Trump and Obama Pound the Campaign Trail in the Closing Week, With Control of Congress Riding on Ohio and Georgia

Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic former President Barack Obama head to Ohio and Georgia on Wednesday, the sites of critical contests in the November 3 midterm election that will determine which party controls the U.S. Congress for the next two years, Reuters reported. The final week of the campaign is playing out with Trump's public approval rating near a record low, with Americans increasingly sour on the high cost of living and the Iran war, threatening Republicans' majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Trump, who has spent the past few weeks on the campaign trail, is set to appear with Senator Jon Husted of Ohio as he faces off with Democratic former Senator Sherrod Brown, in one of the most competitive contests that will determine whether Republicans hold their 53-47 advantage in that chamber. Obama, meanwhile, is due to appear with Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who is facing a challenge by Republican Representative Mike Collins. Georgia has been so competitive in recent federal election cycles that its three most recent Senate matchups went to runoffs, though this time nonpartisan analysts see the Democratic incumbent as in a strong position to hold his seat. Obama had kept a relatively low public profile until the past week, when he returned to the campaign trail with blistering speeches criticizing his successor.

Americans have been voting for weeks, with more than 39 million ballots already cast, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab; a total of 45.9 million Americans voted early in the last midterms, in 2022. Nonpartisan analysts generally favor Democrats' chances of capturing a majority in the House, with the contest for the Senate seen as likely to be harder fought, as Democrats will need to pick up seats in traditionally Republican-leaning states such as Ohio, Iowa or Alaska for the 51 seats they would need for a majority. In recent weeks, Trump has taken steps meant to help ease energy prices, and separately promised billions of dollars in direct payments to millions of Americans, as he seeks to turn out MAGA supporters in rural areas who might not typically be midterm voters.

The undercard fights are drawing heavyweight help too. In Michigan, where Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed are locked in a tight race for the Senate seat being vacated by Democratic Senator Gary Peters, Rogers spent the day campaigning with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on a four-stop bus tour culminating in Imlay City, northeast of Detroit, while El-Sayed was scheduled to join Peters and Senator Elissa Slotkin for an evening canvassing rally. And running underneath the rallies is a legal campaign: Trump's administration has issued more than 100 subpoenas to state and local election officials in at least a dozen states demanding records on tens of thousands of voters, Reuters reported Wednesday, and on Tuesday a judge appeared skeptical of the Justice Department's request to block California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters the administration alleges are noncitizens. For Texas voters, the same ballot that decides those fights also decides the state's own Senate race and every statewide office - early voting here runs through Friday.