Trump, Vance campaign with candidates on last day before US midterms

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have begun their final push ahead of the November 3 midterm elections , with Republican and Democratic candidates spreading out across the United States for a last day of campaigning.

On Monday afternoon in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC, Trump urged supporters to vote in Tuesday’s midterm election.

“If the people who voted for me and voted in the last election … if they go out and voted just a good portion of them, we will win in a landslide,” he said, before conceding that this could be an uphill battle.

“Now, that doesn’t happen because usually whoever is the sitting president, whether Republican or Democrat, good or bad, … for some reason the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms,” he added.

Trump also referred to the Senate race in Alaska as a “fraudulent election”.

“In Alaska, the Dumbocrats conspired to get a fake Dan Sullivan on the ballot to confuse voters,” he said.

The administration had renewed a legal push to bar Alaska from certifying its election results, alleging that Democrats conspired to recruit a “spoiler” candidate to divert votes from the Republican incumbent of the same name, Dan Sullivan, but US District Judge Sharon Gleason on Sunday dismissed the lawsuit, describing the request as “infeasible”.

Republicans are trying to hold their majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives despite Trump’s low approval ratings and polls predicting that the Iran war, high energy prices and the affordability crisis could mean a strong night for Democrats.

Closing the campaign at the Reflecting Pool was a departure from Trump’s recent strategy. The US president has staged more than 25 rallies in largely conservative areas over the past month, and wrote that Sunday’s rally in Kansas was the “last stop” of his 2026 midterm campaign tour.

The Reflecting Pool was also politically awkward. Trump’s renovation of the historic landmark ran nearly three months late and cost more than 10 times the initial budget. The “American flag blue” liner also began peeling after he declared the work complete, according to The Associated Press news agency.

In an interview on the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast, Trump said that, if he had to work with a Democrat-led Congress, he would become “Mr Veto”.

“It wouldn’t be the first time [we] have a president and he doesn’t have the Senate. They set stuff up, you veto it. After a month or two of getting things vetoed, they come over, and you make a deal,” he said.

The president also indicated he would be willing to pardon people around him if he considered it necessary.

“I would if I needed to, sure,” Trump added.

Vance travelled to Rome, New York, early on Monday to boost Republican House of Representatives candidates Anthony Constantino and Kailee Buller at a rally that began at 9:15am ET (14:15 GMT).

Constantino is running to succeed longtime Republican Representative Elise Stefanik, who is not seeking re-election. A Siena Research Institute poll shows the race could be close despite a Republican registration advantage of about 80,000 voters.

“A new poll conducted by Siena Research […] shows that while voters in the district still favor Republicans more broadly, that sentiment does not necessarily translate to support for Constantino,” North Country Public Radio reported.

Buller is challenging Democratic Representative John Mannion in the neighbouring 22nd congressional district, which includes Rome.

Travelling back through Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Vance spoke to reporters about the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran. Trump had threatened renewed fighting after the midterm election.

Vance, however, suggested that “good conversations” with Iran were ongoing, and that new attacks were not a foregone conclusion.

“The president and I both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement. We’re going to keep on working at it,” Vance said.

“You never know, of course. The Iranians are always a little unpredictable, and as the president always says, he retains kinetic options. He retains non-kinetic options. But we’ve certainly made some progress. We’ll see if we can make some more.”

In Michigan, Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed spent the final day before the election campaigning alongside Michigan Democratic Representative Debbie Dingell and Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.

He also urged supporters to vote as he rallied at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.

“If we’re nervous about where we’re going to go from here, go vote,” he said.

In Texas, Democrats James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa are making final pushes for the Senate and the governor’s race, respectively, with a joint rally in Austin at 6:30pm CT (00:30 GMT on Tuesday).

Talarico’s opponent, Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, is scheduled to appear in Conroe at noon CT (18:00 GMT) and Allen at 6:30pm CT (00:30 GMT).

Polls show Talarico narrowly ahead of Paxton, while Governor Greg Abbott’s lead over Hinojosa has narrowed.

In Maine, Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson will make campaign stops in Yarmouth, Scarborough, South Portland and Portland, with events scheduled from 9am ET (14:00 GMT) to 6pm ET (23:00 GMT).

In Iowa, Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek will be touring Harlan, Onawa, Le Mars and Sioux City to meet with voters, from 10am CT (16:00 GMT) to 6pm CT (00:00 GMT).

In Kansas, Democratic Senate candidate Adam Hamilton will be out from 7:30am CT (13:30 GMT) to 1pm CT (19:00 GMT), speaking to voters across Wichita, Topeka and Lawrence. The final event of the day has not yet been announced.

Separately, a federal judge in Washington is due to hear arguments early on Monday in a lawsuit over whether immigration agents can be present at polling places. Common Cause, UnidosUS, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the city and county of Denver are challenging the US administration’s position that armed agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may enter polling places for immigration enforcement.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in September that agents would not patrol polling sites but could enter to respond to threats or serve warrants on people. The plaintiffs argue that such operations would violate a federal restriction on armed personnel at voting places and could intimidate voters.

The Department of Homeland Security has said ICE is not planning operations targeting polling locations.