COACHELLA, Calif. (AP) — Why did Donald Trump vote in the most heavily Democratic states just weeks before Election Day, even though the presidency is at stake in battleground states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania? Will you step foot in California?
Mr. Trump is almost certain to lose California, and that won’t change after Saturday’s planned stop in Coachella, a desert city east of Los Angeles best known for its eponymous annual music festival. Still, there are practical reasons for him to visit even though Republican candidates are scheduled for Nov. 5 in the most populous state.
Watch the event in the player above.
The former president lost California in a landslide in 2020. He did receive more than 6 million votes, more than any previous Republican presidential candidate, and he received more than 70% of the vote in some rural counties that typically favor conservatives.
This is a huge pool of potential volunteers to work on state races and phone bank to the most battleground states. And Mr. Trump is likely to receive extensive media coverage in the Los Angeles market, the second-largest in the country.
President Trump will travel to Nevada to attend the Latino Roundtable in Las Vegas on Saturday (where he praised Hispanics as having “so much energy”) and for a rally in Prescott Valley on Sunday. In between visits to Arizona, he visited Coachella. In 2020, he narrowly lost these two battleground states to Democrat Joe Biden.
Spotlight: President Trump attends Hispanic Roundtable event in Las Vegas, Nevada
Attendees waiting in scorching temperatures approaching 100 degrees on Saturday said they didn’t expect Trump to win in their state but were excited to see him.
“I don’t think he’s going to be able to do that,” said Tom Gibbons of Palm Desert, who has supported Trump since 2016 but wasn’t able to meet him in person until Saturday, as he waited in line for a food truck at the polo field. Captivate the crowd at your Coachella event. “Everyone understands the heartbeat of America, the plight of workers. … That’s reassuring.”
People gather ahead of Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump’s rally in Coachella, California, on October 12, 2024. Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters
Tim Lineberger, communications director for Trump’s 2016 Michigan campaign who also worked in the previous president’s administration, said the trip to California gave Trump “the ability to swoop in and leverage this large group of Trump supporters.” He said he would get it. He’s “coming here and activating it.”
Recalling that Californians called Michigan voters on Trump’s behalf in 2016, Lineberger said the campaign’s decision to step into safe Democratic territory at this point was “aggressive and “It was a terrible act,” he said.
California is also a source of campaign funding for both parties, and Mr. Trump will likely look to raise money there. The photo with the former president at Coachella cost $25,000 and included special seating for two. The “VIP Experience” cost $5,000.
With California holding a legislative election to determine who controls the House, the Coachella rally is “motivating and energizing California Republicans at a time when they are not that close to the status quo.” “It’s a get-out-the-vote type of rally,” said Tim Rosales, a Republican consultant.
Rosales also said he expected Trump to continue his long-running spat with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
For Republicans, “it’s motivating to be able to criticize California a little bit, and then the governor will take the bait,” Rosales said.
Newsom predicted Wednesday that President Trump would criticize the state at a rally and ignore its strength as the world’s fifth-largest economy. The governor said that for the first time in a decade, California has more Fortune 500 companies than any other state.
“You know, that’s not what President Trump is trying to say,” he predicted.
Jim Brulte, former chairman of the California Republican Party, said President Trump is not trying to do something he hasn’t had in previous campaigns: get more votes overall than his Democratic opponent. He said he was thinking about it.
“I think Donald Trump is coming to California because he wants to win not just the electoral vote, but the popular vote. There are more registered voters in California than in 46 of the other 49 states,” Brulte said. said.
Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles is located on the Pacific Coast south of the city. But Mr. Trump has a longstanding rivalry with California, a state that has not been held by a Republican since 1988 and where Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by about 2 to 1.
California has been home to the so-called Trump Resistance during his presidency, and Trump often portrays California as representative of everything he thinks is wrong with America. As president, he called the homelessness crises in Los Angeles and San Francisco disgraceful and threatened to intervene.
He is likely to spend Saturday linking California issues to Vice President Kamala Harris, California’s attorney general and the state’s representative in the Senate and Democratic candidate from the San Francisco Bay Area.
Her campaign issued a statement claiming that under Harris, “the infamous ‘California Dream’ has turned into a nightmare for everyday Americans.”
State Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson said she looks forward to hearing President Trump contrast his policies with a Democratic White House that has “made Californians less safe and less money in their pockets.” He said he was there.
Republicans “will do their part to secure a House majority,” she promised.
Tom Beaumont in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
