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

Democrats’ main political action committee is spending for the first time on South Carolina’s Senate race, as polls appear to show a rather unexpectedly tight race between Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) and Democrat Annie Andrews.

Senate Majority PAC is pumping $750,000 into South Carolina on digital ads focused on healthcare and drug prices.

While South Carolina has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998 and Graham is still expected to win in the red state, the apparently more competitive nature of the latest race featuring Andrews has raised Democrats’ hopes that it could be in play down the road.

Just four days out from Election Day 2026, election forecaster Cook Political Report shifted 12 U.S. House races toward Democratic candidates’ favor.

The forecaster shifted three former “leans Republican” races to toss-ups: Rep. Jeff Crank’s (R-CO) seat in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s (R-PA) seat in Pennsylvania’s 1st District, and Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-SC) open seat in South Carolina’s 1st District.

Cook Political Report also shifted two toss-up races to “leans Democrat” — one in Pennsylvania’s 8th District held by Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) and one in Ohio’s 9th District held by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH).

The rest of the shifts were four “solid Republican” seats shifting to “likely Republican” in states including North Carolina, New Jersey, and Washington, and three “likely Republican” seats shifting to “leans Republican” in Florida and Indiana. The forecaster pointed to President Donald Trump’s low approval rating and weaker GOP candidates at the top of some state tickets for the shifts, saying “heavy spending from Republicans doesn’t appear to be moving the needle.”

“Republicans are particularly concerned about turnout in places like North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where Democrats are poised to win statewide races by comfortable margins,” Cook Political Report’s Erin Covey wrote.

Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) became the latest Republican candidate to hand out Big Macs from a drive-thru window to her constituents on Thursday.

Cammack, running for reelection in the Sunshine State’s safe red third district, suited up to work at a McDonald’s in Hawthorne, Florida. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) just did the same in his New York district this week, taking a page out of President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign playbook.

“Had a blast working with the McDonald’s crew in Hawthorne today!” Cammack wrote on X. “Got to take some orders, make some burgers and fries, meet some great folks, and see how the crew keeps things moving. This is a fantastic group of folks who work so hard. I am so impressed!”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has spent nearly $2.3 million in the 2026 midterm elections, boosting socialist and leftist candidates in an attempt to shore up his progressive flank on Capitol Hill.

Sanders has spent the most on Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul el Sayed, according to Politico, which reported on Sanders’s funding figures. Sanders has sent over $1.26 million to el Sayed’s campaign, as he takes on former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI).

The Vermont leftist has also invested in the campaigns of Democratic Senate candidates Angie Nixon in Florida, Troy Jackson in Maine, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Dan Osborn in Nebraska, Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, and Scott Colom in Mississippi.

Trump warned in a Friday morning radio interview that Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) faces an uphill battle for reelection in Alaska, since voters will now see two Dan Sullivans on the ballot on Tuesday.

The senator is facing a spirited challenge from Democrat Mary Peltola in the tight race. Also on the ballot in the general election is a second Dan Sullivan running as a Republican. Scandal erupted this week when Peltola’s former campaign manager said the Peltola campaign coordinated with Democratic operatives to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan to run in the race to confuse voters and tilt the election toward Peltola.

Trump said he doesn’t know if the senator will be able to win “because you’re splitting up the vote illegally,” and expressed concern that voters could be confused by the ballot, where the senator is described as the “incumbent Republican” and is listed beneath the second Dan Sullivan.

“You need about 190 IQ to figure out the ballot,” the president said. “They put a ballot down where they’re talking about incumbent Republican and the other one—most people don’t know in Alaska and a lot of other states too — what does incumbent mean?”

Trump also expressed concern that the second Dan Sullivan pulled in 2.5% of the vote in Alaska’s open August primary, which featured both the senator and Peltola, warning that a similar difference in the general election could be the difference between a win and a loss for the incumbent Republican.

“It’s a very good chance you’re going to lose the election, and it’s very unfair,” the president said. “I think it’s a criminal act. Actually, I mean, you talk about voter fraud. Nobody’s ever seen voter fraud like this.

Trump will no longer hold any weekend campaign rallies after canceling a Sunday trip to Iowa, the Republican National Committee said in a statement, hours after scrapping a Sunday rally in Kansas.

“Voters across the country want to hear from President Trump before Election Day, and this 72-hour sprint will be a huge boost in the closing days,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said.

The president will instead hold tele-rallies in 19 states — Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia — for Republican candidates ahead of Tuesday’s elections.

Trump told the Washington Examiner earlier in the day that he was canceling his Kansas trip for Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) because the senator was “doing well.”

“I think he’s doing well,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Thursday. “We’re going to do a tele-rally for him instead.”

The president is still scheduled to rally in Florida on Friday.

Ohio Republican Vivek Ramaswamy has pulled the controversial ad that dominated news headlines on the state’s gubernatorial race since last week.

The attack ad featured Democratic candidate Amy Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, who called her daughter a “liar” to make the case that she is unfit to serve as governor of Ohio. Ramaswamy quickly faced bipartisan rebuke for weaponizing the mother, who has a questionable record of her own, against his opponent.

In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Ramaswamy’s campaign confirmed the one-minute spot was taken off the air like any other ad that served its purpose. The campaign noted it has six other ads in rotation as Election Day approaches.

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Pope Leo XIV has requested a mail-in ballot to vote in Illinois’s midterm election from the Vatican, the Will County clerk’s office confirmed.

The Chicago-born pontiff, whose given name is Robert Francis Prevost, is registered at a New Lenox address and requested a mail ballot Oct. 3, said Kim Fladhammer, the clerk’s chief of staff.

Illinois no longer requires an excuse to vote by mail, a State Board of Elections spokesman said. Records show the pope voted in Republican primaries in 2012, 2014, and 2016 and in Democratic primaries in 2008 and 2010. He did not vote in the state’s March primary.

His ballot includes the U.S. Senate race to succeed Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Gov. JB Pritzker’s (D-IL) reelection bid, and Will County contests.

The pontiff has clashed publicly with President Donald Trump over the war in Iran, immigration enforcement, and Venezuela. He has criticized mass deportations and family separation.

Leo, 71, returned to the Vatican on Oct. 18, four days after surgery to remove part of his right lung. The procedure confirmed lung adenocarcinoma. He has since resumed public duties.

CAMP SPRING, Maryland — President Donald Trump told the Washington Examiner that he is no longer traveling to Kansas this weekend because Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) is performing well against Democrat Adam Hamilton.

“I think he’s doing well,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on Thursday. “We’re going to do a tele-rally for him instead.”

Trump, who has traveled most days in the lead-up to next week’s midterm elections, then snapped at another reporter who asked if the schedule change was over concerns regarding his health.

“Look at this guy. He’s way out of shape. Look at how badly he comes to me,” he said. “I’m not going to Kansas because he’s doing very well. I’m going to do a tele-rally. Tomorrow I’m doing Florida.”

Trump also did not provide more details to the Washington Examiner when asked about his claims that a White House aide was struck by a ball at East Potomac Golf Links.

“It’s very dangerous,” he said before adding about his development plans. “We’re going to have something great for the country.”

Opposition to the proposed new wealth tax in California has increased among voters by 9 percentage points ahead of Tuesday’s elections, according to a new poll.

In five days, Californians will cast ballots deciding the future of Proposition 40, an initiative aimed at placing a one-time 5% tax on those with assets totaling $1 billion or more. The measure looks to raise roughly $100 billion over five years, and is intended to subsidize health insurance and food stamps, among other state-funded programs.

As of Thursday, 50% of voters oppose the measure, compared to 42% who back it, according to a poll conducted by the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. That’s a drop in support for the wealth tax from August, when polling by the same group indicated 41% of voters opposed Prop 40 and 48% backed it.

The development follows significant bipartisan pushback to the proposition from the state’s top political leaders. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), along with both gubernatorial candidates seeking to succeed him, Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton, oppose the billionaire tax.

California has the most billionaires of any state in the country, with Silicon Valley home to major corporations. The wealth tax would have significant repercussions for California, with industry leaders, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, already threatening to leave the state.

Gallup published on Thursday its polling on the most important issues for the electorate ahead of Nov. 3, finding that the economy, healthcare, and the Iran war were the top three areas of concern for voters.

Around 50% of those surveyed rated those issues as their top priorities, according to the consulting company. The results came after the Pew Research Center said earlier this month that the economy, the future of democracy, and healthcare were the top three issues for voters.

The development comes as Republicans have struggled to counter messaging from Democrats that President Donald Trump’s Iran war has hurt the U.S. economically, due to rising gas prices caused by the conflict’s impact on the Strait of Hormuz.

ROCK HILL, South Carolina — President Donald Trump evoked the perceived danger of Democratic extremism, including on transgender policy, as he campaigned for Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) in South Carolina.

“If T***** Annie does not have the judgment to know that sex changes for children should not be allowed, she’s too crazy, too dangerous, and too radical to serve in the United States senator,” Trump told a crowd in Rock Hill on Thursday about Democratic Senate nominee Annie Andrews, using an anti-trans slur. “And certainly, certainly not from this state.”

The president added, “A vote for Darline is a vote to cast communists into political oblivion.”

Trump also repeatedly spoke of Graham’s late brother, Lindsey Graham, whom she replaced in the Senate after his unexpected death in July.

“Lindsey’s looking down. He said, ‘I’d love to be here, but just didn’t work out,’” Trump said. “Let’s make Lindsey really happy and proud.”

Fox News changed its South Carolina Senate race rating from “lean Republican” to a “toss-up” contest on Thursday ahead of Trump’s rally.

Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Thursday vowed to investigate localities in the state where property taxes have doubled since 2020 if he wins the election against Democrat Amy Acton.

Ramaswamy has long raised concerns that residents have seen average increases to their property taxes of about 45% since 2020. If elected to succeed Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH), Ramaswamy has vowed to reset the property tax baseline to where it was before the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the Republican candidate says will be the most significant property tax cut in Ohio history. He also wants to abolish the state’s income tax of 2.75% over the next eight to 10 years and eliminate Ohio’s capital gains tax.

This week, Ramaswamy said that if he is victorious against Acton on Nov. 3, he will sign an executive order on his first day in office to investigate localities where property taxes have doubled since the pandemic, “to give the public transparency that they deserve.”

“I’m going to launch investigations on my first day in office of all localities where property taxes have more than doubled since the pandemic, to understand how taxpayers’ money is actually being spent,” Ramaswamy said in a post to X. “Property taxes are stealing the property of homeowners & this can’t go on.”

Vice President JD Vance on Thursday did not embrace Trump’s support for criminally prosecuting Democrat Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign in Alaska, after her former campaign manager accused the candidate’s team of plotting to confuse the voters in one of the tightest races nationwide.

Peltola is challenging Sen. Dan Sullivan’s (R-AK) bid for reelection in the state. Peltola’s ex-campaign manager, Elisa Rios, said earlier this week that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and other Democratic operatives coordinated with Rios and Peltola’s then-chief of staff, Anton McParland, to siphon votes from the senator by recruiting a second Dan Sullivan to run as a Republican in the race, confusing voters.

In the wake of the revelations, Trump said Wednesday that Peltola should be “criminally prosecuted” over the accusations. Vance demurred to say whether he backed such calls the following day, saying, “I think we should certainly look into whether she committed election fraud.”

“Whether it’s criminal or not, she certainly has committed, I think, a great moral failing, and hopefully the voters of Alaska punish her,” he told the Hill. “I mean, she is a person who, for months now, has pretended that she has had nothing to do with the fact that they have put a fraudulent person, a person explicitly designed to confuse Alaska voters on the ballot.”

Trump pulled out of a rally planned in Kansas for Saturday, due to changes in his schedule, according to the airport that was set to host the event.

The Salina Airport Authority told ABC affiliate KAKE that Trump’s rally at the hangar in Salina was canceled “because of the president’s schedule.”

The Kansas rally over the weekend was supposed to be Trump’s second visit to the state this month to boost Sen. Roger Marshall’s (R-KS) reelection campaign. Polling appears to indicate Marshall is in a tighter-than-expected race against Democrat Adam Hamilton.

“I think he’s tied or up by a little bit, according to polls. Look, the polls are fake, but according to polls, so I want to make sure Roger Marshall gets in,” Trump told reporters outside the White House earlier this month.