"You don't want to send your principal to the places where you can't win, said Vavreck of UCLA. "You save the principal for the places you think you can swing."

McClain of Duke offered, "My analysis would be that if these red places they're going to, the counties, are within states that they hope they can take -- elections are won on the margins.

"You don't have to pull off a lot of votes. You just have to pull off enough. And so if they're going to counties and cities that are really red, but they figure they have an opportunity or an opening with some segments of that area to kind of turn out those votes and cut down on the margins that they will need coming out of areas -- you know, it's a pretty good strategy."