Ahead of Super Tuesday, Trump and Haley to campaign in Richmond

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Former President Donald Trump is planning to come to the River City this weekend.

According to Trump’s campaign adviser, he plans to attend a rally on March 2, just three days before Super Tuesday on March 5.

“Where he goes, the show follows,” University of Richmond Associate Professor of Political Science Dr. Ernest McGowen said.

Trump’s team says he will be at the Greater Richmond Convention Center on 403 N 3rd St to deliver remarks at the Get Out The Vote rally on Saturday at 6 p.m. Doors open at 3 p.m.

“It’ll be an event that is going to have protesters, counter-protesters, and it’s going to be an event that even Democrats will want to attend,” McGowen said. “What we’ve seen at a lot of these rallies, frankly, is that the outside of the rally is just as exciting as what’s going on inside. So you can definitely see a case where even people who do not have tickets are going to show up to show their support.”

McGowen also said you can likely expect long lines to enter and plenty of Trump merchandise for sale outside.

“The merchandise is always really good at these rallies,” McGowen said. “So that one Trump shirt that you probably can’t get anywhere else, you can just show up to the rally, pick up your Trump shirt, your Trump sign and then go back home.”

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Trump is no stranger to the area when it comes to campaign stops. In the summer of 2016, thousands attended a campaign event at the Richmond Coliseum.

In that election, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton carried Virginia by more than a 5% margin. In the 2020 election, President Joe Biden won Virginia by a margin of more than 10%.

Trump isn’t the only GOP presidential candidate making a stop in the area.

Nikki Haley is attending an event a few days earlier at The Westin Richmond at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 29.

“It’s gonna be exciting having them actually here,” McGowen said. “It’ll be interesting to see how long the lines are for the rallies and things like that.”

“The fact that they’re both coming is definitely a signal that they believe Virginia is a battleground state,” McGowen added. “They think Virginia is a winnable state. I think one of the reasons why they may have made that calculus is because Governor Youngkin is fairly popular. And so I think that they think that they can make inroads in the rural areas and the suburban areas.”

Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and U.N. ambassador, recently lost her home state of South Carolina in a primary but has vowed to stay in the race through Super Tuesday.

“It’s clear that Nikki Haley is getting this kind of protest vote against Donald Trump,” McGowen said. “Now, when Super Tuesday comes, we need to look at probably three states: Virginia, North Carolina and Minnesota. If Nikki Haley does better than 25% in any of those places, I think that Democrats will see those as areas where they may can make some inroads trying to persuade those disaffected Republicans to actually vote Democrat.”