‘A Strange Choice’: Trump Plans Red State Swing During Midterm Final Stretch

President Trump will be holding rallies in some of the nation’s reddest states in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections — a decision one Republican senator calls “a strange choice.” Mr. Trump is planning to swing through Alabama, Oklahoma, Iowa, Alaska, Texas, and Florida as part of the tour. The Republican National Committee announced last week that Mr. Trump would headline rallies at Durant, Oklahoma and Mobile, Alabama on back-to-back days on October 1 and October 2, respectively. Mr. Trump carried Oklahoma by nearly 35 points in 2024, winning every county in the state. The president won Alabama by more than 30 points. On Friday, Politico first reported that Mr. Trump would also be heading to Iowa, Alaska, and Florida before election day, which is in just five weeks. Senator John Cornyn, the retiring Texas Republican who lost his primary to a Trump-backed challenger, says he is puzzled by the decision. “It’s kind of a strange choice,” Mr. Cornyn tells the New York Sum, “to go to red states.”Mr. Trump confirmed he would be going to Iowa during an event featuring Hawkeye State Republicans in the Oval Office on Monday. He was joined at the event by Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, the GOP nominee in the Senate race, who is now in a virtual tie with her Democratic opponent, state representative Josh Turek. “I’m going to come to Iowa. I got more votes than anybody in history during the last election,” the president said from behind the Resolute Desk. “We’re going to do a great rally.”“I think the polls aren’t accurate,” Mr. Trump said when asked about Iowa Republicans being in tight races with Democrats. One GOP senator in a tight re-election race, Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, is facing off against an independent in this year’s election. Democrats in the state — like in Nebraska — declined to put up a candidate in order to make it more likely that a sitting GOP senator is unseated. Mr. Rounds tells the Sun that Mr. Trump’s efforts would be better deployed elsewhere rather than come to his home state. “We planned our election plans way back in March,” Mr. Rounds said when the Sun asked if he wanted the president to stop in South Dakota. “We’re on our plan already and we knew that the president was going to be very busy in other states … So, I think he needs to go where he can be the most beneficial to folks that are really tight [in] their elections.”Mr. Trump’s decision to head to states like Iowa, Texas, and Alaska — all of which he won by double digits in 2024 — speaks to Republicans’ concerns about losing the Senate seats up for grabs in those states this year. According to polling and political analysts, all three Senate seats in those states could fall into the blue column in November. On Sunday, Senator Thom Tillis — another retiring GOP senator — said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Republicans may have to cut their losses and give up on his own Senate seat in order to play defense elsewhere. He said states like Maine, Ohio, and Texas should be the focus. Speaking to reporters just off the Senate floor on Monday night, Mr. Tillis said it was time for the GOP to “place your bets” in order to save the Republican majority. Mr. Tillis’s seat is considered the most likely to flip to blue from red this year, with a popular Democratic former governor, Roy Cooper, beating his Republican opponent by anywhere from eight to ten points in the polls. “You very seldom see — at least in my 20 years of political experience — changing horses 15 days out,” he said, referring to Republicans’ chances of defeating Mr. Cooper with just a few weeks left in the campaign.

‘A Strange Choice’: Trump Plans Red State Swing During Midterm Final Stretch

‘A Strange Choice’: Trump Plans Red State Swing During Midterm Final Stretch

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