The chair of the Democratic Party told BuzzFeed News on Tuesday that a Trump win in the state could herald a world in which Democrats are competing for Georgia and Arizona in the 2016 general election.
Utah isn't outside the realm of possibility, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said.
In an interview for No One Knows Anything, BuzzFeed's politics podcast, Wasserman Schultz speculated on a world where Trump had finally won the Republican nomination.
On Tuesday night, Trump won the Indiana primary handily, dealing a severe blow to the so-called #NeverTrump movement of Republicans amassed to stop him. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump's main opposition, dropped out of the race.
The prospect of a Trump nomination, according to Wasserman Schultz, means Democrats enter a brave new world. The familiar red-blue split of the electoral map could change significantly, she suggested.
"If you look at Georgia, for example, Obama got 45% of the vote," she said. "The demographics have changed in Georgia, and minority populations — both African-American and Hispanic — are growing there."
Trump could galvanize the electorate in ways Democrats never really thought possible just a few cycles ago, Wasserman Schultz said, and the Democratic Party has the resources and the message to battle Trump across the country.
Trump's supporters have said his coalition includes disaffected Democrats who could put Rust Belt states and reliable blue states like Michigan in play for the GOP. Many Republican elites fear a Trump nomination all but seals the election for the Democrats, however.
Wasserman Schultz is firmly in that way of thinking.
"With a nominee as extreme and bigoted and as misogynist as Donald Trump is, you know you not only have the opportunity for us to turn out voters that maybe would have been sitting on the sidelines in those minority communities the he’s alienating, but also who we have the potential to win over from the Republican side," she said. "Or, who will stay home because they can’t bring themselves to vote for a nominee like him. So with those dynamics, in a state like Georgia, in a state like Arizona, for example, [Democrats could do well]."
Wasserman Schultz joked that the 2016 map could be one beyond Democrats' wildest dreams.
"Donald Trump is not very popular in Utah," she quipped. "I mean I’m not going to predict that we’ll win Utah, but…”