By Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON, Oct 3 (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump will campaign on Saturday in Ohio, where his Republican Party is in a tight race for a US Senate seat as it tries to retain its narrow congressional majority.
Multiple incumbent Republican senators across the country face tough political headwinds, with Trump’s popularity falling in recent months as higher prices persist for gasoline and other staples amid the US-Israeli war with Iran.
But US Senator Jon Husted, a Republican in a competitive Ohio race against Democrat Sherrod Brown, hopes the president can motivate Trump supporters who might otherwise skip midterm elections.
Although Trump garnered more than 55% of the Ohio vote in the 2024 presidential election, economic concerns have emerged since then.
Ohio gasoline prices increased 35% over the past year to $4.16 per gallon on average, according to AAA, which compiles data on automobile travel. And Trump’s aggressive trade policy with Canada has led to retaliatory Canadian tariffs that affect about $3 billion worth of Ohio exports, based on 2025 figures, according to a CBC report.
Trump has pledged 32 days of campaigning leading up to the midterm elections. He started this week in deeply conservative areas such as north Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama that offered the president a warm reception.
The president has said he needs to do a better job of touting the country’s economic progress. “Everyone thinks that the prices are high because of me, but they’re not,” Trump told Texas truck plant workers on Thursday.
Ohio is among eight US Senate races rated competitive. The state has turned into a campaign battlefield over data centers and culture war issues such as youth transgender surgeries.
Outside political groups have poured tens of millions of dollars into Ohio, making Husted-Brown the second-most-expensive Senate race in the country, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
“Jon Husted worked with President Trump to deliver the largest tax cut for working families in our state’s history, eliminated taxes on tips and overtime, and fixed the Joe Biden-Sherrod Brown open-border crisis,” campaign spokesperson Amy Natoce said.
Brown’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson; Editing by Sergio Non and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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