Trump visits Ohio again while Obama rallies in Georgia ahead of Nov. 3 vote

President Donald Trump returns to Ohio on Wednesday for his third trip to the state in one month, a move that underscores the defensive posture of the Republican Party in the final week of the midterm campaign. While Trump focuses on states he won by wide margins two years ago, former President Barack Obama is scheduled to rally Democrats in Georgia, positioning himself as a direct counter to the current administration.

The campaign timeline has intensified over the past week. Trump visited Mississippi on Monday and Texas on Tuesday. He is scheduled to travel to South Carolina, Florida, Kansas, and Iowa in the days before the November 3 election. These stops coincide with Americans facing record fuel prices, rising costs of living, and an ongoing war in Iran.

In North Carolina, Vice President JD Vance is campaigning to protect a vulnerable 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. Republicans in the state have expressed pessimism about retaining the seat.

The Ohio race features wealthy biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy for governor, who is running against former public health official Amy Acton. The Senate race pits Sen. Jon Husted against former Sen. Sherrod Brown. Husted aims to finish out the remainder of Vance’s term.

A late-season controversy has emerged in the Ramaswamy-Acton race. Ramaswamy’s campaign ran an ad in which Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, called her daughter a liar who needs help due to a serious problem with honesty about her past. Arthur has not seen Acton in nearly 50 years and lost custody of her children after her husband was indicted for raping Acton when she was 12. Acton states she has not seen her mother since 1978. Trump backed the ad, while other Republicans, including Husted, have distanced themselves from it.

In Georgia, Obama will appear alongside Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor seeking to become the first Black woman elected governor in the United States. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for reelection, will also be present. Ossoff is considered a potential future presidential candidate.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio will join Trump in Ohio, according to a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because Rubio’s schedule had not been made public. Rubio accompanied Trump at two events in Texas on Tuesday, where he made brief nonpolitical comments about serving the country. His appearance was coupled with an announcement of a major delivery of crude oil from Venezuela, an issue on which he has been intimately involved.