A late change to the closing schedule
President Donald Trump has cancelled planned weekend rallies in Iowa and Kansas, two states where Senate races have turned unexpectedly competitive, and will hold tele-rallies instead. The remote events are meant to reach voters in nearly 20 states before polls open on Tuesday.
Asked on Thursday about dropping the Kansas stop, Trump said: "I don't feel like I have to go to Kansas," adding that Republican Senator Roger Marshall is doing well. "We're going to have a strong Tuesday night," he told reporters at the White House.
The Republican National Committee said the change lets the president reach more voters during a final 72-hour sprint. RNC chairman Joe Gruters described the tele-rallies as a huge boost in the closing days.
What is on the ballot
All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are up. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in each chamber to overturn Republican majorities, and they enter the final weekend with the advantage nationally. Most public polling has them favoured to take the House, while the Senate map remains close enough that either party could control it.
The president's approval rating has fallen to a record low of 31 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos survey, a difficult number for a party defending narrow majorities. Republican candidates in battleground states have spent the closing weeks talking about prices and health costs, while Democratic campaigns have focused on the cost of living and the administration's use of executive power.
An unusual voter joins in
Pope Leo XIV, who was born in Chicago, has mailed in a ballot for the midterms, making him the first pontiff to vote in a United States election. The Vatican did not stage the move as a political statement, but it drew attention given the pope's tense relationship with the White House.
Both parties are now watching early turnout data. More than a third of expected ballots have already been cast in several states, and organisers on both sides say the final weekend of door-knocking will decide close races. Trump's shift to telephone town halls means his closing message will reach more markets than a handful of arena stops, but with less of the crowd coverage his campaign has relied on.