Donald Trump is bringing his campaign back to Minnesota — a traditionally Democratic state that he believes he could win this year.
Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, accompanied by his running mate JD Vance, with the prospect of facing Vice President Kamala Harris in November instead of President Joe Biden.
Earlier in the day, Trump spoke at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, outlining his plans to fully embrace cryptocurrency if elected and pledging to make the U.S. a “bitcoin superpower.”
In May, Trump headlined a GOP fundraiser in St. Paul, where he expressed confidence in winning the state and appealed to the iron mining range in northeast Minnesota in hopes of attracting blue-collar and union workers to the Republican party.
His campaign sees Vance, an Ohio senator with roots in a Rust Belt city, as instrumental in connecting with this demographic.
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Appealing to Midwesterners and union workers is a strategy that has also boosted Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s chances of being considered as Harris’ running mate.
Minnesota was narrowly won by Trump in 2016, but Biden secured a larger victory in 2020. Nevertheless, Trump remains optimistic about his chances in the state.
Regarding Minnesota, Trump’s political director James Blair highlighted it as a battleground where Trump compared favorably to Biden, prompting the campaign to recruit staff and establish offices in the state.
Despite the campaign’s ambitions, the Harris campaign’s communications director in Minnesota, Lexi Byler, believes Trump and Vance are out of touch with the state’s values and that Minnesota will remain Democratic.
Trump’s rally in St. Cloud is set for the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center, emphasizing his shift to indoor events following an attempted assassination in July.
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At the bitcoin conference, Trump positioned the U.S. as the “crypto capital of the planet” and proposed a bitcoin “strategic reserve” using government-held currency. He contrasted his support for cryptocurrency with the Biden administration’s regulatory approach.
Although skeptical of cryptocurrencies in the past, Trump has come to embrace them and even allowed campaign donations in cryptocurrency.
