President Donald Trump sent a message to Republicans Friday night at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center in downtown Syracuse: pretend I am on the ballot and turn out to support New York Republicans.
“When I am on the ballot, we win everything,” the president told a packed house of supporters. “Please pretend I am on the freaking ballot, will ya?”
Trump’s stop in Syracuse is part of a nationwide campaign tour across several states ahead of a critical midterm election in November that could decide the control of Congress.
Trump is attempting to energize the Republican voter base to encourage people to show up at polls. His low approval ratings of 34% in New York, soaring gas prices and the ongoing war in Iran has left voters have contributed to general discontent with Republican candidates nationwide.
In a way, Trump said, his administration and the changes it has enacted are all on the ballot.
“They can take away everything that we got,” Trump said. “We are in the golden age of America.”
Hours before the president took to the stage, the Republican National Committee sent out a press release, touting the Trump administration’s achievements — ones that Trump said have led to a golden age in America.
RNC spokesperson Kristen Cianci lauded Trump’s tax cuts, including no tax on overtime or Social Security, the administration securing $11.2 trillion in foreign investments including the $250 billion investment by Micron in Onondaga County as well as sweeping immigration reforms.
According to a recent poll of almost 3,000 registered midterm voters, about 49% of 2024 Trump voters will either skip the primaries or feel either neutral or unenthusiastic about voting in November.
Part of Trump’s speech was meant to drum up support for New York Republicans. He was joined by gubernatorial candidate and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, NY-22 Congressional Candidate Kailee Buller.
Blakeman is running against incumbent Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul while Buller is challenging Democrat John Mannion, the NY-22 Congressman who represents parts of CNY and the Mohawk Valley.
Other members of New York’s Republican Congressional delegation, made up of seven members, also received Trump’s praise. NY-21 Congressional Candidate Anthony Constantino joined them onstage.
Republicans need to defend three seats this election cycle to keep Democrats from regaining control of the House.
For other local candidates for elected office and local party officials, Trump’s visit and his political gravity has different meanings.
His visit to Syracuse laid bare a shift in the local Republican electorate’s outlook towards the president but also raised a key question: will this campaign stop in Central New York ultimately tank the chances of Republicans flipping the local legislature as well as maintaining control over Congress.
Kevin Ryan, the chair of the Syracuse Republican Committee, was one of the only Syracuse Republican leaders who did not skip the president’s rally. 12 of the 16 local Republican leaders cited previous work commitments and scheduled events, syracuse.com reported.
“What I’m confident will happen, is that [Trump’s] presence here will motivate the Republican base turnout and vote in November, so that we elect Republican candidates up and down the ballot,” Ryan said a day before the rally.
Some Democrats see the president’s visit as a galvanizing force for their November aspirations.
“NY GOPers have already called this the ‘nail in the coffin’ and ‘political suicide for Blakeman’ – we call it a fitting farewell to a campaign that’s kept it ‘100% MAGA’ all year, putting Trump before New York every single time,” a Hochul campaign spokesperson told Central Current.
Democratic County Legislator Mo Brown agreed with the governor’s assessment. The president’s visit, he said, will ultimately hurt Republicans. Brown, who defeated entrenched incumbent Bill Magnarelli to become the Democratic pick for the New York State Assembly District 129, will challenge Republican Shawn Fiato in the midterm elections.
“It did rile up the Republican base, but it also riled up our base as well,” he said.
Onondaga County Republicans are not the only ones missing Trump’s rally. Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott was also unable to attend Trump’s San Antonio visit due to scheduling conflicts.
Brown said Republicans should do more. Republican leaders in the county, he noted, should fight Trump with their “last breath” instead of being indifferent to the president’s visit, especially amid the economic crisis and immigration crackdown looming large over Americans.
Brown did not watch the Trump rally. Instead, he was present at Clinton Square to protest Trump’s campaign trail in Syracuse alongside over 2,000 community residents.
On Friday, Trump’s rally focused on highlighting what he sees as the strengths of New York Republicans, contrasted by the perceived failures of Democrats.
For instance, Trump was quick to criticize Hochul for implementing green energy programs that drove up the utility bills of New Yorkers by thousands of dollars. To make Republican nominees come across as the dominant affordability option on the ballot, Trump proposed a payout of $5,000 to every adult citizen contingent on Republicans maintaining control over Congress. He called it the Trump Dividend.
“If the Democrats win, you’ll have a 1929 style economic economic depression. If the Republicans win, you’ll each have $5,000 in your pockets,” Trump told rallygoers.
While he cast doubts on whether Trump would ultimately deliver on his campaign promise, Brown said the Trump dividend is socialist proposal, likening it to a universal basic income. Similar proposals have been championed by a wave of democratic socialist candidates who have had major success across the country, including Brown’s victory over Magnarelli.
Socialists, like Brown, have often been criticized by the White House who believe that socialism will cost the nation $49 trillion.
“I don’t trust Trump to deliver on anything good. And if he is going to deliver, it’s not going to be for working people. It’s going to be for… a billionaire class,” Brown said.
Ryan strongly disagreed with Brown. He told Central Current on Thursday that having Trump at the event will help mobilize the Republican voter base to vote red in the midterms to elect Republican candidates up and down the ballot. He also expressed support for the Trump administration’s handling of the war in Iran.
“Every president since Jimmy Carter has recognized that Iran poses an existential threat to the United States; Donald Trump was the first president with the backbone to actually do something about it,” Ryan said.
Ryan instead criticized the Democrats for worsening the affordability crisis, blaming Hochul for policies that have shot up energy prices.
“They have a lot of, for lack of a better term, balls to talk about affordability,” Ryan said.
Read more of Central Current’s coverage
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