Would You like a feature Interview?
All Interviews are 100% FREE of Charge
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to make an unusual pit stop for a Republican candidate later this week.
On Thursday, the native New Yorker will headline a campaign event in the Bronx, one of New York City’s five boroughs and one of the bluest areas in the country.
The Bronx is so heavily Democratic that it has been an afterthought for most Republican presidential candidates, and even most statewide Republican candidates.
So why bother?
While it may not help him win the Bronx, it will give the former president an opportunity to further pursue his national strategy of winning over minority voters.
President Trump appeals to black and Latino voters
Trump has virtually no chance of actually winning the Bronx in November. The district has supported every Democratic presidential candidate since 1928.
In 2020, Trump managed to improve his standing among voters in the Bronx by a small margin, winning nearly 30,000 more votes in the borough than he did in 2016. Meanwhile, the Democratic presidential vote share increased by only 2,000 votes.
In 2020, Biden ultimately defeated Trump in the Bronx (355,374 votes to 67,740 votes), but the boost for the former president was due to an increase in working-class minority voters across the country that year. It was similar to the gains it made among Latino voters in particular.
This was a political shift that allowed Trump to easily win Florida in 2020. That includes central Miami-Dade County, which has a large Latino population and must support Democrats by large margins to win statewide elections.
New York City is not Florida, but Trump’s campaign event in the Bronx is part of a larger strategy to win over minority voters who have turned away from Democrats in recent years.
President Trump’s pitch to minority voters
Mr. Trump’s anticipated appearance in the South Bronx will seek to strengthen his polling lead on the economy.
Perhaps ironically, he will also tout himself as the best candidate to reduce crime. Mr. Trump’s hush money trial is unfolding in neighboring Manhattan, but there are also a series of cases taking place in New York City itself. Crimes that have recently attracted attention.
“President Trump will ease the economic pressure on families and restore law and order to New York!” the Trump campaign said in announcing the Bronx event.
With millions of Americans concerned about inflation and the cost of living, Trump wants to position himself as the candidate who can better address these issues, especially for minority voters.
The Trump campaign is particularly targeting key Latino voters in battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia and Nevada. The former president is also aiming to appeal to black voters, particularly black men.
This is a strategy that the Biden campaign is working on to counter this. The president also points to the low unemployment rate during his presidency and his administration’s efforts on issues such as housing affordability and infrastructure, which have won support among Black and Latino voters across the country.
So even if Trump doesn’t win the Bronx right away, his appearance in places voters wouldn’t normally expect is an effective showcase for his larger national strategy. there is a possibility.
And even though the former president is unlikely to win New York state this fall, he still hopes his positions on fiscal issues and immigration may give him a chance.
“We’re going to come into New York. We’re going to make a big play for New York,” he said during an appearance in Manhattan last month.