In Final Week Before Midterms, Obama and Harris Head to Georgia as Trump Campaigns in Ohio

With less than a week to go before the midterm elections, both parties leaned into presidential power on Wednesday to drive battleground voters to the polls. Former President Barack Obama headed to Georgia, President Trump visited Ohio for the third time this month, and former Vice President Kamala Harris was also scheduled to arrive in Georgia on Wednesday, where she will begin a three-day campaign swing with Senator Jon Ossoff, the Democratic incumbent.

The Senate contest in Georgia appears to have shifted to relatively safe ground for Democrats, who have scaled back their spending on the race. But the contest for governor remains far more competitive, raising the prospect that many voters may split their ticket.

In the governor's race, Republican billionaire and health care executive Rick Jackson faces Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat and the former mayor of Atlanta. The two are vying to succeed Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican who is term-limited. Georgia has a recent history of such divided victories: in 2022, Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, and Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, both won statewide.

Obama's event in Atlanta will be his second day of campaigning, after his appearances on Saturday in Cleveland and Detroit. Polls suggest that Ossoff is favored to win, but Bottoms is locked in one of the tightest governor's races in the nation.

In the Senate race, Ossoff faces Representative Mike Collins, a Republican. The contest was initially considered one of the nation's most competitive and important races, but Ossoff, supported by Democrats' large fund-raising advantage, has built a significant lead in the polls. Georgians had already cast more than 2 million early ballots as of Wednesday morning, outpacing the turnout from the 2022 midterms, according to the secretary of state's office.

If Bottoms wins, she would be the first Black woman elected governor in the United States and the first Democrat to hold the office in Georgia since 2003.

Trump is scheduled to make his second visit in less than two weeks to Georgia on Saturday, after campaigning last weekend in Perry, a city in the state's central region. His swing comes amid sinking approval ratings, which have expanded the Senate map to the fringes and forced Republicans to play defense in deep-red states.

A new set of New York Times/Siena University polls released on Wednesday shows the Senate contest in South Carolina effectively tied, with Senator Darline Graham, the Republican appointed to her late brother Lindsey Graham's seat, leading Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee, by less than a single percentage point. Republicans are ahead in the Florida Senate race, but by six points, a relatively small margin in a state that Republicans won by double digits just two years ago.

In South Carolina, half of all voters, including 18 percent of Republicans, said that Graham did not have the right experience to be an effective senator, while more than half of voters in the state said they thought Dr. Andrews had the right kind of experience. Trump rallied in the state last week and is scheduled to return tomorrow, in an effort to shore up support.

The same polling shows Democrats leading comfortably in the Minnesota Senate race, by 14 points. Earlier this month, the consensus in Minnesota was that the Democratic nominee, Peggy Flanagan, was ahead by single digits, and the Minnesota Star Tribune's poll at the time showed a four-point race.

The transformation of traditionally Republican-leaning states into political battlegrounds reflects disapproval with some of Trump's signature policies, including the Iran war and tariffs, that has stretched into his own party ranks. In recent days, a series of former Republican governors and prominent political figures have endorsed Democratic candidates in several key races. On Tuesday, Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, endorsed Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, the Democratic nominee for governor, while also publicly backing the re-election of the Republican incumbent, Senator Dan Sullivan.

In Texas, Ken Paxton and James Talarico held dueling rallies on opposite sides of the western city of Lubbock on Tuesday evening, for the second time in just over a week; last week they came within a few miles of each other in Fort Worth. Thousands of people packed into each event. At Paxton's rally, attendance was stoked by the headliner, President Trump, whose address lasted more than 90 minutes; Paxton spoke only when the president called him to the stage toward the end. 'On election night, Texas is going to prove that America does not belong to those who hate it,' Trump said. 'America belongs to those who love it.' Across town, Talarico told cheering supporters: 'We're going to shock the nation, shock the world, when we beat the billionaires and take back Texas.'