Former President Trump campaigned Thursday in traditionally Democratic New Mexico, telling supporters the visit was good for his “credentials†with Hispanic voters and falsely claiming the state’s vote was rigged against him.
“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,†Trump told a crowd in Albuquerque.
Trump is facing backlash from some Latino voters after a comedian at one of his rally's compared Puerto Rico to a "floating island of garbage." Trump himself has downplayed the furor over the remark and said he did not know the comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe.
The former president recounted that some advisers told him not to visit New Mexico, a state he lost handily in both 2020 and 2016, because he would not flip it in November.
“I said, ‘Look, your votes are rigged. We can win New Mexico. We can win New Mexico,’†Trump said.
“They said, ‘Oh, a Republican can’t win that state.’ They say a Republican can’t win. But you know what? We’re going to win it. We got to win it. You just got to keep the votes honest,†Trump added.
The former president has made exaggerated and misleading claims about fraud less than a week before Election Day, with a particular focus on the battleground of Pennsylvania. And he spent the weeks after his 2020 defeat claiming there was widespread fraud, though there was no evidence of such claims and numerous lawsuits on the matter were dismissed.
Trump’s visit to New Mexico came as the former president and his campaign have expressed confidence about their chances on Tuesday, and it marked a rare stop outside of one of the seven battleground states expected to determine the outcome on Tuesday.
There has been limited polling out of the state in the presidential race, but an Albuquerque Journal survey released earlier this month showed Harris leading Trump by 9 percentage points, 50 percent to 41 percent.
Trump last campaigned in New Mexico in 2019, when he and his campaign asserted the state was in play. President Biden won New Mexico in 2020 by roughly 100,000 votes. In 2016, he lost the state to then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by roughly 65,000 votes.
New Mexico has been won by a Republican presidential candidate once since 1992, when former president George W. Bush carried the state in 2004.
