President Donald Trump embarked on his second trip to Ohio in the past two weeks to campaign for his party’s picks for governor and Senate, underscoring how Republicans are playing defense in the final stretch to the midterms.

His back-to-back visits to the state comes on the heels of mounting questions about how his campaign blitz began in a series of friendly red states such as Texas, Alabama and Nebraska earlier this month.

At Monday’s rally in Youngstown, Trump again urged supporters to treat the midterms as though his own name were on the ballot, warning that Democrats would dismantle his administration’s agenda if they regained control of Congress.

“Just pretend that I’m on the ballot because no way I am on the ballot because they will try and destroy everything we’ve done,” Trump said.

Vice President JD Vance, an Ohio native, just visited Lima, Ohio, on Friday, too. The last time either Trump or Vance were in one of the seven 2024 swing states was in mid-September, when Trump traveled to North Carolina. Trump, however, will campaign in battleground Arizona and Georgia later this week, in addition to stops in more normally reliably Republican states, including Montana and Alaska.

Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Jon Husted both trailed their Democratic challengers by 4 points and 3 points, respectively, according to a polling average by MS NOW-FiftyPlusOne. The Buckeye State was once a traditional battleground state before becoming reliably Republican after Trump’s 2016 presidential victory.

Trump used the rally to make an aggressive case against Democrats, singling out Brown and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton while warning that Republican losses would jeopardize his policies on taxes, immigration and election security.

“It’s one vote, but that one vote gives your Congress a direction that you’re not going to be happy with,” Trump said, arguing that Ohio’s Senate race carries consequences beyond the state.

terviews with MS NOW near a shopping center in Youngstown, some Trump voters were uncertain about supporting Ramaswamy, but leaned toward backing Husted over former Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown.

“He’s an unknown factor,” Trump supporter Lucie Thompson of Girard, Ohio, told MS NOW, explaining why she is on the fence about Ramaswamy in the gubernatorial race, while she plans to vote for Husted in the Senate race. “I don’t know. He’s not really ever held any political offices that I know of.”Meanwhile, many of the Trump supporters whom MS NOW spoke with while they lined up for Monday’s rally in downtown Youngstown were more certain about their votes.

Bill Groom, a Trump voter donning a MAGA hat outside Covelli Centre, where the rally is set to take place, told MS NOW that while he currently plans to vote for Ramaswamy and Husted, he believes Ohio Republicans could face a tight election in November because “a lot of people in Ohio are on the fence about things.”“I think a lot of it has to do with the economy, and Ohio is definitely — and along with the United States — inflation is out of control,” Groom said. “I’m curious to see how Vivek and Trump are going to handle things.”

National headwinds are weighing down Republicans with Americans frustrated with the cost of living and the war with Iran. The average price of gas in Ohio was $3.87, as of Monday, according to AAA, while diesel was above $6. Under Trump, 13,000 manufacturing jobs have been added to the state’s economy, according to St. Louis Federal Reserve data, but voters in central Ohio told MS NOW that the sector still has not fully recovered.

Trump sought to counter concerns about the economy by touting manufacturing investments in Ohio, including projects in Warren, Youngstown and Middletown. He also announced that Cleveland had been selected as the location of a new U.S. submarine component repair center, crediting Husted for helping secure the project.

As Trump’s political team and the Republican Party attempt to shore up Trump’s base to defend the GOP’s majority in the House and the Senate, the president has urged his supporters to “pretend” that he is on the ballot in November to encourage his base turnout.

Joe Carter, a veteran and an independent voter from just down the street who said he has never voted for Trump, came to see the president and the Republicans he is backing out of “curiosity.”Carter said he has yet to make up his mind on who he wants to vote for Ohio’s gubernatorial and Senate races but added he is looking for candidates who give him “the most inspiration for who’s going to run this country and how they’re going to run it, and where we’re going in the future.”Eric Putnam, a 33-year-old who voted for Trump in the past three presidential elections, said he is voting in his first-ever midterm election this year. He only started closely following politics in recent years.

Trump’s political team says voters like Putnam are exactly the people it hopes to turn out in the midterms: those who support Trump but might not otherwise vote in elections without a presidential race. Putman personally believes Trump backing specific Republican candidates “really kicks people to go and vote.”Trump said he expects to hold as many as two or three rallies a day in the final week before the midterms, acknowledging his aggressive campaign schedule despite not being on the ballot.

“I don’t know why the hell I’m doing it,” Trump said. “I’m not running, but I am running,” Trump said.