President Donald Trump's campaign to keep Republicans in control of Congress in the Nov. 3 midterms is returning to Ohio for the third time in a month on Wednesday, while former President Barack Obama is set to rally Democrats in Georgia.
With less than a week until Election Day, Trump is keeping his focus on states that he won handily two years ago as Americans confront record fuel prices, rising costs and an unpopular war in Iran.
Vice President JD Vance was focusing on North Carolina, where Republicans have been pessimistic about retaining a Senate seat. Former national party chair Michael Whatley faces Democrat Roy Cooper, a former governor, in the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.
Trump's stops in the closing stretch of the campaign reflect Republicans' defensive posture as the party's finances — and the president's signature super PAC, MAGA Inc. — have helped sustain candidates. He visited Mississippi on Monday and Texas on Tuesday, and plans to be in South Carolina, Florida, Kansas and Iowa in the coming days.
Obama, the last Democratic president to serve two terms, is increasingly campaigning for his party, acting as a foil to Trump. In Michigan recently, Obama criticized the Republican over his White House renovations and for becoming wealthier while in office.
Obama plans to appear in Georgia with former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is seeking to become the first Black woman elected governor in the United States, and Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for reelection and is considered a potential future presidential candidate.
In Ohio, the Republican ticket includes wealthy biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy for governor and Sen. Jon Husted, who hopes to fulfill the remainder of Vance's term.
Husted, who played football in college, has been the recipient of Trump's lavish praise for Republican candidates' physical appearance, and the president often diverts into tangents about the senator's physique no matter where he is campaigning.
Former Sen. Sherrod Brown is the Democratic nominee.
Ramaswamy faces former public health official Amy Acton. His campaign has created a late-season controversy over an ad it ran, with Acton's mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter "a liar" who "needs help" due to "a serious problem" being honest about her past.
Arthur has not seen her daughter in nearly 50 years and lost custody of her children after her husband, the children's stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton when she was 12. Acton, Ohio's former state health director, says she has not seen her mother since 1978.
Trump backed the ad but other Republicans, including Husted, have distanced themselves from it.
Joining Trump in Ohio will be Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because Rubio’s schedule had not been made public. Rubio accompanied Trump at two events Tuesday in Texas, where the president coaxed Rubio onto a stage. Trump's top diplomat and national security adviser made brief nonpolitical comments about how he was honored to serve the country and work for the president.
Secretaries of state traditionally have avoided domestic politics for protocol and legal reasons. Rubio seemed to tread a fine line at the Texas event. His appearance was coupled with an announcement of a major delivery of crude oil from Venezuela, an issue on which he has been intimately involved. ___
AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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