St. Cloud welcomes thousands for Trump-Vance rally at Herb Brooks Arena

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Former President Donald Trump and running mate Sen. JD Vance will hold their first joint presidential rally in Minnesota on Saturday night at St. Cloud's Herb Brooks Arena.

Tickets are still available for the event, with a maximum capacity of 6,000. Organizers say an overflow space has been set up to hold many more attendees. Doors open at 3 p.m. and the rally starts at 7 p.m.

The event is bringing in crowds from all over the state and across the country. Sisters Kelly and Cassidy Baatz drove 3.5 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. 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," Cox said. "We have all the big managers on board."

Vance will also appear at a fundraiser earlier in the day in Minneapolis. Entry to that event costs $3,300, with tickets up to $50,000 for a roundtable discussion and a photo with the candidate.

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 to headline the state GOP's annual Lincoln Reagan dinner .

Counter-rally held in St. Paul; Emhoff stumps in Wisconsin

Democrats will hold a counter-rally at the St. Paul Labor Center on Saturday afternoon, featuring Gov. Tim Walz , Congresswoman Betty McCollum and Mayor Melvin Carter. Officials say the event will focus on "Trump's extreme Project 2025 agenda, which would give Trump unlimited, virtually unchecked power over Minnesotans' daily lives."

Harris's husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, is also campaigning on Saturday in Wisconsin . He is scheduled to speak at the Hmong Wausau Festival, according to WSAW . He will then head to a canvass launch for Harris and other Democrats on the ballot in Stevens Point, according to the Portage County Wisconsin Democrats Facebook page .