Trump to rally in Minnesota, seeking to blunt Harris' campaign momentum

[July 27, 2024]  By Tim Reid, Stephanie Kelly and Jeff Mason

(Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump plans a campaign rally on Saturday in Minnesota as he tries to recapture momentum after Vice President Kamala Harris' whirlwind week that saw her emerge as his new Democratic opponent.

Trump's event with vice presidential running mate Senator JD Vance brings him to a Midwestern state that has not chosen a Republican presidential candidate in 52 years, as the former president seeks to press into territory that became friendlier in the last few months before President Joe Biden, 81, dropped his reelection bid.

Harris, the first Black woman and first Asian American to serve as vice president, swiftly consolidated Democratic support after Biden tapped her to succeed him on Sunday, and a handful of public opinion polls show her appearing to have made up some of the ground Biden lost after a disastrous debate performance.

Trump's campaign event in St. Cloud, Minnesota, will take place in an 8,000-seat hockey arena, an indoor venue that complies with the U.S. Secret Service's recommendation that he avoid large outdoor events following the attempt on his life at a Pennsylvania rally two weeks ago.

No Republican presidential candidate has won Minnesota since Richard Nixon in 1972.

Harris, 59, will attend a private fundraiser on Saturday, after a series of campaign stops this week in which she laid out the themes that will animate her campaign. She sought to contrast her background as a prosecutor with Trump's record as a convicted felon and argued that her campaign is about looking to the future, while Trump's wants to take the country into the past.

Her ascension to the top of the ticket has reenergized a campaign that had faltered badly amid Democrats doubts about Biden's chances of defeating Trump, 78, or his ability to continue to govern should he succeed. She raised more than $100 million in the 36 hours after Biden's departure, according to her campaign.

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump attends Turning Point Action's The Believers Summit 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., July 26, 2024. REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo

Trump and Vance, 39, have attempted to tie Harris to what they say is the Biden administration's failure to corral high inflation and stem a surge of migrants at the southern border with Mexico. Republicans have also portrayed Harris as more liberal and extreme than Biden.

Earlier on Saturday, Trump is set to speak at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, part of a broader Republican effort to court crypto holders ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The party has promised lighter regulation for crypto, while Trump recently slammed Democrats' attempts to regulate the sector.

The former president indicated he would like to see expanded bitcoin mining by U.S. firms, even though he called bitcoin a "scam" in 2021.

"It's not a shift in the Republican Party as much as it is a revolution," Republican Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee told Reuters this week at the conference.

Trump will host a fundraiser in Nashville prior to his remarks at the conference, with tickets ranging from $60,000 to over $800,000 per person. Donors can contribute via digital currency as well, according to an event invitation.

(Writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone and Stephen Coates)

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