President Donald Trump opened an aggressive monthlong campaign push with stops in Texas and Oklahoma while Vice President JD Vance rallied Republicans in Florida, putting the administration’s economic record and GOP turnout strategy at the center of the final stretch before the Nov. 3 midterms.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump launched what he described as a 32-day campaign blitz Thursday with appearances in Texas and Oklahoma, while Vice President JD Vance headed to Florida as the administration began an intensive push to mobilize Republican voters and promote GOP candidates ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Trump began the day in Denton, Texas, northwest of Dallas, where he toured a Peterbilt truck manufacturing facility and spoke to workers before traveling to Oklahoma for an evening campaign event. The Associated Press reported on Trump and Vance’s Thursday campaign stops that the president and vice president were concentrating initially on heavily Republican areas where GOP candidates are working to strengthen turnout.
Trump told the Texas audience that he intended to involve himself directly in the closing weeks of the campaign and rejected suggestions that his enthusiasm for the midterms had diminished.
“I think we’re going to win. Every place I’ve gone, we win,” Trump said.
He said some people had suggested his “heart isn’t in it,” adding that if that were true, he would be “home right now.”
“My heart is in it like never before,” Trump said of the run-up to Election Day.
Trump has indicated that the Texas and Oklahoma appearances are only the beginning of an extensive travel schedule expected to continue nearly every day through the election. Reuters reported that Trump began the 32-day push in Denton and Durant before planned appearances in Alabama, Ohio and Nebraska.
The president’s campaign push comes as economic concerns remain prominent in public polling. A new survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found 17% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the cost of living and 26% approved of his handling of the economy overall. The poll was conducted Sept. 24-28 among 2,140 adults and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. The AP-NORC findings also found widespread concern about grocery and fuel costs.
Trump acknowledged Thursday that Republicans have struggled to persuade voters to credit his administration for economic improvements he says are already underway.
“Maybe we’re doing a bad job selling it,” Trump said in Texas.
He repeatedly argued that affordability problems originated under former President Joe Biden and said his administration is reducing inflationary pressure.
“I think inflation is very real, but they’re the ones that caused the inflation,” Trump said. “I’m the one that’s bringing it down, and we have to be able to get that word out somehow because they’re using the word affordability.”
Trump devoted a substantial portion of his Texas appearance to contrasting his policies with those of the Biden administration while defending his economic, trade and manufacturing agenda.
His stop at the truck plant also placed him in a state where Republicans are spending heavily in the U.S. Senate race between Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.
Paxton joined Trump at the Texas event, where the president offered an endorsement that mixed praise with a joke about the attorney general.
Trump said Paxton “could be a pain in the ass sometimes,” before adding, “We need Ken so badly, and that’s why I’m here.”
Trump backed Paxton during the Republican primary over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. The general election has subsequently drawn significant attention and spending as both parties compete for the seat.
After leaving Texas, Trump headed to Oklahoma to campaign with Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Mazzei, who is running against Democratic state House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson.
The rally was held on the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, making Trump one of a relatively small number of sitting U.S. presidents to visit a tribal nation.
The Durant location also placed Trump near the Dallas-Fort Worth media market, allowing the Oklahoma appearance to reach voters across the state line in Texas.
While Trump campaigned in the Southwest, Vance traveled to Lakeland, Florida, to support Republican Rep. Byron Donalds in the state’s gubernatorial contest against Democrat David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who later became an independent before joining the Democratic Party.
Vance used his appearance to draw a broader contrast between the Republican and Democratic parties.
“I have the easiest job in the world,” Vance said in Lakeland. “I get to talk about how crazy the Democrats are.”
Donalds is seeking the governorship in a state that has moved strongly toward Republicans in recent election cycles, although affordability, housing costs and disputes over artificial intelligence data centers have emerged as prominent issues in Florida politics.
Vance’s Florida appearance followed a campaign stop Wednesday in Harlingen, Texas, where he rallied with Republican congressional candidate Eric Flores in a closely contested South Texas House race.
Trump’s Friday itinerary takes him to Mobile, Alabama, where the event is intended to support Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s campaign for governor while also reaching voters in neighboring Florida’s Panhandle who could affect Donalds’ race.
The president is then scheduled to travel Saturday to Vandalia, Ohio, to campaign with Republican Sen. Jon Husted.
Husted is running against Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is seeking a return to the Senate after losing his seat in 2024. Trump won Ohio by approximately 11 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.
On Monday, Trump is scheduled to campaign in Grand Island, Nebraska, where Republicans are competing in races for both Congress and the U.S. Senate.
The rapid succession of events reflects a strategy White House officials have described to Republican lawmakers as a near-daily campaign schedule through Nov. 3.
Trump has made clear that he wants Republican voters to treat the congressional elections as an extension of his own presidency, arguing that continued GOP control of Congress is important to advancing his administration’s agenda.
His argument on the economy is expected to remain central.
Trump has said the administration should receive credit for investment, manufacturing expansion and other economic developments, while opponents have focused on the prices consumers continue to face for necessities including food, housing and energy.
The AP-NORC polling underscores the gap between Trump’s economic message and current public sentiment. Only 17% of adults surveyed approved of his management of the cost of living, while roughly half said they were extremely or very concerned about being able to afford gasoline and about half expressed the same level of concern over food costs.
Trump has responded by saying the administration’s accomplishments are not being communicated effectively rather than accepting the premise that its economic policies have failed.
That effort to change voters’ perceptions is now becoming a major part of his campaign schedule.
Trump’s Texas and Oklahoma appearances, along with Vance’s Florida rally, opened a final month in which the president and vice president are expected to move between Republican strongholds and more competitive states while campaigning for Senate, House and gubernatorial candidates.
With control of Congress at stake on Nov. 3, Trump is making the case that voters should judge Republican candidates alongside his administration’s record — and he has indicated he intends to personally carry that argument across the country through Election Day.
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