President Donald Trump takes the stage in Daytona Beach on Friday night for what is expected to be his final in-person rally before Americans vote in the November 3, 2026 midterms, closing a month-long campaign blitz with a Florida appearance for Republican gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds and Senator Ashley Moody. The Trump Daytona Beach Rally, at the Ocean Center on the city's Atlantic beachfront, is the last scheduled stop of its kind after the Republican National Committee cancelled weekend rallies in Kansas and Iowa and replaced them with telephone rallies across nearly 20 states.
The Republican National Committee announced the Daytona Beach event hours after Trump's appearance in Southwest Florida, and local organisers have spent the week preparing for a crowd of up to about 9,000 people at the Ocean Center, a convention centre on the beachfront that seats roughly that number for such events.
Trump's schedule for Friday, as reported by several outlets, begins with a telephone rally held aboard Air Force One at 5 p.m. ET, followed by his remarks in Daytona Beach at 7 p.m. ET, before he flies on to Palm Beach. The telephone rally is part of the replacement programme announced on Thursday, when the Republican National Committee said Trump would take part in tele-rallies aimed at voters in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
That switch followed the cancellation of a rally planned for Salina, Kansas, on Saturday, October 31, in support of Republican Senator Roger Marshall, and one planned for Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday, November 1. Trump told reporters on Thursday that he did not believe a visit was necessary to help Marshall, saying, as reported, "I'm not going to Kansas because he's doing very well. I'm going to do a telerally. Tomorrow I'm doing Florida." He rejected suggestions that the cancellations reflected health concerns, telling one reporter who pressed the point that he felt perfectly healthy.
Trump has held 25 rallies across 19 states since October 1, according to Reuters, short of a goal he had once put above 30 for the month, and he has visited at least 16 states for campaign events since the start of September. The final stretch has taken him in the past week through Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, Texas and South Carolina, including a Thursday appearance in Rock Hill, South Carolina, for Republican Senate candidate Darline Graham, who is running against Democrat Annie Andrews in a closely watched race.
Florida has increasingly leaned Republican, and Republicans now hold 20 of the state's 28 House seats, yet analysts say the party is not treating the state as settled. Aubrey Jewett, associate professor of political science at the University of Central Florida, said Trump's effort to help Florida Republicans offers some reason for concern that their monopoly on statewide offices, and an attempt to flip four congressional seats through redistricting, might be in jeopardy.
Polling in the governor's race has been mixed. A Florida State University Institute for Governance and Civics poll of 1,247 Florida adults conducted between October 2 and 9 showed Donalds with a 10-point lead over Jolly, but other polls have shown the race and others to be much closer, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Donalds, a congressman from Naples, is in a hotly contested race with Jolly, while Moody, appointed to the Senate seat in 2025, is seeking election in her own right against Nixon.
For anyone heading to the Ocean Center, the practical details matter as much as the politics. Doors open at 3:30 p.m. ET, Trump is scheduled to take the stage at 7 p.m. ET, and the venue's own rules mean attendees of ticketed events are subject to metal detector or handheld wand screening and bag checks.
Daytona Beach police have warned of closures on roads around the venue on Friday, with additional roads to be closed temporarily as Trump arrives and departs. "We appreciate the community's patience and cooperation. Please allow extra travel time, follow directions from law enforcement officers, and use alternate routes whenever possible. Public safety remains our highest priority," the police department said in a statement.
Protests are also planned outside the Ocean Center. Groups including Just Us Volusia, Volusia Democratic Socialists of America, Flagler 5051 and the Port Orange Democratic Club have said they will demonstrate against the visit, and organisers have pointed to the local House race, where Republican Representative Randy Fine, who represents the Daytona Beach area, is among the candidates Trump is expected to support.
Emma Hall, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, which is organising the rally, said: "President Trump and Republicans like Ashley Moody and Byron Donalds cut taxes, lowered prescription drug costs, slashed violent crime, and delivered the most secure border in history. As President Trump barnstorms the country, Floridians are fired up to rally with him because they love America First results and hate the insane agenda of socialist hack Angie Nixon and far-left extremist David Jolly."
At Fort Myers a week earlier, Trump brought Donalds and Moody on stage with him and praised the gubernatorial candidate in terms he is expected to repeat in Daytona Beach. "He will be one of your greatest governors in history, and he's a special person and a nice person with an unbelievable wife and family," Trump said of Donalds. He also attacked the Democrats facing them, calling Nixon, in his words, "a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America."
The Daytona Beach rally matters because it is where Trump's in-person campaign ends, and because Florida is the test of whether his personal popularity can still move a state his party already dominates. If Donalds and Moody win comfortably, Republicans will present Florida as proof that the midterm map is holding for them. If either race is close, Democrats will argue that even a state with a large Republican registration advantage is in play, and that the party's hold on statewide office is less secure than it looks.
The timing matters too. Early voting in Florida ends on Saturday, October 31, and Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, when polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time. A rally on the final Friday night of early voting is designed to do one thing above all: get supporters who have not yet voted to the polls before the weekend, and to give local campaigns a final burst of attention, volunteers and media coverage.
After Daytona Beach, Trump is expected to campaign by telephone rather than in person, with tele-rallies reaching voters in nearly 20 states over the final 72 hours. No Monday schedule had been published as of Friday morning.
Across the country on the same night, former Vice President Kamala Harris was due to deliver the keynote address at the Fulton County Democratic Party's Fulton Forward gala in Atlanta, Georgia, at 7 p.m., joined by Senator Raphael Warnock, gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms and nine Democratic nominees for statewide office. The two Friday night events, four days before the election, capture the closing argument of each party in the South: Republicans rallying behind Trump in Florida, Democrats rallying behind Harris in Georgia.
What time is the Trump Daytona Beach rally? Doors at the Ocean Center open at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday, October 30, 2026, and Trump is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m. ET.
Where is the rally? The Ocean Center Convention Center, 101 N. Atlantic Avenue, Daytona Beach, Florida.
Who is Trump campaigning for? Byron Donalds for Florida governor, Senator Ashley Moody for re-election to the U.S. Senate, and other Florida Republicans including Representative Randy Fine.
Is the rally free? Yes. Admission is free and first come, first served; online registration, up to four tickets per sign-up, does not guarantee entry.
When is Election Day? Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Early voting in Florida ends on Saturday, October 31.
Related coverage on US News Pulse: Trump legal challenges escalate against states as Election Day nears, OSCE election observers shut out as US breaks 24-year midterm tradition, and Trump Texas rallies: Paxton, methane plan and a Talarico surge.
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