NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump will campaign in one of the most Democratic counties in the country on Thursday, holding a rally in the South Bronx to attract minority voters days before a Manhattan jury begins deliberating whether to convict him. for criminal charges in his crime. judgment.
Trump will address supporters at Crotona Park, a public green space in a neighborhood that is among the city’s most diverse and most impoverished, a shift from the majority-white areas where he holds most of his rallies. His campaign said he is expected to draw a crowd of several thousand people.
With Trump confined to New York for the past six weeks, the presumptive Republican nominee’s campaign has planned a series of local stops in his hometown before and after court. He visited a bodega in Harlem, passed by a construction site one morning and took a photo at the local fire station.
The rally in the Bronx will be Trump’s first event open to the general public, as he insists he is trying to win an overwhelmingly Democratic state that has not supported a Republican for president since Ronald Reagan in 1984. It will also create a spectacle of attendees and protesters , the rally also allows Trump to highlight what he argues are advantages on economic and immigration issues that could affect key Democratic voting blocs.
“The strategy is to demonstrate to 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, a Trump’s potential running mate who grew up in Brooklyn and will join him at the rally.
The Bronx Democratic Party is planning to protest Trump’s appearance with its own event in the park.
“Trump is not welcome in the Bronx,” they wrote in an announcement on social media.
The Trump campaign believes it can undermine President Joe Biden’s support among black and Hispanic voters, especially younger men who may not follow politics closely but are frustrated with their economic situation and attracted to Trump’s tough personality. .
He 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 sharply criticized by Biden allies.
The demonstration comes during a pause in Trump’s criminal trial to hide the money. Court will resume after Memorial Day weekend with closing arguments. The jury will then decide whether Trump will become the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted of a criminal offense 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 — have argued that there are good reasons for Trump to go to the Bronx and other mostly black and Latino communities.
Ed Cox, chairman of the New York Republican Party, noted that the Republican Party, in an upset victory, won a seat on the borough’s city council last year for the first time in 40 years. He pointed to the current political climate, with some voters pessimistic about the economy and viewing Biden as weakened.
“As party chairman here in New York, I’m not going to rule out New York. We’re going forward,” he said.
Trump has often pointed to the success of former Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican who ran for governor in 2022 against current Democrat Kathy Hochul. Zeldin ended up losing the race by an exceptionally narrow margin.
During his campaign, Zeldin appeared in the Bronx alongside the Rev. Rubén Díaz Sr., a former state senator and city council member who 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 demonstrated respect for minority communities in the Bronx” by holding a rally.
Díaz, who remains a Democrat despite supporting Trump, said he believes there are others in the neighborhood who will also cross the aisle, pointing to concerns about an influx of migrants that have dominated headlines in New York due to budget and security concerns.
“People are fed up,” he said. “Democrats say they are there to help us…but our people are getting worse under Democratic control.”
Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo said campaigning in that part of the city made sense for Trump.
“There is a concentration of Latino ministers who are pro-life in the Bronx and they are mobilized and energized,” said Cuomo, who chose to appear with Diaz in 2022 as he staged a political comeback months after the Democrat resigned after being accused of harassment. sex by at least 11 women.
Cuomo, who has denied the allegations, said, “It’s not really indicative of New York, but there’s a lot of energy about this issue in that part of the Bronx.”
The Bronx was once the most Democratic neighborhood in the city. Barack Obama won 91.2% of the district’s vote in 2012, the highest number in the state. Biden won 83.5% of the district in 2020. Trump won just 16% of the vote.
The area Trump will visit is predominantly non-white – unlike 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 won’t be the first Republican presidential candidate to visit the neighborhood. Ronald Reagan held an event in the South Bronx while running against Democratic President Jimmy Carter in 1980, giving a speech in a vacant lot on Charlotte Street. Reagan, according to a New York Times report at the time, 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 location several years earlier, promising improvements.
Reagan’s visit was interrupted by protesters, who chanted, “You’re not going to do anything” and “Go back to California.”
Adam Solis, 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 played growing up shows that Trump cares about what he dubbed the “neighborhood forgotten”.
“Can you imagine being a Trump supporter in the Bronx. Sometimes you can be ostracized,” said Solis, who still lives in the neighborhood.
He also appealed to all protesters who decided to demonstrate to remain peaceful.
“I wish all the protesters the best. I hope they have fun sharing their views,” he said. “But I just hope they act cautiously. Because disrespect is not accepted in the Bronx.”
