CHESAPEAKE—Former President Donald Trump made his second 2024 appearance in Virginia the day after First Lady Jill Biden visited the commonwealth.

The two campaign events, which both took place in Hampton Roads, bookended the first presidential debate in a clear display that the commonwealth is rising on the national stage as a battle ground state during the 2024 election cycle.

“This November, the people of Virginia and the people of America are going to tell crooked Joe Biden, ‘You’re fired,’” Trump told the crowd at his rally on a farm in Chesapeake on Friday. “We win Virginia, the race is over.”

Former President Barack Obama flipped Virginia from red to blue in 2008 and Democratic presidential candidates had consistently won the commonwealth in every race since then. Before Obama’s first election, the last Democratic presidential candidate to win Virginia was former President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Youngkin‘s first time speaking at a Trump rally

Speakers ahead of Trump included two former Republican governors, George Allen and Bob McDonnell, as well as the current governor of the commonwealth, Glenn Youngkin.

“I had a friend once tell me, all roads lead through Hampton Roads,” Youngkin told the crowd. “Joe Biden’s road to retirement is going right through Hampton Roads.”

Youngkin did not speak at a Trump rally that took place in Richmond before Super Tuesday, before former presidential primary candidate and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley suspended her campaign. He and Trump had forged a friendship recently, after keeping each other at arm’s length. The two met in person for the first time in June.

Congressional hopefuls Hung Cao, who is seeking the Sen. Tim Kaine’s seat, and Rep. Jen Kiggans, who is defending her Second District seat, also addressed the crowd.

At about an hour into Trump’s address, attendees began to leave the event after spending hours waiting in the hot Virginia summer sun.

Democrats respond to Trump’s visit

The Democratic Party of Virginia held a press conference with a group of veterans outside of the Great Bridge and Battle Museum Friday morning in Chesapeake, near where Trump’s rally was to take place, to blast the former president’s visit to the largely military community. The party chair, Susan Swecker, argued that Trump’s record, rhetoric and actions proved that he “is against everything the military has protected since the birth of our nation.”

“When he incited an insurrection in an attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election, he disrespected our democracy that thousands of men and women have fought to protect,” she said, and called on him to apologize to military veterans.

Sean Monteiro, a retired Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said it was offensive that Trump held a rally in Chesapeake.

“For Trump, it has never been about service before self,” he said, and called the former president an existential threat to the country and democracy, and an insult to military families.

Terron Sims, an Army officer who served in Iraq, said the former president should be disqualified as Commander in Chief for what he saw as contempt toward military families.

“You remember when he said that John McCain, a Vietnam POW and an indisputable American hero, was not a hero, and that he likes people who weren’t captured, and then later referred to McCain as an ‘effin loser,” Sims said.

Republican voters say VA is in play

Orlando Martinez, 26, who traveled from Richmond to attend trump’s rally, said he considers himself to be a center-right Republican. Biden’s performance during Thursday’s debate made Virginia a battle ground state, he said.

“Three months ago, I wouldn’t have said so. But based on the debate, the energy I’ve felt around the city which I think is not particularly conservative, and in the polls, they show us tied. That’s exciting,” he said.

Rhonda Kundrat, 51, a resident of Chesapeake, said Virginia has always been in play for Republicans.

Elizabeth Skertic, 37, a Virginia voter and rally attendee, said the difference in the candidates’ policies will determine how the commonwealth votes.

Ed Hendrickson, a military veteran and resident of the commonwealth who attended Trump’s rally, said that Virginia is game for either party.

“What [Biden or Trump] say or do from here out is going to make the determination” in November, he said.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Virginia Republicans seek to capitalize on Biden’s debate performance