2026 midterm elections live updates: Latest news, results, and analysis

Elon Musk has disclosed that he donated $5 million to Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) reelection campaign last month, marking the megadonor’s latest contribution to Texas elections.

Musk has now given up to $475 million in political donations this election cycle, far more than any other single donor.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO previously contributed $500,000 to Abbott’s political action committee earlier this year. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s running for the Senate, has received upward of $150 million in donations from Musk.

Abbott is seeking a fourth term, trying to defend his post from Democratic nominee Texas state Rep. Gina Hinojosa. Nearly all of the latest polls in the last month show Abbott winning reelection.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s (D-IL) super PAC, Ready for the Fight, has dropped a total of $1.5 million on the Senate races in Mississippi and Kansas.

The group has placed a $1 million ad buy in Mississippi and a separate $500,000 ad buy in Kansas. Both red states are looking to reelect their incumbents: Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) and Roger Marshall (R-KS).

Ready for the Fight, formed in September, has generally used its funds to help support Democratic candidates in competitive House races before branching out to the Senate elections. The super PAC launched with $20 million to start.

Pritzker appears to be using the super PAC to raise his national profile ahead of a potential 2028 presidential campaign. This year, he is seeking a rare third term as Illinois governor.

Ohio Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy is telling voters to “relax” in a new television spot after an ad featuring his opponent’s mother dominated much of the news about the race in the past week.

“Relax. This election’s almost over,” the narrator says in the 30-second spot released on Tuesday. “Everyone wants a government that works so we can get on with our lives. Vivek will lower property taxes, fight for seniors, and put more money in your pocket so you can afford groceries, gas, and your electric bill.

“Amy Acton had her shot,” he adds. “She failed us during COVID, then quit under pressure. When it gets tough, will Acton show up? Give yourself one less thing to worry about.”

The message is different from last week’s attack ad, which showed Acton’s mother calling her a prolific liar in making the case that the Democratic nominee is unfit for governor. The ad drew widespread bipartisan backlash, including from Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH), but the White House defended Ramaswamy.

President Donald Trump is heading to Texas on Tuesday to campaign one week before the midterm elections, and he will be joined by football stars Johnny Manziel, Colt McCoy, and Danny Amendola.

Their appearance on the campaign trail seems to be a way to turn out young male voters who helped Trump win in 2024, Axios first reported on Monday.

Manziel last played in the NFL for the Cleveland Browns in 2015, McCoy for the Arizona Cardinals in 2022, and Amendola for the Houston Texans in 2021. Each of the former players has roots in Texas, but Amendola is a two-time Super Bowl champion, winning with the New England Patriots in 2014 and 2016.

Trump adviser Alex Bruesewitz posted a photo with Manziel and Amendola at the White House before the Texas trip.

The president will headline rallies in Lubbock and Corpus Christi as he starts the final week of campaigning for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running for Senate against Democratic nominee James Talarico.

Vice President JD Vance argues there is nothing wrong with the Department of Justice suing Alaska to prevent voter confusion before the Nov. 3 election.

In the state’s competitive Senate race, incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) is facing a challenge from someone with the same first and last name. Vance believes the ploy amounts to electoral fraud.

“When you put a person on the ballot explicitly to try to confuse voters, I think that’s the definition of electoral fraud,” Vance said on Tuesday. “And I don’t think we should endorse it.”

“If we were running somebody whose name was Mary Peltola in the state of Alaska, the media would be accusing us of election fraud,” he added before making a direct plea to the media. “So I think that you guys should actually do your job and ask some difficult questions of the Democratic Party. Why are they trying to confuse people?”

Democratic nominee Mary Peltola is also running against the Republican incumbent. Peltola and Alaska election officials filed separate motions to dismiss the DOJ lawsuit over the state’s ballot controversy.

Asked by a reporter why Alaskans shouldn’t feel insulted by the administration’s view that voters don’t know how to distinguish between the sitting senator and the copycat candidate, Vance said, “People are busy,” and may not be aware of the difference.

The political action committees of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) are among the top 20 ActBlue fundraisers this election cycle, according to Politico.

Both Democrats supported candidates across the country to boost their own chances in potential presidential campaigns.

The number of donors contributing to ActBlue has increased by about a third, from 4.9 million to 6.6 million this cycle. Meanwhile, the number of donors giving to WinRed has decreased from 2.2 million in 2022 to 1.5 million in 2026.

This means Republicans have lost ground since the last midterm elections, while the Democratic Party has substantially grown its fundraising numbers ahead of the 2028 presidential election.

Buttigieg and Kelly are among the top candidates for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary. Buttigieg has been aggressively touring the nation in the hopes of launching a presidential bid, and Kelly has been doing something similar by campaigning for Democratic candidates in the midterm elections.

Meanwhile, several Democratic campaigns are featured on ActBlue’s website in the “Trending campaigns” category. The directory lists Amy Acton of Ohio, James Talarico of Texas, Abdul el Sayed of Michigan, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Mary Peltola of Alaska as the top five fundraisers this week.

Alaska state officials moved to dismiss the Department of Justice’s lawsuit about two Dan Sullivans on the election ballot, saying the “complaint has no legal basis.”

The DOJ sued to block the results of Alaska’s highly competitive Senate race, in which Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) is trying to defend his seat from a challenger with the same first and last name. The administration is concerned that “voter confusion” may affect the outcome of the general election next week.

In a new court filing, Alaska election officials say the state “has taken significant steps to distinguish them on the ballot so that voters can easily determine which candidate is which” in making the case for the lawsuit’s dismissal.

“The United States lacks authority to intervene in state elections at all, much less in support of a favored candidate,” the motion to dismiss states.

Part of the reason for the confusion was that Dan J. Sullivan initially ran as an alternative Republican challenging incumbent Dan S. Sullivan. The candidate later switched his status to an undeclared party affiliation.

Separately, Democratic nominee Mary Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee filed a motion to dismiss the administration’s lawsuit before the Nov. 3 election.

House Republicans are set to choose their caucus’s next leaders the week after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

Members of Congress must declare their candidacy for a post by noon on Nov. 6 to be considered for the leadership elections on Tuesday, Nov. 10, according to a schedule reported by Politico.

A two-hour candidate forum will be held that morning, followed by elections for leader, whip, conference chair, and other positions.

If House Republicans can hold on to their narrow majority, they will nominate a speaker ahead of a floor vote on Jan. 3, 2027. Right now, Democrats are expected to retake control of the House.

President Donald Trump is returning to Kansas on Saturday to help push Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) across the finish line.

This will mark the third visit from either Trump or Vice President JD Vance in two weeks. Vance just held a rally in Topeka on Monday, and Trump campaigned for Marshall in Park City last week.

This time, the president will be heading to Salina this coming weekend. The venue has not been announced yet.

The White House has been vigorously campaigning for Republican candidates up and down the ballot in the final weeks ahead of the midterm elections on Nov. 3.

President Donald Trump used an outsized portion of his Monday rally in Corinth, Mississippi, to push back on criticism former President Barack Obama made of the ongoing White House renovations.

On Saturday, Obama rallied for Democratic Senate nominee Sherrod Brown in Cleveland, where he claimed that Trump’s ballroom passion project, and subsequent additions to the White House grounds, looked as if Saddam Hussein designed a Cheesecake Factory.

Trump, himself campaigning for Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) on Monday, claimed Obama’s criticisms were an illustration of why he was, in Trump’s mind, a failed president.

“I always build beautiful and inexpensive, which is a good combination if you can do, but I can do it naturally. It’s a natural thing. It actually relaxes me,” he suggested.

“He said, ‘This isn’t a Cheesecake Factory. Can you believe it? Which is a very successful company,” Trump added. “He doesn’t like successful companies. But you know, he was very critical about me because I spend time. And if you would have seen the White House, I took over the White House, and it was in horrible condition. I don’t want to use a terrible word. It was in horrible condition.”

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President Donald Trump made it nearly an hour before being interrupted by a protester at his 2026 midterm campaign rally in Corinth, Mississippi.

Following a lengthy, off-script moment where Trump pushed back on recent comments made by former President Barack Obama, the protester began shouting about Trump’s White House ballroom renovation.

“Go home! Go home!” the president shouted back as the crowd chanted “USA.”

“Isn’t that terrible? And I was just — I was just at the punch line too,” Trump riffed to his supporters. “They always do it. No, I was just at the punch line, talking about how our country must have a beautiful, pristine — it’s a symbol, the White House.”

“These people are sick. For $250, he broke up my punch line, and it was a beautiful. We have to have a beautiful, beautiful, well-kept White House, the symbol of our country,” he added before continuing his remarks.

A federal appeals court Monday evening dismissed the Trump administration’s emergency appeal seeking to require California to set aside mail ballots associated with more than 20,000 people the government suspects are noncitizens or illegal immigrants ineligible to vote.

In a 2-1 order, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found it lacked jurisdiction because the Department of Justice had not given the district court adequate time to consider its request. The panel denied the department’s emergency motion as moot.

“The United States’s claimed emergency, at least in part, is a self-constructed one,” the majority wrote.

U.S. Circuit Judges Mark Bennett and Gabriel Sanchez concluded that U.S. District Judge David Carter’s failure to rule within the administration’s suddenly accelerated deadline did not amount to an appealable denial. Bennett was appointed by President Donald Trump, and Sanchez was appointed by former President Joe Biden.

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President Donald Trump took his 2026 campaign tour to Corinth, Mississippi, on Monday, where he immediately began tossing out black, white, and red MAGA hats to the crowd.

The trip, ostensibly in support of Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s (R-MS) reelection effort, marked Trump‘s first to the state since 2018, when he rallied for Hyde-Smith ahead of the Senate special election.

Hyde-Smith has comfortably led district attorney Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee, in every poll this cycle, and the president noted to the crowd that he hoped his appearance would also boost Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), the Republican gubernatorial nominee in neighboring Tennessee.

“In eight days from now, the people of Mississippi are going to reelect my great friend. She’s unbelievable, frankly, Cindy Hyde-Smith to the U.S. Senate,” he declared. “Across the state line in Tennessee, we’re going to elect Marsha Blackburn as the governor. And we’re going to defeat the radical-left Democrats and elect a Republican House and a Republican Senate, and we’re going to continue the work that we’ve been doing.”

“So in this election, if you want, I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot, and the reason is that when I’m on the ballot, exactly 49% more people show up,” Trump added. “We’ve won every one of those times that I’m on the ballot big. And the problem is when I’m not, they don’t show up as much.”

Former baseball star Mark Teixeira, who is running for Congress in Texas, endorsed the Republican candidate challenging New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday.

In a video statement, the congressional candidate took a break from his own campaign to lend his support to Saritha Komatireddy.

“Some of you might know that I’m running for Congress down in my home state of Texas,” Teixeira said. “I’m doing that because I love this country and I want to see it safer and stronger, and that’s exactly why I’m supporting Saritha Komatireddy to be the next AG of the state of New York.”

“You need an attorney general that’s going to fight for you, that’s going to put public safety over politics, and is going to make sure New York stays one of the most prosperous, best places to live in the country,” he said.

Teixeira played for the New York Yankees before retiring from baseball in 2016 and later entering politics. The former athlete is now running for Texas’s 21st Congressional District, with the support of President Donald Trump.

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President Donald Trump said Monday that the administration will pay out $1 million to tipsters who report cases of voter fraud that result in convictions, just one week before the polls close in the 2026 midterm elections.

“Anybody reporting Voter Fraud in the past Elections, or the upcoming 2026 Midterm Election, will be paid $1,000,000 upon the arrest and conviction of those that created the Fraud!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

The statement was published as the president heads to Mississippi for a campaign rally to boost Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), who, polls show, runs in a close contest. It also comes as Trump is flexing the full extent of his political weight to boost Republicans heading into Election Day. The president has spent the better part of the past month crisscrossing the country, rallying for downballot candidates, where he consistently claims that Democrats have “rigged” past elections.

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