President Donald Trump closed out his midterm election campaign Sunday evening with final stops in Iowa and Kansas, even as a troubling poll placed Republican candidates behind in all seven of the Senate’s most closely watched contests.
Trump had made 30 rally appearances in an effort to energize his MAGA supporters and avert a Democratic wave that could erase the GOP’s majorities in both the House and Senate.
However, a late-breaking New York Times/Siena poll found Democrats leading in each of the seven toss-up Senate races, including the contests in the two states Trump visited on the final day.
In Dubuque, Iowa, the President spent more than two hours onstage campaigning for Representative Ashley Hinson, the Republican seeking a Senate seat.
During the appearance, Trump—who has made similar comments about other candidates at his rallies—focused attention on the 43-year-old congresswoman’s appearance.
‘I knew Ashley for a long time, and she was a little bit heavier. OK? She was,’ Trump told the crowd. ‘And she went out – the old-fashioned way too, not with the, you know, give me a shot.’
A protester interrupted him as he delivered the remark.
‘They always do it, right in the middle of my punchline!’ the President complained.
President Donald Trump gestures to his crowd Sunday in Dubuque, Iowa, where he held the first of two final midterm campaign rallies
President Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally in Salina, Kansas, with the Qatari-gifted Air Force One parked behind him and a Elvis-Trump mash-up on the rally’s jumbotrons
Trump then resumed his account of Hinson’s weight loss.
‘She was great the other way, but she put herself in shape,’ Trump said. ‘And she did that for you,’ he told the audience, offering Hinson a strong public endorsement.
Trump also addressed the day’s major political surprise in Iowa: Michigan Democratic Representative Haley Stevens’ decision to endorse Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers instead of her party’s nominee, Abdul El-Sayed.
The split followed tensions between Stevens and El-Sayed over Israel. Her sudden change of allegiance on Sunday led to her expulsion from Michigan’s Democratic Party.
‘It was just an incredible thing. She just went out and she endorsed Mike Rogers. And Mike Rogers is doing well. He’s apple pie. Mike Rogers is apple pie,’ Trump said.
Trump added that he would welcome Stevens switching to the Republican Party.
Stevens had challenged El-Sayed in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, prompting some party members to interpret her backing of Rogers as an expression of resentment.
Trump mentioned El-Sayed repeatedly at both events, once again saying the Senate would require a ‘metal detector’ if the Muslim Democrat were elected.
An attendee at President Donald Trump’s Dubuque, Iowa, rally was sporting a T-shirt that read, ‘I love ICE raids’
President Donald Trump gestures as he talks about the ‘weave’ during his Dubuque, Iowa rally, where his speech stretched for more than two hours
‘We’re not going to let the jihadists, the communists, whoever the h*** we got. I shouldn’t use the word. Should I use it or not?’ he asked the Dubuque crowd. ‘We’ve got more crap running for office,’ Trump then said, enunciating ‘crap.’
‘We’re not going to stand for it,’ he added.
The President’s Sunday double-header was announced Friday after both rallies had been cancelled by Trump less than 24 hours before.
The White House put them back on Trump’s schedule after he blew up at a Reuters reporter who had asked him Thursday whether he was getting ‘sick’ of all the travel.
Proving that wasn’t the case, in Iowa, Trump spoke for more than two hours, nearly breaking his own rally speech record.
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‘This isn’t rambling. This isn’t rambling. This is genius,’ the President told the crowd at one hour and 17 minutes in.
He spoke for one hour and 24 minutes in Salina, Kansas, after dazzling the crowd with an Air Force One flyover.
‘I could have been home watching television or some crappy thing,’ he joked once onstage.
Kansas Senator Roger Marshall watches President Donald Trump speak at his final campaign rally in Salina, Kansas
Trump then explained it was important for him to come out and once again rally for Senator Roger Marshall, who’s facing a tough reelection fight against Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton.
‘We’re shutting it down tonight, can you believe it? I wanted to make you the last but the best,’ Trump said.
‘I did not want to interrupt your football game, but maybe I should have,’ he then added.
The Kansas City Chiefs were beaten by the Chicago Bears earlier that afternoon.
‘That was a nasty ending, wasn’t it?’
In the hour that followed, Trump went after some of his favorite Democratic punching bags, including El-Sayed and Representative Ilhan Omar.
He, again, promised Americans $5,000 checks if the Republicans win the midterms.
Trump also made Secretary of State Marco Rubio come onstage.
‘He’s getting a little too popular; I’m not happy about this,’ Trump said. ‘I don’t like it. I don’t like it. He gets any more popular, I’m going to have to say, “you’re fired.”‘
When it wrapped, he danced vigorously to YMCA, including with a golf swing motion.
President Donald Trump (left) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (right) embrace onstage at the President’s rally Sunday afternoon in Dubuque, Iowa, where the President spoke for more than two hours
Trump leaves the campaign trail with polls showing the Democrats likely flipping the House of Representatives.
They only need to win three additional seats.
The final NYT/Siena poll showed Democrats in position to win Senate seats in Kansas, Texas, Maine, Ohio and Michigan – though Stevens’ high-profile defection could impact the race.
More narrowly, the Democratic candidate was ahead in Iowa and Alaska.
In the Senate, the Democrats need to pick up four seats to gain control.
In Iowa, House Speaker Mike Johnson came onstage and told the MAGA crowd to ignore the polls.
‘And I can tell you: you can dismiss the polls,’ he assured the crowd. ‘OK. The polls are wrong around the country.’
He also briefly tried doing a Trump impression and praised the President’s stamina after all of these rallies.
‘Sleep is for sissies,’ Johnson said.