President Donald Trump will not hold his planned in-person rallies in Kansas and Iowa this weekend, the Republican National Committee announced Thursday, replacing them with telerallies in nearly 20 states in the final days before Election Day.
“With Republicans in a strong position in Kansas and Iowa, previously planned in-person rallies in those states will no longer take place as scheduled,” the committee said in a statement. Telerallies “can reach more voters in the limited time left before polls close.”
In Kansas, the canceled event would have been a Saturday rally with Sen. Roger Marshall, with a noon speech from Trump, Kasey Windhorst of the Salina Airport Authority confirmed to The Washington Sun earlier Thursday.
Trump offered an explanation hours before the RNC release. Asked at Joint Base Andrews why he was not going to Kansas, he said the race didn’t require it.“I’m not going to Kansas because he’s doing very well,” Trump said. “I’m going to do a telerally. Tomorrow, I’m doing Florida.” Asked if travel fatigue caused the cancellation, Trump said: “You’ve been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect.”
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The new virtual events will cover Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Trump won 15 of those states in 2024.
A White House official had earlier pushed back on the idea that the change signals trouble in Kansas, saying demand for the president’s time has outpaced his travel schedule. “Every candidate wanted POTUS to come to their districts to campaign for them. We hadn’t even left Ohio and they were asking us to come back. Standing up telerallies allows him to hit EVERYWHERE with everything tightening. There will be over 20 telerallies before Election Day,” a White House official told The Sun.
A GOP source familiar with the operation offered the same explanation, saying demand from candidates has been “huge” and the campaign is “adjusting to a telerally to maximize his reach and communicate with as many voters as possible.”
Marshall’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to questions about why the event was canceled.
It would have been Trump’s second trip to Kansas and Iowa amid a busy midterm blitz that’s taken the president largely to states he won comfortably in 2024.
Trump carried Kansas by more than 16 points two years ago, and Marshall won his first term in 2020 by 11. Democrats have not won a Senate race in Kansas since 1932.
Marshall said earlier this month that the path to the Senate majority “runs through Kansas.”
This story was updated to reflect another canceled in-person rally and the RNC’s statement.
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