After two years, Trump returns to Arizona with a new partner in campaigning

Former President Donald Trump has largely been absent in Arizona — limited staffing and no advertisements. On Thursday, he returned to the Grand Canyon state after nearly two years to back up on-the-ground organizing from outside groups.

On Thursday, Trump held a town hall event sponsored by Turning Point Action, which focuses on mobilizing young conservatives, at Dream City Church in Phoenix. To a chanting crowd of thousands, Trump vowed to make his voter mobilization efforts this cycle “too big to rig.”

This is a nod at his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Those false claims began in Arizona. And the state really became the center for election denialism theories and claims.

The event also underscores a new campaign tactic: directly using outside organizations to lead canvassing efforts to turn out voters. Trump’s presence in the state, his first this cycle, is seen as an endorsement of Turning Point’s new “Chase the Vote” initiative. The townhall also comes days after the trump campaign and the Republican National Committee announced a“Swamp the Vote” initiativethat promotes early and mail-in voting.

“We are going to make November too big to rig and we are going to overwhelm the ballot boxes,” said Charlie Kirk, the founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, during the event doubling down that “there is no path to the White House without Arizona.” “We are going to out register them, we are going to out work them.”

Arizona is one of the six key swing states that could determine the outcome of the presidential election. In 2020, Trump lost the state to President Biden by just over 11,000 votes. That was the first time the state had voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton