Donald Trump wants the bragging rights that come with the biggest campaign event of the 2016 presidential race so far.
Trump moved his Friday campaign event in Mobile, Alabama, to Ladd Peeble Stadium to accommodate what Trump expects to be a crowd of 30 to 40 thousand people, according to local news station WKRG.
Those numbers would top the 28,000-person event that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) held in Portland, Oregon earlier this month, marking the largest turnout for any candidate of the election season so far. Sanders’ campaign and his growing legion of supporters have touted the leading crowd numbers as a sign of political success.
Portland is ready to create a political revolution from the ground up. Tune in LIVE here: http://t.co/qVGII47vLI pic.twitter.com/0eUpA6uMEo
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 10, 2015
Sanders still trails his chief Democratic rival, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who leads Sanders by 24.3 points, according to the Real Clear Politics (RCP) poll averages. Sanders has steadily closed this gap in recent months, however, as his numbers have climbed while Clinton’s have fallen to their lowest since October 2014.
Trump, however, is leading his Republican rivals in national polls by 11.3 points, according to RCP, and he’s pulling noticeably closer to Clinton in national and state polls, though he still trails by 10.4 points.
Sanders, on the other hand, leads Trump by 13 points on average.
Trump’s big day might be hit with rain, according to weather forecasts, dampening the experience and thinning the crowd. But the skies are expected to clear just slightly after the event’s scheduled beginning, so the ultimate outcome remains up in the air.
H/T The Hill | Photo via Gage Skidmore (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Max Fleishman