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Trump plans to headline a campaign event in the Bronx on Thursday.
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Trump has little chance of winning the NYC district, but saw a jump in support there between 2016 and 2020.
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His campaign is trying to gain more support from minorities by focusing on the economy.
Former President Donald Trump will make an unusual pit stop for a Republican candidate later this week.
On Thursday, the native New Yorker will headline a campaign event in the Bronx, one of New York City’s five boroughs and one of the bluest jurisdictions in the country.
The Bronx is so thoroughly Democratic that the borough is generally an afterthought for Republican presidential candidates and even for most GOP statewide candidates.
So why bother?
While it may not help him win the Bronx, it will be an opportunity for the former president to continue his national strategy to win over minority voters.
Trump is making inroads with black and Latino voters
There is virtually no chance that Trump will actually win the Bronx in November. The district has supported every Democratic presidential candidate since 1928.
In 2020, Trump managed to improve his standing with Bronx voters, if only slightly, winning nearly 30,000 more votes in the Bronx than in 2016. Meanwhile, the Democratic president’s vote share increased by just 2,000 votes .
While Biden ultimately defeated Trump in the Bronx in 2020 (355,374 votes to 67,740 votes), the boost for the ex-president was comparable to the gains he made that year among working-class voters — especially Latino voters — across the country .
It’s a political shift that allowed Trump to easily win Florida in 2020, including crucial Miami-Dade County, a Latino-heavy jurisdiction that Democrats must carry by a significant margin to win a statewide election.
Although New York City is not Florida, Trump’s campaign event in the Bronx is part of a larger strategy to win over minority voters who have drifted away from Democrats in recent years.
Trump’s pitch to minority voters
Trump’s expected appearance in the South Bronx will seek to solidify his lead on the economy.
He will also likely say, perhaps ironically, that he is the right candidate to reduce crime. Trump’s hush money trial is taking place in neighboring Manhattan, but New York City itself has seen a string of high-profile crimes lately.
“President Trump will relieve financial pressure on households and restore law and order in New York!” the Trump campaign said as it announced the Bronx event.
With millions of Americans concerned about inflation and the cost of living, Trump wants to position himself as the candidate who can better address these issues, especially for minority voters.
The Trump campaign is focusing mainly on Latino voters, who will play a key role in battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia and Nevada. The former president also wants to connect with black voters, especially black men.
It’s a strategy the Biden campaign is trying to counter. The president is also trying to woo Black and Latino voters across the country, pointing to low unemployment under his term and the administration’s work on issues such as housing affordability and infrastructure.
So even if Trump won’t win the Bronx anytime soon, his appearance in a place where voters wouldn’t normally expect to see him could be an effective showcase for his larger national strategy.
And even though the former president is unlikely to win New York state this fall, he still hopes his positions on tax issues and immigration can provide him with an opening.
“We’re coming to New York, we’re playing a big role for New York,” he said during an appearance in Manhattan last month.
Read the original article on Business Insider
