Trump and Vance hit the campaign trail in deep-red areas where GOP
candidates seek a boost
[October 01, 2026]
By MICHELLE L. PRICE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance
will both hit the campaign trail on Thursday, but they will be heading
to heavily Republican areas to shore up lagging enthusiasm in their
party ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
Trump’s travel on Thursday to Texas and Oklahoma kicks off what the
president said will be a 32-day campaign blitz leading up to Nov. 3.
His visit comes as Vance at the same time will be stumping in Florida,
putting the Republican Party’s highest-ranking officials in areas where
GOP candidates once expected to have glide paths to victory but are now
facing tougher races.
Republicans have expressed growing pessimism about their chances in the
election, which will determine control of Congress, as the president has
repeatedly dismissed concerns about high costs and gas prices and his
unpopular war in Iran drags on.
According to Trump, his party’s headwinds are merely a matter of poor
public relations about a job he says is well done.
“We’re not getting the word out,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I
mean, we’re just not getting it.”
That’s why, he said, he will be traveling all over and trying to
persuade GOP voters to pretend his name is on the ballot.
“I’m going out because nobody’s selling it,” Trump said.
Democrats say Trump, Republicans are desperate
Delanie Bomar, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee,
said in a statement that “the president is barnstorming the country,
energizing our base, and supercharging Republican candidates in
battleground districts and beyond. We have the resources to spend, and
Republicans are full steam ahead to protect and expand our majorities.”
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 final stretch to the midterms — they’re desperately pleading with
voters to ’give (them) another chance,'” said DNC Deputy Communications
Director Kendall Witmer.
In Oklahoma, Trump will campaign with Republican Mike Mazzei, who is
running against Democratic state House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson in
the race for governor.
Democratic Governors Association spokesperson Kevin Donohoe said Trump’s
campaign rally shows that Republicans “are in full-on panic mode.”
“This race continues to get more competitive — and national Republicans
are right to be worried about Mazzei,” he said.
The event will be held on the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, putting him in
the company of just a handful of U.S. presidents who have visited tribal
nations while in office.
Before his evening Oklahoma stop, Trump will tour a truck manufacturing
facility in Texas, where Republicans are spending heavily to try to
bolster state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a Senate race. Paxton faces
a very competitive challenge from Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.
Paxton was planning to be with Trump at the official White House event
Thursday in Denton, two campaign officials familiar with Paxton’s plans
said on condition of anonymity to discuss the candidate’s schedule
before it was made public.
Vance is also stumping for GOP candidates
Trump will be campaigning in more politically competitive areas in the
days and weeks ahead as he embarks on his travel blitz, but Republican
officials will not 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 spoke on condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to speak publicly.
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President Donald Trump speaks during an East Room event at the White
House celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, Wednesday, Sept. 30,
2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Trump’s Oklahoma visit, and likewise one on Friday to Alabama, are
aimed at hitting two targets with one stop, the person said.
Republican officials have noted that Durant is close to the Dallas
and Fort Worth media market, meaning Trump’s message will also be
carried to Texas voters, and he’s expected to talk about Paxton even
while addressing voters in the neighboring state.
His Friday stop in Mobile, Alabama, is aimed at boosting not only
Sen. Tommy Tuberville as he runs for Alabama governor, but shoring
up support in Florida’s adjacent panhandle for Republican Rep. Byron
Donalds. Donalds is running for Florida governor against David
Jolly, the Republican-turned-independent who is now running as a
Democrat.
Donalds' campaign in heavily-GOP Florida comes as Republicans there
have faced some turbulence and voter concerns about affordability
and data centers have become central issues.
While Trump is in Oklahoma and Texas, Vance will stump with Donalds
in central Florida on Thursday.
Vance’s visit to Lakeland comes a day after the vice president
campaigned in Texas. He rallied with Republican candidate Eric
Flores, who is in a tight U.S. House race in south Texas.
Vance, speaking in Harlingen, Texas on Wednesday, acknowledged
broader discontentment over the high prices in the U.S., but shifted
the blame away from Trump and Republicans.
“I know that there are people out there who are frustrated by the
pace of progress,” he said, but ”we have spent every single day
fighting for you, diggin’ ourselves out of the hole that Joe Biden
left us in.”
Trump will also campaign on Saturday in Vandalia, Ohio; and Monday
in Grand Island, Nebraska.
Trump expected to campaign for GOP almost daily
In a meeting on Capitol Hill this week, White House chief of staff
Susie Wiles described privately to GOP senators that Trump will have
a near-daily sprint of campaigning ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
Wiles showed Republicans the president’s upcoming travel schedule,
which attendees described as extensive and almost every day, all
across the country.
West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said White House
officials are “acknowledging the headwinds” but that “they have a
strategy, and we have a strategy,” including money that the
president’s operation will continue to deploy.
Capito also defended the White House’s plan to send Trump to
traditionally conservative territory, arguing that he can motivate
the Republican base not just in where he travels but elsewhere in
the country because Trump has such a broad reach.
“He can get more of his voters out — that are going to be our voters
— than anybody else,” Capito said.
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Associated Press reporters Seung Min Kim in Washington, Jesse Bedayn
in Austin, Texas, and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa,
contributed to this report.
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