Why is Donald Trump campaigning in California, a state he will almost certainly lose?

LOS ANGELES – With the presidency hanging in the balance in battlegrounds like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, why would Donald Trump venture to California, one of the most solidly Democratic states, just weeks before Election Day?

Trump is almost certain to lose California, and that won’t change after his scheduled stop Saturday in Coachella, a desert city east of Los Angeles best known for the annual music festival that bears its name. Still, there are practical reasons why he should make a visit, despite the prospect of a Republican nominee on Nov. 5 in the most populous state.

The former president lost California in a landslide in 2020. He received more than 6 million votes, more than any previous GOP presidential candidate, and his margin exceeded 70% in some rural counties that typically favor conservatives in voting.

That’s a huge group of potential volunteers to work state races and participate in phone banks to the most competitive states. Trump is likely to receive extensive media coverage in the Los Angeles market, the nation’s second-largest.

Trump is visiting Coachella between stops in Nevada for a Latino roundtable outside Las Vegas on Saturday, and in Arizona for a rally in Prescott Valley on Sunday. In 2020, he narrowly lost those two swing states to Democrat Joe Biden.

Going to California gives Trump “an opportunity to attract and capitalize on a large population of Trump supporters,” said Tim Lineberger, who was Trump’s campaign communications director in Michigan in 2016 and also worked in the former president’s administration. “He comes here and activates it.”

Lineberger recalled that in 2016, Californians called Michigan voters on Trump’s behalf and said the campaign’s decision to move into safe Democratic territory was an “aggressive and offensive play” at that point.

California is also a source of campaign money for both parties, and Trump will be a fundraiser. Photos with the former president at Coachella are valued at $25,000 and include special seating for two. The “VIP experience” was valued at $5,000.

With California’s congressional races likely to decide which party takes control of the House, the Coachella rally “is a get-out-the-vote event that motivates and energizes California Republicans when they’re not so close.” national campaign events,” said Republican consultant Tim Rosales.

Rosales also said she should look for Trump to continue his long-running feud with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

For Republicans: “It’s motivating when you can click a little bit in California and the governor … takes the bait,” Rosales said.

On Wednesday, Newsom predicted that Trump would denigrate the state at a rally, ignoring its strengths as the world’s fifth-largest economy. The governor said that for the first time in a decade, California has more Fortune 500 companies than any other state.

“You know, that’s not what Trump will say,” he predicted.

Jim Brulte, former chairman of the California Republican Party, said he thought Trump was pursuing something that had eluded him in previous campaigns: winning more total votes than his Democratic opponent.

“I believe Donald Trump is coming to California because he wants to win not only the Electoral College but also the popular vote. “California has more registered voters than residents in 46 of the other 49 states,” Brulte said.

Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles is located on the Pacific Coast, south of the city. But Trump has long had a contentious relationship with California, where no Republican has held the state since 1988 and Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by about 2-to-1.

During his time in office, California has been rife with the so-called Trump resistance, and Trump often portrays California as representative of everything he sees as wrong with America. As president, he called the homelessness crises in Los Angeles and San Francisco shameful and threatened to intercede.

On Saturday, he will likely spend time linking California’s problems to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee and San Francisco Bay Area native who served as California’s attorney general and represented the state in the Senate.

His campaign issued a statement claiming that under Harris, “the notorious ‘California dream’ has turned into a nightmare for ordinary Americans.”

Jessica Millan Patterson, chairwoman of the state Republican Party, said she looks forward to Trump comparing his agenda to a Democratic White House that “has made Californians less safe and less money in their pockets.”

Republicans, she promised, “will do everything in our power to secure a majority in the House.”