Trump reverses course and reinstates cancelled Kansas and Iowa rallies days before midterms

President Donald Trump reinstated campaign rallies in Kansas and Iowa on Friday, one day after the Republican National Committee cancelled both events and replaced them with virtual tele-rallies. The in-person rallies will now take place Sunday, two days before Tuesday’s midterm elections, where Democrats are pushing to retake both chambers of Congress.

The whiplash began Thursday evening, when the RNC announced that the Kansas and Iowa rallies would be scrapped in favor of tele-rallies, claiming Republicans were in a “strong position” in both states. RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said in a press release that the virtual format would be “a huge boost in the closing days,” arguing it would let Trump reach more voters more efficiently. Trump himself told reporters Thursday, “I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas,” citing Republican Senator Roger Marshall’s poll performance. He insisted Republicans would have “a strong Tuesday night.” By Friday morning, a source close to the Trump administration confirmed the rallies were back on, saying they had been rearranged to accommodate the tele-rallies, which allow Trump to attend virtually. Those tele-rallies are still going forward Saturday, targeting 19 states.

Kansas: a race Trump said didn’t need him

Marshall is locked in an increasingly competitive Senate race against Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor, in a state that has not elected a Democrat to a full Senate term since 1932. An Emerson College poll released Friday — the same day the rallies were reinstated — found Hamilton leading Marshall, 49 percent to 45 percent. Marshall had defended Trump’s initial decision to cancel the Kansas rally, telling reporters that Trump’s team probably felt Marshall was doing well enough in the polls that the president had better places to spend his time. Trump, for his part, maintained that Republicans were headed for a strong election night despite the tightening margins in states his party has long considered safe.

Iowa and the closing sprint

Iowa’s Senate race between GOP Representative Ashley Hinson and Democratic state legislator Josh Turek appears neck and neck, and Democrats hold a small edge in Iowa’s gubernatorial and Senate races. The Saturday tele-rallies will target competitive Senate races in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas, and South Carolina, along with competitive House or gubernatorial races in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Trump has said he would travel to 35 locations to boost Republican turnout, and he has held 25 rallies this month alone. On Friday, he was expected at a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, boosting Senate nominee Ashley Moody and gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds.

Stamina and headwinds

Trump, 80, sounded hoarse at a rally in Corinth, Mississippi, on Monday, telling the crowd, “God didn’t make your vocal cords to do a rally every day.” By Thursday, after campaigning for Senator Darline Graham in Rock Hill, South Carolina, he told a reporter, “I feel perfect.” He lashed out at a Reuters reporter who asked whether the cancellation stemmed from travel fatigue, calling the reporter “sick” and “disgusting.” Trump’s approval ratings have been declining, and voters are disgruntled with his handling of the cost of living, exacerbated by the US war on Iran. Democrats hope to capitalize on that discontent to retake both the House and the Senate. David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama, described the cancellation as a “strategic retreat” on social media.