Trump Heads to Iowa and Kansas Rallies as Early Voting Tops a Record 52 Million Before Tuesday's Midterms
The president campaigns Sunday in two Farm Belt states where his party is defending Senate seats, while the University of Florida's Election Lab counts more than 52 million ballots already cast - a midterm record, up from nearly 46 million in 2022.
President Donald Trump returns to the campaign trail on Sunday with rallies in Iowa and Kansas, Republican-leaning Farm Belt states where his party is fighting to hold U.S. Senate seats two days before midterm elections that will decide control of Congress, Reuters reported. Trump won Iowa by double digits in 2024, but polls show Democrats tied with or leading Republicans in many of the state's races, and Trump's approval among rural Americans fell to a new low of 45 percent in October, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. Kansas, which last elected a Democratic senator in 1932, is also facing an unexpectedly close race.
Thirty-five Senate seats and all 435 House seats are on the ballot on Tuesday. Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority and a narrow edge in the House; losing either chamber would let Democrats block Trump's agenda for his final two years in office and launch investigations of an administration that has so far faced largely compliant Republican majorities. The outcome will be decided in part by voters who have already finished voting: more than 52 million Americans have already voted in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab - a record for a midterm, and up from nearly 46 million who voted before Election Day in 2022.
The closing weekend is running on two tracks at once. As Trump campaigns, his administration said on Saturday it would likely take its fight over thousands of California mail ballots to the Supreme Court - acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter said any request would come before Tuesday's election - after a federal judge rejected the Justice Department's request to block California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters it alleges are likely noncitizens. In Alaska's pivotal Senate race, federal prosecutors are investigating whether aides to Democratic challenger Mary Peltola helped recruit a retired schoolteacher who shares the incumbent's name to run; Peltola and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have denied involvement. Voters who spoke to Reuters in Anchorage on Saturday had mixed views on the investigation and the legal fights.
