SALEM, N.H. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump He stopped in New Hampshire on Saturday before heading to South Carolina for his 2024 White House bid. Two months ago.
“We’re starting here as a candidate for president,” Trump told party leaders at the annual GOP meeting in Salem, New Hampshire, before an afternoon stop in Columbia to introduce his South Carolina leadership team. “Now I’m very angry and now more determined than ever.”
Trump and his allies hope that events in swing states will provide a show of strength behind the former president after a slow start to the campaign. The determination to run again. At a critical juncture in recent weeks when other Republicans are preparing their own expected challenges, supporters have turned to political operatives and elected officials for Trump’s support.
In New Hampshire, Trump introduced his campaign agenda, including immigration and crime, saying his policies would be the opposite of President Joe Biden’s. They accused Biden, who finished fifth in New Hampshire in 2020, of “disgracefully throwing away this beloved political culture,” referring to the move by Democrats to change the election calendar to charge his lead in New Hampshire.
“I hope you remember that during the general election,” Trump told party members. Trump himself won the primary twice, but lost the state to Democrats each time.
Trump is the only declared 2024 presidential candidate, with contenders including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley; Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations is expected to campaign in the coming months.
In South Carolina, Governor Henry McMaster, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and several members of the state’s congressional delegation planned to attend Trump’s State House.
Trump’s team has struggled to line up support from South Carolina lawmakers, some of whom had previously enthusiastically supported him. Some have said that more than a year after the primary vote, it’s too early to make an endorsement or that they’re waiting to see who else will enter the race. Others say it’s time for the party to move on from Trump to a new generation of leaders.
Dave Wilson, president of Palmetto Family, a conservative Christian nonprofit, said some conservative voters may be concerned about Trump’s recent comments that anti-abortion Republicans have cost the party in the November election.
In the year “Some people in the conservative ranks of the Republican Party are pausing whether or not we need the process to work itself out,” said Wilson, whose team hosted Pence in 2021.
But Gerry McDaniel, who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign, dismissed the idea that voters were ready to move on from the former president. “Some media keep saying he is losing support. No, he’s not,” she said. It will be more than before because there are a lot of people who are angry about what is happening in Washington.
The South Carolina event, held for the statehouse, was in some ways off-brand for the one-time reality TV star, who typically favors large gatherings and tries to develop an outsider image. Rallies are expensive, and Trump added new financial challenges when he decided to launch his campaign in November — much earlier than many expected. This makes it subject to strict fundraising rules and prohibits the use of funded leadership political action committees to pay for such events, which cost many millions of dollars.
The early days of Trump’s campaign have sparked controversy.Especially when he had dinner with Holocaust-cad white nationalist Nick Funtz and rapper ex Kanye West.who made a series of anti-Semitic comments. Trump has been mocked by selling a series of digital business cards that look like superheroes, cowboys and astronauts, and more.
He is the subject of a series of criminal investigationsHundreds of documents including findings with assigned symbols In the Florida club and refusing to return them, whether he obstructed justice, as well as state and federal challenges In his effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.
Still, Trump remains the only declared 2024 candidate, and early polls show him favored to win his party’s nomination.
“The gun has been fired, and the campaign season has begun,” said Stephen Stepanek, the outgoing chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party. Trump announced that Stepanek will serve as a senior adviser to his campaign in the state.
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Kinard reported from Columbia, South Carolina, and Colvin from New York.