WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Republican lawmakers facing tough re-election fights to run on his White House record and pledged to campaign in about 35 House and Senate contests that he said will decide control of Congress, the AP reported.
The AP said voters’ dim views of the economy and the war in Iran have put Republicans in a difficult position as the midterm season nears its final stretch. Trump sought to counter that perception during a Rose Garden dinner for his party’s most vulnerable lawmakers, the AP reported.
At the event, which the AP described as being held in one of the spaces Trump has controversially renovated since returning to the White House, menus checkered in yellow gingham billed the gathering as an “end of summer BBQ” featuring cheeseburgers. “All you have to do is talk about it, and you’re going to win and you’re going to win big,” Trump told the lawmakers, according to the AP.
Trump said he would spend the 30 days before the election campaigning in the roughly 35 battlegrounds and recalled the aggressive travel schedule he used ahead of his 2016 victory. He named Senate races in Alaska, where Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan faces Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola, and in Texas, where Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is running against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, the AP reported.
Trump acknowledged the historical trend of presidents’ parties losing ground in midterms, saying, “Whether you’re a good president or a great president, you lose the midterms. We’re going to turn that around because there’s no reason for it,” the AP reported. The AP also said Trump touted economic investment and lower drug prices while using figures the news agency described as significantly inflated.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
