President Donald Trump on Thursday, October 29, 2026, canceled his planned weekend campaign stops in Kansas and Iowa, and his allies said he would instead phone in to rallies nationwide after four weeks of near-daily travel to boost Republicans ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections.
The canceled in-person rallies were set for Salina, Kansas, on Saturday, and Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday. The Republican National Committee confirmed both cancellations on Thursday, after Trump himself had announced the Kansas decision earlier in the day. Trump is still expected to travel to rallies in several states before Election Day, including a rally in Daytona, Florida, on Friday.
From airport tarmacs to the telephone
The shift marks a sharp change of pace for a president who has hosted 25 rallies in 19 states since October 1, often speaking for close to two hours at each stop, frequently in rural areas of Republican-friendly states. On Thursday, after campaigning for Senator Darline Graham in South Carolina, Trump told reporters he did not "feel like I have to go to Kansas," a state where fellow Republican Senator Roger Marshall is locked in an unexpectedly competitive race with Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton.
"He is doing very well," Trump said of Marshall. "We are going to have a strong Tuesday night."
A GOP source familiar with the decision said demand for the president from candidates across the country had been intense. "The demand for POTUS from our candidates to hold rallies in their states has been insane, so we're adjusting to a tele-rally to maximize his reach in battleground states as races continue to tighten," the source said.
MAGA Inc, the campaign funding group aligned with Trump, said on Thursday it would host a series of "tele-rallies" with the president in at least 19 states, including Kansas and Iowa, before Election Day. The Kansas Republican Party said the same logic applied there: "President Trump is shifting from in-person rallies, including Saturday's event in Salina, to tele-town halls that allow him to reach more voters across the nation," said spokesperson Laura Francis.
Why the two states matter
Kansas has become one of the surprise battlegrounds of the cycle. A Democrat has not won a Senate race there since 1932, but an October 29 CNN poll found Marshall trailing Hamilton by four points, 49 percent to 45 percent. Trump carried Kansas by 16 points in 2024, and both Trump and Vice President JD Vance have already campaigned there for Marshall. The Salina Airport Authority said its latest information was that the rally was canceled due to scheduling conflicts.
Iowa, home to several competitive congressional races, was due to host Trump in Dubuque on Sunday, November 1. The RNC statement canceling that stop extended the same phone-in strategy to a second weekend state in a single day.
A hoarse voice after a month on the road
Trump has acknowledged the toll of the schedule. Sounding hoarse in Mississippi on Monday, he told a crowd: "God didn't make your vocal cords to do a rally every day." His voice has turned hoarse as a result of the nightly rallies, at which he often speaks for nearly two hours.
The White House said Trump would continue to connect directly with voters through more than 20 tele-rallies before Election Day, even as the in-person tour winds down. Tuesday's elections will determine whether Republicans retain their narrow control of the US Senate and House of Representatives.
Sources: Reuters, "Trump cancels weekend rallies, plans to phone in to other midterm campaign events," October 29, 2026; USA Today / Topeka Capital-Journal, "Donald Trump cancels Kansas rally amid tight Senate race," October 29, 2026; Kansas Republican Party statement via USA Today, October 29, 2026.