President Trump will take his breakneck campaign tour to South Carolina on Thursday, traveling to another reliably red state to try to boost turnout for Republican candidates in the midterm elections.
His swing through conservative America reflects the Republican Party’s defensive posture in the final days of campaigning. Even South Carolina, where Mr. Trump won by 18 points in 2024, appears to have become competitive, with recent polling showing a tied Senate race there.
And in recent weeks, Mr. Trump’s pitch has faced pushback from an old foil: former President Barack Obama, who is also traveling through competitive states.
Their speeches on Wednesday evening offered a striking split-screen. As Mr. Trump bragged in Ohio about his ability to pass cognitive tests, Mr. Obama assailed him in Atlanta for higher prices and rampant corruption.
They also continued their tiff over a joke Mr. Obama made about Mr. Trump’s décor choices. The former president had said the White House now looks like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” rankling Mr. Trump. Mr. Obama on Wednesday characterized the president’s pique over his comment as “distractions” and “phony outrage.”
The two men will be joined by a third president on Friday. Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to campaign in Mississippi, where Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee for Senate, has mounted a surprisingly strong challenge in a state that last elected a Democrat to the chamber in 1982.
Tens of millions of Americans have already cast their ballots, as early voting is well underway. As of Wednesday night, more than 40 million had either gone to vote or mailed in their ballot, according to data collected by the University of Florida’s Election Lab, which tracks early voting.
Along with dispatching Mr. Trump to rally the MAGA base, the White House has also turned to pre-emptive legal action. Last week, Mr. Trump directed the Department of Justice to sue to block certification of the Senate race should Mary Peltola, the Democratic candidate in Alaska, win.
He went further on Wednesday, calling for her criminal prosecution after a New York Times report that her campaign was involved in recruiting candidates to draw votes from the Republican incumbent, Senator Dan Sullivan, including one with the same name as him.
Later on Wednesday, Alaska’s Republican governor, Mike Dunleavy, said he was ordering an investigation into whether Ms. Peltola’s campaign should face criminal charges or civil penalties.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
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New Hampshire debate: Representative Chris Pappas, a Democrat, and former Senator John E. Sununu, a Republican, had a tense debate, fighting over Social Security and the cause of the high cost of living. The two men are battling for the seat of the retiring Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat. Read more ›
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A split city: In Mason, Mich., residents are united against a proposed data center that they say is a threat to their way of life. But they are divided on which House candidate — Tom Barrett, the Republican, or William Lawrence, the Democrat — is best suited to protect them from the development.
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No show of support: After Representative Haley Stevens lost Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary to Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in August, she pledged to campaign with him. But the election is now days away, and the two have yet to appear together. Read more ›
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