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Bronx Democrats Took Donald Trump Seriously

Nobody thinks Donald Trump is going to win the Bronx, no matter how many rallies he holds. But local Democratic officials are deeply worried about what his limited appeal in New York City could mean everywhere else.

Trump Bronx Supporters
Donald Trump’s supporters get ready to rally in the Bronx. Yuki Iwamura/AP

THE BRONX — As recently as Monday, many Democratic leaders here were planning to ignore former President Donald Trump when he came to Crotona Park on Thursday to make a pitch to Black and brown voters. But by the time the first barricades for Trump’s rally went up, they had changed their minds.

With polls showing signs of trouble for President Joe Biden among some segments of the Democrats’ traditional base — small shifts, to be sure, but large enough to cause heartburn for Biden allies watching the swing states — the Bronx leaders decided that if Trump truly wants to get to voters that look like people in the Bronx, he’d have to go through people in the Bronx first.

“Initially, my thought was, ‘I don’t want to give one inch of attention,’” Oswald Feliz, the New York City Council member representing the neighborhoods around Trump’s rally, told NOTUS. Earlier this week, he told Politico there was no need for a Democratic response to Trump in the Bronx.