SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
With the midterms just three weeks away, President Trump is on his way to Alaska to hold a campaign rally. This is one of a string of stops the president is making this week in states with competitive House and Senate races.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I'm doing a rally at night. In the last week, I'll probably be doing two or three a day. I don't know why the hell I'm doing it. I'm not running, but I am running. And you're going to promise me you're going to get out and vote. Does everybody promise they're going to vote in this?
DETROW: That was Trump last night in Youngstown, Ohio. We're joined now by NPR senior political correspondent Tamara Keith, who is watching the president's travel schedule and more. Hey, Tam.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: Alaska doesn't really feel like a competitive midterm state most cycles. This is pretty consistently Republican.
KEITH: Yeah. I mean, President Trump won there by 13 points just two years ago, but polling shows the Senate race is very competitive, and there are a few factors making this race extra interesting. The incumbent is Republican Dan S. Sullivan, and the middle initial matters because there is another Dan Sullivan in this race as well. Meanwhile, the Democratic candidate, Mary Peltola, is the last Democrat to have won statewide in Alaska, and she's uniquely suited to the state. The fact that the president is going all the way to Alaska is a sign that this midterm year is unlike anything we've seen in a while.
DETROW: Ohio, Alaska - where else is Trump going?
KEITH: Yeah. The Republican Party just announced that next week, he's going to Kansas, a state that Trump won by 16 points in 2024. This week, he has stops in Arizona, Montana, Georgia and Kentucky. But that Kentucky stop is more about getting into the Cincinnati media market back in Ohio.
DETROW: OK. So campaigns are talking with money and with travel, right? So what do these stops tell you about where the competitive races are?
KEITH: Overall, the trend is quite clear. This is a midterm year with an unpopular president, and Republicans are playing defense in a whole lot of places that would have been considered safe seats even just a few months ago. Does that mean that Democrats are going to win all of these races? Probably not. But if Republicans are spending money on defense, they aren't spending money on offense, and the triage has really started to begin now.
DETROW: Yeah. And you have some reporting about these pro-Trump TV ads the U.S. government was paying to broadcast with tax dollars. What's the latest?
KEITH: Yeah. Those ads promoting the president and his policies have been wildly unpopular, in part because they ended with the tagline, paid for by the U.S. government. And you might remember that on October 5, President Trump announced that he would have his MAGA Inc. super PAC take over paying for them. Well, they kept airing for another week with the bill going to taxpayers. According to data from AdImpact, the government spent another $10 million after Trump announced it would stop. Only finally facing a temporary court order did the ads come down yesterday. Today, AdImpact's database shows three of them are back up paid for by MAGA Inc. Though, so far, that buy is much smaller than when taxpayers were footing the bill.
DETROW: And why were these ads running in the first place?
KEITH: You know, the White House insisted they were public service announcements meant to promote patriotism. But remember what President Trump says at nearly every rally these days, please vote like I'm on the ballot. The president and his political team have decided the best way to motivate their voters is to put the president front and center.
DETROW: That is NPR's Tamara Keith. Thank you so much.
KEITH: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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