NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump held a campaign event in one of the most Democratic counties in the nation on Thursday with a rally in the New York borough of the Bronx to court voters.
Trump addressed supporters in Crotona Park, a public green space in a district that is among the city’s most diverse and impoverished, in contrast to the majority-white areas where he holds most of his rallies.
Trump spoke to a crowd of thousands.
The former president insists that this time he could win an overwhelmingly Democratic state that has not supported a Republican for President since Ronald Reagan in 1984.
The presumptive Republican candidate’s campaign team has planned a series of local events in his hometown before and after the trial.
The former White House tenant visited a warehouse in Harlem, stopped by a construction site one morning and took a photo at a local fire station.
The Bronx rally was Trump’s first rally open to the general public.
In addition to creating a spectacle of attendees and protesters, the rally also allowed Trump to highlight the advantages of his economic and immigration plan that can take many votes away from Democrats.
“The strategy is to show voters in the Bronx and New York that this is not a typical presidential election, that Donald Trump is here to represent everyone and get our country back on track,” said Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, Trump’s possible running mate, who grew up in Brooklyn and will join him at the rally.
Source: With information from AP.
