President Donald Trump is kicking off his October midterm campaign blitz in two of the reddest states in America — Oklahoma and Alabama — before pivoting to the battlegrounds that will determine control of Congress.
Trump will rally in Durant, Oklahoma, on Thursday, October 1, and Mobile, Alabama, on Friday, October 2, according to the Republican National Committee.
Both states gave Trump roughly two-thirds of their votes in 2024, with Trump carrying every county in Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma rally will be held at the Choctaw Event Center and hosted by the Trump 47 Committee, the joint fundraising operation connecting Trump and the Republican Party. Trump has endorsed Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Mazzei, who is running against Democratic state House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson.
The Mobile rally sits next door to one of Republicans’ best chances to pick up a House seat. The city borders Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, where Republican state Rep. Rhett Marques is challenging Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures under a GOP-drawn map the Supreme Court allowed the state to reinstate this year.
“The President’s ability to engage with and activate low-propensity voters is unmatched. That’s why he’ll be barnstorming the country to activate the voters we need to win in November.”
But Oklahoma and Alabama are only the beginning.
According to Politico, people familiar with Trump’s plans said he is also expected to campaign in Iowa, Florida, Texas, and Alaska before Election Day. Trump has indicated a desire to campaign for Republican Senate candidates Ken Paxton in Texas and Dan Sullivan in Alaska, while Iowa and Florida have emerged as additional areas of Republican concern.
Trump has pledged to campaign for 35 of the most competitive House and Senate races before November. Neither the White House nor the RNC has released a full schedule for those visits, though rallies in more traditional battleground states are reportedly expected to begin October 3, immediately following his tour of friendly states.
The decision to open the October push in Oklahoma and Alabama comes as Republicans spend increasing time and money defending territory long considered safely Republican.
In Iowa, Republican Senate nominee Ashley Hinson has publicly broken with Trump over the Iran war. In Texas, Paxton is running a closely contested Senate race against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. And in Ohio, Republican Sen. Jon Husted is facing former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in another closely watched contest.
Republicans say Trump’s presence in Oklahoma and Alabama is intended to generate turnout rather than simply reinforce states that are already safely Republican.
A Republican official familiar with the planning called the locations “very strategic,” saying Trump is “hitting places where we want to drive turnout.” The official also noted that Durant sits near the Texas border and reaches the Dallas-Fort Worth media market, while Mobile’s proximity to the Florida Panhandle gives the rally potential reach beyond Alabama.
RNC spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre told the Associated Press that Trump’s ability to engage and activate low-propensity voters is “unmatched.”
With Election Day just over five weeks away, the president’s campaign calendar is rapidly filling up. The question is how quickly the red-state stops give way to the battlegrounds that will ultimately determine control of Congress.
