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Trump, Vance Hit Campaign Trail for GOP10/01 06:20
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance will both hit the
campaign trail on Thursday, but they will be heading to heavily Republican
areas to shore up lagging enthusiasm in their party ahead of next month's
midterm elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance will
both hit the campaign trail on Thursday, but they will be heading to heavily
Republican areas to shore up lagging enthusiasm in their party ahead of next
month's midterm elections.
Trump's travel on Thursday to Texas and Oklahoma kicks off what the
president said will be a 32-day campaign blitz leading up to Nov. 3.
His visit comes as Vance at the same time will be stumping in Florida,
putting the Republican Party's highest-ranking officials in areas where GOP
candidates once expected to have glide paths to victory but are now facing
tougher races.
Republicans have expressed growing pessimism about their chances in the
election, which will determine control of Congress, as the president has
repeatedly dismissed concerns about high costs and gas prices and his unpopular
war in Iran drags on.
According to Trump, his party's headwinds are merely a matter of poor public
relations about a job he says is well done.
"We're not getting the word out," he told reporters on Wednesday. "I mean,
we're just not getting it."
That's why, he said, he will be traveling all over and trying to persuade
GOP voters to pretend his name is on the ballot.
"I'm going out because nobody's selling it," Trump said.
Democrats say Trump, Republicans are desperate
Delanie Bomar, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said in
a statement that "the president is barnstorming the country, energizing our
base, and supercharging Republican candidates in battleground districts and
beyond. 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 are desperately
trying to rally their base as the midterm elections approach and Republicans
face defeat."
"Donald Trump and JD Vance started a deadly and costly war with Iran that
sent the economy spiraling and pushed prices even higher, and now -- in the
final stretch to the midterms -- they're desperately pleading with voters to
'give (them) another chance,'" said DNC Deputy Communications Director Kendall
Witmer.
In Oklahoma, Trump will campaign with Republican Mike Mazzei, who is running
against Democratic state House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson in the race for
governor.
Democratic Governors Association spokesperson Kevin Donohoe said Trump's
campaign rally shows that Republicans "are in full-on panic mode."
"This race continues to get more competitive -- and national Republicans are
right to be worried about Mazzei," he said.
The event will be held on the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, putting him in the
company of just a handful of U.S. presidents who have visited tribal nations
while in office.
Before his evening Oklahoma stop, Trump will tour a truck manufacturing
facility in Texas, where Republicans are spending heavily to try to bolster
state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a Senate race. Paxton faces a very
competitive challenge from Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.
Paxton was planning to be with Trump at the official White House event
Thursday in Denton, two campaign officials familiar with Paxton's plans said on
condition of anonymity to discuss the candidate's schedule before it was made
public.
Vance is also stumping for GOP candidates
Trump will be campaigning in more politically competitive areas in the days
and weeks ahead as he embarks on his travel blitz, but Republican officials
will not send him to places where they think his presence could drag down their
candidates, according to a person familiar with the party's strategy who spoke
on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Trump's Oklahoma visit, and likewise one on Friday to Alabama, are aimed at
hitting two targets with one stop, the person said.
Republican officials have noted that Durant is close to the Dallas and Fort
Worth media market, meaning Trump's message will also be carried to Texas
voters, and he's expected to talk about Paxton even while addressing voters in
the neighboring state.
His Friday stop in Mobile, Alabama, is aimed at boosting not only Sen. Tommy
Tuberville as he runs for Alabama governor, but shoring up support in Florida's
adjacent panhandle for Republican Rep. Byron Donalds. Donalds is running for
Florida governor against David Jolly, the Republican-turned-independent who is
now running as a Democrat.
Donalds' campaign in heavily-GOP Florida comes as Republicans there have
faced some turbulence and voter concerns about affordability and data centers
have become central issues.
While Trump is in Oklahoma and Texas, Vance will stump with Donalds in
central Florida on Thursday.
Vance's visit to Lakeland comes a day after the vice president campaigned in
Texas. He rallied with Republican candidate Eric Flores, who is in a tight U.S.
House race in south Texas.
Vance, speaking in Harlingen, Texas on Wednesday, acknowledged broader
discontentment over the high prices in the U.S., but shifted the blame away
from Trump and Republicans.
"I know that there are people out there who are frustrated by the pace of
progress," he said, but "we have spent every single day fighting for you,
diggin' ourselves out of the hole that Joe Biden left us in."
Trump will also campaign on Saturday in Vandalia, Ohio; and Monday in Grand
Island, Nebraska.
Trump expected to campaign for GOP almost daily
In a meeting on Capitol Hill this week, White House chief of staff Susie
Wiles described privately to GOP senators that Trump will have a near-daily
sprint of campaigning ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
Wiles showed Republicans the president's upcoming travel schedule, which
attendees described as extensive and almost every day, all across the country.
West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said White House
officials are "acknowledging the headwinds" but that "they have a strategy, and
we have a strategy," including money that the president's operation will
continue to deploy.
Capito also defended the White House's plan to send Trump to traditionally
conservative territory, arguing that he can motivate the Republican base not
just in where he travels but elsewhere in the country because Trump has such a
broad reach.
"He can get more of his voters out -- that are going to be our voters --
than anybody else," Capito said.
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