Donald Trump's bold vision for reshaping the electoral map may be hampered by his own 'malpractice'

For much of his nearly year-old presidential campaign, Donald Trump bragged about his ability to best his Republican rivals without even hiring a
pollster.

But after he quietly hired his first high-profile data analyst, The New York Times reported last weekthat the real-estate magnate is considering bringing on more pollsters to help him with a bold goal: Winning the Democratic-heavy state of New York.

While the Clinton campaign sees a map of 10 to 12 battleground states, including some Rust Belt states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, Trump's campaign claims he can be competitive in 15 states. That includes electorally rich, longtime Democratic strongholds like New York and California.

But contrary to Trump's grand vision for winning the election on the backs of white working-class voters in the Northeast, it's not clear this will prove to be a winning strategy. And he may, in the end, be hampered by his own campaign apparatus — or lack thereof.

"So far things are looking more simple than he is making out," Princeton University professor and polling expert Sam Wang told Business Insider.

Last week, a new series of Bloomberg state polls found that middle-income voters in Rust Belt states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio backed Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton over Trump by 7 points. The group of voters is a key bloc that represents a large portion of the electorate in northern Rust Belt states — nearly 40% of eligible voters who cast ballots in the three states in recent elections, according to Bloomberg.

Many surveys conducted over the past several months have shown Clinton with a healthy lead in states like Michigan and Wisconsin, though Trump has climbed in national polls in recent weeks, suggesting the numbers may soon tighten in battleground states as well.

But many of Clinton's allies are publicly panicking just yet.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told Business Insider that he "rejects" the idea that Trump's rhetoric and proposals on immigration will help him win Rust Belt states.

"Millennials, younger Americans, even those who are Gen X overwhelmingly support immigration reform, even in the most working class, Midwestern, Rust Belt states," Garcetti said on a recent conference call.

Garcetti also warned that Trump's candidacy could permanently damage the Republican Party's prospects in future elections. The mayor cited the backlash to former California Gov. Pete Wilson's successful 1994 push to deny public services to immigrants living in the US illegally as proof of the political repercussions of anti-immigration rhetoric.

Wilson's 1994 reelection, he said, "resulted in a state now where every single one of the state constitutional officers is a Democrat. Where Latinos and many Asian Pacific Islanders and other immigrants and people who believe in a diverse state don't feel welcome in that party. I think that's what he runs the risk of doing."

Indeed, early polls have suggested that Trump may have already scrambled the map in a way that negatively affects his campaign. Public-opinion surveys in Arizona and Georgia have displayed a tighter race between Trump and Clinton, which many experts attribute to Trump's inflammatory rhetoric along the campaign trail.

Wang told Business Insider, in fact, that the electoral map looks very similar to many recent presidential contests.

"Polls so far show almost every state in the same 'rank order' ... R's stronger in GA than NC, stronger in NC than PA, the same order as in 2000-2012. All will be lifted together by the same tide, or fall together."