Trump to restart in-person fundraising in Dallas Thursday amid tight safety measures
When President Trump arrives at a private Dallas home on Thursday for a multimillion-dollar dinner, it will mark the first “in-person” fundraising event since the coronavirus pandemic began three months ago. Twenty-five couples, each paying $580,600 for a meal and photo, will have been tested for COVID-19 and screened for elevated temperatures. Organizers said the site would be professionally sanitized before the event and that the White House Medical Unit and U.S. Secret Service would screen attendees. A Republican National Committee official said: “Trump Victory’s top priority is ensuring the safety of President Trump and our attendees, and that includes testing all attendees as well as several other safety measures that align with CDC’s guidance.” The small scale is all part of an effort to ensure the safety of the president and his guests as part of a blueprint for returning to a full campaign schedule.
Trump hasn’t held a campaign rally since Feb. 28 in Charleston, South Carolina. But he is due to hold another fundraising event at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, this weekend, and the campaign says it plans to relaunch its rallies within two weeks. The president has let it be known that he is itching to get back to the rallies that helped define his 2016 victory. For now, he will have to be content with a fundraising dinner. The money will go to Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee of the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, and state parties. Choosing Texas is no accident, according to Austin-based Republican strategist Brendan Steinhauser, who said there was growing concern about poor poll numbers. “This is a place where Republicans always come to raise money, but also he’s looking at the polls, he’s hearing about internal polling,” he said. “And they’re all saying the same thing: The president is in trouble politically in Texas, it’s closer than it should be, and he needs to come down and rally the base, shore up the troops, and remind people why they voted for him.” The president has been a frequent visitor to the state, and Dallas is also in the running to host part of the Republican National Convention this summer.
A Quinnipiac University poll published last week gave Trump a 1-point advantage over presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in a state that has voted for a Republican president since 1980. The visit to Dallas comes amid a string of polls suggesting he faces a tough race to hold Texas in November. State Republican figures have long warned that demographic shifts, with a growing and youthful Hispanic population, could spell trouble in the years ahead, but they now add that the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic adds an extra challenge. As well as the Quinnipiac poll, a survey published by Democratic polling outfit Public Policy Polling last week, which put Trump and Biden neck and neck, with each winning the support of 48% of voters polled.
The favorable numbers prompted Biden to declare Texas a battleground state. And Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Manny Garcia said: “This poll shows in the starkest terms yet that Texas is neck and neck and within grasp for Joe Biden and the Democratic ticket in November." “Poll after poll shows that Texans increasingly trust Democrats to lead.” Texas has been a frequent destination for the president during the past 18 months, offering a welcoming venue for escaping troubles in Washington. Last year, the president held a fundraising swing through Houston and San Antonio in April, visited El Paso in the wake of a deadly shooting in August, joined Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a rally in Houston in September, and held his own arena event in Dallas in October. This year started much the same way, with a January speech to farmers in Austin.
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