Trump fights on home turf as Democratic midterm hopes rise
Republicans are defending territory they never expected to be at risk four weeks before Election Day, as President Donald Trump implores voters not to desert his party with the promise of more cash giveaways.
A top White House adviser, meanwhile, argued Sunday on CNN that “partisan pollsters” are wrong that voters are hurting financially — a message that suggests a disconnect between the country and a president who boasts of an economic “golden age.”
And polling released over the weekend pointed to growing peril for the GOP, with Democrats leading or in tight races in states Trump won easily two years ago, amid signs that Latino voters, who helped power him back to the White House, are drifting away.
The Iran war remains an anvil for Republicans heading into the final stretch of the midterms, with few signs that high gasoline and diesel prices will return to cheaper levels soon — at least in time for voters to feel the difference by November 2.
Still, polls four weeks away do not forecast directly how the election will turn out, and there is palpable nervousness among Democrats with painful memories of their past defeats by a president who is now throwing everything at the final weeks.
The intensifying political combat underscores the critical stakes of the election, as Democrats aim for House and Senate majorities they’d likely use to probe deep into Trump’s White House and his family’s finances during the final years of his term.
Democrats need only a few pickups to win back control of the House, where they currently have 214 seats, compared with 219 Republicans (including one independent who caucuses with the majority). They need a net gain of four seats to win the Senate in a duel that carries the tantalizing possibility of a Supreme Court nominating fight after conservative Justice Samuel Alito told CBS News that he now considers retirement every term.
Trump, seeking to defy approval ratings in the 30s, campaigned in deep-red Alabama on Friday; on Saturday he spoke at a rally in Ohio, which he won by 11 points in 2024 but where a critical Senate race this year is too close to call. His travel schedule is another sign his party is on the defensive a month out.
He pleaded with Republican voters in the Deep South to “pretend I’m on the ballot” and waxed about the unprecedented “golden age” he says he’s conjured. In an apparent attempt to sweeten his message, the White House announced a $90 payment to around 20 million seniors who are on Medicare Part B. Last month, Trump promised every American adult $5,000 if Republicans win the midterms. In Ohio on Saturday night, the president crudely promised his voters victory against the Democrats, if only they’d turn out in huge numbers to vote. “We’re going to win big, and we’re going to shove it up their ass,” he said.
Supporters of US President Donald Trump wait for him to speaks at a midterm campaign rally at The Mitchell Center of the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama on October 2.Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Trump aide tells CNN tales of ‘depressed’ voters are false
The White House is pushing back hard on a narrative of economic pain.
“Ahead of an election cycle, the fact that there’s possibly partisan pollsters telling us that the people are really, really depressed, it’s a classic Democrat move,” Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday. Hassett blamed high prices for groceries and food on former President Joe Biden and argued that fresh government data Friday showing only 29,000 jobs were created in September was an outlier.
Democrats claim that such characterizations reflect denial in the White House. “People can’t afford their lives,” Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” dismissing Trump’s promised payouts as “trying to buy votes.”
GOP Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana warned that the biggest election issue was the cost of living. “We have to tell the American people the truth,” Kennedy said. He added on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “we (keep) telling them not to believe their own lying checkbooks.”
“The American people, both sides, feel anger,” Kennedy said. “If they don’t feel anger, they feel deep melancholy.”
Multiple polls back up Kennedy’s assertions on the economy. In the latest, for CBS News this weekend, 70% of voters said Trump’s policies were pushing prices up. And 56% said Trump’s policies were responsible for today’s economy, while only 20% blamed Biden. In an AP/NORC poll last week, 69% of adults said that Trump’s handling of the cost of living had been worse than expected.
Democrats have offered scant details about what they’d do to cut the cost of living. But in a midterm election that is shaping up as a referendum on an unpopular president, that may not matter.
Trump has complained that “nobody’s selling” the fact that “there’s no economy like this economy.” But he’s hardly sticking to one single message himself. He appeared to share Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton’s cell phone number on social media Saturday amid a dispute over daylight saving time; on Sunday, he lashed out at Fox News for not sufficiently covering his Ohio rally and filled Truth Social with photos of himself with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and AI illustrations staking claims to Greenland.
Birds fly above the dome of the US Capitol on August 7.Nathan Howard/Reuters
A map once thought problematic brims with possibility for Democrats
A Senate map once thought to favor Republicans now looks challenging for the party that currently holds both the House and the Senate as part of a monopoly on Washington power. On Friday, a top GOP super PAC paused spending on a Republican-held seat in North Carolina, where Michael Whatley trails in the polls.
Fresh New York Times/Siena polls published Saturday showed Democrats leading in the races for Republican-held Senate seats in Alaska and Texas. The surveys also found no clear leader in races in Ohio, Kansas and Iowa — results that will also cheer Democrats because the seats are currently held by Republicans and Trump romped to victory in each state in 2024. Trump’s approval rating on the economy languishes at or below 40% in each of the states. And roughly half of voters surveyed want a candidate who will provide a check on Trump.
Other tight races are raging in Michigan, where progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is trying to keep retiring Sen. Gary Peters’ seat for Democrats; and in Maine, where Democrats finally hope to pick off longtime GOP Sen. Susan Collins.
In another danger sign for the GOP, a new NBC/Telemundo poll released Sunday found Latino voters saying by a 24-point margin that they’d prefer to see the Democrats win Congress. Just 27% of Latino voters approve of Trump’s job performance overall, with 20% approving of his handling of the cost of living.
In 2024, Trump forged historic breakthroughs in virtually every segment of the Latino community, leading to hopes among some GOP strategists of a permanent realignment. But there’s been a backlash to the White House’s intensive deportation campaign. In knife-edge states including Texas, where Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico is conjuring hopes of a first statewide victory for his party in more than 30 years, Latino defections could prove hugely significant.
Voter sentiment can change in the final weeks before an election, and Trump insists pollsters always underplay MAGA support. It would not be a surprise if key races tighten, especially if the base rallies for the president one last time.
Trump beseeched Americans during his rally in Alabama to recognize he’d made “unbelievable progress” and promised “new levels of greatness.”
But the evidence of nationwide angst over the cost of living is compelling. And since Trump promised to fix the issue in 2024, the election may come down to this simple question: Do voters believe his invocations of a “golden age”?
