Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris held massive rallies as part of their respective campaigns over the weekend. With a week to go until the election, the candidates are making a final push to energize voters.
Trump, the Republican nominee, held what was reported to be a sold-out event in Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday. The venue has a capacity of 19,500.
The rally was the largest the former president has held this year, which is notable considering it took place in the Democratic stronghold of New York City.
One New York City police officer told the New York Post that thousands more were turned away from the event after it reached capacity.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Newsweek in an emailed statement: “Madison Square Garden was at capacity and, according to media reports, the number of people outside could have filled up a second Madison Square Garden easily.”
Meanwhile, the vice president held a rally in Houston, Texas, on Friday which was also her largest since she became the Democratic nominee. Her campaign estimated that the rally drew a crowd of around 30,000 people.
Trump has averaged crowd sizes of about 5,600 across the 28 rallies (with capacity information) he has appeared at this year until mid-August, according to analysis from the Crowd Counting Consortium, a joint project of Harvard Kennedy School and the University of Connecticut.
Between July and mid-August, Harris appeared at six rallies, with an average crowd size of about 13,400, the analysis found.
Vice President Kamala Harris on October 25, 2024, in Houston, Texas (L). Former President Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden on October 27, 2024, in New York City (R). Both rallies drew large crowds over the weekend, with a week to go before the election.
Jordan Vonderhaar/Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Both of this weekend’s major rallies were held in areas dominated by the opposing party, in places neither candidate expects to win.
Trump’s New York City rally was a break from his recent tour of battleground states and featured appearances from his wife and two eldest sons, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and billionaire supporter Elon Musk.
The event included several controversial moments, including one speaker describing Puerto Rico as an “island of garbage” and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson incorrectly describing Harris’s heritage as “Samoan-Malaysian.”
Meanwhile, Harris’s Houston rally featured appearances from native Texans Beyoncè Knowles-Carter and Willie Nelson.
The Democratic nominee focused much of the rally’s messaging on reproductive rights, issuing a warning that the rest of the country could end up like Texas—which has some of the nation’s strictest abortion laws.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump and Harris campaigns via email outside of regular working hours.
With the election drawing ever closer, both candidates are neck-and-neck in the polls.
The latest analysis of recent polls by aggregator FiveThirtyEight gives Harris a 1.4-point lead over Trump in the popular vote with 48 percent of the vote against 46.6 percent. However, the polling website has Trump as the favorite to win the electoral college, with a 53 percent chance of victory.
