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Former President Donald Trump will be in Minnesota this week campaigning for his White House bid amid his insistence he can capture a state elusive to Republicans in November.

According to a campaign announcement on Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to lead a campaign rally in St. Cloud on Saturday evening at a hockey arena. He will appear alongside his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who had already planned to be in Minnesota for a fundraiser that day.

The Trump campaign has indicated Minnesota is important to its national strategy. Trump argues he can put Minnesota in the Republican category for the first time since 1972. 

Top Trump advisers emphasized their chances of winning Minnesota during the Republican National Convention, citing favorable polling and enthusiasm for their side that was stronger than what Democrats had been experiencing.

On social media Tuesday, Trump referenced recent Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s television appearances criticizing the GOP ticket.

“They make me fight battles that I shouldn’t have to fight!” Trump wrote, suggesting he is up in the polls.

Walz reacted with seeming satisfaction to the former president’s attention to him.

“I think things have changed when Donald Trump’s tweeting at me today, so that tells me maybe we’ve changed the discussion in America,” Walz said an event in New Hope on Tuesday. “Maybe we’re talking about real things.”

Trump was last in Minnesota in May for a fundraiser in St. Paul that coincided with the state Republican Party convention. 

At that event, Trump referenced his television show, “The Apprentice,” as he ripped Democratic President Joe Biden.

"This November, the people of Minnesota are going to tell crooked Joe Biden, right, ‘The Apprentice,’ you’re fired, get out of here, you did a lousy job,” Trump said.

There have been no independent polls since Biden left the race and made way for Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him atop the ticket. Harris is on course to win the party nomination during a virtual roll call that could happen in early August.

Trump narrowly lost Minnesota in 2016 to Hillary Clinton. Biden beat him by seven percentage points in the last presidential election, but Biden is now out of the race.

Minnesota Democrats say they’ve seen a surge in fundraising and enthusiasm since Harris gained Biden's backing. Walz is among the potential vice presidential candidates for her.

“The energy out here exploded,” Walz said on MSNBC on Tuesday morning. 

“We all broke fundraising records but that’s not what I look at — door knocks our full, phone banks are full, people are talking about what’s possible we are finally on offense about an America where we’re all together."

MPR News reporter Cari Spencer contributed to this story.

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It will be former President Donald Trump’s second trip to Minnesota this year as he seeks to put the state in the GOP column for the first time in more than a half of a century.

Trump to appear in Minnesota alongside his new vice presidential candidate this weekend in St. Cloud

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