Trump Daytona Beach Rally: Pretend I Am on the Ballot

President Donald Trump rallied supporters at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Friday night, October 30, four days before the November 3 midterm elections, in one of his last in person campaign stops of the cycle.

Trump was campaigning for Florida Republicans, led by Byron Donalds, the party's candidate for governor, and Senator Ashley Moody, who is seeking re-election against Democrat Angie Nixon. The Ocean Center holds 9,300 people. Doors opened at 3:30 p.m., the rally program began at 5 p.m., and Trump took the stage in the evening to a packed house, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal's live coverage.

The closing message

As he has done throughout the midterm season, Trump asked supporters to vote as if his own name were on the ballot. "Pretend I'm on the ballot," he told the crowd, in remarks reported at 9:34 p.m. Eastern. He said Florida "is going to prove on election night that America does not belong to those who hate it."

He also repeated a promise he has made across the closing weeks of the campaign: $5,000 for every adult citizen in the United States if Republicans win control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He spoke about the Iran war during the address, and at least three protesters interrupted the speech. One, wearing a "Release the Files" T-shirt, was escorted out of the arena, the News-Journal reported.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued temporary flight restrictions for a 30 nautical mile radius around Ormond Beach Municipal Airport, where Trump was expected to land, from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. for the visit.

The last big room, then the phones

Daytona Beach now stands as the final confirmed in person rally of Trump's midterm push. Planned weekend rallies in Kansas and Iowa were called off this week, and instead the president is expected to take part in telephone rallies across 19 states in the coming days, short virtual appearances in place of the 90 minute arena speeches that have filled his October. He held 25 rallies across 19 states during the month.

That makes Friday's crowd in a state Republicans expect to win a deliberate closing picture: the biggest room available, in his adopted home state, behind two Florida candidates, four days before voters decide control of Congress. Democrats, meanwhile, have spent the closing week arguing that the midterms are a referendum on the cost of living and on the president himself, a framing Trump's own ballot line on Friday night did little to dispute.

Polls close on Tuesday, November 3. Early voting in Florida ends Saturday, October 31.