President Donald Trump is set to hold back-to-back rallies in Iowa and Kansas on Sunday, capping a flurry of campaign events ahead of the midterm elections.
Tuesday is election day. Mr Trump, who is not on the ballot, had initially cancelled the in-person appearances and replaced them with tele-rallies. But on Friday, he reversed course.
“I feel very good. I mean, I feel like we're doing well,” he told reporters in Florida on Saturday. “We're going to Iowa first, then Kansas second. I think we're going to do very well,” he said. “I think we're going to surprise a lot of people.”
Iowa and Kansas are traditionally Republican strongholds. Mr Trump won both states by comfortable margins in the 2024 presidential election. But Republicans are battling to hold on to critical Senate seats in both states.
In Kansas, Democrat Adam Hamilton is mounting a serious challenge to Republican Senator Roger Marshall. If Mr Hamilton wins, he would become the first Democrat in 94 years to win a Senate seat in the state.
Mr Trump is heading into the midterms with historically low approval ratings, amid voter discontent over the economy and rising fuel and food prices. The war in Iran has also proved unpopular with voters. More than 53 million people have already cast ballots through a combination of in-person early voting and mail-in voting.
Much is at stake on Tuesday, when all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 Senate seats are up for grabs. Republicans currently hold narrow majorities in both chambers. Polls show Democrats ahead in a number of vital races.
If the Democrats win back control of Congress, they could curtail the President's legislative agenda during the remaining two years of his term. There is also concern among Republicans that Democrats could seek to impeach Mr Trump once again.
“There need to be hearings, because there’s so much corruption,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said in an interview with NBC on Sunday. “The hearings will uncover things, and then some decisions will have to get made about that,” he said. “But the American public doesn’t know the extent of the corruption.”
Mr Trump was impeached twice during his first term in office. He was acquitted by the Senate on both occasions.
