President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama are fanning out across two key battleground states on Friday, stumping for fellow Democrats with control of the U.S. Senate a toss-up in Nov. 8’s midterm elections.
Biden will appear at a Pennsylvania Democratic Party dinner, where Senate hopeful John Fetterman will be in attendance. Fetterman’s race vs. celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz is among a handful of contests that will decide control of the Senate, and current polling shows the two men virtually tied. Vice President Kamala Harris will also appear at the dinner.
Some Democrats fretted Wednesday over whether their party had suffered a setback in its effort to hold control of the Senate with the decision by Fetterman to debate Oz on Tuesday night while recovering from a stroke, as the Wall Street Journal reported.
See: Spotlight on Fetterman stroke recovery only intensifies after Oz debate
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, was caught on a hot microphone telling Biden, “It looks like the debate didn’t hurt us too much in Pennsylvania as of today.”
Schumer had a different take on Georgia, saying: “The state where we’re going downhill is Georgia. It’s hard to believe that they will go for Herschel Walker.” Walker, a former football star, is facing incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in another of this year’s closest races. (A spokesman for Schumer said the senator “believes the Democratic candidates will win.”)
Obama is scheduled to headline a rally for Warnock and the Democratic candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams.
“He’s looking forward to this visit very much. Georgia played a determinative role last cycle and could likely be in the same position two years later,” Obama adviser Eric Schultz said ahead of the event, according to NBC News. “The goal is to get out the vote, mobilize people, given the stakes of this year’s elections.”
Democrats will likely lose more than 20 seats in the House of Representatives — and with them their House majority — in the midterm elections, according to Cook Political Report Editor-in-Chief Amy Walter.
Republican campaigns have seized on raging inflation, including elevated prices for gasoline
RB00,
and other fuels, while Democrats have focused on issues such as abortion rights.
U.S. stocks
DJIA,
traded higher Friday and were on track for weekly gains, trimming the S&P 500’s
SPX,
year-to-date loss to 19%.
Now read: Here’s what the midterm elections could mean for the financial sector, energy, healthcare and more
And see: Republicans have over 70% chance of winning Senate in midterm elections, betting markets say
