In the final week before Election Day on Nov. 5, former President Trump is taking two brief detours from the campaign trail in the crucial seven battleground states that will likely determine whether Republican nominee or Vice President Kamala Harris wins the 2024 election.

The former president will make a campaign stop in New Mexico on Halloween Thursday and will visit Virginia on Saturday. Both states were once key battlegrounds in general elections that have turned blue over the past two decades.

In fact, you have to look back 20 years – to the re-election of President George W. Bush – to find the last Republican presidential candidate to carry both states.

Why is Trump spending time in New Mexico and Virginia when time is such a precious commodity for presidential campaigns and the clock is quickly approaching Election Day?

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Former President Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on October 27, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Unlike his big rallies on Sunday in New York City and two weeks ago in Southern California – Deep Blue says the Trump campaign has no illusions about a turnaround – the former president and his team see opportunities in Virginia and New Mexico.

“As President Trump has said, he will be a president for all Americans, including those in traditionally blue states that Kamala Harris and the Democrats left behind. Kamala Harris’ dangerously liberal policies have failed Americans across the country, from the Bronx to Virginia and New Mexico, so President Trump is bringing his America First message and vision for hardworking families right to their doorsteps. argued Republican National Committee spokeswoman Anna Kelley in a statement to Fox News.

WHAT THE RECENT FOX NEWS POLLS SHOW ON THE HARRIS-TRUMP SHOWDOWN

There haven’t been many polls in New Mexico, but the latest polls suggest Harris has a high-single-digit lead over Trump, although one poll suggests the fight for the state’s five electoral votes is getting tighter.

“Trump is wasting his time coming to our state as polls show New Mexicans will once again reject his MAGA extremism and divisive rhetoric,” New Mexico Democratic Party spokesman Daniel Garcia claimed in a statement.

And referring to the former president’s Oct. 31 visit to Albuquerque, Garcia launched a verbal attack on Trump, saying, “On Halloween there will be a round orange mass in Albuquerque, and we’re not talking about a pumpkin.”

Trump hasn’t set foot in New Mexico in five years.

Former President Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Historic Greenbrier Farms in Chesapeake, Virginia, June 28, 2024. (Parker Michels-Boyce/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The situation is different in Virginia, where the former president held a large rally in the southeastern corner of the state in June.

Trump is holding a rally on Saturday in Salem, Virginia, in the conservative southwest part of the commonwealth.

DEATHHIT BETWEEN HARRIS AND TRUMP, ELECTION DAY NEARS

Polls in the state suggest the Democratic presidential candidate has between a low double-digit lead and a slight low single-digit lead over the former president.

“We have a really good chance of winning Virginia — no (Republican) presidential candidate has won in decades,” Trump told Virginia Republicans at a telerally in September.

It’s an argument also made by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin speaks during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15, 2024. (Reuters/Jeenah Moon)

But there may be another factor contributing to Trump’s stop in Virginia.

Trump on Friday denounced a federal judge’s decision requiring Virginia to re-register more than 1,500 people on the state’s voter rolls, with the former president falsely claiming that Harris was behind the decision and claiming it was “election interference.”

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The state of Virginia filed a motion on Sunday with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a stay of proceedings to overturn the lower court’s ruling that halted the state’s efforts to remove suspected non-citizens from the voter rolls.

Veteran Virginia political scientist David Richards of the University of Lynchburg told Fox News: “Based on all the polls I see, it’s not clear whether this rally will help Trump win Virginia.”

“But I think he has bigger ambitions when he comes to Central Virginia. “I think he wants to capitalize on the court decision to reinstate voters who didn’t meet the citizenship requirements or didn’t check the right box and were included in a general election of registered voters in Virginia,” Richards said. “This fits with his general story about illegal immigrants trying to get in the election. I think he’s looking for a national audience, not necessarily just a Virginia audience, by coming here and having a rally.”

Republicans have not represented the swing state of New Hampshire in 24 years. And Trump lost the country’s first presidential election by more than seven points in the general election four years ago at the hands of President Biden.

While recent polls suggested Harris’ lead in the high single digits, two new polls suggest a closer race by margin of error.

Although there appear to be no plans for Trump to visit the state in recent days, the campaign’s top adviser in New Hampshire is still confident.

“The polls are tightening and we sense significant momentum on the ground for President Trump,” senior adviser Steve Stepanek told Fox News.

Stepanek emphasized: “What these polls don’t show, and what we’re working very hard to address, is a large group of Trump supporters who are not registered to vote.”

Pointing to the state’s same-day voter registration effort, he said, “We’re urging these folks with phone calls, mail, digital communications and door knocking to come out on Election Day and register to vote and vote for President Trump.”

But Democrats in the state remain confident that New Hampshire will come out on top in the presidential election, thanks to their far larger electoral base.

Get the latest updates on the 2024 election, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital Election Center.