Reagan to Travel Campaign Trail for Two Senators
President Reagan planned to visit Idaho today for the first time since 1980 to bolster the reelection hopes of Sen. Steven D. Symms, who faces a tough challenge from Gov. John V. Evans.
Reagan’s trip to Boise is the first stop on a 13-hour trip in which he will stump for Symms and Sen. Bob Kasten (R-Wis.), two of the 22 Republican senators facing reelection next year.
The President is scheduled to speak at the Morrison Center on the campus of Boise State University, followed by a private gathering with leading campaign donors before leaving for Milwaukee.
The daylong trip will be the second that Reagan has made on behalf of Republican senators in the last five months.
Symms was elected in a string of New Right victories in 1980 over the late Democrat Frank Church.
Although Idaho gave Reagan a bigger majority of its votes than any state but Utah in 1984--a whopping 72%--Symms faces what one GOP strategist termed a “formidable” challenge from Evans.
Evans is expected to get a boost from labor unions.
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