The event will take place at the Richard M. Borchard Regional Fairgrounds on Saturday, less than three weeks before the midterm elections. Early voting is already underway in many states across the country and will begin in Texas on October 24.
Trump’s Save America PAC announced the rally earlier this week. Trump is scheduled to begin speaking at 7 p.m. local time, but doors will open at 2 p.m.
Trump is expected to speak “in support of his unprecedented effort to advance the MAGA agenda by energizing voters and highlighting the slate of 33-0 Trump Endorsed America First candidates in the Great State of Texas,” according to Save America.
In the three hours before Trump’s speech begins, guest speakers are expected to deliver remarks to event attendees. The PAC on Tuesday announced five guest speakers scheduled for the rally: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Texas Rep. Michael Cloud, former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Tom Homan and National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd.
Paxton, Patrick and Cloud are all running for re-election this fall as Trump-endorsed candidates.
A Quinnipiac University poll has incumbent Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul only has a slim, four-point lead over challenger Lee Zeldin.
Hochul is leading Zeldin 50 to 46 percent just 21 days before the election. She currently has a 46 percent approval rating.
“In the blue state of New York, the race for governor is competitive. Democrats have cruised to victory in gubernatorial races since 2006, but Governor Hochul’s narrow edge puts Republican Lee Zeldin well within striking distance of her,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Mary Snow said in the report.
The top issues for New York voters include crime, inflation and protecting democracy and are split along party lines.
While Republicans are concerned about crime and inflation, Democrats rank protecting democracy ahead of the other two issues. Independents rank crime as the top issues, followed by inflation and then protecting democracy.
Zeldin has made crime a key part of his campaign message throughout the election.
“We are going to win this race,” Zeldin said in a tweeted quoting this poll. “We MUST win this race.”
Zeldin also has the support of men, while New York women favor Hochul.
Among men, 55 percent support Zeldin and 41 percent support Hochul. Women favor Hochul over Zeldin 57 percent to 37 percent.
Hochul has blasted Zeldin on his support of restrictive abortion laws and his endorsement from former President Donald Trump.
The vote, which began on October 14 and ended on Monday, found most members said they had “no confidence” in Sisolak regarding “his handling of the critical shortages and turnover rates of state police.”
The union, which as the state’s largest law enforcement union represents peace officers throughout Nevada, said it “has continuously sounded the alarm on pay inequity and poor working conditions that has caused record high turnover rates and vacancies,” which it said “leaves Nevadans less safe.”
A reporter with the Las Vegas Review-Journal shared the results of the vote on social media, which the union then retweeted.
Sisolak first became governor in 2018 and is now running for re-election. Sisolak is running against Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, a Republican, who began working in law enforcement in the late 1980s and is endorsed by former President Donald Trump. Recent polling averages compiled by FiveThirtyEight suggest Lombardo has a slight lead over Sisolak with three weeks remaining until Election Day.
The former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., commented on the Nevada Police Union’s vote of no confidence in a Tuesday tweet.
“Yikes! Turns out that the cops aren’t fans of leftwing radicals like Sisolak, who bent the knee to BLM and caused violent crime in Nevada to skyrocket,” his tweet said.
The Senate Democrats Twitter account shared a video of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina contradicting himself on the authority of the states and the federal government to ban abortions.
The clip includes a video of Graham from Aug. 7, 2022 saying “the states should decide the issue of abortion” right before another clip of Graham from Sept. 20, 2022 saying abortion “is not a state’s rights issue.”
In June 26, 2022, Graham said “there is nothing in the Constitution giving the federal government the right to regulate abortion.” But then in September, Graham said “There is nothing preventing abortion policy in Washington D.C. based on Constitutional principles of Dobbs,” referring to the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Graham introduced a bill in September that would ban abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy nationwide, with the exception of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
This bill was seen at the time as a gift to Democrats in the midterms, as it was widely unpopular, even among Republicans.
“Republicans have introduced a nationwide abortion ban,” the Senate Democratic Majority said in a tweet. “100 House and Senate Republicans have co-sponsored legislation for a nationwide abortion ban.”
This push from Biden and Congressional Democrats comes as party leaders want to put abortion back at the forefront of voters’ minds ahead of the midterms amid rising concerns about the economy.
Democrats have warned that losing the House or the Senate after the midterms would mean Republicans would move to ban abortion at the state and federal level. Biden said earlier Tuesday that he will push to codify Roe if Democrats maintain control of Congress.
Since the Supreme Court overturned the abortion rights in Roe v. Wade, Democrats have made protecting reproductive rights the crux of their campaign messages. Several Democrats, including Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, have blasted their GOP opponents’ “extreme” abortion views.
But Kristi Hamrick, a spokesperson for anti-abortion advocacy group Students for Life, told Politico that Republicans need to be driving the conversation on abortion.
“Any candidate is making a mistake thinking that they can hide from these issues,” she said. “Abortion is an issue whether you want to talk about it or not. It’s politically naive to think, especially in a post-Dobbs environment, that you’re going to ignore the issue of abortion.”
This comes after Republicans have gained an advantage in recent polling, as voters, including women, are prioritizing their concern over the economy above the issue of abortion.
“We’re not saying don’t talk about gas prices and the economy,” Mallory Carroll, a spokesperson for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, told Politico. “Those are salient issues voters care deeply about.”
“With pro-abortion Democrats holding rallies specifically to talk about abortion, pro-life Republicans have an opportunity to present a strong contrast to that,” she added.
Republican candidates like J.D. Vance in Ohio, Ted Budd in North Carolina, Kari Lake in Arizona and Blake Masters in Arizona have recently emphasized their support for legislation that limits the window for women to get an abortion.
Ahead of President Joe Biden’s speech on his plan to protect abortion rights, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America decried the White House’s “radical pro-abortion agenda.”
“The stakes of the midterm elections could not be higher,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement. “President Biden is making clear today have that if Democrats control Congress in 2023, they will destroy the filibuster and pass their Abortion on Demand Until Birth Act to mandate abortion on demand in all 50 states.”
Dannenfelser added that her group is encouraging pro-life Republicans to “keep going on offense to expose this extremist position.”
She said Biden and Democrats are “on the wrong side and stunningly out of touch” with majority of Americans who support “commonsense limits on abortion.”
“Only eight percent of Americans agree with Stacey Abrams, Raphael Warnock, Mark Kelly, Katie Hobbs, Catherine Cortez Masto, John Fetterman and other Democratic candidates who support unlimited abortion, paid for by taxpayers, up to the moment of birth,” she said.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said her party “made a sustained investment like never before in reaching out to Hispanic voters” and that those efforts were “working.” During a recent interview with The Washington Examiner, McDaniel said the GOP launched 21 Hispanic community centers in the U.S. since late 2020, at which Republicans introduce “habitual Democrat voters” to the GOP. This is part of a “long-term investment” grounded in a dialogue with Latino voters about “how our party can better represent your community,” McDaniel said.
The RNC chairwoman said her party has a “record number of Hispanic candidates” this election cycle and predicted recent efforts to connect with Latino voters will have a noticeable impact for the GOP in states that have large Latino populations, such as Nevada and Arizona.
McDaniel told the paper there is “growth in our party with Hispanic voters” and credited that growth to the party “addressing those issues to the individual and not treating people as if they’re just one voting bloc with no diversity,” which she said the public has “seen the Democrats do with terms like Latinx or Jill Biden calling them the same as breakfast burritos.” McDaniel’s mention of the first lady was in reference to a comment Jill Biden made over the summer in Texas, which she apologized for the next day.
Biden spoke about the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade during a Democratic National Committee event held at the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C. Standing in front of a sign that read, “Restore Roe,” Biden urged event attendees to vote in the upcoming midterm elections and described how he plans to handle the abortion issue at the federal level in the coming months.
Biden said the Supreme Court of 1973 established a “fundamental constitutional right to choose” that stood for nearly 50 years. Now, he said House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy wants Congress to pass a national abortion ban. The president also mentioned legislation introduced in the Senate last month by Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, whose bill would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy if signed into law.
“If Republicans get their way with a national ban, it won’t matter where you live in America. So let me be very clear: If such a bill were to pass in the next several years, I’ll veto it.”
Biden said the Supreme Court “got Roe right” in 1973 and said Congress “should codify Roe once and for all.” But Democrats in Congress are “short a handful of votes” to get this kind of law through, he said.
“If you care about the right to choose, then you’ve got to vote,” Biden said. If Democrats retain control of both chambers of Congress after the midterms next month, Biden said the “first bill” his administration will send to Congress will be to “codify Roe v. Wade.”
“When Congress passes it, I’ll sign it in January, 50 years after Roe was first decided the law of the land,” he said.
“It was during the Trump Administration that the ‘Deep State’ corruption, and pure hatred of our Country, was fully EXPOSED,” he said on his Truth Social account Tuesday, adding that the corruption is “no longer just a nasty myth, concept, or idea.”
Trump said this is “yet another great achievement,” but said it must continue to “rid us of this Cancer that is purposely destroying our Nation.”
The former president is seemingly implying that his critics and political opponents still support widespread corruption, calling on his base to continue to call this out three weeks ahead of the midterm elections.
“There is far more danger from within than anything coming from the outside,” Trump said. “We must join together and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
Trump has endorsed several Republican candidates in state elections across the country.
Many of those candidates continue to support and spread Trump’s unproven claim of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, including Arizona’s Kari Lake, who recently refused to say if she would accept the outcome of her election if she lost.
Trump has recently shared several QAnon posts on his Truth Social account that highlight outlandish conspiracy theories. He has also shared posts that claim Democrats are “cheating” to win elections and call on Republicans to become ballot drop box watchers.
The former president is also facing several lawsuits and investigations into the handling of classifying documents and the legality of the Trump Organization’s business dealings.
The RNC, National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania sued the state over plans to “illegally accept undated mail-in ballots.”
Republican leaders said they are holding Pennsylvania Democrats accountable for their “brazen defiance of the Supreme Court and the rules duly set by the legislature.”
“As the Pennsylvania legislature and U.S. Supreme Court have made clear, undated mail-in ballots should not be counted,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, NRCC Chairman Tom Emmer, and PAGOP Chairman Lawrence Tabas said in a joint statement.
“Pennsylvania Democrats have a history of election integrity failures and Pennsylvanians deserve better: this lawsuit is the latest step in Republican efforts to promote free, fair, and transparent elections in the Keystone State,” they said.
The lawsuit specifically addresses “the counting of mail ballots returned with undated envelopes and argues that they should not be counted because state law requires a voter to provide a date,” the RNC said in a statement.
It also asks the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to order counties to “segregate” undated or incorrectly dated ballots.
“Pennsylvania Democrats’ consistent disregard for the election rules set by the legislature has resulted in Pennsylvania being a national election administration laughingstock,” the RNC said.
Stefanik, who is currently running for reelection in New York’s 21st Congressional District, is the House GOP Conference Chair.
“When Republicans earn back the House, we will investigate Joe Biden and the entire Biden Crime Family as a matter of national security,” she said in a tweet Tuesday.
The congresswoman told the New York Post that Biden’s “illegal” request that Saudi Arabia delay oil production and his family’s foreign consulting businesses qualify as “an egregious abuse of power and high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“I am very concerned about it, but it doesn’t surprise me. The Democrats are absolutely desperate,” Stefanik said of the request. “It is illegal and it will be taken into consideration.”
Stefanik also added that Congress needs to “get to the facts” about Hunter Biden’s “illegal acts and really profiting off of the fact that he’s the son of the sitting president of the United States.”
She added that the Department of Justice and the FBI have refused to prosecute Hunter Biden’s “clear crimes.”
“There is a lot there for us to investigate and we will follow the facts wherever they lead,” she said.
Michael McDonald, the University of Florida professor who runs the election data analysis project, told ABC News that the number of early votes cast so far indicates the election will have greater voter participation than most recent midterm election cycles. He predicted this year’s final voter tally could be comparable to voter participation during the 2018 midterms, which saw the highest voter turnout for a midterm election cycle since the early 1900s.
McDonald said voter interest “is running high” this fall.
“We can see the sorts of indicators that would suggest that we’re in for a high-turnout election, much like we had in 2018,” he told ABC News.
Elections Project data last updated Tuesday morning said at least 2,691,383 early votes were cast, with more than 2.3 million of those cast using mail ballots. More than 16.8 million mail-in ballots were requested across the country this fall, the majority of which have yet to be returned.
Biden’s remarks at the Howard Theater in Washington D.C. will aim to keep the issue of reproductive and women’s rights front and center for voters three weeks ahead of the midterm elections.
A DNC official told reporters that Biden will discuss his promise to codify Roe v. Wade to protect abortion rights on a federal level.
The president is expected to announce an abortion rights bill he will send to Congress if Democrats maintain control of both chambers, according to several reports.
Concern over abortion rights grew immediately after the Supreme Court overturned Roe in the crucial Dobbs decision in June. But since the summer, abortion has become less of a priority for voters as concern over the economy and inflation has increased.
Biden’s speech will stream live on C-SPAN at 12:15 p.m. ET, or watch below:
A New York Times/Siena College poll found 49 percent of likely voters said they planned to vote for a Republican in Congressional races on Nov. 8, compared with 45 percent who planned to vote for a Democrat.
Republican candidates also have taken a 10-percentage point lead among independent voters, shifting favor from Democrats.
This shift was led by independent women. In September, they favored Democrats by 14 point. A month later, Republicans now hold an 18-point lead with independent women.
The economy and inflation are the key issues for voters, outweighing abortion rights and gun control, the polls found. These issues largely favor Republican candidates.
When asked what they think the most important problem facing the county is today, 29 percent of voters said the economy and 19 percent said inflation or the cost of living. Only four percent said abortion, five percent said immigration, three percent said crime and 2 percent said gun policies.
Voters who are focused on the economy and inflation favor Republicans over Democrats 64 percent to 30 percent. Those voters concerned with other issues favor Democrats by 20-percentage points.
The economy has seemingly outweighed concerns over the state of democracy.
The poll found more than half of registered voters said they are not comfortable voting for a candidate who believes the 2020 election was stolen.
However, more than a third of independent voters and a small portion of Democrats said they were open to voting for an election denier, indicating the economy was more important than the threat to democracy or election integrity.
Overall, 71 percent of all voters said democracy was at risk. But only seven percent said it was the most important problem facing the country.
Incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp and Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams faced off in a televised debate Monday night.
Kemp touted his record as governor, the state’s “incredible” economy, tax reliefs and his plan to fight high inflation and gas prices his blamed on Democrats. He also said he would not go beyond the “heartbeat” bill that ban abortions at six weeks.
“My desire is to continue to help them fight through 40-year-high inflation and high gas prices and other things that our Georgia families are facing right now financially because of bad policies in Washington, D.C., where President Biden and the Democrats have complete control,” he said.
Abrams hit her challenger on his abortion stance, gun laws and attempts to make it harder for some Georgians to vote.
“This is a governor who for the last four years has beat his chest but delivered very little for most Georgians,” she said. “He’s weakened gun laws and flooded our streets. He’s weakened… women’s rights. He’s denied women the access to reproductive care. The most dangerous thing facing Georgia is four more years of Brian Kemp.”
This is a rematch of the 2018 race in which Abrams narrowly lost to Kemp.
More than 200,000 people in Georgia have requested mail ballots ahead of the Oct. 28 deadline. Early in-person voting will run through Nov. 4.
Kemp and Abrams are set to face off in a second debate on Oct. 30.
