Trump flies 5,470 km to Alaska, a closely contested red state

Vance goes to Texas... “Swim against the current” Republican election classic poet

(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Hong Jeong-gyu = U.S. President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Wasilla, Alaska on the 13th (local time) in support of U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, who is running for re-election in the midterm elections on the 3rd of next month.

President Trump's support campaign is because Rep. Sullivan is in a close race against his challenger, Democratic candidate Mary Peltola. Alaska has traditionally been considered a 'red state', a strong Republican region, but it is classified as a close battleground in this election.

The Washington Post (WP) pointed out that President Trump is flying 3,400 miles (approximately 5,472 km) from Washington DC to Wasilla to help Representative Sullivan, saying, "It shows how urgently the Republican Party needs to rally its core supporters to maintain its majority position in the Senate."

Wasilla, where President Trump is speaking, is a place with a strong conservative tendency in Alaska. It is also the hometown of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who claimed to be the godmother of the Tea Party, a hard-line conservative faction within the Republican Party.

The Republican Party has decided that it will be difficult to beat the Democratic Party in the North Carolina and Georgia Senate elections, so it has virtually stopped supporting the party at the party level. Instead, they appear to be focusing on defending existing 'homelands' where Democratic candidates, such as those in Alaska and Texas, threaten Republican candidates.

President Trump visited Texas three times in the past month, and Vice President JD Vance also visited Texas again that day to support Republican candidate Ken Paxton, who is struggling against Democratic candidate James Talarico.

“We know we are swimming against the current,” Vance told reporters on his way to Texas, acknowledging that the Republican Party is struggling, but adding, “We are bucking a historical trend.” Historically, the U.S. midterm elections resulted in the 'graveyard of the ruling party'.