In closing stretch, Trump is defying polls and betting that voters care more about immigration than the economy

Donald Trump is set to hold a rally in Aurora, Colorado, thrusting the city into the spotlight, along with the topic he hopes will decide this race: immigration.

At last month’s presidential debate, Donald Trump claimed violent migrant gangs were “taking over” Aurora, Colorado, amplifying and exaggerating a disputed rumor his supporters had spread across the internet in the days leading up to his nationally televised face-off with Kamala Harris. Now, the former president is set to hold a rally in Aurora, thrusting this midsize Mountain West city into the spotlight once again, along with the topic Trump hopes will decide this race: immigration. Trump has all but staked his presidential campaign on convincing Americans that closing the border and kicking out those who illegally crossed it are the most pressing priorities for the country. It’s a pitch he has delivered with increasingly dark and offensive rhetoric that leans into stereotypes of foreigners from poorer countries. He has claimed – over the repeated objections of state and local leaders, including from his own party – that Haitian migrants living in Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the pets” of the local residents. To the residents in a tiny Wisconsin town, he warned against what people from all over the world were “doing to the fabric, to the guts of our country.” This week, Trump espoused nativist arguments about some immigrants having “bad genes,” which cause them to commit crimes. It’s a closing argument, though, that carries considerable risk. A steady stream of polls throughout the year and leading up to the final weeks of the presidential race have repeatedly affirmed that the economy is the issue of greatest concern to the most number of voters. In a recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS, more than 4 in 10 likely voters said the economy was the most important issue as they chose a candidate to lead the country. Only 12% said immigration ranked highest for them. Against this reality, Trump’s own campaign appears to have altered its approach to persuading the electorate in key battleground states by turning away from their candidate’s favored message. In August, the Trump campaign spent about $15.5 million on television ads centered on immigration. For the next month, though, such ads about immigration were almost nonexistent on the airwaves.