Ramping up his conspiratorial and false claims about the upcoming election, former President Donald Trump went to New Mexico — a state no Republican presidential candidate has won since 2004 — and baselessly stated “I believe we won it twice” despite losing by roughly eight percentage points in 2016 and by around 11 points in 2020.

A recent poll of more than 1,000 likely voters by the Albuquerque Journal had Vice President Kamala Harris beating Trump by around nine percentage points, and polling averages from FiveThirtyEight and the New York Times pin her with a lead of seven to eight points. But with just days to go until Election Day, Trump flew into the state for a rally after hosting a major event at Madison Square Garden in deep blue New York on Sunday and with plans to campaign in Virginia, another state no Republican has won since 2004, on Saturday.

“They all said, ‘don't come.’ I said, ‘why?’ you can't win New Mexico? I said, ‘look, your votes are rigged. We can win New Mexico,’” Trump told rallygoers gathered at an Albuquerque airport after disembarking his plane. “We almost won it twice. And let me tell you, I believe we won it twice.”

“If we could bring God down from heaven, he could be the vote counter, we would win this. We'd win California. We'd win a lot of states,” Trump added.

Trump earned roughly 34% of the more than 17 million votes cast in California in 2020, while President Joe Biden won about 63%. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton beat Trump by similar margins there in 2016.

New Mexico has the top-ranked election system in the country, according to MIT’s Election Data + Science Lab, which is based on data from presidential and midterm elections dating back to 2008. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat up for reelection in the state, pointed that fact out on social media in response to Trump’s comments

The former president was set to rally in neighboring Nevada, a swing state, later on Thursday.

Trump’s false claims about winning deep-blue states he lost by wide margins in his previous two presidential campaigns match his false claims about states where he lost by much smaller margins in 2020.

His baseless claims about those elections were rejected by Republican election officials and judges, including some appointed by the then-president himself, and were widely deemed to be baseless and lacking credibility. Trump and dozens of his supporters face criminal charges for their actions trying to overturn his 2020 election loss based on those false claims.

"We are, sadly, ready" if Trump challenges the results after Election Day, Harris told ABC News on Thursday. "And if we know that he is manipulating the press and attempting to manipulate the consensus of the American people based on fiction instead of facts, we're prepared to respond."

His statements this time around, accusing key swing states of “cheating” and rigging the election against him, have so far proven to be without merit and have raised concerns he will attempt a similar argument as he did in 2020 if he loses again. 

“This week, we are seeing that Donald Trump is clearly worried that he's going to lose the election,” a senior Harris campaign official said on Thursday. "How do we know that? Well, we know it because he's ramping up baseless claims of election fraud and irregularities.”

Trump was also in New Mexico to make his case to Latino voters after a week of bad headlines highlighting bigoted remarks from his Madison Square Garden rally about Puerto Ricans and Latinos. 

“I'm here for one simple reason. I like you very much, and it's good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community,” Trump said. “I love Hispanics. And they are, they’re hard workers, and boy, are they entrepreneurial, and they're great people, and they are warm. They are warm. Sometimes they're too warm, if you want to know.”

About 44% of the voting-age population in New Mexico identifies as Hispanic. Many have centuries-old ties to Mexican and Spanish settlements, while the state has a smaller share of foreign-born residents than the national average.

At the same time, federal and local authorities in New Mexico are dealing with a surge in migrant deaths along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Trump’s visit has implications for a congressional swing district stretching from Albuquerque to the border with Mexico. It's now held by a Democrat as Republicans look to hold on to their narrow House majority. Immigration has been a major issue in the race.

Also on the ballot, Heinrich is seeking a third term in the Senate against Republican Nella Domenici. She is the daughter of the late Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, who served six terms, from 1973 to 2009 and was the last New Mexico Republican elected to the Senate.

New Mexico voters have twice rebuffed Trump at the polls, and Democrats hold every statewide elected position, all three congressional seats and majorities in the state House and Senate.

Spectrum News’ Maddie Gannon and the Associated Press contributed to this report.