Why Trump is holding a rally in the California desert, weeks before election day
- Trump’s campaign said the former president is appearing in the state to shine a spotlight on Kamala Harris’ record in California.
- A veteran GOP strategist from California said Trump wants to juice Republican turnout in the state.
Former President Trump will rally supporters at a Coachella Valley polo field on Saturday, in a state he lost by more than 29 percentage points four years ago — less than a month before what is widely expected to be a razor-thin presidential election nationwide.
Trump’s planned late-afternoon appearance at Calhoun Ranch, just outside the city of Coachella, as temperatures there top 100 degrees, caused head-scratching among local Republicans given the state’s deep blue tilt. The last GOP presidential nominee to win the state was George H.W. Bush in 1988; Democrats have received more than 60% of the state’s vote since 2008.
The most common reason for White House hopefuls to visit California is to raise money from the state’s large number of wealthy donors, as Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris have done recently.
However, though Trump has raised money in the desert as recently as a high-dollar event at Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison’s Rancho Mirage estate in 2020, there have been no reports of fundraisers during the former president’s visit here this week.
Even if the former president doesn’t headline a formal fundraiser, he could meet with influential and moneyed supporters amid the area’s palm-tree-lined golf courses and gated communities.
“Undoubtedly he’s going to do something in the desert. There’s so much money out there,” said a California Republican strategist with close ties to the Trump campaign.
He added that the former president has been trying to set up such an event in California for at least a year but it took work to find a setting that could accommodate tens of thousands of people that wasn’t in a city or county run by Democrats who, the strategist claimed, could stymie his plans.
The Coachella Valley, the strategist said, offers the perfect location for Trump to speak about the border and water issues as well as Harris’ record.
“This is a point of pride for President Trump,” said this strategist, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about interactions with the campaign. “He fought in New York. He’s going to fight in California. He’s not leaving anything on the table.”
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Trump’s campaign said the former president is appearing in the state to shine a spotlight on Harris’ record here.
“Kamala Harris did unthinkable damage to California during her six years as the most liberal Attorney General in state history, and she has done even more damage to our Country as Vice President,” spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. “President Trump’s trip to Coachella will highlight Harris’ failing record and show that he has the right solutions to save every state and every American.”
The Harris campaign did not respond Monday evening to a request for comment.
The former president made similar arguments about Harris in mid-September at a news conference at his golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes, the day after a fundraiser in Beverly Hills.
Presidential candidates typically avoid visiting California to raise money this close to the election — Harris’ last trip to her home state for a fundraiser before election day took place at the end of September. Trump bucked this tradition before, when he held a tony fundraiser on Lido Isle in Newport Beach a little more than two weeks before the 2020 election.
Coachella is also close to the battleground states of Arizona and Nevada, which Trump could visit during his Western swing. Details of his schedule are still emerging, but he is expected to hold a rally on Friday in Aurora, Colo., a city he has falsely claimed has been overrun by Venezuelan gang members. (The city’s Republican mayor has disavowed Trump’s claims, which appear to stem from a dispute between the city and a landlord, according to the New York Times.)
It’s the latest example of the Republican presidential nominee alleging that immigrants are changing the hereditary makeup of the United States.
A second veteran GOP strategist from California said Trump wants to juice Republican turnout in the state. Despite its Democratic lean, the state is home to more than 5.5 million Republicans, the most of any state that asks voters to declare a party preference.
“People always forget we have more Republicans than any other state. The problem is, we’re just so outnumbered,” this person said, before adding that they had heard Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona), who is in a tight reelection contest that will be key to determining which party controls Congress, had asked the former president to campaign for him.
“At some point, Calvert asked him to come out, as I would suspect almost all members of Congress probably ask [top party leaders] to come out,” said this person, who is friendly with Calvert’s team and heard the Corona Republican, who is the longest-serving GOP member of California’s congressional delegation, would attend the event.
Calvert’s campaign denied that the congressman had requested that Trump campaign for him and said it was uncertain whether the congressman would attend the event, which is taking place just outside his district.
“It definitely wasn’t a request from us. We just learned about it [Monday] like everybody else,” said spokesperson Jason Gagnon. “We’re not sure whether he’s attending or not. As you would imagine with this campaign and everything else, our schedule has been crazy.”
Democrats supporting Will Rollins, a former federal prosecutor who is challenging Calvert, were skeptical, and pointed to actions that Trump took that they argued harmed Californians.
“Even after Trump tried to block disaster aid for our firefighters, jacked up Californians’ taxes to reward buddies in other states, and bragged about taking reproductive freedom away from women, Ken Calvert is right there, sitting on Trump’s lap, applauding,” said Dan Gottlieb, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Riverside County deserves a leader who cares more about his own constituents than a convicted fraudster.”
Calvert and Rollins are locked in a tight race to represent a large swath of Riverside County, a reprise of their 2022 race, which Calvert won by less than 5 percentage points. Though Rollins lost, he attracted the attention of national Democratic leaders and donors, and the race is ranked a “toss-up” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, seen as one of several California congressional races that could determine control of the House.
Saturday’s event is taking place at a property owned by a company controlled by a family of major GOP donors. (They also own the property that hosts the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the Stagecoach Festival.)
Alexander Haagen III and Alexander Haagen IV have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican National Committee, a pro-Trump dark-money group and other GOP groups and candidates, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that tracks electoral finances and the Federal Election Commission.
An email to the family’s company seeking comment did not receive a response on Monday.
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