Donald Trump brought his campaign to Bethpage, Long Island, on April 6 to a massive rally of just under 10,000 people, according to the police and CBS. Introduction for the candidate came from an unlikely source: his daughter, Ivanka.
Ivanka’s presence comes as a surprise as she just had her third child, Theodore James, on March 27, less than two weeks before the rally.
“I’m excited tonight to introduce my father. There’s a lot of things that make Donald Trump special to me, as a parent and as a mentor,” Ivanka, 34, said to the cheering crowd. “But the most important is the strength of his character.”
She mentioned her new son, saying “it was not easy to leave him for so much as a minute to be here, but it was incredibly important to me that I did, because I believe that the importance of this election and setting our country on the right path for the current and future is more important now than ever.”
Ivanka’s introduction comes just days after Trump brought out his wife, Melania, at a rally in Wisconsin the night before the state’s primary. Recently, Trump has enlisted more help from the women in his life after some major missteps that have alienated women voters.
Trump’s rally on Wednesday night shows a bounceback of support after losing to Ted Cruz by 13 percent in the Wisconsin primary on April 5. Recent polls coming out of New York have shown that Trump holds a substantial lead over Ted Cruz in the Empire State.
In his speech to the Long Island crowd, Trump referenced 9/11 and attacked Cruz for his unfavorable characterization of New York values.
“We all know people who died and I’ve got this guy standing over there looking at me and talking to me about New York values with scorn on his face, with hatred of New York,” Trump said. “So folks, I think you can forget about him.”
The Trump campaign is looking to win most of the 95 delegates offered in New York for the primary. The delegates will be divided proportionally, and Trump will add to his current count of 758 delegates. Trump is attempting to reach the magic number of 1,237 delegates before the July convention, in order to avoid a contested convention.
Cruz is currently sitting on 499 delegates and John Kasich has 144.
