Senate Democrats need four flips as almost 30 million cast ballots
President Donald Trump headed to Corinth, Mississippi, on Monday for an evening rally supporting Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, beginning the final week of campaigning before votes are tallied. The stop in one of the nation’s most reliably Republican states came as Democratic challengers expanded the battleground and Republicans sought to protect a narrow House majority, shore up a Senate majority once considered secure and maintain their advantage in state capitals. Almost 30 million voters had already cast ballots. The election could shift power in Congress and statehouses across the country.
Trump’s week would pit him against former President Barack Obama, the Democrat he first succeeded in 2017, and former Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he defeated in 2024 to return to power. His itinerary had been taking him to many states he won comfortably in 2024. Other top nominees and surrogates were also greeting voters around the country.
Mississippi was not where Republicans had envisioned needing a late-October stop from the president. Hyde-Smith, who was vying for a second full term, faced a stiff challenge from Scott Colom, a local prosecutor. Colom would make history as Mississippi’s first Black senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction if elected. The Associated Press linked Democratic underdogs’ expansion of the House and Senate battleground maps to widespread voter discontent over inflation, the Iran war and other aspects of Trump’s second presidency.
The Associated Press reported that Colom was seeking an upset by drawing on inflation, Trump’s lagging popularity and Hyde-Smith’s mistakes. He had outpaced Hyde-Smith in fundraising since launching his campaign the previous year and caught national attention this month with an advertisement that played off Hyde-Smith dismissing beef prices. The AP said the prices were driven higher by Trump’s tariffs and fuel spikes resulting from the Iran war. The ad featured Hyde-Smith, a former state agriculture commissioner, saying that consumers “have so many other proteins to choose from,” followed by several characters and then Colom saying Mississippi should “pick another senator instead.”
Colom’s campaign followed with a social media video that featured an AI-generated Hyde-Smith dodging questions about that controversy and other issues. Colom removed the video after Mississippi’s attorney general said it could violate state law barring the use of deepfakes so close to Election Day.
Hyde-Smith remained the favorite in a state Trump had won three times by an average of nearly 20 percentage points. The Senate Democrats’ super PAC entered the contest late with a $1.2 million investment, a smaller sum than in Senate contests in more populous states such as Texas or Georgia but one that could go farther in Mississippi’s smaller television markets. Mississippians had not chosen a new Democratic senator since 1947, and Democrats last won a Senate race there when John Stennis won his last reelection in 1982. The AP described Stennis as a onetime segregationist.
At a Minnesota health-care event, Democratic Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan, the state’s lieutenant governor, welcomed House Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington to advocate for a national health insurance plan to achieve universal coverage. The Associated Press described Minnesota as the center of the progressive movement’s effort to leverage many Americans’ economic struggles. Flanagan, who is backed by progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, is running against former sportscaster Michele Tafoya for the open seat.
“Everywhere I go on this tour I meet Minnesotans who are working hard and doing everything right and still can’t afford to take care of themselves or the people they love,” Flanagan said. Jayapal, the bill’s lead author and sponsor, said that if the bill passed, its added dental, vision and hearing coverage could save up to $1 trillion in healthcare spending. “We desperately need to build a completely different system and stop tinkering around the edges of a sick care system,” she said.
Kamala Harris was to campaign in neighboring Wisconsin with Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, who faced Trump ally Rep. Tom Tiffany for governor. If elected, Crowley would become Wisconsin’s first Black governor to lead the battleground state.
In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms were to receive an assist from Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association and a likely 2028 presidential candidate. Beshear’s appearance came two days after Trump made his second October visit to Georgia. Vice President JD Vance was headed to Kansas on behalf of Sen. Roger Marshall, who was locked in a tight contest with Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton, a United Methodist megachurch pastor. Kansas had not elected a Democratic senator since 1932.
House Democrats also continued to expand their spending footprint. The House Majority PAC announced almost $2.5 million in new spending in Minnesota and Indiana districts considered solid Republican territory earlier in the cycle. The Minnesota seat had been reliably Republican for generations except for a recent stretch represented by Tim Walz, the state’s two-term governor and Democrats’ 2024 vice presidential nominee, in the sprawling, heavily rural district.
South Carolina had emerged as another unexpectedly competitive Senate race. Democratic nominee Dr. Annie Andrews was seeking to defeat Sen. Darline Graham, who was appointed to succeed her late brother; the AP characterized an Andrews victory as a seismic upset. Trump said Monday that he would return to South Carolina on Thursday for his second general-election visit on Graham’s behalf. Andrews touted a bipartisan endorsement from two former South Carolina governors, Republican David Beasley and Democrat Jim Hodges. Her campaign said more than 100 Republicans had joined the “Republicans for Annie” coalition.
Republicans currently held a 53-47 Senate majority, meaning Democrats needed to flip at least four seats for a change in control. The GOP began the cycle with a 220-215 House advantage, but a national gerrymandering fight had made nine Democratic-held seats friendlier to Republicans based on 2024 presidential outcomes in those districts.
Bill Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press reporters John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina; and Laura Turbay in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed.