CLEMSON, S.C. — President Donald Trump’s Wednesday rally in Clemson is less about winning over undecided voters than about getting loyal Republicans to the polls, in the view of Chris Cooper, who teaches political science at Western Carolina University.
The Republican National Committee has set the event for Oct. 21, with doors opening at 3:30 p.m. and the president due to start speaking at 7 p.m. It will be his second South Carolina stop since August, when he rallied in Myrtle Beach.
Cooper laid out four motives for picking a reliably conservative corner of the state. A presidential visit fills a room easily, and it pulls Upstate television coverage that also reaches voters in western North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District and in Georgia’s U.S. Senate contest. That free airtime, he noted, does the work of costly campaign ads late in the race.
He also pointed to the U.S. Senate race, where some polling has suggested Republican Sen. Darline Graham’s lead over Democrat Dr. Annie Andrews has narrowed, though the contest still leans Republican. Graham has held the seat since July, when Gov. Henry McMaster picked her to succeed her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Timing matters as well. Early voting in South Carolina opens Monday, Oct. 19, and runs through Oct. 31, so Wednesday’s crowd will include people who can cast a ballot the next morning.
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