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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We're making hundreds and hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars. But my people said, please don't mention that, sir, because people are paying a little higher.
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BARACK OBAMA: He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory...
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: ...Just gold everywhere. (Inaudible).
(CHEERING)
OBAMA: So he's clearly not focused on lowering prices for you.
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
That was President Trump and former President Obama. Republicans and Democrats are bringing out their biggest names on the campaign trail to spread their closing messages. NPR's Stephen Fowler has been tracking these high-profile surrogates and is with us now. Hi, Stephen.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Hey there.
PFEIFFER: So it was Ohio and Michigan where former President Obama went out on the campaign trail. Why was he picking those two states?
FOWLER: They're two of the states he won twice and, except for Michigan in 2020, Trump won all three times that he was on the ballot. You've got high-profile governor and Senate races where Democrats are favored slightly, and it's a place where both turnout and persuasion really are going to matter. In Ohio, Obama put the midterms in this perspective. There's still two more years of Trump, but...
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OBAMA: We're not stuck with a spineless Congress and Republican governors who are enabling lawlessness and carelessness and cruelty and indifference for working people. We don't - we're not stuck with that.
PFEIFFER: And, Stephen, President Trump, as we said, has also been out there nationwide holding rallies to boost Republicans on the ballot. It was Georgia where he was last night. What is Trump's strategy?
FOWLER: He's sitting near record-low levels of approval with voters. They are not happy with high gas prices, inflation, the war in Iran, you name it. And to the point made by Obama, polls show voters are poised to take out that dissatisfaction on incumbents, especially Republicans. So these rallies, amidst the usual Trumpiness (ph) of it all, feature economic announcements aimed at assuaging affordability concerns that he also happens to take credit for.
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TRUMP: Audi has just committed to invest $4.2 billion in nearby Macon, Georgia, to begin the construction next month on a massive plant that will produce 200,000 cars a year.
(CHEERING)
PFEIFFER: Stephen, do we know if trotting out these big-name political figures actually influences how voters vote?
FOWLER: Midterms see lower turnout than presidential years, and the party in power usually sees a backlash from voters switching to the other side or the base staying home. So deploying the two most popular political figures each party has right now absolutely has a positive impact for their own voters. A thing to note - where Trump's spending his final weeks, you could make the case that the map shows how dire the situation could be, or it's a roadmap for how Republicans ultimately minimize their losses and hold on.
PFEIFFER: I know you're going to be looking at a lot of these visits by big-name people this week. Which ones are you most keeping an eye on?
FOWLER: Well, tomorrow, President Trump's going to Mississippi and back to Texas, Ohio and Florida in the final weeks. And a week from today kicks off the final sprint of the election in Iowa. That's a state where three of the four House seats, the Senate race and the governor's race are all in play. Also later this week, Obama's coming to Georgia for a rally. With this being the end of early voting in many places, I'm also checking in on the surge of turnout overall, especially among Black voters here in the South.
PFEIFFER: That is NPR's Stephen Fowler. Thank you.
FOWLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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