Trump visiting NH on Sunday
Plans rally, hoping to win battleground state
President Trump will return to the Granite State on Sunday to rally supporters a little more than a week before the election, with one GOP strategist calling it a “very smart” move by the incumbent to win over voters in a swing state that remains “in play.”
The rally at 1 p.m. Sunday at Pro Star Aviation in Londonderry marks Trump’s fourth visit to New Hampshire this cycle as he plays to win the state he just narrowly lost to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. It’s the same site as his last Granite State campaign event in August.
“I think it’s very smart for the president to come here. It will just further energize supporters and potentially new voters,” veteran Republican strategist Mike Dennehy said. “It’s a huge advantage every time President Trump goes to a state, so it’s great news for New Hampshire Republicans.”
Trump, who has been crisscrossing the country to drum up support in battleground states since recovering from the coronavirus, will touch down in the Granite State after a three-state swing Saturday that will take him to North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.
The Trump campaign announced the president’s pending return to New England just one day after Vice President Mike Pence rallied supporters in Portsmouth, telling them “the road to victory goes right through New Hampshire.”
Trump trails Democratic nominee Joe Biden by double digits on average in recent New Hampshire polls.
But his presence in the state “means that the Trump campaign believes that New Hamsphire’s in play and that he has a chance to win,” Dennehy said, adding, “I’ve never for a minute believed it was anything but a five-point race at most.”
Biden has not been in the Granite State since the first-in-the-nation primary in February, when he fled the state for South Carolina before the polls closed and ultimately finished in fifth place. Harris hasn’t been to the state since joining the Democratic ticket.
The Biden campaign has deployed a bevy of surrogates in
their place, including Biden’s wife, Jill, and Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, who is scheduled to campaign in New Hampshire and Maine on Saturday. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren urged Biden voters not to grow complacent with his polling lead as she stumped for the Democrat in Manchester earlier this month.
Democratic voters and political observers previously told the Herald they didn’t think Biden needed to campaign in New Hampshire, given his polling lead and the state’s smaller prize of just four electoral votes.
Dennehy said of the Biden team, “I think they believe they’ve locked up New Hampshire.”