Why Trump is making last-minute stops before Election Day in two blue-leaning states

In the final week leading up to Election Day on Nov. 5, former President Trump is taking two brief detours from his campaign in the seven crucial battleground states that will likely determine whether the Republican nominee or vice president Kamala Harris will win the 2024 election.

On Thursday, on Halloween, the former president will make a campaign stop in New Mexico and on Saturday, he will travel to Virginia. Both states were once key battlegrounds for general elections that have turned blue over the past two decades.

In fact, you have to go back 20 years – to the re-election of President George W. Bush – to find the last Republican presidential candidate in the two states.

So why, when time is such a precious commodity for presidential campaigns and time is of the essence as Election Day approaches, is Trump spending time in New Mexico and Virginia?

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Former President Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on October 27, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Unlike his big rallies on Sunday in New York and two weeks ago in Southern California – deep blue states where the Trump campaign is under no illusions – the former president and his team see opportunities in Virginia and New Mexico.

“As President Trump has said, he will be a president for all Americans, including those in the traditionally blue states that Kamala Harris and the Democrats have left behind. Kamala Harris's dangerously liberal policies have failed Americans to across the country – from the Bronx to Virginia and New Mexico – that's why President Trump is bringing his message and vision of America First for hard-working families to their front doors.” said Republican National Committee spokesperson Anna Kelley in a statement to Fox News.

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There haven't been many polls in New Mexico, but the most recent polls indicate Harris has a single-digit lead over Trump, although one poll suggests a closer fight for Harris's five electoral votes. the state.

“Trump is wasting his time coming to our state when polls show New Mexicans are ready to once again reject his MAGA extremism and divisive rhetoric,” the New Mexican Democratic Party spokesperson said. Mexico, Daniel Garcia, in a press release.

And referencing the former president's stop in Albuquerque on Oct. 31, Garcia took a verbal shot at Trump, saying “a round, orange mass will be in Albuquerque for Halloween, and we're not talking about a pumpkin “.

Trump hasn't set foot in New Mexico in five years.

Former President Trump speaks during a campaign event at historic Greenbrier Farms in Chesapeake, Virginia on June 28, 2024. (Parker Michels-Boyce/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It's a different story in Virginia, where the former president held a large rally in the southeastern part of the state in June.

Trump is holding a rally in Salem, Virginia, in the conservative southwest of the Commonwealth on Saturday.

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Polls in the state indicate the Democratic presidential candidate holds a double-digit or slightly lower single-digit lead over the former president.

“We have a very good chance of winning Virginia – it hasn’t been done in decades by a [GOP] presidential candidate,” Trump told Virginia Republicans during a tele-rally in September.

It's an argument that Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia also makes.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15, 2024. (Reuters/Jeenah Moon)

But there could be another factor that contributed to Trump's Virginia shutdown.

Trump on Friday pilloried a federal judge's ruling that Virginia must re-register more than 1,500 people on the state's voter rolls, with the former president falsely claiming Harris was behind the decision and charging it amounted to to “electoral interference”.

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The state of Virginia filed an emergency stay request with the U.S. Supreme Court on Sunday to overturn the lower court's ruling, which halted the state's efforts to remove suspected non-citizens from electoral lists.

David Richards, a veteran political scientist at the University of Lynchburg, based in Virginia, told Fox News that “based on all the polls I look at, it's not clear that this rally will help Trump win Virginia.” .

“But I think he has bigger ambitions coming to central Virginia. I think he wants to capitalize on the court decision to reinstate voters who have not met citizenship requirements or have not not checked the correct box and were selected by a general ballot of registered voters in Virginia,” Richards said. “It fits into his overall story about illegal immigrants trying to vote in elections. I think he's looking for a national audience, not necessarily just a Virginia audience, by coming to do a rally here.”

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