Trump touts economic wins in battleground states - like a $54 billion Alaskan pipeline - as the midterms draw closer

By Victor Reklaitis

The president announced a planned steel mill in Iowa earlier this week, and he's due to visit Ohio on Saturday

President Donald Trump welcomes Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan, an Alaska Republican, at an Oval Office event on Wednesday, as Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright applaud.

President Donald Trump is spending time this week talking up big job-creating projects in battleground states, with his effort coming as forecasters increasingly expect losses for his Republican Party in the midterm elections due to voters' economic worries.

At an Oval Office event on Wednesday afternoon, Trump highlighted a $200 billion South Korean investment that involves a $54 billion natural-gas pipeline in Alaska, a natural-gas power plant in Texas and eight nuclear power plants. The president also praised Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska and urged voters to cast their ballots for him.

"This is a great senator who is totally responsible for this pipeline, for what we're doing, so many of the jobs we've done," Trump said.

Sullivan is facing a tough midterm race against Democratic candidate Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman. The Nov. 3 contest is rated as a toss-up by forecasters at both the Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball.

"This will deliver low-cost energy to Alaskans for 50 to 100 years," Sullivan said during Wednesday's Oval Office event. He said there will be "12,000 jobs just to build this project, and this could unleash all kinds of other opportunities in Alaska, manufacturing opportunities - the sky is the limit when we get this project done."

At an Oval Office event on Monday, Trump touted plans for a new $15 billion steel mill in Iowa alongside two Republicans dealing with tight races in that state - Senate candidate Ashley Hinson and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

Hinson said on Monday that an estimated 1,700 permanent jobs associated with the new mill would mean "countless opportunities for Iowa families," adding that it's "a game-changer for our state and, frankly, for the country." She also promised to save Trump "a good Iowa pork chop" after the president pledged to take part in a midterm rally in her state. Hinson's race against Democratic nominee Josh Turek is rated as a toss-up by both the Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball.

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Iowa Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds during an Oval Office event on Monday.

Miller-Meeks made similar remarks, saying the mill would create 6,000 construction jobs and would be "just transformational" for the area, which has been hit by offshoring. Her election battle against Democratic candidate Christina Bohannan is rated as "leans Democratic" by Sabato's Crystal Ball, while Cook views it as a toss-up.

On Saturday, Trump is expected to hold a rally in Ohio in an effort to help that state's junior Republican senator, Jon Husted, who is also in a tight race. While the White House's press team provided a comment about Trump's Alaska announcement, it didn't respond to a MarketWatch question on whether there will be a similar rollout of a corporate investment on Saturday in Ohio.

Husted is running against former Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has criticized the Republican in part for his past support of data centers. The campaign arm for Senate Republicans warned in an August memo that data centers "are the anchor hanging around Husted's neck." Husted has responded by sponsoring the Ratepayer Protection Act, but Senate Democrats have indicated they plan to block the bill this week, arguing that it doesn't do enough to rein in energy-hungry data centers.

The Democratic Party's chance of winning both chambers of Congress was at 63% on Wednesday, according to the latest figures from prediction market Polymarket. (Polymarket has a data partnership with MarketWatch's publisher, Dow Jones.) Another prediction market, Kalshi, was giving a similar likelihood on Wednesday of 62%.

An Ipsos poll last month found that the elevated cost of living was the single most important issue for voters in this year's election, with 47% pointing to it. A Fox News poll earlier this month found 61% of voters view high gasoline prices as a major problem, up from 48% two years ago.

How markets view the midterms

If Democrats seize control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives in November's midterms, a key impact for investors will be that Trump will have trouble getting Senate confirmation for any picks for the Federal Reserve and the judiciary, according to Arend Kapteyn, a global head of economics and strategy at UBS. But markets won't see a huge change in Washington's spending, he said.

"Even in a scenario where the Democrats win both House and Senate, they're not going to be at a filibuster-proof type of majority, and so the most important implications can be on the nomination process for courts, for the Fed, the chairmanship of committees, but it doesn't look like whatever the outcome is, this is going to materially change, for instance, the fiscal outlook," Kapteyn said during a UBS event on Wednesday.

"There will still be just not enough votes, I think, in the House and Senate to change fiscal course in any sort of decisive direction, and that's what the market, in my mind, sort of will mostly care about," he added.

The S&P 500 stock index SPX finished modestly lower Wednesday and closed out the year's third quarter with a gain of 2% for the period. The equity gauge is up 12% so far in 2026.

-Victor Reklaitis

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

09-30-26 1716ET