Trump Rallies in Greenville, Says Republicans Will Defy the Midterm Odds

President Donald Trump brought his midterm campaign blitz to Greenville, North Carolina, on Tuesday night, Oct. 20, and told supporters that Republicans would beat the polls in a Senate race that many in his own party have already written off.

Trump spoke to hundreds of supporters on the grounds of the local airport, two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. His approval rating sits at 31 percent in the latest Reuters/Ipsos survey, the lowest mark of his two terms in office, and he has traveled more than 29,000 miles since late September to lift Republican candidates.

The race he came to save

The stop was built around Michael Whatley, the Republican running for the Senate seat held by retiring Republican Thom Tillis. Whatley's opponent is former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, and polls show Cooper with a commanding lead in a race that could help decide control of the Senate.

The national party has largely left Whatley on his own. The Senate Leadership Fund, the main super PAC backing Republican Senate candidates, cut off spending in North Carolina earlier this month as Cooper posted double digit leads in poll after poll.

Tillis told Politico on Tuesday that his fellow Republicans were headed toward a train wreck in November.

Trump waved that away. "I think you're gonna see some amazing results," he said. "They never poll us right. We have more spirit."

Headwinds in the numbers

The polls behind the visit are rough for the president. Reuters/Ipsos found 68 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy, including 37 percent of self identified Republicans. His standing fell after he ordered military strikes on Iran in February alongside Israel, a move that set off a surge in gasoline and diesel prices.

Early voting in North Carolina is also running against Republicans. State data show Democrats have cast more ballots than Republicans by a two to one margin so far.

Trump won North Carolina in each of his three presidential runs, and Democrats are counting on a breakthrough this year.

At the rally, other Republican candidates begged their voters to turn out early. "We have the momentum. We have the message. Now we need you," said Laurie Buckhout, a Trump backed candidate in a mostly rural eastern House district. Republicans hold 10 of the state's 14 House seats.

A voter who is not sold

Reuters spoke with Taylor Smith, who described herself as a Greenville housewife and a lifelong Republican voter. She said the drama of the Trump administration had her thinking twice. "I hate these gas prices," she said, urging the president to tighten that ship up.

Trump also returned to a theme he used in Kansas a day earlier, pointing at the rioting in France as a warning of what he says Democrats would bring to America. CNN reported him telling the Greenville crowd: "Do you believe what's going on in France? That's never going to go on over here."

Promises for the state

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced on stage that Sibelco, an industrial minerals company, was expanding its operations in the state, without giving specifics. Trump said the Defense Department would also invest 1.5 billion dollars in semiconductor chip production in North Carolina, without saying where or how the money would be spent.

The president repeated his promise to give 5,000 dollars to every US adult if Republicans keep control of Congress. "If we lose," he said, "you get nothing."