Arizona Sen. John McCain's name is not on the ballot in November, but he is in high demand on the campaign trail among fellow Republicans who are in tight re-election bids.
"I’m going to Oregon. I’m going to North Carolina. I’m going to a couple other places. You know how it is these last couple of months," the former GOP presidential nominee told
CQ Roll Call.
McCain also has plans to travel to Kansas on behalf of Sen. Pat Roberts, who finds himself in an even tighter race following the withdrawal last week of Democrat Chad Taylor.
In the latest
KSN News Poll, conducted by SurveyUSA, Roberts trails independent Greg Orman by 1 percentage point.
According to the poll, 10 percent of likely voters said they still intend to cast their vote for Taylor, whose name will remain on the ballot, even though most are aware he has withdrawn from the race.
Last week, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach stated that because Taylor failed to comply with state law in attempting to remove his name from the ballot, he would remain a candidate, according to KSN.com.
If he wanted, Taylor could file a lawsuit challenging the ruling.
McCain told CQ Roll Call that he has plans to campaign for Thom Tillis is in a race against North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan, one of several critical races that could decide who controls the Senate after November.
McCain, a veteran of the Vietnam War, is also providing other assistance to Republican candidates, including coming to the defense of a Joni Ernst, who is in a tough race with Rep. Bruce Braley to fill the seat left vacant by retiring Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, reports
The Gazette.
"There’s always been a line between simply playing rough and being truly out of bounds," McCain said in a statement. "Braley’s special interest allies have crossed that line."
Ernst, a veteran, has been the subject of recent attacks from the environmental political action committee, NextGen Climate, which accused her in a mailer of "putting her big oil backers ahead of national security."
"American troops have spent years fighting terrorists overseas," the PAC's mailer reads. "But politicians like Joni Ernst are undercutting that battle here at home."
McCain has hit the campaign trail for Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran and former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, who is trying to unseat Virginia Sen. Mark Warner,
USA Today reports.
In August, McCain traveled to New Hampshire, where he remains popular, to appear at a foreign policy-centric town hall with former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who is running to return to the Senate from New Hampshire, according to
WBZ-TV.
Brown has been heavily criticizing his Democratic opponent, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, on foreign policy, contending she is simply a "rubber stamp" for President Barack Obama.