ELECTION/GOP/SENATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump is planning to focus his midterm campaigning this summer on red states with competitive Senate races where he has a deep reservoir of support and can bring a message devised to stoke partisan outrage. The strategy is intended to take advantage of his star power among core Republican supporters while minimizing his exposure in states with competitive congressional races where his polarizing presence could help motivate Democrats as well as independents and moderate Republicans. Mr. Trump’s appearance Tuesday [5-29-18] in Nashville was an example of how he plans, for now, to campaign where he can have an immediate effect because of his ability to either fund-raise or draw local news media attention, according to White House officials who described the strategy on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it…In the coming weeks, the strategy will also take Mr. Trump to North Dakota, Montana, Missouri, Indiana and West Virginia — all deeply red states he won handily in 2016 with endangered Democratic senators. It does not include immediate plans to go to Florida, Michigan, Nevada or Ohio, although those states could be added to the president’s itinerary as the November contests draw closer, the officials said, and his schedule is likely to fill out with well over a dozen stops each month.”
-Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin, “Trump’s Summer Campaign Priority: Target Red-State Democratic Senators,” The New York times online, May 29, 2018