GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan – GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) – donald trump is holding his first public campaign rally a week after surviving a assassination attemptreturning to the battlefield of Michigan State alongside his new running mate.
The joint rally with Ohio Senator J.D. Vance is the duo’s first since becoming the Republican Party’s nominees in the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Trump kicked off the meeting of Republicans by naming Vance as his pick for vice president and concluded it with a speech asking for unity following a July 13 shooting in Pennsylvania that left Trump with a bloody ear and dead a man in the crowd and left two others injured.
Hours before he took the stage, Trump supporters filled the streets of downtown Grand Rapids in anticipation of the former president’s remarks. Fans began lining up on Friday morning, and by Saturday afternoon they had stretched out to within a mile of Van Andel Arena.
Many were seen wearing t-shirts with Trump’s image on stage after he was shot, raising his fist in the air after surviving the shooting.
Mike Gaydos, who traveled from Indiana with his three children to attend the rally, said he didn’t consider himself a “big” Trump supporter in the past but wanted to show support for the former president after his assassination attempt.
“We can’t allow something like this to hold us back,” he said. “Bravery is what I thought he showed that day and I want to show my children what bravery is too.”
Numerous streets, closed as an additional safety precaution, were lined with vendors selling food and clothing. Among them was a salesman from North Carolina who said he spent the night making “Trump Vance ’24” T-shirts.
Downtown Grand Rapids also saw a significant police presence, with officers stationed on nearly every block while others patrolled on horseback and bicycles.
“This is the tightest security I’ve ever seen,” said Renee White, who said she has been to 33 Trump rallies. “Normally we can bring a few small bags, but today I had to leave things outside.”
White was sitting behind the podium at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the gunman opened fire from a nearby rooftop. She described the shooting as “surreal” but said it wouldn’t stop her from going to rallies.
“If I’m going to get pulled, at least I’m doing something I love doing, right?” White said.
She said she was moved when Trump, in his RNC speech to delegates, described the shooting in detail.
“I shouldn’t be here tonight,” Trump told the packed convention hall. The crowd of thousands, who had been listening in silence, shouted back, “Yes, you are.”
Michigan is one of a handful of swing states expected to determine the outcome of November’s presidential election. Trump won the state by just over 10,000 votes in 2016, but Democrat Joe Biden came from behind in 2020, winning by a margin of 154,000 votes on his way to the presidency.
With Vance at his side, Trump will deliver remarks in Grand Rapids, a historically Republican stronghold that has trended increasingly blue in recent elections.
Trump’s selection of Vance was seen as a move to gain support among voters in the so-called Rust Belt in places like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio, which helped Trump achieve his surprise victory in 2016. Vance specifically mentioned those places during his acceptance speech at the convention, highlighting his roots, growing up poor in a small Ohio town and promising not to forget the working-class people whose “jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war.”
Democrats dominated recent elections in Michigan, but Republicans now see an opening in the state as Democrats are increasingly divided over whether Biden should drop out of the race. Biden insisted he will not give up and tried to return the focus to trumpsaying Friday that Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican convention presented a “bleak vision for the future.”
The 81-year-old current Democrat, who appeared in Detroit This month, he is currently isolated at his beach house in Delaware, recovering from COVID-19.
Grand Rapids is the largest city in Kent County, one of three Michigan counties that Trump won in 2016 but Biden flipped in 2020. It is also a area where Republican Nikki Haley secured a substantial number of votes by running against Trump in the Republican primary, a group of voters both presidential campaigns now hope to win over. Haley urged her supporters to support Trump in a speech at the convention.
U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, a Democrat who represents Grand Rapids, is among those increasing number of lawmakers calling on Biden to drop out of the race after his disastrous debate performance last month.
___ Colvin reported from New York,
