Trump campaigns in Mississippi, highlighting Republicans' challenges

CORINTH, Miss.— President Donald Trump campaigned Monday in Mississippi, as he continued a closing midterm rally blitz that has highlighted Republicans' challenges ahead of an election that could drastically shift power in Washington and statehouses across the country."I'm here because Cindy's doing great, but I just got to make sure.

I can't take a chance," Trump told the crowd, his voice audibly hoarse, as he worked to boost Republican Sen.Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is facing a surprisingly stiff challenge from Democrat Scott Colom.Colom was spotted at the rally site, too, creating the rare spectacle of Trump's staunchest supporters interacting directly with a figure the president would soon go on to denigrate as a "Marxist radical" and "fake" and "shameless phony who pretends to be a moderate" from the stage.Mississippi, among the nation's most reliably Republican states, is not where the Republicans envisioned needing a late-October stop from the president.

But Colom is one of many Democratic underdogs who have managed to expand the House and Senate battleground maps because of widespread voter discontent over inflation, the Iran war and other aspects of Trump's second presidency.He said he had planned to go to the rally site to listen to what was on Trump supporters' minds."They actually deserve a senator that will listen to them, that actually cares about what they think, actually cares about what they're going through," Colom said ahead of the president's arrival.Trump's event kicks off a week of aggressive campaigning that will include more stops in states he won comfortably in 2024, including Texas, South Carolina and Iowa.Trump also plans to hold a rally Saturday in Salina, Kansas, officials announced late Monday, marking his second visit to the state in less than two weeks.Top Democratic candidates and their surrogates were also greeting voters — more than 30 million of whom have already cast ballots, according to data collected by The Associated Press ...