Former President Donald Trump, challenging the conventional notion that winning New York as Republican presidential candidate is an impossibility, will host a rally in New York City on October 27.
According to the New York Post, Trump’s rally will be held in Manhattan at Madison Square Garden, known as “The World’s Most Famous Arena.” The venue is located between Seventh and Eighth Avenues and 31st to 33rd Street and hosted the Republican National Convention in 2004 and the Democratic National Convention in 1976, 1980, and 1992.
In September, Trump’s rally at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island drew roughly 16,000 people, The New York Post noted, adding, “The former president’s Bronx rally over the summer brought up to 10,000 Trump supporters to Crotona Park, which had a permit allowance of 3,500 people.”
As far back as February, Trump said of New York, “Do I think we have a chance? New York has changed a lot in the last two years. We have migrants all over the street. They are living on Madison Avenue.”
Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!
“Nobody can believe what’s happened to New York,” he continued. “The people of New York are angry. People that would have never voted for me because I’m a Republican. I mean, they’re Democrats. Their parents were Democrats. They would vote for Democrats. I think they’re going to vote for me. So I think we’re going to give New York a heavy shot. They’re very unhappy in New York. What’s happening? And they’re unhappy with the crime. You take a look at the crime in New York, it’s at record levels. The other thing is, and very importantly, New Jersey, I think New Jersey can be flipped. I think that Virginia can be flipped. I think that New Mexico could be flipped. And I think Minnesota could be flipped. And I’m not even sure that everything can’t be flipped.”
The last Republican presidential candidate to win New York was Ronald Reagan, who won it twice, in 1980 and 1984. Democrats have maintained a stranglehold on the state ever since. Richard Nixon won the state in his reelection campaign of 1972, having lost it in 1968. The biggest percentage of the vote in the state won by a Republican in the last 24 years was 40.1%, by George W. Bush in 2004, three years after the 9/11 terrorist attack.