President Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport in Bullhead City, Arizona, October 14.
Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images
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Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images
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In early September, President Trump gathered Republicans competing in competitive races for a dinner in the White House Rose Garden. Premium beef burgers were on the menu as the president pledged to spend the final month before the midterm elections campaigning for the 30 or so Republican candidates in attendance.
“I’m going to go to each of these 35 places and we’ll see if we can get everyone elected,” Trump said confidently.
The White House did not specify which 35 locations the president was speaking about that evening. Since then, Trump has campaigned with less than a third of those candidates. Rather than focusing on swing states and swing districts as the president had announced, his travel schedule has him visiting many Republican territories.
Trump’s itinerary reflects both the areas where he can help (and those where he can’t) but also a changing landscape in which even red-state Republicans need a boost.
On the tarmac, between rally stops in Arizona and Montana this week, Trump tried to cast his visits to states he won decisively just two years ago as gratitude.
“So I’m doing it to thank them,” Trump said. “I’m also doing it because we have great people there running and I want to make sure they win.”
He then lamented declining Republican turnout in the years he’s not on the ballot, something Trump and his team are trying to counter with a flash campaign rally in October that took him to Ohio (twice), Texas (twice), Oklahoma and even Tennessee.
“What the hell am I doing in Tennessee?” Trump reflected from the stage to wild cheers.
Earlier this week, the president took an eight-hour flight to Alaska to campaign for Republicans Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich, both of whom face races too close for comfort in a state that Trump won by 13 points in 2024.
“It’s worth the 8 hours on a plane,” Trump told an adoring crowd. “And remember, I have 8 hours left to go back. Give me credit for that.”
In fact, he made two more stops on the way home and spent the night at the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.
The Republican National Committee announced it would campaign Monday in Kansas, where a U.S. Senate race is taking place, something few would have predicted just a month ago.
Republicans are on defense in many states where they have traditionally won without much trouble. Trump’s team is choosing places where he can activate the Republican base where he has been successful in the past.
“It’s just a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of momentum building on the ground here,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said on a call with NPR at a Trump rally in Arizona. “It’s turnout, turnout, turnout. How do you get the base to show up? You put the president on the ballot. You put him out there.”
Trump frequently implores his supporters to vote as if he were on the ballot. It’s a novel political strategy that goes against the norm for unpopular presidents whose parties face significant headwinds in the midterms. Trump says polls are wrong about his underwater approval rating.
As for Trump’s message, it doesn’t change much from one stop to the next. There are the biggest hits: his past election victories, his One Big Beautiful Bill, and a trip back to the past just before he launched war with Iran, when gas prices were cheaper. He is talking about a $5,000 dividend for every American adult if Republicans win the House and Senate, an idea he first presented at the unconventional midterm Republican convention, but which ran into resistance from elected Republicans. At most stops, he talks about a specific project or deal he has planned for the state.
On Tuesday, Trump is expected to campaign in Greenville, North Carolina. Republican campaign committees have already begun canceling ad reservations intended to help Trump’s hand-picked Republican Senate candidate, Michael Whatley. It’s a sign that they see this race as being out of reach.
There is also a congressional district in eastern North Carolina that was redrawn to favor Republicans as part of Trump’s mid-decade redistricting campaign. He is not expected to be competitive, but he is now considered a failure by the Cook Political Report.
“I think this is going to backfire on them this year in every way possible,” said Anderson Clayton, chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party. “He’s trying to get as much support as he can at the last minute. But I don’t think North Carolinians are going to get caught out again.”
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