Trump begins 32-day midterm blitz with Texas and Oklahoma rallies

President Donald Trump began a 32-day campaign blitz on Thursday with rallies in Denton, Texas, and Durant, Oklahoma, aiming to bolster Republican candidates as his party fights to hold its slim congressional majorities in the 3 November midterm elections. Trump spoke for 55 minutes at a Peterbilt truck factory in north Texas before heading to a rally in southern Oklahoma.aljazeera.com+1

The blitz matters because Trump wants to be the face of the party's midterm effort at a time when some Republican candidates are unsure whether his presence will help or hurt them. Voter discontent over his handling of the economy has shifted the electoral map, with some safe Republican seats now viewed as competitive in November by political analysts.biz.heraldcorp.com

Why safe states are now battlegrounds

Trump's own poll numbers frame the trip. On Thursday, the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released poll results showing 71 percent of Americans disapprove of the war, which has driven up fuel prices. Only 26 percent approved of Trump's handling of the economy, and about half of survey respondents said they were worried they could not afford food and petrol.

At the Peterbilt plant, Trump offered a personal assessment of his administration. "I give us an A+ on the government, on economics, on everything," he told supporters, adding: "We're doing an extremely poor job of promotion and an extremely great job of running the country." He also said: "Every place I've gone, we win," and "My heart is in it like never before."

The economics of the stop cut against the message. Diesel in Texas hit a record high of $5.97 per gallon two weeks ago, and average gas costs are up almost 44% at $3.92 per gallon compared to this time last year, according to travel analyst AAA. The White House says Trump-era truck tariffs helped PACCAR, owner of Peterbilt, add more than 2,000 jobs nationwide, including some 1,000 at the Texas plant.ksl.com

Where the numbers came from

Texas is among eight US Senate races rated competitive. Republican candidate Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general, is expected to appear with Trump at a stop north of Dallas, his campaign said. A leaked recording showed Paxton telling donors that Trump's midterm convention in September hurt him and other Republican candidates; the Paxton campaign dismissed the recording as "manipulated nonsense." Trump told reporters on Wednesday he had not heard about it.

Oklahoma is not a competitive state: Trump won it with more than 66% of the vote in the 2024 presidential election, and he won Alabama and Oklahoma by margins of more than 30 percentage points. The Republican National Committee said the Durant rally location near the Texas border was chosen in part to attract supporters from neighbouring Texas, where Paxton and James Talarico are competing for the Senate seat.

Within the party, some officials worry about the quantity of seats Republicans risk losing. A Republican official said that "Visiting Alabama and Oklahoma is definitely a bit unusual."

What comes next on the trail

The scale of what is at stake is fixed: all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs, as are 35 seats in the 100-member Senate. Trump has pledged to visit all 35 competitive districts on his tour, and Vice President JD Vance also campaigned in Florida on Thursday to promote the administration's record.

The schedule ahead runs through several states. Trump is set to rally in Alabama on Friday, in Ohio on Saturday, and in Nebraska on Monday. Ohio Senator Jon Husted faces a close re-election race, and Nebraska Republicans are defending a challenging House race in Omaha and a Senate race that has shown signs of tightening.

Forecasts at this stage favour Democrats to take the House, while the Senate remains a toss-up with Republicans holding a slim edge. The next dated event on Trump's own itinerary is his Friday rally in Alabama, followed by Ohio on Saturday and Nebraska on Monday, as the 32-day blitz continues toward the 3 November midterm election.