Thursday will be a big day for politics in the Kanawha Valley.
Democratic candidate for president Bernie Sanders will speak Thursday afternoon in South Charleston. Republican front-runner Donald Trump will speak Thursday evening in Charleston.
After months of hinting at a visit, the businessman will speak at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Charleston Civic Center, according to a statement from his campaign.
Trump's visit comes after Bill Cole, the Republican candidate for governor, endorsed the polarizing hotel mogul.
A new poll of West Virginia voters shows Trump is overwhelmingly popular in the Mountain State - with 61 percent of Republican voters favoring him - and that West Virginia is one of very few states where more people view him favorably than unfavorably.
Trump will be the third presidential candidate to hold a campaign event in West Virginia.
"It's going to be great for our city," said Charleston Mayor Danny Jones. "Fourteen thousand people will go to the Civic Center.
"It'll be a great event."
The Civic Center can seat up to 13,500 people in the coliseum.
Jones was listening to Trump's victory speech for his win in the Indiana primary late Tuesday evening, and said he'd never heard anything like it. Trump defeated Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the primary, prompting Cruz, who announced former candidate Carly Fiorina as his running mate last week, to suspend his campaign.
Jones said Charleston police already have met with Secret Service and that officers will have to regulate traffic around the Civic Center for the event. He hopes people who come for the event will spend time in town.
Trump's rallies have drawn thousands of people and some negative attention as some protesters at events have turned violent. Jones said the city would prepare for that as well.
"If we have protesters that's fine, but if they want to riot we'll have to be ready," Jones said. "I don't see why folks just don't let people see who they want to see."
Those who wish to attend can request up to two tickets per phone number using the form at www.donaldjtrump.com/schedule/register/charleston-wv/
Earlier Thursday, Sanders will speak at the South Charleston Community Center on Jefferson Road, South Charleston Mayor Frank Mullens confirmed. Sanders is tentatively scheduled to address supporters at 3 p.m.
The community center can hold about 1,000 people for a basketball game, Mullens said, but could hold more with seating on the basketball court. He said crowds between 5,000 and 10,000 would be more than the center could handle.
"It's kind of exciting to have a presidential candidate come here to our community," Mullens said. "We'll see what he has to say.
"We'll do everything we can to accommodate them. It's just unfortunate we've got such short notice."
Accommodating the event will mean setting up the community center and providing police to control traffic in the area, the mayor said.
Mullens said the director of the community center called him earlier in the afternoon to say they were talking to Sanders' camp. The campaign will be charged like any other group wanting to use the community center, Mullens said, though he didn't have the details on the cost.
A short time later, the campaign signed the contract for the space and Mullens received another call, this time from the city's police chief confirming that he'd spoken with Secret Service and that Sanders would indeed visit South Charleston.
The mayor didn't have further information on Sanders' visit. Information on the event was limited Tuesday night.
Sanders, who also is tentatively scheduled to appear in McDowell County this week as well, held a rally in Huntington on April 26, where he spoke to thousands of supporters about the economy and his policy views. He will speak later Thursday in Morgantown at the Waterfront Place Hotel at an event set to begin at 7 p.m. It will be open to the public.