Elections 2026: Trump travels to Oklahoma and Texas, Vance to Florida to campaign for the GOP

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance both hit the country route Thursday, but I headed to strongly republican areas to boost lagging enthusiasm in their party ahead of next month midterm elections.

Trump’s trip to Texas and Oklahoma kicked off what the president said would be a 32-day campaign blitz through Nov. 3.

“I think we’re going to win. Everywhere I’ve been, we’re winning,” Trump said during a speech at a truck plant in Denton, near Dallas. He said some have suggested “his heart is not in it. My heart is in it”, and otherwise he would be “at home right now”.

“My heart is in it like never before,” Trump said of the run-up to the midterm elections.

Vance, meanwhile, has been stumped in Florida, placing top Republican Party officials in areas where Republican candidates once expected to have a path to victory but now face tougher races. The vice president tried to portray the Republican Party as representing common sense in the face of a Democratic push to the left.

“I have the easiest job in the world,” the vice president said in Lakeland, Florida. “I can talk about how crazy the Democrats are.”

However, Trump and Vance may have their work cut out for them.

A new survey from Associated Press-NORC Public Affairs Research Center reveals that only 17% of American adults approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living. Only 26% approve of his management of the economy as a whole, marking a new low.

Republicans have expressed growing pessimism about their chances in the elections, which will determine control of Congress, as the president has repeatedly said. concerns dismissed on high gas costs and prices as his unpopular war in Iran drags on.

According to Trump, his party’s difficulties are simply due to poor public relations regarding a job he considers well done.

“We’re doing great, but I can’t get the message across,” Trump said in Texas. He also said, “Maybe we’re doing a bad job selling it.” »

Yet the president has spent far more time mocking his predecessor, President Joe Biden, reliving his 2024 presidential campaign and defending the war in Iran than talking about how he would help lower the cost of living.

Democrats say Trump and Republicans are desperate

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 homestretch of the midterm elections — they are desperately imploring voters to ‘give (them) another chance,’” said Kendall Witmer, the DNC’s deputy communications director.

In Oklahoma, Trump is campaigning with Republican Mike Mazzei, who is running for governor against Democratic House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson.

Democratic Governors Association spokesman Kevin Donohoe said Trump’s campaign rally shows Republicans “are in a panic.”

The event will be held in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahomaplacing Trump in the company of only a handful of U.S. presidents who have visited tribal nations while in office.

Before his evening stop in Oklahoma, Trump toured a truck manufacturing plant and spoke briefly with workers in Texas, where Republicans are spending heavily trying to strengthen the state’s attorney general. Ken Paxton in a Senate race. Paxton faces a very competitive challenge from the Democratic state representative. James Talarico.

Paxton attended the event and Trump joked that he “could be annoying sometimes, I’ll be honest,” but also noted, “We need Ken so much and that’s why I’m here.” »

Vance is also perplexed about the GOP candidates

Trump will campaign in more politically competitive areas in the coming days and weeks as he embarks on his whirlwind trip, but Republican officials won’t 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 was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump’s visit to Oklahoma, as well as Friday’s visit to Alabama, are intended to hit two targets in one fell swoop, the person said.

Republican officials noted that Trump’s visit brought him closer to the Dallas-Fort Worth media market, meaning the president’s message reached Texas voters likely to support Paxton.

His Friday stop in Mobile, Alabama, is aimed not only at supporting Sen. Tommy Tuberville as he runs for governor of Alabama, but also to bolster the Republican representative’s support in the adjacent Florida panhandle. Byron Donalds. Donalds is running for governor of Florida against David Jolythe Republican turned independent who now runs as a Democrat.

Donald’s campaign in heavily Republican Florida comes as Republicans there face turmoil and voters’ concerns about affordability and artificial intelligence data centers have become central issues.

While Trump is in Oklahoma and Texas, Vance has been campaigning for Donald in central Florida. It came a day after Vice President campaigned in Texasrallying behind Republican candidate Eric Flores, who is in a tight House of Representatives race in South Texas.

Vance, speaking Wednesday in Harlingen, Texas, acknowledged broader discontent with high U.S. prices but placed blame on Trump and Republicans.

“I know there are people who are frustrated with the pace of progress,” he said, but “we have spent every day fighting for you, digging ourselves out of the hole that Joe Biden left us in.”

Trump will also campaign Saturday in Vandalia, Ohio, and Monday in Grand Island, Nebraska.

Trump expected to campaign for the GOP almost daily

At a meeting on Capitol Hill this week, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles privately explained to Republican senators that Trump would have a near-daily campaign sprint ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

Wiles showed Republicans the president’s upcoming travel schedule, which participants described as extensive and almost daily, across the country.

West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said White House officials “recognize the headwinds” but “they have a strategy, and we have a strategy,” including the money the presidential operation will continue to deploy.

Capito also defended the White House’s plan to send Trump into traditionally conservative territory, arguing that he can motivate the Republican base not only where he travels but elsewhere in the country thanks to his far-reaching reach.

“He can attract more voters – they will be our voters – than anyone else,” Capito said.

___

Associated Press journalists Seung Min Kim in Washington, Jesse Bedayn in Austin, Texas, and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.