Trump in Arizona: Former president touts LDS support
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump touts LDS support in battleground Arizona ahead of the election. Trump is polling ahead in the state.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Rep. Celeste Maloy, both members of the LDS church, attended the roundtable and spoke at the rally. So did Dave Sparks and Dave Riley from the reality TV show “Diesel Brothers,” who grew up in the faith.Both campaigns are making a play for Arizona because it is one of a handful of states on the Electoral College map where the race is a toss-up. Arizona has 11 electoral votes.
On the economy, Trump pledged to reduce inflation, create more auto industry jobs and get rid of taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits. He also said he’d make interest payments on car loans tax deductible.
“Kamala Harris is known as the taxing queen. She loves taxes,” Trump said, although the vice president has pitched making the child tax credit available to more low-income families and a refundable tax credit for first-time homebuyers.
Trump also encouraged supporters to vote early, a significant change from the 2020 election when he spread conspiracies around mail-in voting and used them to claim claim the election was rigged, despite evidence to the contrary.
“If you have a ballot return it immediately and if not,” Trump said. “Get your you-know-what and vote.”
Arizona Republican Party chair Gina Swoboda repeated that message in her remarks before Trump took the stage. Other Arizona rally attendees included former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and GOP U.S. Reps. Eli Crane, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs.
Crane acknowledged Trump’s repeated appearances in Prescott Valley and skewered Harris, whose name he mispronounced, for not traveling to perhaps the reddest part of Arizona.
“How cool is it to have a president like Donald Trump that’s come up here three times in the last couple years? Where’s Kamala Harris at? Maybe her teleprompter didn’t tell her to come to rural Arizona?” Crane said.
The former GOP president last spoke at the Findlay Toyota Center in 2022, where he boosted GOP Senate hopeful Kari Lake’s unsuccessful bid for governor.
Lake appeared on stage with Trump in Prescott Valley again this year.
“This is the greatest president in American history. But I think it goes further than that. I think we are in the midst of one of the greatest leaders in human history and his name is Donald J. Trump,” Lake said, standing beside Trump.
Trump has been to Arizona four times this year. He spoke at Dream City Church in Phoenix in June. In August, he rallied supporters at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale and toured the southern border in Cochise County. Last month, Trump held an event in Tucson.
Harris has been to Arizona twice in the last two weeks, an indicator that she’s taking the state seriously despite Trump’s narrow lead here. Harris toured the U.S.-Mexico border in late September and took a two-day campaign swing through the Phoenix metro area on Thursday and Friday.
In Prescott Valley on Sunday, screens around the arena read “ARIZONA IS TRUMP COUNTRY,” “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” and “VOTE EARLY!”
Before Trump took the stage, the crowd did “the wave” with red, white and blue signs that read “SECURE OUR BORDER.” Some supporters shouted “I love you” and “we need you” sporadically as Trump spoke.
Many attendees wore T-shirts with images of the Trump assassination attempt and buttons with photos of Trump’s face and a yellow, three-dimensional tuft of hair attached to the former president’s head. With Halloween just two weeks away, others wore witch hats printed with the American flag.
Arizonans at the rally said Trump offered plans to ease increasing costs and crack down at the state’s southern border.
Ana Moreno, 30, of Phoenix, said the energy at the rally gave her hope Trump would be elected. She’d like to see him lower the cost of living and interest rates. She said this election year seemed marked by unpredictability and division.
“There’s not a lot of in-between,” Moreno said. “I think that makes things sometimes challenging. I feel like this year more than ever, people are really truly going to vote.”
Holly Gibson, 50, of Scottdale, is voting for Trump in part motivated by rising costs. She just moved to a new rental home.
“I just recently had to move and literally am paying almost $900 more for something very similar,” Gibson said. “I thought about buying but the interest rates, I just, forget about it. I can’t do that.”
Though Trump can be polarizing to some, Gibson said his policies should make clear the choice before Arizona voters on Nov. 5.
“Vote for who you think is going to do the best job for the economy and stop listening to all the crap about who’s a good person or a bad person,” Gibson said. “Think about who is going to do best for our country.”
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Publish date : 2024-10-14 01:17:00
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