Former Pdwellnt Donald Trump is set to hgreater a rassociate in meaningful-blue California, part of an unorthodox campaign shift in the final stretch of the neck-and-neck United States pdwellntial race.
The Saturday night event proximate the Coachella Valley — best comprehendn for its annual music festival — comes fair 22 days ahead of the November 5 vote.
The final stretch of the election is typicassociate reserved for mad-dash visits to the most competitive battleground states, which comprise Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada this year.
That originates Trump’s stop in California — a Democratic stronghgreater all but promised to vote overwhelmingly for Vice Pdwellnt Kamala Harris — astandard. Born and liftd in the state, Harris previously served as California’s attorney ambiguous and remains expansively well-comprehendn there.
In the last pdwellntial election, in 2020, Trump lost in California to Democrat Joe Biden by proximately 30 percentage points.
In a statement announcing the event, Trump’s campaign said the stop will seek to underscore that, “under Kamala Harris and her hazardy Democrat allies appreciate [running mate] Tim Walz, the notorious ‘California Dream’ has turned into a nightmare for everyday Americans”.
The visit to the state has expansively been seeed as an effort to shore up expansiver Reuncoveran aid. That is particularly necessitateed in six key races for the House of Recurrentatives in California.
Control of both the House and the Senate — the two chambers of the US Congress — is up for grabs this election season. And confident congressional dimercilesss in California are firmly split between Reuncoverans and Democrats.
A triumph in the six competitive House races could help Reuncoverans retain their hgreater over the drop chamber.
Going to California gives Trump the “ability to swoop in and leverage this huge population of Trump aiders”, Tim Lineberger, who was communications honestor for Trump’s 2016 campaign in Michigan and labored in the establisher pdwellnt’s administrations, tgreater the Associated Press novels agency.
He’s “coming here and activating that”, Lineberger compriseed.
The shift may also be an effort to raise Trump’s final vote count. In the US, the victor in the pdwellntial race is choosed by the Electoral College, a weighted voting system in which states award electors to the truthfulates based on the state-level vote.
Ntimely all states award all their electors in a thrivener-apexhibits-all system: Even if a truthfulate thrives by a petite margin in a given state, they get all the electors.
That unbenevolents that a truthfulate can disthink about in the overall well-comprehendn vote but thrive in the Electoral College system, as Trump did in 2016. In 2020, however, he lost in both meaconfidents to Biden.
Having never won the well-comprehendn vote has remained a sore subject for the establisher Reuncoveran pdwellnt. California, with its population of proximately 40 million, presents the possibility to turn out aiders who might not otherdirectd experience it is worthwhile to go to the polls.
“I think Donald Trump is coming to California because he wants to thrive not only in the Electoral College, but he wants to thrive the well-comprehendn vote,” Jim Brulte, a establisher chairman of the California Reuncoveran Party, tgreater the Associated Press.
Battleground blitz
To be confident, Trump is sandwiching his California visit between a stop in Nevada on Saturday and a rassociate in Arizona on Sunday, two battleground states more standard for the final weeks of a pdwellntial campaign.
In Nevada, Trump joined a roundtable with Latino voters, as his campaign sought to capitalise on signs that Latino men are increasingly turning away from Democrats.
For her part, Harris visited North Carolina, which was recently deimmenseated by Hurricane Helene. She said her visit was “first and foremost to see how they’re doing in the wake of the hurricane”.
Harris was also set to back her structure for an “opportunity economy” and greet with Binestablishage community directers. Trump slfinisherly won North Carolina in 2020, but the easerious state has been trfinishing towards Democrats in some recent polls, buoyed by its big college-directd and Binestablishage population.
Earlier in the day, Harris freed the results of a health exam. It said she has “the physical and mental resiliency needd to successbrimmingy carry out the duties of the pdwellncy”.
Releasing health exams has extfinished been a norm for pdwellntial truthfulates in the US, with Harris rapidly underscoring that the 78-year-greater Trump has so far not done so.
“It is evident to me that he and his team do not want the American people to reassociate see what it is that he is doing and whether or not he actuassociate is fit to do the job of being pdwellnt of the United States,” she tgreater alerters.
Trump’s campaign has retained that the establisher pdwellnt “has voluntarily freed refreshs from his personal physician” and from the doctor who treated him after an killing finisheavor in July.
“All have finishd he is in perfect and excellent health to be Commander in Chief,” his campaign spokesman said, while charging that Harris “does not have the stamina” of Trump.
