Trump’s Saturday Rally Marks Return Of Mass Gatherings

Donald Trump has held his first campaign-style rally since leaving the White House, repeating his election grievances and baseless claims of fraud as he urged his supporters to help Republicans win back majorities in the United States Congress.

Saturday’s rally in Ohio – a state the former president carried in the 2020 election – marks a return to the kind of freewheeling mass gatherings that have been critical to retaining the support of his base.

It was held to support Max Miller, a former White House aide who is challenging Republican Representative Anthony Gonzalez for his congressional seat. Gonzalez was one of 10 Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump for his role in inciting the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in the wake of his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump has pledged to back those who challenge the 10 legislators in the upcoming Republican primaries.

The Democratic Party’s razor-thin majorities in both chambers of Congress will be on the line in the 2022 mid-term elections and history favours Republicans’ chances of gaining seats in those contests.

“We will take back the House, we will take back the Senate, and we will take back America, and we will do it soon,” Trump told thousands of cheering supporters at Ohio’s Lorain County Fairgrounds.

So far, nine of the 10 House Republicans who voted for Trump’s impeachment have drawn primary challengers.

The former president has offered to support anyone who steps forward to challenge the remaining candidate, Representative John Katko of New York.

Trump has also endorsed a challenger to Senator Lisa Murkowski, the only one of the seven Senate Republicans who voted to convict him in his January impeachment trial who is up for re-election in 2022.