WASHINGTON — Ahead of President Trump’s visit to West Virginia on Tuesday, White House officials outlined what they said was an aggressive midterm campaign agenda that would capitalize on the president’s efforts to draw crowds to rallies — held largely in states where he is already popular — and lend his likeness to the Republican National Committee’s fund-raising efforts.
In a phone call with reporters, multiple senior officials familiar with the president’s plans for the midterms said Mr. Trump would be participating in at least eight rallies over the next six weeks and as many as 16 fund-raisers, which officials said had filled R.N.C. coffers upward of $227 million so far this election cycle.
Mr. Trump will visit at least seven states — and as many as 15 — in the next six weeks, the officials said, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Kentucky and Tennessee. Most are not traditional battleground states, but several are home to Democratic senators who face difficult re-election fights. At recent campaign rallies, in stops in places like Indiana and North Dakota, the president has seemed to relish taking punches at those vulnerable Democrats, with the constant rallying cry that they are obstructing his agenda.
On Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump is scheduled to make his sixth visit to West Virginia, where Senator Joe Manchin III faces a tough battle for re-election despite breaking rank with his party and becoming the first Democrat to meet with Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump’s Supreme Court pick.
In the phone call with reporters on Tuesday, White House officials declined multiple requests by reporters to put their efforts to promote Mr. Trump’s agenda on the record. One person familiar with the president’s thinking claimed that as many as one-third of all recent rally attendees were not Republican voters, while another said the number was a general statement about the president’s ability to draw in people who came not necessarily to enjoy the red-meat content, but to see the president.
Officials said they would remain cautious about sending the president into more traditional battleground states as the next few weeks unfold. Some in Mr. Trump’s party have noted a risk to Mr. Trump’s firebrand approach, particularly when it comes to railing against immigrants in states that are home to Republicans in affluent, heavily suburban districts that the party must win to keep control of the House.
In an interview about Mr. Trump’s approach to rallies this month, Kellyanne Conway, the counselor to the president, characterized Mr. Trump’s personality and political instincts as the campaign’s greatest asset.
She also said the president would make it clear that a vote for Republicans would be a vote to uphold specifics of his agenda.
“His message is ‘here’s what we’ve done for you,’” Ms. Conway said. “It’s not ‘vote for me,’ it’s ‘vote for this man or woman.’”
Other presidents have used rallies as a shot in the arm to gin up support before midterm elections, but the White House made it a point on Tuesday to say that the president was topping his predecessors, including Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, when it came to midterm campaign stops.
