CONGRESS/ELECTION/GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump is betting that his ubiquitous role in the midterm elections — all Trump, all the time — will pay off for Republicans trying to hang onto their perilous majorities in Congress. Trump’s campaign said Tuesday it will spend more than $20 million on the November elections, including $6 million in national TV and digital ads beginning Oct. 29, and the president will be holding at least 10 more of his signature rallies through the election. Since July 5, Trump has held 20 of his ‘Make America Great Again’ rallies around the country and is staging three more this week in Wisconsin, North Carolina and Illinois. With two weeks until the election, the White House is battling against history as it tries to defend a lengthy slate of seats held by congressional Republicans. Democrats need to flip 23 House seats to win back the majority, a target that falls in line with the typical losses of about two dozen seats for a first-term president in midterm elections. Republicans are playing on a friendly Senate campaign terrain but can ill afford any mistakes with a narrow 51-49 majority.”
–The Associated Press, “Will ‘All Trump, All the Time’ Help the GOP in the Midterms?,” The New York Times online, October 23, 2018