Mississippi campaign highlights Republicans' challenges

President Donald Trump campaigned Monday in Mississippi, as he continued a closing midterm rally blitz that has highlighted Republicans' challenges ahead of an election that could drastically shift power in Washington and statehouses across the country. He told the crowd, his voice audibly hoarse, that he was there because Cindy's doing great, but he just got to make sure. He can't take a chance, as he worked to boost Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is facing a surprisingly stiff challenge from Democrat Scott Colom. Colom was spotted at the rally site, too, creating the rare spectacle of Trump's staunchest supporters interacting directly with a figure the president would soon go on to denigrate as a 'Marxist radical' and 'fake' and 'shameless phony who pretends to be a moderate' from the stage. Mississippi, among the nation's most reliably Republican states, is not where the Republicans envisioned needing a late-October stop from the president. But Colom is one of many Democratic underdogs who 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.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats' 2024 presidential candidate, campaigned in Wisconsin with Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who faces Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Trump ally, in the governor's race. If elected, Crowley would be the first Black governor to lead the battleground state. This is a tight race because the stakes are so high, Harris said at an event billed as a 'Women for Crowley' rally.

Vice President JD Vance returned to Kansas to stump for Sen. Roger Marshall, who finds himself in a tight contest with Democratic nominee and pastor Adam Hamilton. Hundreds of people were gathered inside the warehouse of a steel-fabricating company in north Topeka in a state where Democrats haven't won a Senate race since 1932.

Marshall, who has raised far less money than Hamilton, told the crowd that Trump is on the ballot, even if his name doesn't appear, because of how Democrats will thwart his agenda if they win control of Congress. Democrats are coming out like it's a presidential year, Stevens wrote on X.

Trump, at the Mississippi rally, said he had, in fact, expected gas prices to rise even higher than they had. It worked out fine and it'll be over soon, he said of the war with Iran.