Donald Trump is counting on late trips to democratic New Mexico and Virginia

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Donald Trump is traveling to New Mexico and Virginia in the final days of the campaign, taking a risky detour from the seven battleground states to spend time in places where Republican presidential candidates haven't won in decades.

The former president was campaigning in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Thursday and was scheduled to visit Salem, Virginia, on Saturday.

The Trump team is showing optimism, based in part on early voting numbers, that he can be competitive against Democrat Kamala Harris in both states – particularly in New Mexico, if he wins the swing states of Nevada and Arizona decides. That hope exists even though neither New Mexico nor Virginia has had a Republican candidate for the White House since George W. Bush in 2004.

In recent months in particular, one has occurred in the battleground states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Constant stream of candidate visitsand residents were bombarded with political advertising on billboards, televisions and smartphones. In the last two weeks alone, presidential and vice presidential candidates appeared 21 times in Pennsylvania, 17 times in Michigan and 13 times in North Carolina.

In the 43 other states, a candidate visit is an exciting novelty.

Even in states that overwhelmingly vote against him, Trump has fervent supporters and can easily fill his rallies with enthusiastic supporters.

He has recently taken more detours from the states with the most stake and held rallies Madison Square Garden in New York and in Coachella, California – States that are even more Democratic than New Mexico and Virginia. These events fulfilled Trump's long-term claims that he could win both states, but were also aimed at attracting maximum media attention as his campaign aims to reach voters who do not closely follow political news.

Trump also appeared in heavily Republican Montana, and both Trump and Harris ran on the same day last week in Texas, where Democrats last won in 1976.

These trips served other purposes, such as highlighting important issues in a state or supporting candidates for the House or Senate.

Trump said in Albuquerque that he could win the state as long as the election was fair and repeated falsehoods about rigged past elections.

“If we could bring God down from heaven, he could be the voter and we could win,” Trump said. He added that he was visiting New Mexico because it was “good for my standing” with Hispanic voters.

Trump's strategy carries risks.

After her loss to Trump in 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton was criticized for traveling to Arizona late in the campaign instead of spending time in Wisconsin, Michigan or Pennsylvania, the states that ultimately decided the election. Arizona is a battleground today, but eight years ago, when it voted for Trump by a four percentage point margin, it wasn't considered particularly competitive.

“I don’t think there’s a strategy,” said Bob Shrum, a longtime Democratic political consultant who has worked on numerous presidential campaigns and now directs the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California. “I think he insisted on doing it. It makes no sense.”

The stop in New Mexico takes Trump to a border state

The planned visit to Albuquerque brings Trump and his stance on immigration to a border state with the nation's highest concentration of Latino voters, underscoring the campaign for Hispanic supporters.

Approximately 44% of the voting-age population in New Mexico identifies as Hispanic. Many have centuries-old ties to Mexican and Spanish settlements, while the share of the state's foreign-born residents is lower than the national average.

At the same time, federal and local authorities in New Mexico are dealing with one Surge in migrant deaths along the US border with Mexico.

Trump's visit impacts a congressional district that stretches from Albuquerque to the Mexican border. It is now held by a Democrat as Republicans try to maintain their slim majority in the House. Immigration was a big problem in the race.

Also on the ballot is Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich, who is seeking a third term against Republican Nella Domenici. She is the daughter of the late Republican Senator Pete Domenici, who served six terms from 1973 to 2009 and was the last New Mexico Republican elected to the Senate.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. remains on the ballot in New Mexico, and pro-Kennedy campaign signs appeared on roadsides across the capital of Santa Fe in late October, about two months after Kennedy withdrew from the race and endorsed Trump.

New Mexico voters rejected Trump twice in the election, and Democrats hold all statewide elected offices, all three congressional seats and majorities in the state House and Senate.

“He’s just taking us back to what the United States needs to be,” Albuquerque resident Leandra Dominguez, 45, said before Trump spoke. “It just fell apart. We just need someone to save us.”

Virginia was once a battlefield

While Virginia was considered a battleground as recently as 2012, the past decade has seen a trend toward Democrats, particularly in the populous northern Virginia suburbs.

Trump lost the state Clinton in 2016 And Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. This year, Democrats and their allies in the presidential campaign in Virginia spent nearly twice as much on advertising as Republicans, data show, although that pales in comparison to spending in battleground states.

“We have a real chance,” Trump said by phone Rally in the Richmond area on Saturday.

While Trump is in Virginia, he will likely talk about Wednesday's events Supreme Court ruling A purge of voter registrations remains in place, which the state says is aimed at discouraging people who are not U.S. citizens from voting.

Due to the disagreements of the three liberal justices, the Supreme Court granted an emergency appeal from Virginia's Republican government under Governor Glenn Youngkin.

Speaking to Fox News' Bret Baier on Wednesday night, Youngkin said based on what he's seeing on the ground, “Virginia is far more competitive than any of the experts would have believed.”

He noted that Biden won as governor two years after he won by 10 percentage points in 2020.

“Virginians are ready to return to the White House,” he said.

Virginia Democratic Party Chairwoman Susan Swecker said Trump's planned visit to Salem on Saturday would only expand Harris' lead in the state.

“Kamala Harris will win Virginia convincingly, as he knows, and any visit from this crazy lunatic will only increase the margin,” Swecker said.

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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York, Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Olivia Diaz in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.