It’s been a long time since Long Beach was the kind of town where Republican politicians rose to prominence – but that’s not stopping supporters of GOP nominee Donald Trump from opening a campaign office in the city’s Cambodia Town neighborhood.

“We wanted to be in the battlegrounds,” said Rachel Gunther, Los Angeles County regional director of Trump’s California campaign. “We wanted to show the world we could handle it.”

A grand opening for the Long Beach office is scheduled to take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at 2338 E. Anaheim St. An announcement posted on Eventbrite.com invites potential Trump supporters to “be part of the Trump Twitter Storm” and to serve as “Trump Foot Soldiers,” “Trump Talkers” or “Trump Walkers.”

The candidate himself is not expected to appear in Long Beach on Saturday, Gunther said.

Trump opened his California headquarters in Sacramento last April. Gunther said volunteers will also campaign out of the Orange County cities of Tustin and Dana Point.

An unconventional campaign

Long Beach seems an unlikely place for a Republican candidate. With its all-Democratic delegation in Congress and the State Legislature, and a City Council – though non-partisan – that tilts liberal, the city is solidly blue.

That said, Long Beach is the city moderate Republican George Deukmejian represented in the Legislature before winning the governorship in 1982. The seaside town’s voters also sent fellow GOPer Frank Merriam to the Legislature before he defeated author Upton Sinclair (who also lived in Long Beach for a time) in the 1934 gubernatorial campaign.

Trump, however, represents a different breed of Republican than the more traditional Deukmejian. The GOP’s bombastic nominee animates Breitbart-style “nationalist populists” to the chagrin of both liberal Democrats as well as National Review conservatives who, months before Trump claimed the Republican Party nomination, lamented the candidate’s Protean political positioning and his promise to curb illegal immigration by getting Mexico to pay for a border wall.

Racing to November

Long Beach is one of the most diverse cities in the entire United States, and Trump’s positioning on immigration is one factor that has prompted a great deal of commentary over whether he’s suited to lead such a diverse nation. Gunther, however, said she is not fazed by such talk.

“We reach out to everybody,” she said. “The media has not been kind to Mr. Trump.”

As of Tuesday, the Real Clear Politics polling average shows Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton with a 3 percent lead over Trump. A CNN/ORC International poll released Tuesday gave Trump a 2 percent lead, which was within the poll’s three percent margin of error.

The election is Nov. 8.