President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have made a combined 50 stops around the country for speeches, announcements and rallies since the first-ever midterm Republican National Convention was held in Dallas, Texas, on September 9 and 10.
The travel marks the centerpiece of the GOP’s get-out-the-vote push as Republicans try to hold onto their House and Senate majorities and win governorships and other statewide offices across the country.
Trump has made 31 stops since the Dallas convention, traveling as far as Alaska and Maryland and hitting key battleground states repeatedly, including North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Georgia and Ohio.
Vance has made 19 stops of his own, also reaching Alaska, where Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) is fighting to hold his seat against Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK). Vance has also traveled through North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and has returned to his home state of Ohio three times since October 9.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers framed the travel as an effort to connect with voters directly.
“President Trump and Vice President Vance have traveled all across the country to meet Americans where they are, highlight the Administration’s historic achievements, and reaffirm their commitment to making our country wealthier, safer, and more prosperous,” Rogers said in a statement.
“The contrast couldn’t be clearer between the Republicans’ commonsense agenda that puts American families and businesses first and the extreme Democrats’ radical policies that put Americans last,” she added.
The schedule follows through on a promise Trump made at the Dallas convention in September, when he told the crowd he planned to campaign for Republican candidates in close races nationwide.
“We have a very short period of time, and we really have 35 races. They all count, but we have 35 races that are, I guess you’d call swings, right? Like we had seven swing states, we won all seven, right?” Trump said.
“The ones that are very close — they might be winning by a little, or losing by a little, or tied — we can win every one of those races. But I’m going to go to every one of those states for congressmen and Senators … and we’re going to have rallies just like this,” he added.
Speaking Monday during closing remarks at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Trump told supporters that if the coalition that backed him in the presidential race turns out again, Republicans will win big.
“If the people that voted for me and voted in the last election, where we had such a great victory, if they go out and vote, just a good portion of them, we will win in a landslide,” he said.
“Usually, whoever the sitting president is, Republican or Democrat, good or bad, good president, great president, bad — for some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms, but we gave this a very strong shot,” he added.
