WASHINGTON: Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic former President Barack Obama headed to Ohio and Georgia on Wednesday, the sites of critical contests in the Nov 3 midterm election that will determine which party controls the US Congress for the next two years.

The final week of the campaign is playing out at a time when Trump’s public approval rating is near a record low, with Americans increasingly sour on the high cost of living and the Iran war, threatening Republicans’ majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Trump, who has spent the past few weeks on the campaign trail, is set to appear with Senator Jon Husted of Ohio as he faces off with Democratic former Senator Sherrod Brown, in one of the most competitive contests that will determine whether Republicans hold their 53-47 advantage in that chamber.

Obama, meanwhile, is due to appear with Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who is facing a challenge by Republican Representative Mike Collins. That state has been so competitive in recent federal election cycles that its three most recent Senate matchups went to runoffs, though this time around nonpartisan analysts view the Democratic incumbent as in a strong position to hold his seat. Obama has kept a relatively low public profile until the past week, when he returned to the campaign trail with blistering speeches criticising his successor.

Americans have been voting for weeks, with more than 36.4 million ballots already cast, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab. A total of 45.9 million Americans voted early in the last midterms, held in 2022 during Democratic then-President Joe Biden’s term.

Nonpartisan analysts generally favor Democrats’ chances of capturing a majority in the House, with the contest for the Senate seen as likely to be harder fought as Democrats will need to pick up seats in traditionally Republican-leaning states, such as Ohio, Iowa or Alaska for the 51 seats they would need for a majority.

“I just think the GOP has lost touch. They dont understand what’s actually going on, and it feels like they’ve broken the promises to people, said Joshua Brazezicke, 26, a property manager from Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, who recently switched his voter registration from independent to Democrat. That state is the site of four highly competitive House races that will play a critical role in determining control of that chamber.

In Michigan, where Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed are locked in a tight race for the Senate seat being vacated by Democratic Senator Gary Peters, both campaigns are relying on high-profile allies to energize supporters and boost turnout. Rogers spent the day campaigning with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas on a four-stop bus tour culminating in Imlay City, a small community northeast of Detroit. El-Sayed, meanwhile, was scheduled to join Peters and fellow Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin for an evening canvassing rally in Downriver, southwest of Detroit.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2026