‘Everything is up in the air’: coronavirus fears upend US election campaigns
The coronavirus outbreak threatens to upend the organisation of the US presidential election and strike a blow to Donald Trump because of his reliance on big campaign rallies.
Democratic rivals Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders both cancelled rallies in Cleveland, Ohio, on Tuesday, citing recommendations from public health officials to avoid assembling large indoor crowds. Sunday’s televised debate between the men in Phoenix, Arizona, will take place without a studio audience or media “spin room”.
That did not stop the Trump campaign announcing a “Catholics for Trump” coalition launch in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Thursday next week, where the president is expected to address thousands of supporters as if it were business as usual.
“While public health experts caution us against large gatherings, the commander-in-chief schedules a rally,” tweeted David Axelrod, former chief strategist for Barack Obama. “What message does that send?”
But as coronavirus worsens, with more than 1,000 cases now reported in the US, Trump could face overwhelming pressure to scale down or scrap his regular rallies, a move that is likely to hurt him more than Biden, his probable opponent in the November election.
Rallies are the lifeblood of Trump’s political identity. He held them in crucial places that rival Hillary Clinton failed to visit in 2016. He has staged nearly a hundred of them since becoming president. He appears more at ease firing up a raucous crowd than in the staid formality of Washington.
No less importantly, the rallies have become an integral part of Trump campaign’s data gathering operation. The Politico website noted this week: “Nearly 31,000 people signed up to attend Donald Trump’s recent campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina. It didn’t matter that less than half of them showed up.
“The Trump campaign kept every one of their names and plans to spend the next eight months urging them to