Trump promised a swing district blitz. He's going to a lot of very red states

With the midterms approaching, President Donald Trump is spending his final campaign weeks mostly in Republican strongholds, not the swing districts he vowed to visit. At a September White House dinner for roughly 30 GOP candidates in competitive contests, he promised to travel to 35 places. NPR reports that he has since appeared with fewer than a third of those candidates, and the White House has not said which locations he meant.

His October rallies have gone to Ohio and Texas twice each, plus Oklahoma, Tennessee, Montana and Arizona. He also flew eight hours to Alaska to back Senator Dan Sullivan and Representative Nick Begich, whose races are tight in a state Trump carried by 13 points in 2024. Kansas, now a toss-up Senate contest, is next on the schedule. Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters says the aim is energizing the base, and Trump says he is also thanking supporters.

On Tuesday Trump is due in Greenville, North Carolina, even as Republican committees cancel ad reservations for Senate nominee Michael Whatley, which signals the race is slipping away. Anderson Clayton, who chairs the state's Democratic Party, predicts the effort will backfire.

Summarized by PolitiKool from NPR’s reporting. Read the full story at NPR →