ELECTION/GOP/SENATE/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Republican campaigns took a defensive approach a week before elections to determine control of the U.S. Congress, with the party spending more to try to hold on to previously secure House seats and President Donald Trump preparing a six-day trip focused on Senate races. The National Republican Congressional Committee on Tuesday [10-30-18] launched a wave of ads targeting 14 House of Representatives races including defenses of eight incumbents and four currently Republican-held seats whose current officeholders are not running in the Nov. 6 elections. Trump’s planned blitz of Senate battleground states including Florida, Missouri and Tennessee follows an NBC/Marist opinion poll showing the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona taking a 6 percentage point lead and a Quinnipiac University Poll showing Democrat Beto O’Rourke pulling closer to Republican Senator Ted Cruz in Texas.”
–Scott Malone, “Republicans focus on defending U.S. Senate in campaign’s last week,” Reuters, October 30, 2018 12:57 pm