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UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Standing in front of a packed arena on New York’s Long Island, former President Donald Trump predicted victory in November in the reliably blue state.
“It hasn’t been done for a long time. But we are going to win New York. And that’s the first time in many, many years that a Republican can honestly say it. And we’re going to do it,” Trump vowed.
“We have to do it. We do it, and the election nationwide is over,” Trump added as he spoke to what his campaign said was a capacity crowd of roughly 16,000 people packed into an arena in Nassau County, a suburban New York City Republican stronghold.
Trump made a similar pledge four years ago before losing his native state to President Biden by over 23 points. And polling strongly suggests that Trump has no serious chance of carrying New York in his 2024 election showdown with Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, headlines a rally at the Nassau Coliseum, in Uniondale, New York on Sept. 18, 2024 (Fox News – Julia Bonavita )
It’s been 40 years since a Republican nominee has carried New York state in a presidential election.
You have to go back to President Ronald Reagan, who won the state as part of his landslide re-election victory in 1984.
Trump promised New Yorkers that if he wins back the White House, “I’m going to reduce your taxes, reduce your crime, and reduce your levels of stress.”
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And the former president pledged that during a second Trump term, “I will officially make the Ground Zero site at the World Trade Center a national monument protected and maintained by the United States government.”
Wednesday’s rally was Trump’s second large campaign event this year in the Empire State, after drawing a big crowd in the New York City borough of the Bronx in May.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speak during a campaign rally in the south Bronx, in New York City, on Thursday, May, 23. (AP/Yuki Iwamura)
While there was some chatter of New York potentially being in play as President Biden’s poll numbers started cratering following his disastrous late-June debate performance against Trump, the conversation was fleeting and quickly dissipated when Harris replaced Biden atop the Democrats’ 2024 ticket two months ago.
So why — with less than 50 days to go until Election Day and time becoming a very precious commodity — did Trump hold a campaign rally just outside of New York City?
“Quite clearly, New York is the biggest media hub in the country,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told Fox News on the eve of the rally.
Murtaugh emphasized that “when [Trump] delivers a message there, it’s piped directly into homes in every market in every battleground state. The most valuable commodity we have is President Trump’s time. And that event is making efficient use of it.”
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While Trump is extremely unlikely to carry New York in the White House race, the rally may help Republicans down-ballot, as they try to hold on to their House of Representatives majority in November’s elections.
Several GOP-controlled House seats in New York state are considered vulnerable this year, including one held by Rep. Anthony D’Esposito of Long Island. A number of them were at the rally and spoke ahead of Trump. And the former president gave the House Republicans and congressional candidates shoutouts as he addressed the crowd.
D’Esposito, in an interview with Fox News’ Bryan Ilenas, said “it is very clear – perhaps New York is not a battleground state, but what there is – is there’s a battleground right here on Long Island. And when Trump wins on Election Night, he is going to need a House majority and that House majority runs through the Empire State.”
VideoTrump’s rally was his first since this past weekend’s apparent second assassination attempt against the former president, and the 78-year-old GOP nominee insisted that the incidents had “hardened my resolve.”
“These encounters with death have not broken my will,” he emphasized. “They have really given me a much bigger and stronger mission. They’ve only hardened my resolve to use my time on Earth to make America great again for all Americans, to put America first.”
And Trump said that “God has now spared my life — it must have been God, thank you — not once but twice.”
Fox News’ Jennifer Johnson and Monica Oroz contributed to this report
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.
