NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump will campaign in one of the country’s most Democratic counties Thursday and hold a rally in the South Bronx to woo minority voters, days before a jury in Manhattan is set to begin trial. deliberating on whether he should be convicted of felony charges in his criminal hush-money trial.
Trump will address his supporters in Crotona Park, a public green space in a borough that is among the city’s most diverse and impoverished, a change from the predominantly white areas where he holds most of his rallies. His campaign said he expected to draw a crowd of several thousand people.
With Trump cooped up in New York for the past six weeks, the presumptive Republican nominee’s campaign planned a series of local stops in his hometown before and after court. He visited a bodega in Harlem, stopped by a construction site one morning and took a photo at a local fire station.
The Bronx rally will be Trump’s first event open to the general public as he maintains he is attempting to win an overwhelmingly Democratic state that has not supported a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan in 1984. In addition to creating a spectacle for rallygoers and demonstrators, the rally also allows Trump to highlight what he sees as benefits on the economy and immigration that could hamper key Democratic voting blocs.
“The strategy is to show the voters of the Bronx and New York that this is not the typical presidential election, that Donald Trump is here to represent everyone and get our country back on track,” the Republican representative said. of Florida, Byron Donalds. a potential Trump running mate who grew up in Brooklyn and will join him at the rally.
The Bronx Democratic Party plans to protest Trump’s actions with its own event in the park.
“Trump is not welcome in the Bronx,” they wrote in an ad on social media.
Trump’s campaign believes he can make a difference President Joe Biden‘s support among black and Hispanic voters, especially younger men who may not follow politics closely but are frustrated by their economic situation and drawn to Trump’s tough-guy personality.
He has also argued that the charges he faces in New York and elsewhere make him relatable to Black voters frustrated with the criminal justice system, a statement that has been harshly criticized by Biden’s allies.
The meeting comes during a lull in Trump’s criminal hush-money trial. Court will resume with closing arguments after Memorial Day weekend. The jury will then decide whether Trump will become the first former president in the nation’s history to face a criminal conviction and whether he will be the first major party presidential candidate to run as a convicted felon.
Several longtime figures in New York politics — both Republicans and Democrats — argued that there are good reasons for Trump to go to the Bronx and other black and Latino communities.
Ed Cox, chairman of the Republican Party of New York, noted that after an overwhelming victory, the Republican Party took over a seat on the borough’s City Council last year for the first time in 40 years. He pointed to the current political climate, where some voters are pessimistic about the economy and see Biden as weakened.
“As chairman of the party here in New York, I’m not going to write off New York. We’re going for it,” he said.
Trump has often pointed to the success of former Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican who ran for governor in 2022 against Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul. Zeldin ultimately lost the race by an unusually small margin.
During his campaign, Zeldin appeared in the Bronx alongside the Rev. Rubén Díaz Sr., a former senator and city councilman who had urged Trump to hold a rally in the borough and held a pro-Trump event there on Saturday.
While other presidential candidates have visited and met with local leaders, Díaz praised Trump for being “the first and only president or presidential candidate who has shown respect for minority communities in the Bronx” by holding a rally.
Díaz, who remains a Democrat despite his support for Trump, said he believes there are others in the district who will also cross the aisle, pointing to concerns about an influx of migrants that have dominated headlines in New York over budget concerns and safety.
“People are fed up,” he said. “The Democrats say they are there to help us… but our people are doing worse under Democratic control.”
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said campaigning in that part of the city makes sense for Trump.
“There is a concentration of pro-life Latino ministers in the Bronx and they are mobilized and energized,” said Cuomo, who opted to appear with Diaz in 2022 as he made a political comeback months after the Democrat resigned after being accused of sexual harassment by at least eleven women.
Cuomo, who has denied the allegations, said: “It’s not really indicative of New York, but there is a lot of energy about this issue in that part of the Bronx.”
The Bronx was once the most Democratic borough in the city. Barack Obama won 91.2% of the vote in the borough in 2012, the most in the state. Biden won 83.5% of the municipality in 2020. Trump received only 16% of the votes.
The area Trump will visit is predominantly non-white — a departure from most of his rally locations. About 65% of residents are Hispanic and 31% are black, according to U.S. Census data. About 35% live below the poverty line.
Trump will not be the first Republican presidential candidate to visit the district. Ronald Reagan held an event in the South Bronx when he ran against Democratic President Jimmy Carter in 1980, delivering a speech on a vacant lot on Charlotte Street. According to a New York Times report at the time, Reagan compared the area to London in World War II after the German blitz and accused Carter of failing to deliver on promised revitalization efforts. Carter had visited the same spot several years earlier and promised improvements.
Reagan’s visit was interrupted by protesters, who chanted, “You’re not going to do anything” and “Go back to California.”
Adam Solis, the chairman of the Black Caucus of the New York Young Republican Club, who helped Trump’s campaign organize the event, said the visit to a park where he grew up shows that Trump cares about what he calls the “forgotten district’.
“You can imagine being a Trump supporter in the Bronx. Sometimes you can be left out,” says Solis, who still lives in the neighborhood.
He also called on all protesters who might want to demonstrate to remain peaceful.
“I wish all the protesters the best. I hope they enjoy sharing their opinions,” he said. ‘But I just hope they act lightly. Because disrespect is not acceptable in the Bronx.”
