Photo: U.S. Senate, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
President Donald Trump travels to northeast Mississippi on Monday night to headline a campaign rally for Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith — a closing-week show of force in a Senate race that has grown unexpectedly competitive in one of the most reliably Republican states in the country.
Trump is scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. Central on Monday, October 26 at Crossroads Arena in Corinth, with doors opening at 2:30 p.m. and the program beginning at 4:30 p.m. The rally was announced on October 21 in a Republican National Committee press release, one week before the November 3 midterm elections. Local station WTVA reported that as many as 7,500 people could attend at the arena and the surrounding area, and that it is the first presidential visit to Alcorn County since Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration.
A stronghold that no longer looks safe
Mississippi is not a state Republican presidents usually need to visit in the final week of a campaign. Trump won more than 60 percent of its vote in 2024, carrying the state all three times he has appeared on its ballot, most recently by about 23 points. Yet election predictors have in recent weeks inched the Senate contest closer to the "toss-up" classification, and national Democrats have responded by sending endorsements, advertising and outside money into the race.
Hyde-Smith, whom Trump endorsed in March 2025 and called "100% MAGA," faces Democrat Scott Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, and independent Ty Pinkins. Trump has campaigned for her in Mississippi before, in 2018, and she has aligned herself closely with him since her first election. "They've asked me to go. I'm going there, I think, on Monday. And I look forward to it," Trump said of this week's trip. Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters pointed to the president's ability to motivate people who do not regularly vote: "This president knows how to turn out these low propensity voters. And the midterms, historically, it's all about turnout."
Democrats bring out their biggest names
Democrats are counter-programming with their own heavyweights. Former President Barack Obama released an advertisement supporting Colom, and Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Raphael Warnock of Georgia have held campaign events alongside him. Former Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned on Colom's behalf in his native Columbus on October 22. Colom has characterised the president's trip as evidence that Republicans are worried about the race; in a post on X, he branded the senator "Cindy High Prices" and said she was calling on Trump for help because she was afraid of questions about her record.
Hyde-Smith's campaign, for its part, has said voters "know her record" on infrastructure, judges, taxes and the border. The Corinth stop anchors a closing push for the whole Republican field in Mississippi, with the party's House candidates also on the ballot this fall and early voting already under way.
What to know if you go
Crossroads Arena stands at 2800 S. Harper Road in Corinth, in the northeast corner of the state, roughly 100 miles southeast of Memphis. Anyone who wants to attend must register in advance, with a limit of four tickets per sign-up — and a registration is not complete until the attendee replies to the confirmation text sent to their phone. The event is expected to focus on support for Hyde-Smith and other Mississippi Republican candidates as both parties make their final turnout push before Election Day.
Sources: Clarion Ledger, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Gray Television