Louisiana House candidate Elbert Guillory released an advertisement explaining his decision to switch from the Democratic to the Republican Party, arguing it is the GOP that has the history of championing the rights of the Black community.

“It was the right decision, not only for me, but for all my brothers and sisters in the Black community,” Guillory said in the ad, explaining his decision. “The Democratic Party has created the illusion that their agenda and their policies are what’s best for Black people. Somehow, it’s been forgotten that the Republican Party was founded in 1842 as an abolitionist movement.” 

The ad comes just over a week before Guillory faces off with four other candidates in Louisiana’s primary election, with Guillory being the only Republican candidate in the field.

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Louisiana uses a majority-vote system, with all candidates, regardless of party, competing in the same election. If a candidate is able to get over 50% of the vote, that candidate wins the election outright. If no candidate is able to achieve the 50% mark, the two top candidates will then compete in a runoff election the following month.

Guillory served in the Louisiana House from 2007 to 2009 and the state Senate from 2009 to 2016. He switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican during his time in the state Senate in 2013.

In his new ad, Guillory explained the decision as a simple one, arguing that Democrats have done little to actually help the Black community.

“The Democrats, on the other hand, were the party of Jim Crow. It was Democrats who defended the rights of slave owners,” Guillory said. “It was the Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who championed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, but it was the Democrats in the Senate who filibustered the bill.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower poses for a portrait before his inauguration to become president of Columbia University on June 1, 1948, in New York City. (Irving Haberman/IH Images/Getty Images)

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Guillory is making the pitch to voters in a district that is now much more competitive for Democrats after the state’s maps were redrawn in 2022, with the Cook Political Report rating the race as “Solid Democratic” as of Oct. 22.

Nevertheless, Guillory is standing behind his decision to switch parties.

“At the heart of liberalism is the idea that only a great and powerful big government can be the benefactor of social justice for all Americans,” he said in the ad. “But the left is only concerned with one thing, control, and they disguise this control as charity programs such as welfare, food stamps.”

Voter services van in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

“These programs aren’t designed to lift Americans out of poverty,” he continued, “They were always intended as a mechanism for politicians to control the Black community. The idea that Blacks, or anyone for that matter, need the government to get ahead in life is despicable.”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Days before the November election, when presidential candidates typically barnstorm battleground states to turn out every last one of their supporters, former President Trump will headline a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday.

The event is being held at a storied Manhattan arena that hosted the “Fight of the Century” between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1971, visits from two popes, multiple national political conventions and countless major musical and sports events. It was also the site where Marilyn Monroe infamously sang “Happy Birthday” to President Kennedy.

It’s the type of venue that would appeal to Trump, a New York City native who reveled in his reputation as the consummate Big Apple billionaire businessman and sought-after bachelor, long before he ran for office.

The rally at the Garden represents a bookend to the start of his improbable presidential campaign in 2015. After descending down a gold escalator at Trump Tower, the site of his family’s penthouse that was their primary residence until 2019, Trump announced his White House bid. Trump’s campaign is billing the appearance as a marquee event in the closing days of the campaign.

Describing the rally as “historic,” Trump’s campaign said it will feature celebrities, elected officials and the former president’s friends and family.

“This epic event, in the heart of President Trump’s home city, will be a showcase of the historic political movement that President Trump has built in the final days of the campaign,” his campaign said in a statement announcing the program for the rally where Trump is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m. (Pacific).

Among the introductory speakers are Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate; sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.; daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who is the co-chair of the Republican National Committee; House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana; SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was disbarred after his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and recently ordered to turn over assets, including a Manhattan apartment, to two Georgia election workers who successfully sued him for defamation.

Both Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, have recently spent time in states that will have almost certainly have no impact on the result of the 2024 presidential race because of their respective partisan tilts.

On Friday, Harris was endorsed by musical icon Beyoncé in the singer’s hometown of Houston. Texas last voted for a Democrat for president in 1976, and Trump is comfortably leading in all presidential polling in the state. However, as the state’s demographics and politics are evolving, incumbent GOP Sen. Ted Cruz appears to be facing a tougher challenge than expected from Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, a former professional football player.

“We cannot let Texas flip blue,” Cruz said in an emailed fundraising appeal on Saturday. “Texas is in jeopardy.”

Harris has an even stronger lead over Trump in polls of her home state of California, yet the former president rallied supporters in the Coachella Valley earlier this month.

While both California and New York are overwhelmingly Democratic, because of their size, they are home to millions of Republican voters.

The former president reportedly wants to increase his share of the popular vote. Additionally, California and New York are home to well over a dozen competitive congressional races that are likely to determine control of the U.S. House of Representatives, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

Embattled incumbent Rep. Ken Calvert, the longest-serving GOP member of California’s congressional delegation, was endorsed by Trump the same day the Corona Republican spoke at the former president’s Coachella Valley rally. Appearances by Republican New York congressional incumbents and hopefuls are expected at Trump’s Sunday rally.

On Sunday, Harris was in Philadelphia, the largest city in the critical state of Pennsylvania. As part of Democrats’ “Souls to the Polls” effort, Harris spoke at a traditionally Black church in West Philadelphia.

“We were born for a time such as this,” Harris told parishioners at the Church of Christian Compassion, as they rose to their feet. “In this moment, we do face a real question: What kind of country do we want to live in? A country of chaos, fear and hate, or a country of freedom, justice and compassion?”

Later she talked to local leaders and Black men — a voting bloc that some Democrats worry Harris is underperforming with — at Philly Cuts, a nearby barber shop.

She is also expected to greet voters at a Puerto Rican restaurant in North Philadelphia and to speak with families at basketball courts in the Northwest part of the city, the Harris campaign official said.

Over the following days, the vice president is scheduled to campaign in Michigan, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona. Harris is expected to deliver her closing argument Tuesday evening — one week before election day — at the Ellipse near the White House, the site where Trump spoke on Jan 6. 2021, as Congress was preparing to certify the 2020 election, before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

After Trump’s appearance in Manhattan, he is expected to hold rallies in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and Virginia.