The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
56°F
Current Conditions
Clear sky
View complete weather report

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

Trump, Biden eye battleground states with post-debate rallies

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Sunset Park in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 9, 2024. Thousands of Donald Trump supporters rallied in baking heat Sunday to cheer on the Republican presidential candidate in Nevada, a key battleground state for the US election in November. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images/TNS) (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS)
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Sunset Park in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 9, 2024. Thousands of Donald Trump supporters rallied in baking heat Sunday to cheer on the Republican presidential candidate in Nevada, a key battleground state for the US election in November. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images/TNS) (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS)
By Matthew Medsger Boston Herald

Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden have both announced post-debate rallies, with each candidate’s campaign hoping to capitalize on whatever momentum they might gain through their performance at the first debate with stops in battleground states.

The pair of presidents are set to mount an Atlanta stage on Thursday night and meet in person for the first time this election cycle. They meet as polling shows them in a dead head ahead of November’s rerun general election.

Trump, according to his campaign, will be in Virginia on Friday to potentially announce his vice presidential pick and to sell voters on his take regarding the economy under Biden.

According to Trump’s team, “it’s not only more expensive to live in Virginia thanks to Joe Biden, but also more deadly. Biden’s pro-criminal and open border policies have caused a 22.8% increase in fentanyl overdoses from 2020-2021 and another 1,951 Virginians killed by fentanyl poisoning in 2022.”

“Virginians have spent $9,173 more on transportation, $4,210 more on energy, $3,115 more on food, and $5,547 more on shelter on average since January 2021,” Trump’s campaign staff said in a statement.

Virginia hasn’t backed a Republican’s White House run for two decades, but it’s among the seven states that were within a 3-point margin in the last election. This year it may be in the running to go red: an average of 18 polls tracked by The Hill shows Trump up by 0.8 points.

Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will be in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, for their own post debate rally.

North Carolina went for Trump in 2020, and excepting a semi-miraculous thin-margin victory there by former President Barack Obama in 2008, has been a solid red state since 1980.

Polling averages show Trump winning in North Carolina by 5.8 points.

But, the state’s Democratic party, according to the Brookings Institute, is motivated under fresh leadership and has filled the down ballot through most of the state. College-aged voters, a group which skews left, are the state’s fastest growing demographic, and the party has put forward Attorney General Josh Stein, an Ivy League lawyer and former State Senator, as its candidate to replace an outgoing two-term Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

The debate will air live on CNN Thursday at 9 p.m.