In one of his last campaign stops of 2024, former President Donald Trump landed his private Boeing 757 at the Albuquerque International Sunport on Thursday to greet a sizable crowd. His visit to the Land of Enchantment comes days before voters head to the polls to cast their ballots.
The former president held his rally at the CSI Aviation complex in south Albuquerque, where supporters braved an early morning in freezing temperatures to take their place in line.
Some supporters got in line as early as the evening before, camping outside of the complex. Entry for the rally did not begin until 8 a.m. on Thursday morning.
“This is my second rally I’ve been to, but the first time I camped out,” Brandon Borman said. “I’ve been here since six last night.”
As individuals filled the complex, several hopeful political candidates spoke before Trump arrived, including U.S. Senate candidate Nella Domenici and U.S. House of Representatives candidate Yvette Herrell. New Mexico Republican Party chair Steve Pearce also spoke at the rally before Trump.
“We got a job to do in five days, and it’s called fire the Biden-Harris administration,” Herrell said.
Trump arrives to crowd of several thousands
Former President Donald Trump landed a few minutes after noon and was greeted by an energized crowd as soon as he stepped off his jet.
Once he took the stage, Trump immediately got the crowd engaged as he continued his attacks against democratic opponent Kamala Harris, calling her “worse than crooked Hillary.”
Trump also continued to tout his heavily mentioned campaign talking points, including securing the southern border, lowering costs for Americans, and solving conflicts abroad. He also said that he will not cut social security and Medicare.
“We will cut taxes, end inflation, slash your prices, we are going to get those prices down,” Trump said. “Raise wages and bring back thousands of factories back to America and back to New Mexico, we will bring them back. We will build American, we will buy American, and we will hire American.”
Trump also reiterated his claims of a rigged election in 2020, where he said he won New Mexico in previous elections. His claims are false.
“They all said, don’t come. I said, why? ‘You can’t win New Mexico.’ I said, look, your votes are rigged,” Trump said. “We almost won it twice and let me tell you, I believe we won it twice if you want to know the truth. And if you can watch your vote counter, if we could bring God down from heaven, he could be the vote counter, we’d win California, we’d win a lot of states.”
For context, Trump lost New Mexico in both 2020 and in 2016. He lost by 10 percentage points to Joe Biden and by eight percentage points to Hillary Clinton in 2016.
His most prominent campaign message? The border. Trump doubled down on his border security policy ideas, where he said he will win New Mexico because it is a border state.
“Under Kamala, New Mexico has seen millions of people pour across your section of the southern border,” Trump said.
State of the race
With only a few days until Election Day, over 66 million votes have already been cast, according to Forbes. New Mexico, which has been primarily democratic for some time, has seen shifts in its politics in the past. However, this year, it does not look like the state will shift to red, according to NMSU Associate Professor of Government, Daniel Gomez.
“The likelihood of New Mexico going red at the presidential level right now is likely not very high,” Gomez said. “It’s like a pipe dream. There are some polling signs out there that lean democrat. But, you know, in 2020 Biden carried the state by 10 percentage points. And we haven’t had a really very significant challenge at the statewide level from a republican in quite some time.”
Trump’s campaign stop in New Mexico comes days after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made racist jokes at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, where he referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”
New Mexico, whose population is made up of 48% Hispanics, heard Trump speak about how he feels about the ethnic group.
“Hispanics love Trump. They do. True. I like them. They’re smart,” Trump said. “They’re a lot smarter than the person running for president on the Democrat side. So, I’m here for one simple reason. I like you very much, and it’s good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community.”
Gomez said that he does not believe that Trump’s stop in Albuquerque will have a major effect on the outcome of the election in the state. He said it is rather a convenient pit stop.
Even though New Mexico is not considered a ‘swing state‘, Trump continued to tell his supporters to get out and vote. Video boards at his rally displayed text saying to vote early, vote by mail, or vote on Nov. 5.
As of now, the presidential race is in a dead heat, with most polls showing Kamala Harris and Trump neck-and-neck in key states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina.
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