NEWS

Trump rallies faithful, rakes in money in Jackson

Geoff Pender
The Clarion-Ledger

Donald Trump in Jackson made an appeal for African-American votes, vowed to continue to take a hard line on illegal immigration and raked in a reported $1.2 million or so in campaign donations Wednesday night.

Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump at a campaign rally at the Mississippi Coliseum Wednesday in Jackson.

“Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as people,” Trump, flanked by Gov. Phil Bryant, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and a UK leader of the Brexit movement, said to a crowd of thousands at a rally at the Mississippi Coliseum.

The crowd was vastly white, but Trump said he plans to change “the Democratic Party taking the vote of African Americans for granted.”

“It’s time to give Democrats some competition for the African American and Hispanic vote,” Trump said. “What do you have to lose by trying something new?”

RELATED: Thousands line up to hear Trump

Most of Trump’s address was red-meat to fire up his base — and they were fired up, frequently interrupting him to chant, “Trump” or “USA” or “lock her up” about his opponent. The Rev. Mark Burns, an evangelical televangelist, had the crowd revved up long before Bryant introduced Trump.

“Are we there yet?” Bryant asked the crowd. “… Are we ready to make this country great again?”

Over the last couple of days, several national reports had questioned whether Trump was starting to take a weaker stance on illegal immigration and lean toward “amnesty,” which could hurt with his conservative base.

But in Jackson on Wednesday night, where many in the crowd wore “Build That Wall” T-shirts, Trump appeared to take as hard a line as ever on immigration.

“Hillary Clinton does not believe in America first,” Trump said. "... Why aren't young Americans considered dreamers, too? ... We will protect your job from illegal immigration and a broken visa system. We will rebuild roads and bridges and infrastructure, and we will do it with our companies and our steel and our labor."

Trump said Mississippi has lost vast numbers of manufacturing jobs because of NAFTA and other trade agreements that he would undo or prevent and he promised, "I will be the greatest jobs president God ever created."

RELATED: Rep. Bennie Thompson blasts Trump on race

Trump had an unusual guest speaker at his Jackson rally — longtime former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, a leader of the "Brexit" movement for the UK to leave the European Union. Farage met Bryant at the Republican National Convention, and the governor invited him to Mississippi, and to speak at the Trump rally.

Farage said Americans with the presidential election face an option similar to UK voters with Brexit, to take the country back from "the political class" and "big banks."

Farage said he can't endorse a candidate in the U.S. presidential election because he's criticized President Obama for telling UK voters to vote against leaving the EU. But he said, "If I were an American citizen, I wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton if you paid me."

Before his public rally at the coliseum, a private, $1,000-a-ticket Trump/RNC fundraiser at the Jackson Convention Complex raked in well more than its $1 million goal, state Republican Party Chairman Joe Nosef said.

“My understanding is we’re looking at 10- to 20-percent beyond what we were trying to raise,” Nosef said. “The governor has done a tremendous amount of work on that.”

Nosef said Trump’s rake was notable for a fundraiser held on relatively short notice. He said Trump donors Wednesday were a mix of traditional Republican campaign financiers and those who typically don’t contribute — a sign, he said, that the establishment and more conservative GOP is coalescing behind the candidate.

Trump has shown Mississippi more love than other presidential candidates in recent history. Wednesday’s fundraiser and rally marked his third trip to the Magnolia state. Two were large rallies before the Republican Primary. His son, Donald Trump Jr., made a notable visit to the Neshoba County Fair last month, drawing thousands to his speech at the fairgrounds.

Clinton so far has not visited Mississippi this cycle.

Nosef said it’s not unusual for a GOP candidate to fundraise in a solid-red state, but adding a public rally in a small state with only 6 electoral votes that he already appears to have locked down is “admirable.”

“He was coming back to do a fundraiser, and added a public rally at the last minute to reward those folks helping him who couldn’t go to the fundraiser,” Nosef said. “I think that is something people appreciate.”

In 2012, GOP candidates including nominee Mitt Romney visited Mississippi before the primary, but Romney made only one stop here during the general election, for a private fundraiser with no public event.

Trump won Mississippi’s Republican Primary on March 8, garnering 47 percent of the vote in a six-way race, with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz — whom Bryant had endorsed — trailing at 36 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich a distant third at less than 9 percent.

A recent poll commissioned by Y’all Politics showed Trump with a 15-point lead over Clinton, 54 percent to 39 percent, in Mississippi in a head-to-head matchup.

Trump earlier Wednesday held a large rally in Tampa, Florida, as a poll of voters in that battleground state showed him with a new, slight lead over Clinton in the Sunshine State, 43 percent to 41 percent. On Thursday, he is scheduled to hold a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Contact Geoff Pender at 601-961-7266 or gpender@jackson.gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter.