President Trump Hosts Post-Convention Rally In New Hampshire

LONDONDERRY, NH — In the wake of his renomination to lead the Republican Party into the November 2020 general election, President Donald Trump will be hosting a rally in New Hampshire Friday with supporters and some Republican candidates.

The rally will kick off at 6 p.m. at Pro Star Aviation in Londonderry. Originally, it was to be held in a different airport hangar but was moved this week.

The president accepted his party's nomination from the South Lawn of the White House Thursday in front of an exuberant crowd of around 1,500, with fireworks set off, later, in front of the Washington Memorial.

The rally 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.

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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.

Democrats in New Hampshire have been pulling out all the stops — and a flurry of press releases and avails before the president arrives in the state.

Former Republican U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey, a foot soldier for the Reagan Revolution who served two terms from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, was on a call with Ray Buckley, the chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party Friday before the Trump event.

Humphrey, a fierce pro-life supporter who once led a march from Downtown Concord to the city's landfill after an aborted fetus was found at the dump, is backing former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat. Humphrey, in the past, has called Trump a sociopath. He also endorsed Hillary Clinton just before the 2016 general election.

While the state of the race is still pretty much a tossup, the RCP average of polls in New Hampshire, which is one of 20 battleground states that will decide the 2020 election, show Biden with a solid lead of around a 10 percent average.

New Hampshire hasn't been polled in about two weeks so it is unknown if Biden or Trump received post-convention bounces. But on average, only 6 percent of voters in the Granite State are undecided or voting for a third party candidate — meaning at this point in the presidential race, a lot of voters have already made up their minds.

Only some Republican candidates have been invited to the event: Much to the chagrin of a lot of Republicans in the state, Trump has made endorsements in primary races, and only certain GOP candidates are invited to attend and be on the stage.

Trump endorsed Corky Messner in the U.S. Senate primary over former Gen. Don Bolduc, and other candidates in the race, Gerard Beloin and Andy Martin. Bolduc was recently disinvited from the event Friday.

Trump also endorsed Matt Mowers, a former state department staffer in his administration, in the first congressional district primary. It is unknown if long-time political activist and openly gay Republican, Matt Mayberry, a former Dover city councilor and veteran, or Michael Callis, Jeff Denaro, or Kevin Rondeau have been disinvited from the event also.

Editor's note: I was employed at WKXL, the radio station owned by former U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey, between 2004 and 2007, holding the positions of radio journalist, program director, and station manager.

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