Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will hold a rally in Wilmington, Ohio this afternoon, his second event of the day.
Trump will speak from Airborne Maintenance & Engineering Services, Inc. beginning at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The rally can be viewed in the embedded YouTube player via Right Side Broadcasting.
The Republican candidate for president will speak to supporters as early voting is well underway in Ohio. At this time, Trump has the clear advantage in the state. Although Democrats have cast more votes than Republicans, that lead has been cut in half compared to in 2012, and Republicans tend to turn out in greater numbers on Election Day while Democrats turn out more during early voting. A smaller Democratic lead gives Trump plenty of opportunity to capture the state on November 8th, assuming he can motivate his Ohio supporters to get out to the polls.
Hillary Clinton will also be campaigning in Ohio again before Election Day, holding a rally in Cleveland on Sunday. The Clinton campaign clearly understands that to deny Trump a victory in Ohio is to deny him the presidency, as no Republican has ever won the White House without also winning Ohio.
This is the final rally Trump currently has planned for Ohio. Based on his current schedule, he only has nine rallies left before Election Day, those events taking place in Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Nevada, Iowa, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire. His very last rally before the big day is in Manchester, where he will speak to supporters on Monday night. It would not, however, be surprising to see Trump add another event or two to the schedule in the coming days.
During his recent events, Donald Trump has been able to effectively stay on message, delivering the same stump speech every time and rarely diverging from it in a way that would make news. It’s clearly his hope that he can stay out of the spotlight and keep the media focused on Hillary Clinton from now until November 8th. Meanwhile, the Clinton team has been hammering Trump harder than ever, especially President Obama, who during various speeches this week has called Trump a “con artist” and someone who shows “no respect for working people.” For the most part, Trump has not taken the bait other than saying that Obama should spend less time campaigning and more time running the country.
“Stay on point, Donald, stay on point,” Trump said to himself during a rally in Pensacola, Florida on Wednesday. “No sidetracks Donald. Nice and easy.”