Former President Donald Trump is ready to do something that no Republican White House hopeful has done since Ronald Reagan: hold a campaign rally in the Bronx.
Mr. Trump is doing the rally Thursday in the New York borough — the most demographically diverse area of the country and the poorest in the city — because it provides an ideal backdrop to remind voters he is not your traditional Republican.
He’s also sending a warning shot across Democrats’ bow that he is coming for the Obama coalition.
“He is trying to prove, rightfully so, that he is a man of the people and the people he is talking to are Latinos and people across the country who he believes are upset with Democrats, who are suffering from inflation, crime and chaos,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic strategist. “It is part of the showmanship to show the MAGA Republicans are multi-colored and multi-ethnic.”
“Democrats will just assume Trump can’t win New York, which is true, and assume he can’t do well with Latinos, which is probably not true,” he said, pointing to 2016 exit polls that showed he pulled more Latino support than 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
Still, the chances of Mr. Trump becoming the first Republican since Reagan to carry New York in a presidential race are slim at best.
SEE ALSO: Trump declines to testify as defense rests, jurors dismissed until after Memorial Day
The Bronx rally nevertheless gives him a platform to build on his stronger-than-expected appeal with young, Black and brown voters who have soured on Mr. Biden.
“What you’re seeing is the old Obama coalition come apart. Biden can’t hold them together,” said Trump pollster John McLaughlin. “What they’re really upset about is high prices and cost of living, and also, specifically in the Bronx, crime is out of control.”
A recent New York Times/Sienna College poll of voters found that 14% of voters across six swing states who said they voted for Mr. Biden in 2020 are now planning to vote for Mr. Trump, a third-party contender, or sit out the election. The poll also found that Mr. Biden’s support among young, Black and Hispanic voters is eroding.
Mr. McLaughlin said the number of Blacks and Hispanics who have swung their support from Mr. Biden to Mr. Trump is big enough to swing the election this fall.
“It’s a real bold statement on President Trump’s part to say, ‘I’m not just going to beat you, you know, in the battleground states, I’m going to beat you, in effect, on your home court,’” Mr. McLaughlin said. “‘I’m going to go into the Bronx, and I’m going to take votes from you.’”
Since mid-April, Mr. Trump has been trapped for four days a week on the 15th floor of a courthouse in lower Manhattan where he has been charged with doctoring business records to cover up hush money payments to a pron star before the 2016 election.
From a campaign perspective, the 77-year-old has been forced to improvise. On his way into and out of the courtroom, he has delivered regular diatribes against his political foes and the legal system and pontificated on the news on the day.
He has supplemented that with sporadic appearances across the city, and meetings with foreign dignitaries, as well as occasional rallies and fundraisers in key battleground states
Ahead of the Bronx rally, Democrats are on the attack.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat who represents the area, said Mr. Trump has been working against the interest of the working poor since his time as a real estate developer.
“Neither Trump nor the Republican Party is a friend of the South Bronx,” Mr. Torres said in a New York Daily News op-ed “Faced with 91 felony counts, Trump is a criminal suspect whose priority is self-preservation by self-pardon, the path to which runs through his presidency.”
“The only place in the Bronx where Trump has any business being is in Bronx Criminal Court on 161st St. and the Grand Concourse,” he said.
The Trump campaign has pushed back, saying the trip shows Mr. Trump is “committed to easing these financial burdens and restoring law and order, ensuring safer, more prosperous futures for all communities.”
“By going to the South Bronx, President Trump is willing to do what Joe Biden can’t: meet people where they’re at. Join us as he shares his vision for uplifting and protecting Black and Brown communities in New York and all across America,” said Janiyah Thomas, the Trump campaign’s Black media director.
What is clear is Mr. Trump’s Bronx rally is keeping the spotlight on him.
“Look, there is zero chance New York is a competitive state when it comes to the electoral map, but if they can use that backdrop to control national media coverage and go on offense, they have to seize that opportunity,” said Kevin Madden, a GOP strategist who cut his political teeth in nearby Yonkers.
“The other important rule they understand well is that the campaign that’s on offense and controlling the tempo of the race always wins,” said Mr. Madden, a top adviser to the Romney 2012 campaign. “The Bronx platform is obviously not as ideal for their campaign as, say, Grand Rapids, [Michigan] but as long as they can stay on the attack against Biden, it can serve a purpose.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.