Trump, Vance Hit Campaign Trail for GOP10/01 06:20

   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.

   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.

   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.