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Turnout At Trump’s Tulsa Rally Was Just Under 6,200–A Fraction Of The Venue’s 19,200 Capacity

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This article is more than 3 years old.
Updated Jun 21, 2020, 02:04pm EDT

TOPLINE

While President Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday was pitched as an over-subscribed event, with Trump campaign staffers touting ticket registrations over a million, the final turnout came to a fraction of the venue’s overall capacity, confirming reports of low turnout that dogged what was meant to be Trump’s triumphant return to the campaign trail.

KEY FACTS

The Trump campaign set expectations high for the rally, announcing that they had received more than a million ticket requests, despite the venue, the BOK Center, seating just 19,200.

Anticipating high turnout that would exceed that capacity, the campaign planned a second, outdoor speech to address the crowd in the overflow section.

But those hopes quickly evaporated on the evening of the rally, with reporters tweeting photos of the rally showing huge swaths of empty seats in the stadium.

The campaign ended up cancelling the second speech to the overflow section, with Communications Director Tim Murtaugh blaming the low turnout on the media and protesters, who he claimed blocked access to the entrance despite reports that nobody was turned away from the rally.

Andrew Little, the Public Information Officer for the Tulsa Fire Department, confirmed to Forbes on Sunday that a tally taken by the fire marshal clocked the turnout at just under 6,200 people, far fewer attendees than the campaign expected.

A Trump campaign staffer told Forbes on Sunday that turnout was 12,000, double what the Fire Department estimated.

Big Number

59%. A Fox News poll released Friday found that 59% of Americans said crowded campaign events are a bad idea, given the risks posed by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The poll also found that Republicans sharply diverge with Trump on the issue of mask wearing, with 70% saying they have a favorable view of them despite Trump consistently eschewing masks at public appearances.

Tangent

One probable reason for the inflated ticket registration figure was a concerted effort by teenagers on the social media app TikTok to reserve seats at the rally in an effort to create empty seats. Numerous TikTokers posted videos encouraging their followers to register for tickets to deny spots from supporters of the president. They in turn recruited ‘K-pop stans,’ fans of Korean pop music, a massive and active community on social media, to do the same. While it is unlikely this effort denied people any seats, as the rally was first come first serve, it may have accounted for a substantial chunk of the ticket registrations.

What To Watch For

While the rally failed to meet expectations, the apparent lack of masks and the tightly packed crowds could potentially result in a surge of coronavirus cases in the region. Cases in Tulsa were already on the rise, with the county reporting its largest case increase ever on the day of the rally.

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