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With the US presidency on the line in battlegrounds like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, why would Donald Trump venture into California, one of the most solidly Democratic states, just weeks before Election Day?
Trump is almost certain to lose California, and that will not change after his scheduled Saturday stop in Coachella, a desert city east of Los Angeles best known for the annual music festival bearing its name. Still, there are practical reasons for him to visit, despite the Republican nominee’s prospects November 5 in the most populous state.
The former president lost California in a landslide in 2020. He did get 6 million-plus votes, more than any Republican presidential candidate before, and his margins topped 70 per cent in some rural counties that typically favour conservatives on the ballot.
That’s an enormous pool of potential volunteers to work on state races and participate in phone banks into the most contested states. And Trump is likely to draw extensive media coverage in the Los Angeles market, the second-largest in the country.
Trump is visiting Coachella in between stops in Nevada, at a round table in Las Vegas for Latinos earlier on Saturday – where he praised Hispanics as having “such energy” – and Arizona, for a rally Sunday in Prescott Valley. He narrowly lost those two swing states to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
Attendees waiting in broiling temperatures that approached 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday said they didn’t expect Trump to win their state but were thrilled to see him.