(Excerpt)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House has a message for vulnerable House Republicans tiptoeing around President Donald Trump: Get on board or start packing.
The warning comes in a memo from White House political director Bill Stepien, who argues that GOP candidates who try to distance themselves from the president are only doing themselves harm in the upcoming midterm elections.
Trump has used campaign rallies in an effort to boost Republican turnout, encouraging the voters he drew to the polls in 2016 to support more staid traditional lawmakers. Both parties largely view the 2018 contest as a race to turn out party faithful rather than an effort to attract new voters. At a rally in Southaven, Mississippi, on Tuesday, Trump told voters: “Pretend I’m on the ballot.”
He added: “This is also a referendum about me and the disgusting gridlock they’ll put this country through.”
“Watch closely where the president has and will campaign; you will see the president aggressively campaigning in districts with candidates who enthusiastically embrace the policies that have put America on the pathway to prosperity,” the memo states. “President Trump continues to be ready, willing and able to put the power and force of his coalition to work for the candidates with whom he stands, and those who stand with him.”
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“U.S. President Donald Trump plans to visit six states over the next 10 days to energize his supporters to turn out for Republicans in tight races for the House of Representatives in upcoming congressional elections, according to a White House memo. Trump’s Republican Party is at risk of losing control of the House in the Nov. 6 midterm vote at a time when, historically, the party in control of the White House loses ground in Congress. Trump heads on Thursday to Minnesota where Republicans want to give a boost to two House candidates: one in an open race and another, a first-term incumbent, who is running in a Democratic-leaning district. He then plans to visit Kansas on Saturday, Iowa on Tuesday, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, Ohio on Friday and Kentucky on Saturday, Oct. 13, according to the internal memo seen by Reuters.”