President Donald Trump on Thursday canceled weekend rallies in Iowa and Kansas, opting instead to support Republican candidates with telerallies that his party said could reach more voters in nearly two dozen states in the final days of a midterm election that could cost the GOP control of Congress.
The president traveled to South Carolina Thursday for the second time in a month, a sign of Republican anxiety about Darline Graham's ability to fend off a robust challenge from Democrat Annie Andrews for a critical US Senate seat.
Voters in South Carolina have not sent a Democrat to the Senate in nearly three decades. But Andrews, a pediatrician who previously ran unsuccessfully for Congress, is urging voters seeking change to “try something new for once.”
That message could resonate in an election year defined by voter frustration with the economy, gas prices and the war in Iran, putting Trump's Republican Party on defense in territory where they have rarely had to compete in recent years.
Beyond South Carolina, Republicans are entering the final days of this year's midterm elections navigating tight contests in Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Iowa and Alaska. Both parties are also closely following developments in the Mississippi Senate race.
The president projected confidence as he returned to the White House, saying, “We're going to have a strong Tuesday night.”
Trump was scheduled to hold a rally in Kansas on Saturday and in Iowa on Sunday. But the Republican National Committee announced Thursday evening that he would instead spend a “72-hour sprint” doing rallies by phone rather than in person, a move the RNC said would maximize Trump's ability to speak to voters nationwide. The RNC said telerallies are planned for nearly 20 states, and more may be announced.
It was an abrupt shift in Trump’s pledge to push through the final days of the campaign doing rally after rally to galvanize his supporters. As of Thursday, he had done 25 rallies during the month of October, falling short of a goal he had once placed north of 30.
Trump says he doesn't need to go to Kansas There were signs the travel and long speeches have caught up with him. On Monday, in Corinth, Mississippi, Trump — whose voice has grown raspy — told the crowd, “God didn’t make your vocal cords to do a rally every day.”
But he bristled Thursday when a reporter asked whether he had canceled plans to travel to Kansas because of his health.
“You’ve been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect,” Trump snapped.
The president said he’s not traveling to Kansas, where GOP Sen. Roger Marshall faces Democrat Adam Hamilton, "because he’s doing very well,” an apparent reference to Marshall.
“I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas,” Trump said.
A campaign strategist with Republican Senate leadership said there was widespread curiosity about why the schedule was changing to telerallies. The strategist spoke on condition of anonymity to share the content of private conversations.
Trump, who revels in big crowds, has this month held rallies in smaller venues than many he once filled. The decision to switch to telerallies means he will be expected to speak for about 10 minutes instead of more than 90, as he does at in-person events.
Trump plans to travel to Daytona Beach, Florida, for a rally Friday. It’s not clear whether he will hold additional in-person events after that. The White House has not published his schedule for Monday, the final day of the campaign.
Democrats took notice.
Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan who's in a tight race against Republican Mike Rogers, said Thursday night that the president's goal of trying to gin up GOP voters has backfired and he has “given up." “He’s an old man, he’s a loser,” El-Sayed continued. “He now understands that he has fully lost the midterms for his party."
Graham has struggled to connect with voters In South Carolina, Graham has struggled to quickly build connections with voters. The sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, she was appointed in July by Republican Gov. Henry McMaster to fill the remaining months of her brother’s term after his sudden death. In August, she became the party’s nominee to succeed him for a full six-year term.
“He was a great politician,” Trump said of Lindsey Graham, before promoting Darline Graham as his elected successor. “She’s got the gene.”
Darline Graham commended the president for having “delivered what Washington promised for decades.” She warned that Andrews “would just throw it all away."
Andrews appeared in nearby Fort Mill on Wednesday, where she said that if voters elect her and become unhappy with her performance on Capitol Hill, “you can fire me in six years.”
South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, who lost to Graham in the GOP Senate primary runoff, has criticized Graham as unqualified. Norman, who has refused to campaign with Graham, said the race is closer than it would have been had he been nominated.
Lonnie Dean Johnson of Sumter, South Carolina, supported Norman in the primary and was voting Graham out of party loyalty, albeit unenthusiastically.
“She’s on a Republican ticket. I, by and large, support the Republican platform," he said. "So, I support her and wish her well.”
Democrats are bullish about Senate races across the US Democrats, meanwhile, are optimistic about their chances of booting GOP incumbent senators, including in Ohio, with an American public frustrated by continued high costs.
“Families see more money going out the door and not enough money coming in,” said Sherrod Brown, the Democratic Senate nominee who's competing against Ohio Republican Sen. Jon Husted. At a rally in Toledo Thursday, Brown said Husted is “looking out for data centers and Wall Street."
Farther north, Alaska's Republican governor has ordered an investigation after The New York Times reported Wednesday that Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola's campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting another candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan.
The Justice Department escalated the investigation Thursday, issuing a raft of new grand jury subpoenas, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
The Justice Department also issued subpoenas to California officials in the latest effort to scrutinize local election administration. A federal judge in California earlier Thursday appointed a special master to evaluate claims by the Trump administration that the state has some 20,000 noncitizens on its voter rolls.
Trump called the development in Alaska a “conspiracy” and called for Peltola to be removed from the ballot. He has cast doubt on whether Peltola would be seated in the Senate even if she won the election.
Peltola’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a message Thursday seeking comment on the governor's order. But during a campaign stop in Soldotna, Peltola, a former congresswoman, suggested the Times’ report was a “distraction” from issues such as Sen. Sullivan’s support of the war in Iran.
The revelation in Alaska was a reminder of the volatility of the midterm campaigns' final days as both parties make decisions about how to spend time and money with control of Congress on the line.
