GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — President Donald Trump is carrying out his midterm Republican rescue mission in Nebraska on Monday, campaigning alongside Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, who is running against a Republican party line. independent candidate supported by national Democrats.
Trump is traveling to Grand Island, Nebraska, located in the solidly conservative south-central part of the state. It’s part of what the Republican president says is a 32-day blitz of rallies ahead of Nov. 3 that has so far brought him to ruby red territory like Oklahoma And Alabama. On Wednesday, he will make his second stop in two weeks in Texas with a rally in San Antonio.
“The president is coming to Nebraska to help me campaign, so I can get re-elected,” Ricketts told The Associated Press last week on Capitol Hill.
Ricketts, former governor of the state, was appointed and later elected to fill Sen. Ben Sasse’s seat when he leaves to lead the University of Florida in 2023. Ricketts is now running for his first full six-year term against independent Dan Osborn — a race that was initially not expected to be competitive but is now being watched by national parties.
Republicans face headwinds amid voter discontent
Voters across the country are frustrated by Trump’s handling of the economyincluding persistently high fuel costs and the grocery store. This is a major issue for rural voters who supported the president and his party in the recent elections.
THE the administration’s plan to allow more foreign beef imports particularly shook the agriculturally rich state of Nebraska. Trump wants to lower beef prices for consumers, but ranchers have rebelled against the import proposal, arguing it would undercut them.
“The plan to import low-quality foreign beef does not help Nebraska ranchers,” Ricketts told the AP. “I would advise the White House to change this policy and look for longer-term measures that will help us increase herd size and ultimately lower the price of beef for consumers.”
In Grand Island, rally attendees said they trusted Trump to solve the high cost of living problem.
“I feel like if we replenish our reserves and fix the situation in Iran, our gas prices will go down. The economy, as far as groceries and things like that, are going to go down too. It’s going to stabilize. I have confidence in him. More confidence in him than I’ve ever had in any other president,” said Marlene Abel of Garfield, Kansas, who went to the rally with her sister.
David Kuncl, who grew up on a farm, also urged patience, expressing confidence that things would improve in the long run. But the Lincoln, Nebraska, resident insisted Trump was not to blame, instead pointing to what he sees as “a coup, a plot to try to harm Trump” and Republicans in the midterms.
“It hurts us. Gasoline prices. Diesel prices. Beef prices,” he said. “I don’t know why they’re high. But it’s not that Trump has anything to do with it. He’ll do what he can. But of course he can’t wave a magic wand and make it go down.”
Trump is expected to visit other election battlegrounds including Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Kansas, Montana, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Nevada and Arizona before Election Day in November. That’s according to a person close to the plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly and cautioned that plans could change.
There are a few Senate races where independents are the challengers
In the House of Representatives, the Grand Island area is represented by Republican Adrian Smith, whose race is not expected to be close. But Nebraska has a Competitive house racing further east in Omahaconsidered the state’s “blue dot” because the region’s electoral vote in presidential elections often goes to Democrats.
Osborn, a former union leader, ran against Republican Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024 and lost by 7 percentage points. Although national Democrats support him, he declined to say which party he would side with if elected in November.
Other Senate independents, including Angus King of Maine (moderate) and Bernie Sanders of Vermont (left), are meeting with Democrats for organizing and committee assignments.
With the Democratic brand remains deeply unpopular In conservative states, Osborn is not the only declared independent Senate candidate against Republicans this year. In South Dakota, Navy and Air Force veteran Brian Bengs is campaigning as an independent against Republican Sen. Mike Rounds. Bengs ran as a Democrat for the Senate four years ago and was handily defeated by current Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
It’s a similar dynamic in Idaho, where independent Todd Achilles is challenging Republican Sen. Jim Risch.
Democratic voters in Nebraska chose Cindy Burbank as their party’s nominee earlier this year, but Burbank specifically campaigned to ensure no votes would be siphoned off from Osborn in the November general election, and she has since officially dropped out of the race.
Osborn traveled across Nebraska holding meetings in all 93 counties and repeatedly criticized Ricketts for failing to hold town hall meetings to meet with voters.
Ricketts, whose family founded TD Ameritrade and owns Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs, served as governor from 2015 to 2023.
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Kim reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.
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