Trump urges Republicans in tight races to run on his record

President Trump on Wednesday urged Republicans facing tight races in the November midterm elections to run on his record, pledging to join them on the campaign trail.

Trump told Republican lawmakers at a dinner in the White House Rose Garden that they had successful stories to pass along to voters in the remaining months of the election cycle. In telling those, he said they will “win and you’re going to win big.”

“I’m going to go to every one of those 35 places, and we’re going to see if we can get everyone elected,” the president continued, referring to the 35 races that will determine GOP control of the House and the Senate in the fall.

Trump specifically referred to Senate races in Alaska and Texas. Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) who won the endorsement of former Anchorage Mayor Dan A. Sullivan, is slated to face off against former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) and Republican Dan J. Sullivan in the nonpartisan election in November.

In Texas, state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is competing against state Rep. James Talarico (R) in a race to succeed Sen. John Cornyn (R), who Trump did not endorse in the GOP primary, favoring Paxton instead.

The president quipped about Paxton’s sense of style on Monday, saying that voters “might not love his look” but that he “was the best attorney general in the country, perhaps.”

Trump, who previously asked voters to act as though he were on the ballot , told Republicans Wednesday that there was “no reason for” them to lose the midterms based on his performance.

The president’s party typically loses control of at least one chamber of Congress following the midterm elections, in what is generally considered a referendum on their first two years in the White House.

Recent polling shows voters have grown dissatisfied with his job performance, with Reuters/Ipsos showing that Trump remains stuck at 33 percent , his lowest approval between his two terms. Another recent poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst had his approval slightly lower at 32 percent.

The key factors in his low approval rating are his handling of the cost of living and the Iran war, the latter of which has caused energy prices to climb and impact inflation.

Trump is facing pressure not to let the conflict spiral after renewed strikes on the Iranian regime. The White House told Reuters that it would not escalate military action against Iran until after the midterms, but the president reiterated this week that he does not think the more than six-month conflict will last “much longer.”

“And I’m not affected by the election,” he told reporters Wednesday. “Number one, I’m not running, but my party’s running, and I’m going to help my party. But I think my party respects the fact that we’re not allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”