Trump Takes the Final Sunday to Iowa and Kansas as a Record 52 Million Americans Have Already Voted
Two days before an election that decides control of Congress, the president campaigns in two Farm Belt states where Senate seats are unexpectedly close — and the early-vote total, counted by a University of Florida lab, has already passed the 2022 midterm record.
President Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail on Sunday with rallies in Iowa and Kansas, two Republican-leaning Farm Belt states where his party is fighting to hold Senate seats, Reuters reported. Trump spent Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida after weeks of campaigning across multiple states. He won Iowa by double digits in 2024, but polls show Democrats tied with or leading Republicans in many of the state's races, and Reuters/Ipsos polling put Trump's approval among rural Americans at a new low of 45 percent in October. Kansas, which last elected a Democratic senator in 1932, is also facing an unexpectedly close race, according to the report.
The stakes on Tuesday are the whole of Congress. Thirty-five Senate seats and all 435 House seats are on the ballot; Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority and a narrow edge in the House. Losing either chamber would let Democrats block Trump's agenda for his final two years in office and open investigations of an administration that has so far faced largely compliant Republican majorities, Reuters reported. For Florida voters, Tuesday's ballot carries the same weight closer to home — an open governor's race, a U.S. Senate race and every state office — on top of the congressional contests.
The electorate is not waiting for Tuesday. More than 52 million Americans have already voted in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab — a record for a midterm, up from nearly 46 million who voted before Election Day in 2022. The closing days are also running through the courts: the administration said on Saturday it would likely take its fight over thousands of California mail ballots to the Supreme Court, after a federal judge rejected its request to block California from counting ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters it alleges are likely noncitizens — an allegation California disputes, saying its safeguards are robust. In Alaska, federal prosecutors are investigating whether aides to Democratic challenger Mary Peltola helped recruit a same-named candidate against the Republican incumbent; Peltola's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee deny involvement.
