PHOENIX — PHOENIX (AP) — donald trump returns to the campaign trail on Thursday with a trip to Arizona, his first appearance in a swing state since being convicted in hush money scandal.
Trump is scheduled to speak at a town hall in Phoenix organized by Turning Point, a conservative youth organization that has seen its influence rise along with Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party.
Trump replied defiantly to the verdict against him one day after a New York jury found him guilty last week of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a silent cash payment for a porn star. But he did not speak directly to voters in the swing states that will decide the November elections.
He is likely to find a friendly audience at the Turning Point. Led by Charlie Kirk, the group harnessed the energy of young people drawn to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, cultivating conservative influencers and hosting glitzy events. And yours made Kirk and his allies rich.
Nowhere is Turning Point’s influence greater than in Arizona, the group’s adopted home state, where its supporters have taken prominent roles in the state Republican Party but have struggled to win general elections. Turning Point’s slate of conservative candidates lost in the 2022 midterm elections, including Kari Lake, who lost the governor’s race and is now running for U.S. Senate.
The group aims to expand its influence this year to other swing states and received a boost when Trump deposed former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel in February. She was substituted by Trump’s handpicked successor, his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who spoke positively about working with Turning Point.
President Joe Biden won Arizona in 2020 by about 10,000 votes. It was, along with Georgia, one of two states decided by less than half a percentage point and is expected to be closed again this year.
Arizona Republicans enthusiastically embraced Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. State lawmakers ordered an unprecedented partisan recount that confirmed his loss. Officials in southern Arizona’s Cochise County are facing criminal charges for refusing to certify the results of the 2022 midterm elections.
Hours before Trump’s scheduled speech, Jake Hoffman, a Republican state senator who is also a top Turning Point consultant, will be prosecuted for his role in an alleged plot to overturn Trump’s loss in Arizona. Hoffman is accused of being a fake voter who signed a document falsely claiming to represent Arizona in the Electoral College.
Trump’s Former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Is Scheduled for Indictment in the same case on Friday.
Despite the state’s importance on the presidential map, Trump has not campaigned in Arizona since 2022, when he held a rally to support his list of midterm candidates, who ended up losing.
Trump’s trip west includes several private fundraisers and a rally on Sunday in Nevada, another swing state he narrowly lost in 2020.
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