Trump and Melania Trump vote early in West Palm Beach as GOP sets Oct. 30 Daytona Beach rally

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump cast their midterm ballots in person on Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office in West Palm Beach. Asked whether he had voted the Republican line, the president answered, "Very much so," according to The Associated Press. Hours later the Republican National Committee's events site listed his next Florida stop: a rally in Daytona Beach on Friday, Oct. 30, four days before the Nov. 3 election.

The Daytona Beach event will be Trump's second Florida midterm rally in eight days, after his Oct. 23 appearance at Florida Gulf Coast University's Alico Arena in Fort Myers, where he campaigned alongside the Republican nominees for governor and U.S. Senate.

An in-person ballot in Palm Beach County

The Trumps arrived at the elections office together after the president spent Saturday morning at a nearby golf course, the AP reported. Wearing an "I Voted" sticker afterward, Trump said he had marked his ballot for Republicans across the Florida ticket.

The in-person visit stood out because Trump, who is registered to vote in Palm Beach County, has used mail ballots in recent Florida elections even as he criticizes widespread mail voting. He voted by mail in the county's March special election for state House District 87 and in the August Republican primary, according to reporting based on Supervisor of Elections records. Earlier in the week he had said he prefers to vote on Election Day, CBS News reported, and when reporters asked what he planned to do on Nov. 3 he did not say.

Saturday was not the start of early voting in Palm Beach County. The county opened 28 early voting sites on Monday, Oct. 19, and they remain open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Sunday, Nov. 1, as do sites in Miami-Dade and Broward. Oct. 24 was the first day of the mandatory statewide early voting window, when all 67 Florida counties must offer early voting; that period runs through Saturday, Oct. 31, and some counties extend it to Nov. 1.

What was on the president's ballot

Trump's straight-ticket answer covered a crowded Florida ballot. At the top is the open governor's race to succeed term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis, pitting Republican U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, whom Trump endorsed early, against Democrat David Jolly, a former Republican congressman from Pinellas County.

In the U.S. Senate race, Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, appointed by DeSantis to fill the seat Marco Rubio vacated to become secretary of state, faces Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon of Jacksonville. Public polling in October has ranged from a 10-point Moody lead in a Mason-Dixon survey for NBC6 and Telemundo to a 2-point margin in a St. Pete Polls survey for Florida Politics.

Voters are also deciding Amendment 3, the homestead property tax measure that DeSantis has campaigned for and that, like every Florida constitutional amendment, needs 60% approval to pass.

From West Palm Beach to a Georgia rally

After voting, Trump flew to Perry, Georgia, for an evening rally at Guardian Centers supporting Republican Rep. Mike Collins, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, and Rick Jackson, the party's nominee for governor. On a Truth Social post before the event, Trump attacked their opponents and wrote, "I Won Georgia in a Record Vote."

At the rally Trump announced that Audi will build a new auto plant near Macon, a $4.2 billion investment the company said would produce 200,000 vehicles a year and create about 4,500 jobs, with construction starting in 2027 and production in the early 2030s. Audi CEO Gernot Döllner joined him onstage. Trump credited his tariff policies for the decision.

The Georgia stop capped a week of travel that took the president to South Carolina on Wednesday night, Iowa on Thursday night and Fort Myers on Friday night, CBS News reported.

Daytona Beach rally: what is known

The RNC listing, first reported by Florida's Voice and confirmed by FOX 35 Orlando and The Daytona Beach News-Journal, sets the following schedule for Friday, Oct. 30:

• Doors open at 3:30 p.m.
• The program begins at 5:30 p.m.
• Trump is expected to speak at about 7 p.m.

As of Saturday the venue had not been announced, and the listing showed the location only as Daytona, Florida, to be announced. Supporters can request up to four tickets through the GOP events site. A full speaker list has not been released, and the White House had not added the rally to the president's public schedule, which at last check ran only through Wednesday, Oct. 28, FOX 35 reported.

Trump has campaigned in Daytona Beach before: an Aug. 3, 2016, rally at the Ocean Center, and visits to the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in February 2020 and February 2025, according to the News-Journal. He has carried Volusia County in all three of his presidential races with a growing margin each time, winning 60.2% there in 2024.

The Fort Myers preview

The Fort Myers rally on Oct. 23 gave a sense of what Daytona Beach may look like. Trump spoke to a near-capacity crowd at Alico Arena and brought Donalds and Moody onstage, according to the News-Journal. He praised Donalds and attacked Nixon, calling her "a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialist of America."

The Daytona Beach event moves the campaign from Southwest Florida to the Interstate 4 and Interstate 95 corridor in the final weekend before early voting closes in most counties.

Florida and the national picture

The midterms will decide whether Republicans keep control of Congress for the final two years of Trump's term. Nationally, his approval rating sits near record lows amid concerns over affordability, the war with Iran and corruption, though he remains above water in Florida, the News-Journal reported. AP coverage of the Georgia rally noted Republicans are bracing for losses on Nov. 3.

Turnout is already heavy. Newsweek, citing NBC News data, reported that about 14.3 million mail ballots and 12.5 million early in-person ballots had been cast nationwide, more than 26 million in all. In Florida, the Division of Elections reported more than 1.6 million ballots cast as of Thursday morning, Oct. 22, about 11.7% of the state's 13.7 million registered voters, with registered Democrats narrowly ahead of Republicans in ballots returned despite the GOP's roughly 1.5 million voter registration edge. Party figures reflect who has voted, not how they voted.

What's next

Trump's public schedule beyond Wednesday had not been released as of Saturday. Organizers are expected to name the Daytona Beach venue in the coming days. Early voting continues in Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Broward counties through Nov. 1 and in most other counties through Oct. 31. Mail ballots must reach county elections offices by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, when polls statewide are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.