Trump returns to Oklahoma for first time since infamous COVID rally to start midterm tour

WASHINGTON, DC: President Trump held a rally in Durant, Oklahoma, on Thursday, marking his first visit to the state since his widely covered, sparsely attended 2020 rally at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oklahoma supported Trump by a 34-percentage-point margin in 2024. The closest House district analysts rated a "toss-up" to Trump's rally site was 350 miles away in Texas.

Trump returns to Oklahoma for midterm rally

"So in just 33 days from now, the people of Oklahoma are going to defeat the radical left Democrats once again," he told a few thousand of his followers in Durant.

Asked by reporters as he left the White House earlier in the day why his first four rallies, Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio and Nebraska, are all in states he won by double digits in 2024, Trump at first said, "I won all of them by a lot. I'm going there just to make sure."

He then added that he was going to Oklahoma to "thank" the voters for their loyal support.

"I'm going to thank Oklahoma. They've been just an unbelievable state," he said.

"I really came here to pay my respect to a place, really to a place that I love and I appreciate. So that's why I'm here. Thank you very much," he said.

Trump's Oklahoma rally focused on the economy

Trump's remarks touched on a range of economic claims, including that his administration has attracted $21 trillion in foreign investment and that tariffs have spurred new domestic factory construction.

"We've handled inflation. We've got prices way down."

Trump's last Oklahoma rally drew a small crowd

Trump's last rally in Oklahoma was also scheduled because of its voters' strong support for him.

After first telling Americans six years ago that the COVID virus was not that serious, then claiming it would be gone by Easter, Trump insisted on staging a rally in Tulsa to show the country that the pandemic was over.

Back then, campaign staff expected the 19,000-seat Bank of Oklahoma Center to be packed.

Some even thought the turnout would hit the hundreds of thousands, so they set up outdoor fairgrounds with big screens for crowds that couldn't fit inside.

In the end, only about 6,200 people showed up, and the outdoor area was taken down soon after. Former presidential candidate Herman Cain was at that rally. He died from COVID-19 a few weeks later.

Trump continues midterm campaign in Republican states

Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Mobile, Alabama, on Friday evening; another in Vandalia, Ohio, on Saturday; and a third in Grand Island, Nebraska, on Monday.

Trump's rallies took place in safe Republican territory, starting in Denton, Texas, before going to Oklahoma, as he looked to build momentum before moving into more competitive races.

But visits to solid conservative areas have sparked worries from some party officials over the quantity of seats Republicans risk losing and the specter that some candidates may not want to appear alongside their party's unpopular standard bearer.