President Donald Trump is coming back to Tennessee, just 17 days after attending a football game at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.
Trump will attend an event at the F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville on Oct. 10, according Ward Baker, who manages the campaign of GOP governor nominee Sen. Marsha Blackburn and other high-profile Republicans.
Baker did not say who was hosting the event.
Trump's second visit comes amid a32-day tour across several other states as he works to turn out voters in the Nov. 3 midterm election. Trump has asked voters topretend he's on the ballot, though some Republican candidates have tried to distance themselves as the president's approval ratings plummet. Polls show Americans fretting over high gasoline prices and the ongoing
war with Iran, Reuters reported.
Republican candidates in Tennessee are planning to rally with the president, who won more than 60% of the vote in Tennessee in 2020 and 2024.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the GOP nominee for governor; Sen. Bill Hagerty, who is running for reelection; and former Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, who isn't on the ballot but is a prospect to replace Blackburn if she wins, are planning to make the trip to Clarksville, Knox News has confirmed.
A spokesperson for Knoxville Rep. Tim Burchett, who has said he'd like to replace Blackburn in the Senate, did not know whether Burchett would attend the rally.
The stakes are high for Trump and the Republican Party this November. Control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate is on the line, and Republicans are widely projected to lose the House and possibly the Senate.
In Tennessee, where Republicans have a supermajority in the legislature and have held the governorship since 2011, Trump will likely prioritize support for Blackburn, who faces challenges from Democratic nominee Jerri Green and independent candidates David Hatley and Lauren Pinkston, among others.
Trump also might rally support for state Sen. Brent Taylor in his bid to represent the newly redrawn 9th Congressional District, which used to be the state's only majority minority district and a Democratic stronghold. Republican lawmakers redrew it to stretch across 15 counties from Memphis to Rutherford County, southeast of Nashville. The president endorsed Taylor, but Taylor has been distancing himself from the president, despite having fought hard for his endorsement in the primary.
Recently, Taylor removed a pop-up window on his campaign website touting Trump’s endorsement. After highlighting the endorsement or praising the president in nearly every post on social media throughout the primary, Taylor has not mentioned Trump in posts on X for more than a month.
Taylor is running against state Rep. Justin J. Pearson, who was recently named to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's competitive “Red to Blue” program in a sign of Democrats' growing optimism about midterm gains in the South.
Vivian Jones contributed background about the 9th District Congressional race to this report.
Allie Feinberg is the politics reporter for Knox News. Email: allie.feinberg@knoxnews.com; Reddit: u/KnoxNewsAllie
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: President Donald Trump is coming back to Tennessee ahead of midterms
