Trump Returns To New Hampshire For Reelection Rally: Watch

MANCHESTER, NH — With the 2020 general election a little more than a week away and battleground polls tightening in many states, Republicans and Democrats are making every effort to win as many votes as they can.

That desire to win has brought President Donald J. Trump back to New Hampshire Sunday, a state he lost in 2016 by less than 3,000 votes, attempting to secure the state's four Electoral College votes. The president, as well as several Republican candidates including U.S. Senate nominee Bryant "Corky" Messner and Congressional nominees Matt Mowers and Steven Negron, are at the Pro Star Aviation hangar in Londonderry with thousands of supporters for a Make America Great Again Victory Rally.

The rally begins at 1 p.m. Watch the livestream here on YouTube.com.

Trump was in the state after the Republican National Committee in late August while Vice President Mike Pence has been to the state a number of times including late September and in Portsmouth last week. The Trump-Pence ticket has also been sending surrogates, including the president's children. Pence's nephew, John, was also in the state last month.

While the president is hosting a rally in New Hampshire Sunday, the Biden Press pool reported at 11:30 a.m. a "lid" for the day meaning that the vice president had no other public press events planned.

In a statement, Biden said the president had failed to act to protect the state's residents from the coronavirus.

"New Hampshire families deserve better than a President who, in the middle of a deadly pandemic, is working to dismantle the Affordable Care Act that provides critical protections to over 570,000 Granite Staters," he said. "And they deserve better than President Trump's attempts to divide our nation and distract us from the fact that he has no plan to protect us. Election Day is just nine days away, and New Hampshire is ready to vote for change. As President, I will unite our nation so that together, we can beat this virus, expand access to health care and lower health care costs, and build our economy back better than before."

While Biden is not holding any other press events Sunday, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democrat's vice presidential nominee, is campaigning in Michigan and her husband, Doug Emhoff, who was in New Hampshire on Saturday.

Before the rally, state Democrats held a health care press conference in Londonderry criticizing Republicans for wanting to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

According to the Real Clear Politics average in New Hampshire, Vice President Joe Biden has anywhere from a 7- to 14-point lead in the state. At this time in 2016, Hillary Clinton had a 6- to 13-point lead with at least one poll, from the Los Angeles Time, showing Trump up by 1 percent at the time.

One big difference between polls in 2016 and 2020 was the number of undecided voters with two independent candidates also on the ballot where there is only one on the ballot for 2020. In 2016, at this time before the election, anywhere from 5 to 14 percent of voters polled were casting ballots for indie candidates or were undecided. In the past three polls in New Hampshire, 2 to 8 percent are voting for Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen or are undecided, a much smaller swath of voters.

As was seen in the final vote count in 2016, pollsters this year are stating that there is a "submerged Trump vote" in polling data which could be skewing political press perceptions about the state of the race. Nationally, the RCP average has 181 Electoral College votes as tossups with 232 votes leaning toward Biden and 125 leaning toward Trump, with many votes well within the margin of error. One pollster however, Robert Cahaly of the Trafalgar Group, who utilizes shorter poll questions and more expansive samplings and who was one of the most accurate pollsters in 2016, said, despite Biden with polling leads, Trump is on track to win reelection.

There are also a lot of unknowns with absentee voting and turnout, and how those votes will swing. During the September primary, the most votes ever in a primary were cast. For the general election, more than 130,000 absentee ballots have been cast in New Hampshire with an additional 60,000 absentee ballots requested, smashing records.

Some members of the politerati in New Hampshire have been posting comments on Twitter believing the Trump rally Sunday will be a "super spreader" event. However, state health officials have said during press conferences that no COVID-19 infections have been connected to any of the Trump or Pence events or Black Lives Matter rallies and marches or the ReopenNH protests — even though many attendees were not wearing masks or practicing social distancing and infection rates were higher than they are currently in the Granite State.

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