Trump returns to Minnesota with Vance. Democrats stump for Harris
Trump and Vance team up to campaign in Minnesota, a state that hasn't backed the GOP in 52 years
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As the presidential campaign enters a critical final 100 day stretch, Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, rallied supporters on Saturday in a state that hasn’t backed a GOP candidate for the White House since 1972.
The rally in St. Cloud was designed as a sign of the campaign’s bullishness about its prospects across the Midwest, particularly when President Joe Biden was showing signs of weakness ahead of his decision to exit the campaign. Trump, who won Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016 only to lose them four years later, has increasingly focused on Minnesota as a state where he’d like to put Democrats on defense.
Trump attacked the likely Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris as a “crazy liberal” and a “radical left lunatic,” accusing her of wanting to “defund the police.”
The former Republican president said, by contrast, he wants to “overfund the police.”
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Trump also knocked Harris as an “absolute radical” on abortion, seemingly sensing an opening to attack her on the issue after she has become the Biden administration's most vocal proponent of abortion rights. He misleadingly suggested Harris wants abortion “right up until birth and after birth.” Infanticide is criminalized in every state, and no state has passed a law that allows killing a baby after birth.
Trump's remarks followed a spirited speech from Vance, in which he leaned heavily into issues that animate the GOP base, particularly security at the U.S.-Mexico border and crime. He also took a broadside against the news media, arguing that journalists were comparing the first Black woman and person of south Asian descent to lead a major party ticket to Martin Luther King, Jr.
The rally is something of a gamble, potentially forcing Harris and Democrats to devote resources in a state they would likely otherwise ignore. But it could also be a risk for Trump if he spends time in places that might prove to be a reach with Harris leading the ticket when he could otherwise focus on maintaining his support in more traditional battlegrounds.
In May, Trump headlined a GOP fundraiser in St. Paul, where he boasted he could win the state and made explicit appeals to the iron-mining range in northeast Minnesota, where he hopes a heavy population of blue-collar and union workers will shift to Republicans after years of being solidly Democratic.
That’s also a group of potential voters that Trump’s campaign has seen Vance, an Ohio senator, as being particularly helpful in trying to reach, with his own roots in a Midwestern Rust Belt city.
Saturday's rally took place at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, a 5,159-seat hockey arena. After surviving the July 13 assassin attempt on him at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump has only had events at indoor venues. But he said in a post on his social media network Saturday that he will schedule outdoor stops and the “SECRET SERVICE HAS AGREED TO SUBSTANTIALLY STEP UP THEIR OPERATION. THEY ARE VERY CAPABLE OF DOING SO. NO ONE CAN EVER BE ALLOWED TO STOP OR IMPEDE FREE SPEECH OR GATHERING!!!”
Secret Service officials would not say whether the agency had agreed to expand operations at Trump’s campaign events or had any concerns about him potentially resuming outdoor gatherings. “Ensuring the safety and security of our protectees is our highest priority,” Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement Saturday. “In the interest of maintaining operational integrity, we are not able to comment on specifics of our protective means or methods."
Saturday marked the second time Vance appeared at a campaign rally with Trump since he joined the GOP ticket earlier this month.
Hours before Trump and Vance were due to speak in St. Cloud, Democrats gathered in St. Paul to promote the candidacy of Harris, criticize Trump and praise Biden.
“If he didn't make it clear before, he's made it clear now,” said Melvin Carter, mayor of St. Paul. “There’s something more important to Joe Biden than Joe Biden, and that’s the United States of America.”
Carter called Harris an “incredible” choice to lead the Democratic party in November.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison criticized Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman for calling Harris a “DEI hire,” a reference to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
“What they’re saying [is] that there’s something about her being female and a person of color that disqualifies her,” Ellison said. “This is the essence of offense. We believe in liberty and justice.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she’s known Harris for a while, referencing when they ran against each other for president. She said the experience made them closer friends.
“I know her as a person of integrity and a person of joy, something we need back in our politics right now,” Klobuchar added. “And when it comes to her record, it speaks for itself. She will bring the receipts to leadership.”
Appeal to Midwesterners and union workers is something that has also helped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz land on the list of about a dozen Democrats who are being vetted to potentially be Harris’ running mate.
Minnesota is a state where Trump in 2016 was 1.5 percentage points shy of defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton. But four years later, Joe Biden expanded the Democratic win, defeating Trump by more than 7 percentage points.
But the Republican former president has been bullish on the state.
In a memo last month to the campaign and the Republican National Committee, Trump’s political director James Blair called Minnesota a battleground where Trump compared favorably to Biden, their opponent at the time, and said the campaign was hiring staff there and in the process of opening eight offices in the state.
The campaign didn't clarify Friday whether those eight offices were open.
Earlier this month, Republican congressional candidate Tayler Rahm dropped out of his primary race and began serving as a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign in the state.
“The Biden/Harris Administration has been so disastrous, and Democrats are in such disarray, that not only is President Trump leading in every traditional battleground state, but longtime blue states such as Minnesota, Virginia and New Jersey are in play,” Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for Trump’s campaign, said in a statement.
Lexi Byler, the Harris campaign’s communications director in Minnesota, said Trump and Vance are “wildly out of step with Minnesotans’ values and the state is not going to be won by a Republican presidential candidate this year.
“Democrats are fired up and taking nothing for granted, with a powerful, well-organized, coordinated campaign and thousands of volunteers ready to elect Kamala Harris to continue fighting for them,” she said in a statement.
In related news, Bloomberg reports Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is still in the running to be Harris’ running mate, along with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. In a brief interview with reporters on Saturday, Walz didn’t confirm or deny being on a short list of candidates.
“I’m honored to be in this conversation,” he said. “This is the vice president’s pick. I trust her judgement. I trust how she picks."