MOBILE, Ala. — Republican front-runner Donald Trump rallied thousands of supporters in south Alabama by telling them: “I would like to have the election tomorrow. I don’t want to wait.”

“I know how Billy Graham felt,” he said Friday night as he addressed the largest crowd yet of his thriving presidential campaign. The 40,000-seat Ladd-Peebles Stadium was about half-full when he began his speech.

Trump evoked Graham — the evangelist who packed stadiums around the world — as he brought his message to the Deep South.

Trump was welcomed by an array of Alabama politicians, including Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, who praised him for the attention he has drawn to immigration issues. And Trump led off his speech with more criticism of immigrants living in the country illegally, drawing loud cheers when he repeated his promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

He reiterated his intention to end “birthright citizenship” for children of immigrants here illegally.