Florida — Trump Rallies for Donalds, Defends Ramaswamy Attack Ad

Donald Trump travels to Florida Friday to rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, even as the president faces mounting criticism from inside his own party over an Ohio attack ad he has publicly defended, according to live coverage from the Guardian. The stop comes 11 days before Election Day, with more than 20 million early votes already cast nationwide, the Guardian reported.

Why Is Trump Campaigning for a Candidate Who Avoids His Name?

Donalds has removed mentions of Trump from his campaign website and has rarely said the president's name during Florida's governor's race, the Guardian reported in its live coverage. Trump is scheduled to stump for Donalds in Florida on Friday regardless, part of a closing-stretch push through battleground and red-state contests alike, according to the Guardian.

How Many Days Remain Until the Midterms, and How Many Votes Are Already In?

Eleven days remain before midterm Election Day, with more than 20 million early votes cast as of Friday, the Guardian reported. The figures underscore how far along voting already is in several states even as candidates make last campaign stops.

What Did Trump Say About the Ramaswamy Ad at an Iowa Rally?

Speaking at a rally in Iowa Thursday night, Trump said he personally told Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for Ohio governor, to keep an attack ad running despite the backlash it has drawn. "I said, 'You've got to ride with it,'" Trump told the crowd, according to the Guardian's live coverage.

The ad targets Ramaswamy's Democratic rival, Dr. Amy Acton, and features Acton's mother. It references that the mother lost custody of her daughter at age 12 after her husband was charged with raping the young girl, the Guardian reported. The spot has drawn condemnation across party lines in Ohio and beyond since it began airing.

Which Republicans Have Broken With Trump Over the Ad?

Iowa Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson denounced the ad Thursday, becoming the latest GOP figure to publicly split with the president over the spot. "I think it's absolutely terrible, and I think they should take the ad down," Hinson said, according to the Guardian. Her comments leave Trump "increasingly out of step with his own party," the Guardian's live blog reported, as other Republicans have also criticized the ad in recent days.

Why Has Donalds Distanced Himself From Trump in the Florida Race?

The Guardian's live coverage describes Donalds as a candidate aligned with Trump's base who nonetheless avoids invoking the president by name on the trail, even as Trump heads to the state to campaign on his behalf. The dynamic reflects a broader split playing out across several midterm races, where some Republican candidates are calculating that distance from Trump, or at least from his most contested messaging, serves them better with swing voters than open alignment does.

The split is most visible in the Ramaswamy ad fight. Trump's decision to tell supporters he urged Ramaswamy to keep the spot airing, delivered the night before his own Florida rally, puts him at odds with Republicans such as Hinson who want the ad pulled. Whether that posture helps or hurts Donalds, who has tried to keep Trump's name out of his own campaign materials, is not something Donalds has addressed publicly, according to the Guardian's reporting.

For now, the president's travel schedule, Florida Friday, Iowa the night before, shows him spending the campaign's final stretch on candidates who hold varying degrees of distance from him, while the Ramaswamy ad controversy continues to draw fire from Republicans who do not share his view that the spot should stay up. With 11 days left and tens of millions of ballots already cast, according to the Guardian, neither story appears close to resolution before voters finish deciding the outcome themselves.

What Does the Florida Governor's Race Look Like Heading Into Trump's Visit?

The Guardian's live coverage points to a companion piece by reporter Richard Luscombe describing Donalds as "the mega-Maga contender in deep-red Florida who doesn't want to talk about Trump," a framing that captures the contradiction at the center of Friday's rally. Donalds has built his candidacy on alignment with Trump's base in a reliably Republican state, the Guardian noted, yet has calculated that keeping the president's name out of his campaign materials serves him better in the race's final stretch than open identification with Trump's current messaging, including the Ramaswamy ad fight.

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