Former President Donald Trump is set to speak at a campaign rally before a crowd of thousands Friday in Chesapeake, the day after sparring with President Joe Biden in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign season.

In a bid to help flip Virginia red, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin will appear publicly with Trump for the first time at the event.

“Could it be any clearer? Strength versus weakness. That’s why Virginia is in play. See you in Chesapeake tomorrow, Mr. President!” Youngkin wrote on X Thursday following the debate.

The rally, at Historic Greenbrier Farms located just off the Chesapeake Expressway, is expected to draw thousands of supporters, many of whom started lining up for hours beforehand. Gates opened at 11 a.m. and the rally was expected to begin at 3 p.m. But traffic was snarled around the area as supporters made their way onto the 500-acre farm.

By mid-day, traffic on the Chesapeake Expressway was backed up and vehicles were slowed to a crawl along the backroads around the farm as supporters continued to make their way to the event. Many people were walking or biking alongside the road as traffic came to a standstill. Several attendees said the security line took about two hours to clear.

Inside the event space, bleachers and chairs were set up in an open area of field. American flags were set up around the perimeter.

Youngkin’s anticipated appearance alongside Trump will put to to rest longstanding questions about whether the Virginia legislator would ever fully embrace the former president. Until recently, Youngkin and Trump had a tepid relationship. While Youngkin didn’t criticize the former president, he avoided appearing with him in public and waited until Trump clinched the Republican nomination to endorse his campaign.

Amid speculations in 2022 that Youngkin might be launching his own bid for the presidency, Trump lashed out over social media, asserting Youngkin never would have been elected without his support and mocking the governor’s last name.

The last time Trump held a rally in Hampton Roads was September 2020, when the then-president addressed thousands on the tarmac at the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport.

Trump lost Virginia in 2016 and 2020, but a poll last month from Roanoke College indicated Trump and Biden are tied in a head-to-head matchup in the commonwealth, with Biden holding a narrow two-point lead when other candidates are included.

Before Thursday’s debate in Atlanta, the two men had not been on the same stage or even spoken since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration after leading an unprecedented and unsuccessful effort to overturn his loss to Biden that culminated in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection by his supporters.

Personal animosity between the two men was palpable during Thursday’s debate as they argued, sometimes in deeply personal terms, over abortion, the economy, age, the criminal convictions of Trump and Biden’s son Hunter, and even their mettle on the golf course.