Trump heads to Mississippi as the two parties prepare for final sprint ahead of midterm Election Day

President Donald Trump is heading to Mississippi, as he continues a closing midterm campaign blitz that highlights Republicans' challenges ahead of an election that could drastically shift power in Washington and statehouses across the country. GOP Sen Cindy Hyde-Smith faces a stiff challenge from Scott Colom, one of many Democratic underdogs that have managed to expand the House and Senate battleground maps because of widespread voter discontent over inflation, the Iran war and other aspects of Trump’s second presidency.

Trump's itinerary has been taking him to many states that he won comfortably in 2024. Other top nominees and surrogates are greeting voters — almost 30 million of whom have already cast ballots — as Republicans scramble to protect their threadbare majority in the House, shore up a Senate majority that was once thought secure and maintain the GOP's national advantage in state capitals.

Harris will campaign in Wisconsin with Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who faces Rep Tom Tiffany, a Trump ally, for governor. Crowley would be the state's first Black governor if elected to lead the battleground state.

In Georgia, Democratic Sen Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms are getting an assist from Kentucky Gov Andy Beshear, chairman of the Democratic Governors' Association and a likely 2028 presidential candidate, two days after Trump made his second October visit to the state. Minnesota will be a center of the progressive movement's effort to leverage many Americans' economic struggles.

Democratic Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan, the current lieutenant governor, is welcoming House Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash. , to advocate for a national health insurance plan to achieve universal coverage.

House Democrats also continue to expand their spending footprint, with the House Majority PAC announcing almost $2. 5 million in new spending in Minnesota and Indiana districts that had been considered solid GOP territory earlier in the cycle.

To be sure, Hyde-Smith, who is vying for her second full term, remains the favorite in a state Trump won three times by an average of nearly 20 percentage points. But Colom, a local prosecutor who would make history Mississippi's first Black senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction, is looking to parlay inflation, Trump's lagging popularity and Hyde-Smith's mistakes into an upset.

Colom has outpaced Hyde-Smith in fundraising since he launched his campaign last year, and he caught national attention this month with an ad that played off Hyde-Smith, a former state agriculture commissioner, dismissing beef prices, driven higher by Trump's tariffs and fuel spikes resulting from the Iran war.