Republicans are spending heavily to hold congressional and state power as voters voice concerns about affordability, high costs and gas prices. President Donald Trump campaigned Thursday in Texas and Oklahoma, while Vice President JD Vance appeared in Florida, launching a broad effort to build Republican support ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
The cost at the ballot box
Trump said he was launching a 32-day campaign blitz. Republican candidates in the states he visited face tougher races than party officials once expected, and Republicans have grown more pessimistic about their chances.
Economic pressures sit at the center of the contest. Trump has dismissed concerns about high costs and gas prices as the unpopular war in Iran continues. He described the party’s difficulties as a public-relations problem. “We’re not getting the word out,” he told reporters Wednesday. “I mean, we’re just not getting it.”
Trump said he’d travel widely and urge Republican voters to act as if his name were on the ballot. “I’m going out because nobody’s selling it,” he said.
Delanie Bomar, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said the party had resources to deploy. “The president is barnstorming the country, energizing our base, and supercharging Republican candidates in battleground districts and beyond,” she said in a statement. “We have the resources to spend, and Republicans are full steam ahead to protect and expand our majorities.”
The Democratic National Committee said Trump and Vance were trying to rally their base as Republicans faced possible defeat. DNC Deputy Communications Director Kendall Witmer said the war in Iran had sent the economy spiraling and driven prices higher. She said the candidates were asking voters to “give (them) another chance.”
Campaign money and government access
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 race was growing more competitive and called Republicans “in full-on panic mode.”
Organizers planned the rally 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 the Oklahoma stop, Trump was set to tour a truck manufacturing facility in Texas. Republicans were spending heavily to support state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a Senate race against 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 Paxton’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 now running as a Democrat. In heavily Republican Florida, voter concerns about affordability and data centers have become central issues.
A national push to defend majorities
On Wednesday in Harlingen, Texas, Vance rallied with Republican candidate Eric Flores, who faces a tight U.S. House race in south Texas. Vance acknowledged frustration over prices but blamed the previous administration. “I know that there are people out there who are frustrated by the pace of progress,” he said. He added that his administration had spent “every single day fighting for you, diggin’ ourselves out of the hole that Joe Biden left us in.”
Trump was also scheduled to campaign in Ohio on Saturday and Nebraska on Monday. At a Capitol Hill meeting that week, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles privately told Republican senators Trump would make a near-daily campaign sprint before the midterms. Attendees described an extensive schedule, with events almost every day across the country.
West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said White House officials were “acknowledging the headwinds” and continuing to deploy money. She defended visits to traditionally conservative areas, saying Trump could motivate Republican voters there and elsewhere. “He can get more of his voters out — that are going to be our voters — than anybody else,” she said.
A person familiar with the party’s strategy said the Oklahoma visit and a Friday stop in Alabama aimed to reach voters across state lines. Durant is close to the Dallas-Fort Worth media market, and Trump was expected to discuss Paxton while speaking to voters in Oklahoma. 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.