President Donald Trump's whirlwind campaign to keep Republicans in control of Congress after next week's midterm elections was returning to Ohio on Wednesday for the third time in a month, as President Barack Obama rallied Georgia Democrats.
Trump has done more than 20 rallies this month and has packed upcoming days with more travel, but he's kept 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.
He's also already turned to the courts, directing his Department of Justice to file a lawsuit last week pre-emptively contesting the outcome of Alaska's Senate race should Democratic challenger Mary Peltola win it. That's due to the presence of a second candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Speaking to reporters as he boarded Air Force One to fly to Chillicothe, Ohio, Trump called on Peltola to drop out of the race and warned she could face prosecution.
His comments followed a New York Times report that Peltola's campaign was involved in an effort to recruit the second Dan Sullivan, which Trump called "voter fraud at the highest level," adding, "It turned out it was a scheme by the Democrats. That's what they do best: they cheat." Peltola's campaign said in a statement that it "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign."
Trump sticks mostly to red states in pre-midterm blitz
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 made another in a series of trips to Texas on Tuesday, and plans to be in South Carolina, Florida, Kansas and Iowa in the coming days.
The last Democratic president to serve two terms, Obama 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, meanwhile, is appearing 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.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who appeared with the president in Texas on Tuesday, where Trump coaxed him on stage, pulled down plans to travel to the Ohio rally, according to a State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because Rubio’s schedule had never been formally released.
Also hitting the road was Vice President JD Vance, who campaigned in 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.
“I don’t just want the American dream for me or for my generation. I want it for you, and I want it for the generation that comes after us. I want young people to be able to afford a home. I want my kids to raise a family in a country that is vibrant and thriving and free and prosperous,” the vice president said during an airport rally in Kinston, North Carolina.
He accused Cooper of working for “far-left activists,” and said, “I want the simple things,” adding, “I don’t want the government to do everything for me. I don’t want the government to be my nanny.”
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AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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