By JONATHAN J. COOPER
LAS VEGAS — Former President Donald Trump ‘s campaign hired extra medics, loading up on fans and water bottles and allowed supporters to carry umbrellas to an outdoor rally Sunday in Las Vegas, where temperatures are expected to exceed 100 degrees.
Trump is returning to Nevada, one of the top battleground states in the November election, for his second rally since he was found guilty in a hush-money scandal. The unprecedented conviction of a former president has juiced Trump’s fundraising and galvanized his supporters, but it remains to be seen whether it will sway swing voters.
Temperatures in the Southwest have cooled since reaching historic highs late last week but remain above normal for this time of year and are expected to top 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) by the time Trump is scheduled to begin speaking around noon. His rally is at a park with little shade next to the airport.
Campaign organizers handed out water bottles as supporters waited in line to be screened by security officers. Inside the venue, large misting fans, pallets of water and cooling tents were placed around the perimeter. Clouds moved in and a breeze picked up about two hours before Trump was scheduled to take the stage, bringing a semblance of relief from the oppressive sun.
“This is a dry heat. This ain’t nothing for Las Vegas people,” Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald said. “But what it symbolizes for the rest of the United States — we will walk through hell” to elect Donald Trump.
McDonald and five other Republicans have been accused of submitting certificates to Congress falsely declaring Trump the winner of Nevada’s 2020 presidential election and their trial has been pushed to next year.
The campaign has paid for additional EMS services to be on site in the case of emergency. The U.S. Secret Service will be making an exception to allow people to bring in personal water bottles and and umbrellas. Food trucks sold shaved ice and oversized cups of lemonade.
During a Trump rally in Arizona on Thursday, the Phoenix Police Department said 11 people were transported to hospitals, treated and released for heat exhaustion. Many Trump’s supporters waited in line for hours and some were unable to get inside before the venue reached capacity. The temperature reached a record 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius) that day.
Trump’s Nevada rally, his third in the state this year, comes on the tail end of a Western swing that included several high-dollar fundraisers where he was expected to rake in millions of dollars.
Democrat Hillary Clinton won Nevada in 2016 as did President Joe Biden in 2020, but Nevada was the only battleground state where Trump did better against Biden than Clinton. In the 2022 midterms, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, was the only incumbent governor who did not win reelection.
Trump hopes his strength among working-class voters and growing interest from Latinos will push him to victory in the state.
