Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s running mate will hold a rally on Wednesday in Las Cruces.
Mike Pence’s rally is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday at Southwest Aviation Inc. at the Las Cruces International Airport, according to Trump’s campaign website.
Gates open at noon. Click here to RSVP.
The rally comes days after Trump made his own campaign stop in Albuquerque and is further evidence that Trump may think he has a chance of winning New Mexico’s five electoral votes.
Recent polling has showed a tightening race in New Mexico and nationwide. An Oct. 24 poll of likely New Mexico voters showed Trump cutting Democrat Hillary Clinton’s lead to 5 percentage points here, 45-40 percent.
Trump claimed on Sunday that internal campaign polling has him tied with Clinton in New Mexico.
Meanwhile, in the last several days Republicans and independents have been cutting into the significant lead in voting turnout Democrats had been enjoying in New Mexico.
Trump’s Sunday rally was his second in New Mexico. He held another in Albuquerque in May. Pence has already campaigned three times in New Mexico this year — twice in Albuquerque and once in Roswell.
Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine have not held public campaign rallies in New Mexico this year. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, however, held a rally in Las Cruces in June and campaigned in Northern New Mexico in May. Kaine’s wife, Ellen Bernstein, was in Northern New Mexico last week.
The last presidential or vice presidential candidate to visit the Las Cruces area was Democrat Bernie Sanders, who held a rally in Vado in May before he lost to Hillary Clinton in the primary.
This breaking news article has been updated.