St. Cloud hotels sell out, businesses prepare as Trump supporters arrive ahead of Saturday's rally
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Crews at the Herb Brooks Arena in St. Cloud are putting the finishing touches on before former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, hold a rally Saturday evening.
The event is bringing in crowds from all over the state, including sisters Kelly and Cassidy Baatz, who drove three-and-a-half hours from Crookston and camped out overnight to be first in line to see the former president.
"I just didn't want to miss out on this opportunity, especially in our home state," said Cassidy Baatz.
For Mayor Dave Kleis, this weekend is about showing off the city, and building on a historic list of politicians who have visited town.
"You go back, Eisenhower was here," Kleis said. "John F. Kennedy would have been here, but because of a snowstorm in Minneapolis, he was stranded and phoned into a rally in 1962."
Hotels are already sold out in the city as thousands are expected to descend on St. Cloud. Mandy Cox, who works at the Boulder Tap House roughly 3.5 miles east of the arena said she has extra staff coming in to help.
"We went ahead and doubled our prep list, we've put up a handful of house shifts," she said. "We have all the big managers on board."
Tickets are still available for the event, which has a maximum capacity of 6,000. The rally starts at 7 p.m.
The visit comes after President Biden decided to drop out of the 2024 race earlier this week. Since his announcement, Vice President Harris has already broken a fundraising record, locked down hundreds of delegates and secured critical endorsements in her efforts to become the Democratic Party's nominee for president.
Mr. Biden won Minnesota in 2022, earning 52% of the vote and beating Trump by more than 233,000 votes. Trump visited Minnesota several times ahead of the 2020 election and vowed never to return if he lost the state. He last visited in May of this year to headline the state GOP's annual Lincoln Reagan dinner.
