DES MOINES, Iowa (NEWSnet/AP) — Donald Trump headed to southeast Iowa Sunday for a campaign stop.

Trump is planning to headline an afternoon event in Ottumwa, where his campaign is expecting more than 1,000 potential supporters. The small city is a hub in eastern Iowa and the seat of Wapello County, one of 31 counties Trump carried in 2016. Barack Obama had won there in 2012.

Trump, the first Republican to capture the county since the Eisenhower administration, campaigned a week prior in northeast Iowa. There, he drew about 1,400 to rural Jackson County along the Mississippi River and almost 2,000 to Dubuque County to the north. Like Wapello, Dubuque County had been a Democratic stronghold for decades before 2016.

Although aides said they are not specifically targeting counties that Trump flipped in 2016, they noted he has had success in the eastern part of Iowa, where manufacturing has declined sharply in the past two decades. 

Trump has scheduled several visits to Iowa in October. The state opens the GOP nomination calendar Jan. 15, 2024.

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