A Senate seat Republicans struggle to hold

The president's trump midterm campaign North Carolina stop is aimed at lifting Michael Whatley, the Republican nominee for US Senate, in a hard-fought north Carolina senate race: he faces Roy Cooper, the state's former Democratic governor, who has consistently led Whatley in the polls.

The Greenville rally is the president's second stop in a seven-day campaign blitz across a number of states he won in 2024, and it comes two weeks before the midterms.

A seven-day swing across 2024 states

Earlier in October, the Senate's top GOP Super Pac pulled a $71m ad spend in North Carolina, redirecting money into the Kansas race, where Trump rallied on Monday night as the Senate competition becomes increasingly tight. He appeared for first-term senator Roger Marshall before about 5,000 supporters in an arena outside Wichita, telling them the state was tending toward the purple.

Speaking there, he framed the risk of a Democratic win as the reason for his appearance: "That's why I have to be sure that we get this guy." Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate since 1932, though the state already has a Democratic governor in Laura Kelly.

Money shifts and farm aid

The ad-money pull and the Kansas visit come alongside a farming appeal. Fifteen days before the midterm election, Trump announced $8bn in economic aid for farmers hit by soaring diesel prices.

• •A gallon of diesel in Kansas costs nearly $6, almost double the price a year earlier, amid the US war on Iran.
• •In August Trump upset cattle ranchers with a plan to reduce import tariffs to lower the price of beef.
• •Aggressive immigration raids led some agricultural workers to stay home.

Polling picture before the vote

Journalist David Smith wrote that Trump's presence in Kansas said more about a looming electoral disaster facing his Republican party than his 98-minute stump speech did. Polling shows Republicans on course for a midterms drubbing amid anger over fuel costs caused by the US war on Iran.

The midterm election is 15 days away, with Trump's seven-day campaign blitz continuing.