The reason billionaire Donald Trump is starting to rise in some of the polls is because they believe the real estate mogul is a fighter, says Republican strategist Ford O'Connell.
"You're seeing a backlash among the Republican primary electorate that thinks the Republicans are feckless, and right now, they see Trump as a fighter," O'Connell told Miranda Khan and Ric Blackwell on "Newsmax Now" on
Newsmax TV Thursday.
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Trump is
leading in a PPP poll among North Carolina voters with 16 percent of the vote. Jeb Bush and Scott Walker are in the second place spot with 12 percentage points.
While O'Connell says that it's not surprising that Trump is leading, he also said that on the flip side, "only 29 percent of Republicans think he's a serious candidate, while 64 percent think he's a side show."
And that's why the Republican strategist says that "there's no way that Trump's going to win this nomination."
O'Connell does think that Trump does present a challenge for the other Republican candidates who don't have the same name recognition and notoriety that the real estate mogul and reality TV star has.
"They're not shaking in their boots, but they're definitely concerned," he told Newsmax TV.
"We have 15, 16 candidates in this, we're going to have 10 up on the debate stage, right now let me give you two examples, Scott Walker and Marco Rubio — their name ID is nothing," he explained.
"Most Republican primary voters don't even know who they are, and every time Trump sucks the oxygen out of the room, it's harder and harder for them to get their message across," he said.
Republican strategist Chelsi Henry, who joined O'Connell on "Newsmax Now," said that "what the other Republican candidates can do and should do is continue to speak up as we've heard from Gov. Jeb Bush when he said, 'Listen, the remarks that Donald Trump has made did not represent and do not represent the Republican Party.'"
Henry contends that Trump's presence is an "opportunity for these other candidates to show who they are, what they believe in, and how they're different from Donald Trump."
While she agrees that "people are seeing him and somewhat liking the fact that he is a fighter . . . we need to get back to the issues and the other candidates have the opportunity to do that."
Henry says it's important that the other GOP candidates "speak up about what they believe and how their ideas and their platform may contrast with what Donald Trump is saying, or otherwise, he'll continue to dominate."
O'Connell added that when the Republicans debate in August that the other candidates need to be careful not to "take the bait" from Trump and "try to stay above the fray and ... address the issues."
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