By Andrew Goudsward, David Morgan and Nathan Frandino
WASHINGTON/ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Nov 1 (Reuters) – 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 US Senate seats, two days before midterm elections that will decide control of Congress.
Trump, who spent Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida after weeks of campaigning across multiple states, 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% 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.
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.
LEGAL FIGHTS
As Trump campaigns, his administration is pressing a criminal investigation in Alaska’s pivotal Senate race and said on Saturday it would likely take its fight over thousands of California mail ballots to the Supreme Court.
“I hesitate to give a final answer, but I think probably the Supreme Court’s next on this one,” acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter told Fox News, adding that any request would come before Tuesday’s election.
A federal judge earlier this week 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, after a federal appeals court denied an earlier emergency request. California has said the state’s safeguards against noncitizen voting, which is illegal, are robust.
In Alaska, federal prosecutors are investigating whether aides to Democratic challenger Mary Peltola helped recruit a retired schoolteacher, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., to run because he shares a name with the Republican incumbent, Senator Dan S. Sullivan. The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Peltola aides worked with staff at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on the effort.
Peltola and the campaign committee have denied involvement, and Sullivan Jr. has denied coordinating with Peltola’s campaign.
The US Justice Department has asked a federal court to prevent the certification of Alaska’s vote if the incumbent senator loses narrowly.
Voters who spoke to Reuters on Saturday in Anchorage, Alaska, had mixed views on the investigation and legal fights.
“I am concerned that the longer it takes for those votes to be counted, the more shenanigans will happen, especially with our current president making comments about wanting to invalidate the current election and the current votes that are coming in,” said Ames Tonneson, 24.
Art Paul, 52, took the potential upheaval in stride.
“In this case, if there’s a close race or investigation, I understand. … It’s part of the process,” Paul said. “And you gotta be patient. So I’d like it to be faster, but I understand why it’s not.”
MICHIGAN RIFT
In Michigan, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers in another closely watched Senate race, it was unclear whether US Representative Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat and the rival El-Sayed beat in the primary, would attend a Detroit event with him on Sunday that had been billed as a show of party unity.
El-Sayed has previously accused Stevens of “relitigating” the Democratic primary. On Saturday, he again alluded to the outcome of the primary.
“I understand that some folks are upset about that,” El-Sayed told reporters at a rally in Sterling Heights, Michigan, that took place on his 42nd birthday. “But I’m here trying to beat Mike Rogers.”
El-Sayed’s campaign asked Stevens to skip his events through Election Day so as “not to distract from the central issues of the campaign,” a person familiar with the matter said. Stevens has demanded he condemn an outside group’s ad that she says blames Israel for high grocery prices.
“It’s certainly unhelpful to the El-Sayed campaign to have continued visible division within the party just before Election Day,” said Matt Grossmann, a political scientist at Michigan State University. Polls show El-Sayed has largely consolidated Democratic support.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward and David Morgan in Washington and Nathan Frandino in Anchorage; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne, Laura Matthews and Leah Douglas; Writing by Brad Brooks; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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