Former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a campaign rally next to Albuquerque International Sunport on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. With less than a week until Election Day, Trump is campaigning for re-election in New Mexico and the battleground states of Nevada and Arizona on Thursday. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
ALBUQUERQUE – Former President Donald Trump meandered from the beaten campaign path Thursday to stop in New Mexico, where he proclaimed he could turn the state red while repeating his mistruths about stolen elections and his hardline stance on the border.
Several thousand enthusiastic Trump supporters joined him at an outdoor venue next to the city’s airport. With the Sandia Mountains behind him and the occasional roar of military aircraft overhead, they rallied against Democrat Kamala Harris as much as for the Republican nominee for president.
With only days left before voting concludes, presidential candidates typically spend time in swing states, where slim margins of voters will decide who is in the White House for the next four years. Harris is projected to win New Mexico, as Democrats have for the past 20 years.
But Trump scoffed at critics, and facts, falsely claiming that he won New Mexico in the prior two elections. (He lost the state in 2016 by more than 65,000 votes and again in 2020 by about 100,000 votes.)
“We almost won it twice, and let me tell you, I believe we won it twice,” Trump said. “OK? If you want to know the truth.”
Trump’s visit is the first campaign appearance from a presidential candidate in New Mexico this campaign cycle. Harris has not been to the state while campaigning.
Both Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris have sought to increase their support among the fast-growing demographic of Latino voters this year, as the 2024 presidential race is essentially a dead heat.
Recent polling estimates Harris is securing more of the Latino vote at 64%, while Trump has 31% of the vote. Harris has an edge with younger people aged 18 to 29.
Trump said he expects New Mexico’s support in the upcoming election: “Don’t make me waste a whole, damn half-a-day here.”
The crowd cheered loudly at most lulls in the speech. Chants included “¡Que viva Trump!” and “Keep Trump safe!” alluding to the two assassination attempts on the Republican nominee this year.
In recent appearances, Trump and his supporting acts have continued his uncompromising position on immigration and closing the U.S. border with Mexico as the centerpiece of his campaign, often using racist language including a comedian calling the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
In the opening minutes of his speech in Albuquerque, Trump falsely claimed all people crossing the border “are murderers, they’re killers, drug addicts, they’re drug dealers, they’re gang members.”
Even if Trump doesn’t win New Mexico’s five Electoral College votes, his appearance could boost Republican turnout in the tight race for the state’s 2nd Congressional District. Incumbent Democrat Gabe Vasquez faces Republican challenger Yvette Herrell, and the winner could help decide which party controls Congress.
Herrell, who represented the 2nd District from 2021-23, took to the stage several hours before Trump spoke, garnering a noticeable pop from the crowd as she walked on to Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.”
Herrell repeated false, widely-disproven claims that noncitizen voter fraud occurred in prior elections, and anti-LGBTQ talking points in her speech before saying Republicans would “put New Mexico values first.” “We’re going to open up our energy, we’re going to ensure we have those jobs and that money coming into our state and nation, and we’re going to close the southern border once and for all,” Herrell said.
Trump did not mention Herrell in his speech, which lasted more than an hour. He also did not mention Republican U.S. Senate candidate Nella Domenici, who also spoke Thursday and is running against incumbent Democrat Martin Heinrich. Heinrich, who is projected to win reelection.
Trump’s speech was briefly interrupted due to at least one medical incident in the crowd, he paused speaking and turned up the music.
About 40 people staged a small protest outside the rally organized by the Albuquerque chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Besides opposition to Trump, they also expressed support for Palestinian people in Gaza, where Israel’s retaliatory attacks have killed at least 43,000 people in the past year.
Joel Hernandez, one of the organizers of the demonstration, said he was there to protest Trump and show solidarity with the immigrant community, which includes his parents, who came from Mexico and Honduras.
“This is all one struggle, this is all one fight,” Hernandez said. “Whether it’s Palestinians, whether Puerto Rico is being called an ‘island of trash,’ we want to be here to show that we’re one community.”
Logistics for the rally were the stuff of political intrigue as the event quickly came together.
The Trump campaign attempted to secure two venues inside the city, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Mayor Tim Keller, a Democrat, said neither the Tingley Coliseum nor the Albuquerque Convention Center could be used, citing repairs being made to both. He also referenced an unpaid bill for security the city provided for Trump’s last visit to New Mexico in 2019.
Parking for the event also was a flashpoint. State Republicans accused the Democratic Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard of “naked partisanship” Tuesday after she said an entertainment company’s proposal to use parking at the Isleta Amphitheater and bus people to the venue violated a lease agreement.
On Thursday, traffic snarled on Interstate 25 near the airport.
In social media posts, the Albuquerque Sunport warned passengers to plan for at least three hours delay to reaching the airport, as “heavy traffic is expected to persist throughout the morning and afternoon.”
Source New Mexico is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Shaun Griswold for questions: info@sourcenm.com. Follow Source New Mexico on Facebook and X.