Donald Trump to hold Lehigh Valley rally
Former President Donald Trump is set to return to the Lehigh Valley next weekend for a campaign rally as he seeks a second term in the White House.
A rally has been scheduled for the Schnecksville Fire Hall on Old Packhouse Road in North Whitehall Township at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 13, according to his campaign website.
A spokesperson for the Republican National Committee confirmed Trump’s visit Friday but shared no further details.
It will be Trump’s first visit to the Lehigh Valley of the 2024 election cycle. He will face President Joe Biden in the November general election, and recent polls in Pennsylvania indicate a close race between the two nominees. Pennsylvania, a key swing state, has 19 electoral votes, tied with Illinois for the fifth most votes that could determine the presidency.
The last time Trump visited the Valley was in October 2020, when in the closing days of his reelection campaign, he held a rally in Hanover Township, Northampton County. During that visit, he falsely claimed that only “massive fraud” could explain a reelection loss, touted his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and criticized Joe Biden as a “die-hard globalist” and said he would hurt Pennsylvania’s manufacturing industry.
Biden won Pennsylvania by a margin of around 80,000 votes in 2020.
The event will also take place ahead of the April 23 primary election. Trump has already clinched the Republican nomination for president, but three Republicans are vying for a nomination to represent the Lehigh Valley’s congressional district: lawyer Maria Montero, state representative Ryan Mackenzie and small business owner Kevin Dellicker.
Trump has not endorsed a specific Republican candidate in the primary.
Mackenzie and Dellicker will both attend the rally, campaign staff confirmed. A spokesperson for Montero could not immediately be reached for comment.
“I think Trump is going to make a strong contrast between what he has to offer, compared to what Joe Biden has delivered,” Dellicker said in a phone interview. “I look forward to hearing him speak to a supportive and raucous crowd.”
“Being the first candidate to publicly endorse Donald Trump for President and a proud America First conservative, I am excited to welcome President Trump to the Lehigh Valley next week,” Mackenzie said in a statement. “As he works to defeat Joe Biden, I am preparing to defeat Congresswoman Susan Wild so that we can secure our border, reduce inflation, and put America’s working families first again.”
Biden visited the Lehigh Valley in January, touting his economic initiatives with small business owners in Emmaus and firefighters in Allentown.
In a statement, his campaign blasted Trump and his policies, saying they hurt the region’s middle-class families.
“Donald Trump spent four years pushing an extreme agenda that was devastating for Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley,” according to the statement. “The Commonwealth lost thousands of jobs on his watch as he gave tax breaks to his ultra-wealthy friends at the expense of middle-class families, and now he’s bragging about his plans to ban abortion nationwide and rip health care away from millions. Trump would be better off continuing to hide out in Mar-a-Lago than coming face to face with the Pennsylvania voters he’s repeatedly failed.”
Trump’s campaign is also taking place in the shadow of his numerous legal battles, some of which could be decided before the election takes place. The Republican nominee is facing multiple felony counts across two state courts and two federal districts for his alleged illegal business dealings, handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.