Politics
Supporters Ready for Trump Rally in Portsmouth
Jul. 7–PORTSMOUTH — Supporters are ready and waiting, in anticipation of President Donald Trump‘s upcoming outdoor reelection rally at 8 p.m. Saturday at Portsmouth International Airport at Pease.
Fred Doucette, the co-chairman of the New Hampshire Trump campaign and state representative for the town of Salem, said it will be a special event, with Air Force One as the backdrop.
“To have the aircraft as a backdrop and the President delivering his message is great,” Doucette said. “The excitement has been building and a lot of our supporters are ready. I describe them as loaded springs ready to go.
Trump plans to visit the Granite State come after he has made two endorsements in congressional races — Bryant “Corky” Messner for senate and Matt Mowers for the first congressional district.
Trump has not endorsed anyone in the second congressional district race.
Doucette said that this rally is a start to “unite the ticket and defeat the left and the socialists.”
Messner is campaigning against three fellow Republicans Gerald Beloin, Don Buldoc and Andy Martin in the Sept. 8 primary for the opportunity to go head to head with current U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in the general election.
Mowers, who previously worked for Trump as a senior advisor for the State Department, faces four Republican challenges — Michael Callais, Jeff Denaro, Matt Mayberry and Kevin Rondeau — in the primary before challenging Rep. Chris Pappas, D-Manchester, in November.
New Hampshire governor will not require masks for Trump rally in Portsmouth @GovChrisSununu …..We have come this far…and now this …shame on you for folding…so much for keeping our state safe https://t.co/EHuFnI681U
— Marc Challinor (@ChallinorMarc) July 8, 2020
Along with reinforcing his endorsements, Trump “is not only delivering his message that we are on the road to recovery, but that he has led us well through this COVID situation and we are going to be better than ever,” Doucette said.
This is the second reelection rally Trump's campaign is hosting since the coronavirus pandemic shut down most large gatherings. He previously held a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a smaller-than-expected crowd greeted him. However, the campaign is expecting a large crowd for the outdoor event where masks and hand sanitizer will be plentiful.
The Trump campaign's announcement of the Portsmouth rally noted that “there will be ample access to hand sanitizer and all attendees will be provided a face mask that they are strongly encouraged to wear.”
Many people at Trump's rally in Tulsa skipped wearing masks, and relatively few masks were seen during his speech at South Dakota's Mount Rushmore on Friday.
Gov. Chris Sununu said he welcomes the campaign as a peaceful assembly, just like recent protests.
“As Governor I will always welcome the President of the United States to New Hampshire,” Sununu said in a statement. “I am pleased to see the campaign will be handing out face masks and hand sanitizer to all attendees, as has been true at all public gatherings in New Hampshire where social distancing is hard to maintain. It is imperative that folks attending the rally wear masks.”
If Sununu meets with Trump, like at previous rallies, he will be wearing a mask, according to his office.
Democrats in the state have spoken out about the planned large gathering.
“Trump's response to the COVID-19 crisis has been chaotic and woefully inadequate, resulting in thousands of Granite Staters contracting the virus and hundreds of lives lost, while causing significant damage to our state's economy,” New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley said after the rally was announced. “Instead of helping our state safely recover, Trump is flying in for a political rally that will only further highlight the chaos he has caused.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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