CALIFORNIA  –  Former President Donald Trump has held a rally in deep-blue California, part of an unorthodox campaign move in the final stretch of the neck-and-neck United States presidential race.

The Saturday night event near the Coachella Valley – best known for its annual music festival – came just 22 days ahead of the November 5 vote.

The final stretch of the election is typically reserved for mad-dash visits to the most competitive battleground states, which include Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada this year.

That makes Trump’s stop in California – a Democratic stronghold all but assured to vote overwhelmingly for Vice President Kamala Harris – atypical. Born and raised in the state, Harris previously served as California’s attorney general and the district attorney of San Francisco and remains widely popular there.

In the last presidential election, in 2020, Trump lost in California to Democrat Joe Biden by nearly 30 percentage points.

Speaking at the rally, Trump said: “The radical left Democrats have destroyed this state, but we are going to save it, and we’re going to make it better than ever.”

“You definitely had somebody here that was horrible, Kamala,” he continued. “And now she wants to destroy our country.”

The former president then launched into a familiar stump speech that focused on misleading claims related to migrant crime in the US.

Trump called migration the number-one issue of the election, despite polls showing the economy looms largest for most voters.

The visit to the state has widely been viewed as an effort to shore up wider Republican support. That is particularly needed in six key races for the House of Representatives in California.

Control of both the House and the Senate – the two chambers of the US Congress – is up for grabs this election season. And certain congressional districts in California are tightly split between Republicans and Democrats.

A victory in the six competitive House races could help Republicans retain their hold over the lower chamber.

Going to California gives Trump the “ability to swoop in and leverage this big population of Trump supporters”, Tim Lineberger, who was communications director for Trump’s 2016 campaign in Michigan and worked in the former president’s administrations, told the Associated Press news agency.

He’s “coming here and activating that”, Lineberger added.

The move may also be an effort to boost Trump’s final vote count. In the US, the victor in the presidential race is decided by the Electoral College, a weighted voting system in which states award electors to the candidates based on the state-level vote. (Al Jazeera)

Photo:  Former President Donald Trump raises a fist at the conclusion of a campaign event. (AP)   …[+]