President Trump To Rally In New Hampshire After RNC Convention

MANCHESTER, NH — After being nominated at the Republican National Convention this week, President Donald Trump will be making a campaign stop in New Hampshire Friday, according to the Trump-Pence 2020 reelection campaign.

The event will be held at 6 p.m. at the PeriCohas Hangar on Perimeter Road in Manchester. Doors will open at 3 p.m. Aug. 28. Attendees will need a cellphone and must agree to sign a waiver before attending, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The campaign made the announcement official Sunday — although some information leaked to political reporters in the state Saturday.

The event will be the first time the president has been in the state since New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation presidential primary in February. A rally previously planned for Pease in Portsmouth in July was canceled due to Tropical Storm Fay.

About 10 days after the event was canceled, the New Hampshire Democratic Party requested public documents after finding out that state health officials had not been in contact with the campaign before the rally was booked.

The public records request led to no documents being released.

Gov. Chris Sununu has since issued a face covering requirement for all events where more than 100 people are expected to attend.

Will Rasky, a spokesman for the Democrats, said Saturday that voters in the Granite State could "see right through his broken promises" and were tired of the circus-like atmosphere of the Trump presidency.

"Thanks to Trump’s failed and chaotic mismanagement, seniors will be left out to dry when he bankrupts Social Security, while thousands of Granite Staters risk losing their health care thanks to his constant work to repeal the Affordable Care Act," he said. "New Hampshire is ready to turn the page in November by firing Donald Trump and electing Joe Biden to restore real leadership to the White House."

As Trump returns to New Hampshire, he and his campaign find themselves underdogs again when it comes to polling data.

National polls, which do not decide the presidency but can be used as an indicator of possible turnout and voter enthusiasm, have former Vice President Joe Biden with a 7.6 percent lead as of Aug. 22, according to the Real Clear Politics average. That's up 0.2 percent since the end of the Democratic National Convention Thursday meaning, not much of a bump, although it is early, too, to see if the Democrat's nominee is able to expand his lead over time.

The RCP average of polls in New Hampshire, which is one of about 15 to 20 battleground states where the presidency in 2020 will ultimately be decided, show Biden with a 9.7 percent average — with only 6 percent undecided or voting for a third party candidate.

At the same time, leads in polls at this stage of the campaign do not mean much.

According to archive 2016 campaign polling data from Aug. 22, Secretary Hillary Clinton had a 5.5 percent RCP national average lead and a 9.3 percent New Hampshire average lead over Trump — with 19 percent of voters saying they were undecided or voting for Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Clinton ended up winning New Hampshire by around 3,000 votes or less than 0.5 percent and received about 2 percent more votes nationally.

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This article originally appeared on the Bedford Patch