Trump rallies Ind. GOP after bruising primary
WASHINGTON — After primaries this week that saw GOP congressmen lose in key races, President Donald Trump is returning to the campaign trail with big-stage events targeting vulnerable Senate Democrats and mobilizing his most fervent supporters on behalf of Republicans.
Trump took the stage in Elkhart, Ind., on Thursday night, two days after Republicans nominated former state lawmaker Mike Braun to challenge vulnerable Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly. Trump’s political advisers view the event as a way to project party unity following a bruising primary.
Vice President Mike Pence, the state’s former governor, praised Trump during his remarks.
Trump on Thursday talked up the economy and his accomplishments, telling a rowdy audience that the “great news keeps rolling in.”
He said he doesn’t think “we’ve ever done better as a country.” He says, “We making America proud. We are rockin’.”
Trump also warned of the potential consequences of Democratic wins in the midterms in November that threaten to derail his agenda in Congress.
He said he’s made strides like never before in his first year in office, but that can disappear if voters elect “fools” into office.
Pence, the state’s former governor, in introducing the president in Elkhart on Thursday said Trump has kept his campaign promises and is embracing his leadership role on the world stage.
Pence hailed the president’s progress on North Korea, especially his having brought home three Americans who were held there. He noted that the U.S. is pulling out of the “disastrous” Iran nuclear deal and opening the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem.
The vice president blasted Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana.
He said when Trump asked him to support his tax overhaul or his plan to end the Affordable Care Act, “Joe voted no.” Pence says Donnelly’s Republican opponent, Mike Braun “will stand” with Trump.
The Indiana rally comes as the president has told advisers he is eager to ramp up his campaign travel on behalf of Republicans.
The president, who helped raise $132 million for the Republican National Committee in 2016, won 10 states where Democratic senators are on the ballot this year.
He’s expected to campaign heavily to help Republicans maintain Senate and House majorities and elect GOP governors.
“The president takes his role as leader of the Republican Party very seriously, and after more than a year in office, he understands too few Democrats are willing to join hands across party lines to support issues that the American people resoundingly called for,” said White House political director Bill Stepien. “The president’s calendar is mapped out with his political priorities in mind.”
Trump’s bold strokes on the foreign stage come while he is dogged by the special counsel’s ongoing investigation into Russian election meddling and developments about his personal attorney’s payments to a porn actress, allowing him to frame the campaign debate, specifically Donnelly’s “no” vote on last year’s tax overhaul.
Trump’s political advisers chose to hold the rally in the heart of Donnelly’s political base. Before his 2012 election, the senator represented a House district that included Elkhart.
The city, home to manufacturing jobs and the recreational vehicle industry, was also paid a visit by President Barack Obama in 2009 when the region was suffering from unemployment rates surpassing 19 percent.
Obama returned to Elkhart in 2016 to point to economic progress, but Trump carried the county and much of the region overwhelmingly that year.