(Cupventi.com) – Former President Donald Trump is set to hold a rally in the Bronx on Thursday as part of his campaign strategy to attract Hispanic and Black voters ahead of the upcoming November election.
The rally will take place in Crotona Park, located in the South Bronx, a largely Democratic area. This event comes just days before the final arguments in Trump’s New York criminal trial, where he faces 34 felony charges. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Over the past six weeks, Trump has been mostly tied to New York due to his trial. Since it began in mid-April, he has visited various locations in Manhattan, including a bodega where a fatal stabbing occurred in 2022, a construction site, and a fire station. This rally in the Bronx will be his first major campaign event in New York since his initial presidential run in 2016.
A Trump campaign official shared with CNN that the decision to hold the rally in the Bronx was influenced by several factors, including Trump’s long history in New York and his efforts to appeal to minority voters. The rally’s proximity to his criminal trial and his desire to challenge the Democratic dominance in the state were also significant considerations.
Trump believes he has a chance to win New York this fall, despite a Republican presidential candidate not winning the state since 1984. In the 2020 election, Trump lost the Bronx to Joe Biden by about 68 points, a slight improvement from 2016 when he lost to Hillary Clinton by 79 points. Specifically, in the South Bronx where the rally is taking place, Trump improved his performance significantly. Biden won the precinct around Crotona Park by 69 points, compared to Clinton’s 90-point lead in 2016.
The South Bronx, where 64% of residents are Hispanic and 31% are Black according to the US Census Bureau, reflects the broader trend of increasing support for Trump among Hispanic voters. Recent polls suggest Trump may gain even more support from Hispanic and Black voters compared to four years ago. Surveys conducted since April indicate a narrowing gap between Biden and these voter groups.
In response to Trump’s efforts, the Biden campaign launched new ads targeting what they describe as Trump’s “long record of failures and broken promises” to Black Americans. These ads highlight several controversial moments in Trump’s past, including accusations of housing discrimination in the 1970s, promoting the false conspiracy theory about President Barack Obama’s birthplace, and his stance during the 2017 Charlottesville rally involving White supremacists.
Trump’s campaign dismissed the ads as an attempt to “gaslight Black voters.” Janiyah Thomas, the campaign’s Black media director, stated, “We must not forget that it was Joe Biden who was a key figure in passing the 1994 Crime Bill, which disproportionately harmed Black communities through harsh sentencing laws and increased incarceration rates. Additionally, we cannot overlook that Biden’s policies are driving Black families deeper into poverty and making them less safe.”
Some New York House Republicans initially planned to attend the rally but had to cancel due to changes in the voting schedule in Congress. They will instead be voting on measures to prevent illegal immigrants from voting and to protect Americans’ financial privacy.
Democratic representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ritchie Torres, who represent parts of the Bronx, criticized Trump’s upcoming rally. Ocasio-Cortez described it as an “attempt to trick some of our folks here,” while Torres told The New York Times that Trump is “radioactive” in the Bronx.
Trump’s outreach to minority voters is part of a broader campaign strategy, which includes stoking fears about undocumented migrants. He has frequently made false or misleading claims about illegal immigration and used dehumanizing language to describe migrants.
As the election approaches, both campaigns are intensifying their efforts to secure votes from key demographic groups, with Trump aiming to challenge the traditional voting patterns in strong Democratic areas like the Bronx.