Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez said Donald Trump does not “align with the values” of his city ahead of the former president’s planned rally near the Southern California city later this week.
The Trump campaign announced Monday that the Republican presidential candidate will address supporters at an event at Calhoun Ranch at 5 p.m. PT on Saturday, his first public event in the Coachella Valley since his candidacy for re-election in 2020.
It’s an unusual stop for a Republican candidate so close to Election Day. Coachella’s congressional district is represented by Democratic Congressman Raul Ruiz, and the county surrounding the city, Riverside, has voted for a Democratic candidate in the last four presidential elections.
Some experts have suggested that Trump could appeal to Latino voters, hoping that his presence in a Democratic stronghold could rally the key voting bloc in swing states in November. But Hernández, a Democrat serving his fifth term, criticized Trump’s visit in a statement Monday, saying the former president “was not invited by the people who live here.”
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“The City of Coachella was proud to host Senator Bernie Sanders during the 2020 primary elections, but news of former President Trump’s upcoming visit was greeted very differently,” Hernandez said in the shared statement. on Facebook.
“Trump’s attacks on immigrants, women, the LGBTQ community and the most vulnerable among us do not align with the values of our community,” the mayor added. “He has always expressed disdain for the type of diversity that helps define Coachella. We don’t know why Trump is visiting near Coachella, but we do know he wasn’t invited by the people who live here. He’s not like us.”
Ruiz also attacked the former president in a statement shared Monday with the Desert Sunsaying it is “truly appalling – and yet another display of his ignorance and ignorance – that Donald Trump is holding a rally at Coachella.”
“Under a second Trump administration, there is literally no place in America that would be more impacted than the Coachella Valley,” added Ruiz, who specifically denounced Trump’s policies on tariffs, immigration and climate action.
News week contacted the Trump campaign by email Tuesday for comment.
Trump’s visit on Saturday is unlikely to impact his chances in California. According to tracking by FiveThirtyEight, as of Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris was up nearly 25 points (59.7 percent to 34.8 percent) on average in statewide polls. The last time the state voted Republican in a presidential election was 1988, when former President George HW Bush was elected to the White House.
In the 2016 election, Trump set a record for Republican candidates in California, losing by more than 30 points to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 61.73% to 31.62%. In 2020, President Joe Biden won the Golden State, 63.5% to 34.3%.
Trump communications director Steven Cheung said News week earlier Tuesday that “the former president’s visit to Coachella will shine a light on Harris’ poor record and show he has the right solutions for every state and every American.”
