Trump getting plenty of 2020 company on the 2018 campaign trail

U.S. President Donald Trump departs the White House on Oct. 12 in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is getting ready for a swing through the Mountain West for campaign rallies, but he won’t be alone. Many of his potential 2020 rivals are hitting the trail themselves, serving as surrogates for Democratic candidates in 2018.

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will find himself in Nevada on the same day as one of the president’s “Make America Great Again” spectacles Saturday, though they might as well be on different planets.

Biden is going to help the powerful Culinary Union in Las Vegas kick off early voting, while Trump’s political operation has scheduled a morning event in Elko, about 400 miles to the north in heavily Republican territory.

And now that the Senate has finished work through Election Day, the many senators in the Democratic Conference who may make runs for the White House have more time to hit the campaign trail too.

Sen. Bernie Sanders also has a visit to Nevada on his schedule ahead of Election Day. He is expected to participate in rallies next Thursday with the Nevada State Democratic Party featuring Rep. Jacky Rosen, the party nominee for Senate, in both Reno and Las Vegas.

Rosen is not the only Senate candidate who will be appearing with the Vermont independent – who caucuses with the Democrats – as the drive to get out votes picks up.

Sanders is scheduled to be joined in Wisconsin by Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin at an event in Milwaukee on Monday, and he will be stumping in Kenosha with Randy Bryce, the Democrat running for the open House seat currently held by Speaker Paul D. Ryan.

Sen. Cory Booker, meanwhile, spent some of his weekend in Ohio stumping for Democrats, including Richard Cordray, the former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who is running for governor. The Democrat from New Jersey recently made his Iowa debut as a prospective White House hopeful.

He was heading to South Carolina on Thursday for a Democratic Party event in Orangeburg County.

A spokeswoman for California Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris said she is scheduled to be in the Palmetto State the day after, making appearances in Columbia and Greenville.

Harris is also scheduled to swing through Wisconsin on Sunday, with stops in Madison and Milwaukee, before moving on to Iowa.

Trump kicks off his latest trip with a Thursday evening rally in Missoula, Montana, where he’s sure to be boosting the candidacy of GOP Senate nominee Matt Rosendale over Democratic incumbent Jon Tester.

Trump will go on to Mesa, Arizona, on Friday evening, before finishing the trip with the rally in Elko, in far northeast Nevada, on Saturday morning.