, all of them), as well as virtually every battleground state. His campaign seems to be in a perpetual state of disarray, but no matter how many shakeups it undergoes, he can’t keep his foot out of his mouth. 

Still, you’d expect just about any GOP presidential nominee — even Donald Trump — to receive a warm welcome in Texas, where voters favored Mitt Romney by 16 points in 2012 despite his many flaws. 

Apparently, though, that’s not the case. 

As we mentioned the other day, Trump leads Democrat Hillary Clinton by only six points in the Lone Star State, and that margin is based largely on support from voters over 65. 

On Friday, Trump’s campaign announced he’ll visit Austin for a rally on Tuesday. However, only one of the state’s three most prominent Republican officeholders, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, has confirmed he’ll attend. The Dallas Morning News reports that Gov. Greg Abbott is still working on his schedule, while Attorney General Ken Paxton has previously scheduled speaking commitments. 

Meanwhile, one GOP strategist in Texas called Trump’s decision to visit the state at this stage of the race “clinically insane.” 

“Apart from it being miserable on the basis of temperature, it is strategically incompetent,” Matt Mackowiak told the Morning News. “It makes absolutely no sense. … It almost seems like they’re throwing darts at a map and deciding that way.

“He would be so much better off resting, doing policy briefings, doing debate prep, doing conference calls with donors in other areas,” Mackowiak said. “There’s a million other things he could be doing that would be more productive than going to Austin and Mississippi 80 days before the election. It’s completely indefensible and it’s clinically insane.”

Mackowiak, former vice chair of the local GOP in Austin, recently left the position over a dispute with new Chair Robert Morrow, the anti-Clinton conspiracy theorist known for his racist, sexist, homophobic tweets. But even Morrow, who’s been referred to as “Donald Trump on steroids,” isn’t on board with the party’s nominee. In fact, he plans to protest Tuesday’s rally: