With just weeks to go before elections that will determine control of Congress, Trump urged his supporters to back Republicans including Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who is running for Alabama governor, and state Rep. Rhett Marques, who is seeking to flip Alabama’s newly redrawn 2nd Congressional District.
Trump’s decision to spend so much time in deep red states that have garnered relatively little attention during the critical final stretch underscores his party's uphill climb and the electorate's broad disapproval of his performance as president. The event at the University of South Alabama gave Trump the chance to be surrounded by some of his most loyal supporters as he confronts dismal poll numbers and growing pessimism from his party about their chances of holding onto the House and Senate in November.
“I’m here really because, you know, sometimes, even though you don’t have to come here, you gotta pay respect to the people that have loved you right from the beginning,” he told the crowd a day after visiting another red state, Oklahoma.
And he announced that he would be returning to Alabama again next Saturday for the college football game between the Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide.
A nostalgic venue for Trump
Trump held his first mega-rally in Mobile more than a decade ago, drawing what some estimated to be 30,000 people to a college football stadium. The huge crowd made clear that Trump was more than a celebrity candidate and had the potential to make waves in the 2016 primary.
“I don’t know if you know, it sort of all began here,” Trump said after taking the stage. “We packed the stadium, and the rest is history.”
On Friday, supporters began lining up early on a hot, humid day for the chance to hear the president speak.
They included Patrick Burch, 27, who drove from Huntsville, Alabama, and said concerns about the rising cost of living didn't bother him.
“The way I see it, at the end of the day, if I gotta pay a little more, a couple dollars extra here and there in order for my kids to be safe in the future and to make sure Iran isn’t nuclear or anything like that, then I’m ok with that,” he said.
Scott Carpenter, 64, from nearby Citronelle, said he wasn't affected by rising fuel prices because he doesn't drive much these days, but record-high diesel prices were hitting some friends hard.
“They don’t like it,” he said. “They’re very upset. They love Donald Trump. They just want the diesel price to come down.” As for Trump's visit to the state Friday, he said: “For him to come here, he had to be a little nervous. Or some of the other places really didn’t want him to come.”
The rally also drew protesters, including Elijah Splitt, 22, a graduate student at the school who said he was a member of the Revolutionary Party for Socialism and Liberation.
“We have a bunch of students who are very upset, who are very agitated, who are angry that the university administration would allow the Republicans to hold their midterm rally here and to also invite the president of the United States,” he said, calling the rally “a last-ditch effort” by Trump to “boost morale amongst Republican voters.”
Federal court records show that three university students were arrested for making threats against the president in social media posts.
