President Donald Trump has scrapped a Saturday campaign event in Kansas and will no longer headline a Sunday rally in Iowa, sources told CNN, as the US midterm elections 2026 campaign enters its final days.
Officials told CNN that Trump is instead planning as many as 20 telerallies. The White House put the figure at more than 20.
The change comes as forecasters and polls show Democrats gaining. Optimism is rising within the party that it can win a Senate majority, CNN reported, and Kansas, a state that last elected a Democratic US senator in 1939, is now one of the races in play.
Why Trump canceled the Kansas and Iowa rallies
Trump was scheduled to appear at Salina Regional Airport to support Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, according to Yahoo News. Pieter Miller, executive director of the Salina Airport Authority, said all Salina events had been canceled, Yahoo News reported.
Accounts of the Iowa plans differ. CNN reported that the Sunday Iowa rally is off. Yahoo News said it was unclear whether the Iowa rally was still planned, and also whether the Kansas event would be rescheduled.
After a rally in South Carolina on Thursday, a Reuters reporter asked Trump whether he was feeling well. "You know what the reason is? I don't feel I have to go to Kansas," Trump said, according to Yahoo News. He also called the reporter disgusting and said the reporter was way out of shape, Yahoo News reported.
The White House described the shift as an expansion of the president's reach. "Telerallies give him the opportunity to highlight his accomplishments and expand his reach across the country," it said in a statement.
Kansas Republican Party executive director Rob Fillion told Wichita's CBS affiliate KWCH that many other races were in play. He said speaking at several locations at once was probably a better use of the president's time. Kansas GOP Chair Danedri Herbert told The Kansas City Star that she learned of the cancellation through the Republican National Committee.
Not every Republican was sorry about the change. Some GOP officials expressed relief at the canceled rallies, CNN reported. "He hasn't moved the needle anywhere," one official told the network.
For now, the only in-person event Trump has planned is a rally in Florida on Friday, according to CNN.
What the latest US midterm elections polls show
A CNN/SSRS poll published Thursday shows Democrat Adam Hamilton, a pastor, leading Marshall among likely Kansas voters by 49 percent to 45 percent. In the same poll, 41 percent of likely voters viewed Hamilton favorably, compared with 36 percent for Marshall.
Polling data place Kansas among several states where Democrats appear within striking distance of reclaiming a Senate majority, Yahoo News reported.
Elsewhere, new CNN polling shows Democratic candidates leading in Michigan and Texas. The forecaster Inside Elections shifted 63 races in Democrats' favor this week, CNN reported.
Trump's last appearance in Kansas, earlier this month at Heartland Credit Union Arena in Park City, drew repeated interruptions from protesters. At least 11 were escorted out, and Trump falsely claimed they had been paid, according to Yahoo News. At that rally, Yahoo News reported, Trump used an antisemitic slur while defending Marshall's history of suing former patients over medical debt from his time as an OB-GYN.
Alaska Senate lawsuit over two Sullivans heads to a judge
In Alaska, the Justice Department has refiled a lawsuit that seeks to potentially block certification of the state's Senate race results, CNN reported. The department is also conducting a criminal probe into whether state Democrats sought to confuse voters.
The case involves Daniel J. Sullivan, a candidate who shares a name with the Republican incumbent, Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan.
In a Thursday court filing, Alaska officials argued that the revised lawsuit has the same flaws as the original. They said the Justice Department had provided no evidence that any voter cast a ballot for the wrong Sullivan, and they accused the department of gamesmanship, according to CNN. The officials also cited steps election workers took to distinguish the two men on the ballot.
The state asked Judge Sharon Gleason to keep the case on schedule for a ruling by Monday. Several Anchorage voters told CNN that the controversy is not influencing how they vote.
Trump's $5,000 check promise is a pledge, not a policy in force
Trump has promised to give $5,000 to every US adult if voters elect Republican majorities in Congress. The payments are a campaign pledge. They would depend on the election result and are not currently in place.
The proposal has drawn criticism on the right over its price tag and its potential to worsen inflationary pressures, CNN reported.
At a Fox News town hall in Texas on Thursday, an audience member asked Vice President JD Vance how the checks would differ from stimulus payments made under former President Joe Biden, which the Trump administration has blamed for inflation. Vance defended the plan. "First of all, what we're talking doing is not green energy boondoggles. What the president has said is that Americans ought to be able to keep more of their money," he said.
Democrats also campaigned on Thursday. Former Vice President Kamala Harris held back-to-back events in Atlanta, Georgia, according to CNN.
Several questions remain open with Election Day less than a week away:
- Whether the Sunday rally in Iowa is definitely off, since CNN and Yahoo News report it differently
- Whether the Kansas event will be rescheduled
- When the telerallies will take place, and whether there will be as many as 20 or more than 20
- How Judge Gleason will rule in the Alaska case, possibly by Monday