High costs and gas prices are weighing on Republican campaigns, but President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance spent Thursday rallying support in heavily Republican areas ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress. Voters are being asked to carry the party through a tougher contest, even as Trump dismisses affordability concerns and the unpopular war in Iran continues.
Trump traveled to Texas and Oklahoma, launching what he said would be a 32-day campaign blitz. Vance campaigned in Florida. The itinerary sends the party’s top officials on the road to energize voters and candidates, as Republicans grow more pessimistic about their chances.
A campaign machine answers voter concerns
Trump called the party’s difficulties a public-relations problem. “We’re not getting the word out,” he told reporters Wednesday. “I mean, we’re just not getting it.” He said he would try to persuade GOP voters to act as if his name were on the ballot. “I’m going out because nobody’s selling it.” The message from the top casts the problem as a failure to sell, even as prices and the war remain part of the campaign backdrop.
Delanie Bomar, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said the president was “barnstorming the country, energizing our base, and supercharging Republican candidates in battleground districts and beyond.” She added, “We have the resources to spend, and Republicans are full steam ahead to protect and expand our majorities.” That’s party power expressed through money, travel and voter mobilization.
The Democratic National Committee said, “Trump and Vance are desperately trying to rally their base as the midterm elections approach and Republicans face defeat.” DNC Deputy Communications Director Kendall Witmer blamed Trump and Vance for a “deadly and costly war with Iran that sent the economy spiraling and pushed prices even higher,” and said they were asking voters to “give (them) another chance.” The parties offer opposing campaign pitches. Both are focused on winning office.
Candidates, districts and the cost of control
In Oklahoma, Trump was scheduled to campaign with Republican Mike Mazzei, who is running for governor against Democratic state House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson. Democratic Governors Association spokesperson Kevin Donohoe said the event showed Republicans “are in full-on panic mode.” He said the race was becoming more competitive and national Republicans had reason to worry about Mazzei. The rally was set for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Trump’s visit put him among a handful of U.S. presidents who have visited tribal nations while in office.
Before stopping in Oklahoma, Trump was to tour a truck manufacturing facility in Texas, where Republicans were spending heavily to support state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a Senate race. Paxton faces a competitive challenge from Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. Two campaign officials familiar with Paxton’s plans said he planned to attend Trump’s official White House event Thursday in Denton. They spoke anonymously because the candidate’s schedule hadn’t been made public.
Vance campaigned in central Florida with Republican Byron Donalds, who is running for governor against David Jolly, a Republican-turned-independent who is now running as a Democrat. Affordability and data centers have become central issues amid turbulence for Republicans in heavily Republican Florida. On Wednesday in Harlingen, Texas, Vance rallied with Republican candidate Eric Flores, who is in a tight U.S. House race in south Texas. Vance acknowledged frustration over high prices, then blamed the previous administration: “we have spent every single day fighting for you, diggin’ ourselves out of the hole that Joe Biden left us in.”
The roadshow and the party’s strategy
Trump was also scheduled to campaign in Vandalia, Ohio, on Saturday and Grand Island, Nebraska, on Monday. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles privately told Republican senators that week Trump would make a near-daily campaign sprint before the midterms. West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said officials were “acknowledging the headwinds,” but had a strategy that included money the president’s operation would continue to deploy. She defended sending Trump to conservative areas, saying, “He can get more of his voters out — that are going to be our voters — than anybody else.”
A person familiar with the party’s strategy said the Oklahoma visit and a Friday stop in Alabama were intended to reach two targets at once: Durant is close to the Dallas-Fort Worth media market, and Trump was expected to discuss Paxton while addressing voters in the neighboring state. The Mobile stop was intended to support Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s campaign for Alabama governor and shore up support in Florida’s adjacent panhandle for Republican Rep. Byron Donalds. In this account, the organized answer to voter concerns is a carefully routed campaign operation, with party officials and candidates competing for control of Congress and state offices.