Trump Heads to Ohio and Obama to Georgia as the Midterm Campaign Enters Its Final Week

President Donald Trump campaigns in Ohio on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, and former President Barack Obama rallies Democrats in Georgia on the same day, as the campaign for the November 3 midterm elections enters its final week with control of Congress in the balance.

Trump's trip is his third visit to Ohio in a month. He appears with Senator Jon Husted, who faces former Senator Sherrod Brown in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country. Republicans hold the Senate by 53 seats to 47, and the Ohio result could decide whether they keep it. Secretary of State Marco Rubio joins Trump in Ohio, the Associated Press reported.

Obama appears in Georgia with Senator Jon Ossoff, who faces Representative Mike Collins, and with former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is running for governor and would be the first Black woman elected governor in the United States if she wins. Georgia's last three Senate contests went to runoffs, but analysts view Ossoff as well placed to hold his seat. Vice President JD Vance campaigns separately in North Carolina, where former Republican national party chair Michael Whatley faces former Governor Roy Cooper in the race to succeed retiring Republican Senator Thom Tillis

A defensive map for Republicans

Trump's closing schedule tells its own story. He visited Mississippi on Monday, October 26, and Texas on Tuesday, October 27, and he plans stops in South Carolina, Florida, Kansas and Iowa in the coming days. The Associated Press reported that the schedule reflects a defensive posture, in states he won handily in 2024. His approval rating sits near a record low amid the high cost of living and the Iran war, and nonpartisan analysts generally favor Democrats to take the House. The Senate is seen as harder for Democrats, who would need to pick up seats in Republican leaning states such as Ohio, Iowa or Alaska to reach 51.

Millions have already voted

Americans have been voting for weeks. More than 36.4 million ballots had already been cast by Wednesday, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab, against 45.9 million early votes in the whole of the 2022 midterms. In Michigan, Republican Mike Rogers spent Wednesday on a four stop bus tour with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, ending in Imlay City, while Democrat Abdul El-Sayed was due at an evening canvassing rally in Downriver with Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin. The two are contesting the seat Peters is vacating, and polling averages give El-Sayed a narrow edge. Michigan Republican strategist Dennis Lennox told Reuters the Rogers campaign and allied groups say they have knocked on more than 7 million doors. In Ohio, the Republican ticket also includes Vivek Ramaswamy for governor against former state health director Amy Acton.

The legal fight beside the campaign

The campaign is running alongside a legal fight over the vote itself. Reuters reported on Wednesday that the Trump administration has issued more than 100 subpoenas to state and local election officials in at least a dozen states, demanding records on tens of thousands of voters. On Tuesday, a judge appeared skeptical of the Justice Department's request to block California from counting mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters the administration says are noncitizens. The Federal Election Commission's filing system also remained down on Wednesday, more than a day after the agency took it offline late on Monday to contain a security breach.