President Donald Trump campaigned in Grand Island, Nebraska, on Monday alongside Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts and Gov. Jim Pillen as Republicans try to hold Congress in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Trump’s visit aimed to help Ricketts win his first full six-year Senate term against independent Dan Osborn, while also pushing his broader campaign across states he carried by double digits.
Trump called his schedule a 32-day blitz of rallies. He planned stops in Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio and Nebraska, with another Texas visit set for Wednesday in San Antonio. He was expected to speak at 6 p.m. EDT at the Nebraska State Fairgrounds.
The Senate contest and local concerns
“The president's coming to Nebraska to help me campaign, so I can get reelected,” Ricketts told The Associated Press last week. He took over Sen. Ben Sasse's seat after Sasse left to run the University of Florida in 2023, then won election to the seat. Ricketts served as Nebraska governor from 2015 to 2023.
Osborn, a former labor union chief, challenged Republican Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024 and lost by fewer than 7 percentage points. He has no Democratic opponent this year because the party stepped aside in hopes of defeating Ricketts. The national Democratic Party supports Osborn, who hasn't said which party he would caucus with if elected. Nebraska Democrats picked Cindy Burbank as their nominee earlier in the year; she later formally dropped out after campaigning on not siphoning votes from Osborn.
Osborn has held meetings in all 93 Nebraska counties and criticized Ricketts for not holding town halls. “The war in Iran and costs that are skyrocketing” mark a significant difference from his 2024 campaign, he told CNN. He said the cost of living usually came up first at his town halls. “It's tough.”
Fuel and grocery prices also weigh on voters. “There's no doubt that high fuel prices put a strain on the budgets for every Nebraska family,” Ricketts told CNN, adding, “That's one of the things I hear when I travel the state.” Nebraska Democratic Party chairwoman Jane Kleeb said diesel was nearly doubled during harvest season and pointed to drying export markets, rural hospitals and tariffs.
Beef imports and rural districts
In August, Trump allowed up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef into the United States with lower tariffs, drawing criticism from Nebraska cattle growers who say imports would undercut them. Trump said the policy aimed to lower grocery-store beef prices. Ricketts said, “The plan to import low-quality foreign beef is not helping Nebraska ranchers,” and urged the White House to reverse course and pursue measures to build the size of the herd.
Grand Island lies in the state's 3rd Congressional District, which covers 80 of Nebraska's 93 counties and relies on cattle ranching and farming. Trump won the district with 76% of the vote in 2024 and carried Hall County, which includes Grand Island, by 37 points. He wasn't visiting Nebraska's two other congressional districts, including the highly competitive 2nd District, which includes Omaha. A competitive House race was underway farther east in Omaha.
Campaign resources and election rules
Republicans face tough midterm contests, while recent polling averages put Democrats ahead in nine key Senate battlegrounds. Forecasts gave Democrats a good chance of taking the House and possibly the Senate. Republicans had a significant financial advantage in nearly every battleground state, and Democrats worried they couldn't match their television advertising spending.
During the 10 days covered in CNN's report, the administration ran more than a dozen government-funded ads promoting Trump and his claimed accomplishments. The ads spent $20 million from the Department of Homeland Security; one matched an advertisement from Trump's 2024 campaign and warned of a “final battle” against “the deep state,” Marxists and other “villains.” The administration called the commercials “public service announcements.”
Trump has also pushed to change election procedures. Courts and Congress blocked his proposed requirements for proof of citizenship and limits on mail voting. The Supreme Court stopped a federal effort to impose new mail-ballot rules. Homeland Security Investigations official Matthew Millhollin said 160 people had been arrested in an investigation of noncitizens registered to vote, as of mid-September. Voting advocates said those cases represented a small fraction of the population and accused the administration of sowing doubts about the election.