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

Gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa (D-TX) is taking her pitch to a critical voting bloc days before Election Day: Hispanic men, who helped power President Donald Trump’s 2024 win.

Her campaign plans to air a 30-second ad titled “No Te Dejes,” Spanish for “Don’t let yourself be pushed around,” during Saturday’s fight between Mexican boxing star Canelo Álvarez and Christian Mbilli on DAZN, according to CBS News. The spot echoes her campaign slogan, “Fight back.”

The ad reflects a Democratic strategy of reaching Hispanic men through sports and culturally relevant programming, not just traditional political ads. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) used boxing watch parties and rodeos to court Latino men in his 2024 Senate race and won, even as Trump carried Arizona.

Hispanic residents make up about 40% of Texas’ population, and Hinojosa’s bid to become the state’s first Democratic governor in more than three decades could hinge on this electoral bloc.

A CBS News poll this month showed Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) leading by four points overall. Hinojosa led by 23 points among likely Hispanic voters.

Democrats are trying to win back Latino voters who shifted right. About 55% of Latino Texans voted for Trump in 2024, according to exit polls, turning Rio Grande Valley counties right-leaning.

Texas Democrats are arguing the shift is temporary, pointing to national polling that shows Latino voters souring on Trump and high primary turnout in heavily Latino areas.

Abbott has courted the same voters with a Spanish-language ad calling Hinojosa too liberal for Texas.

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul el Sayed will campaign Sunday in Detroit alongside Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) at a get-out-the-vote event, but one prominent Michigan Democrat will be missing: Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI).

Stevens, whom el Sayed defeated in the August Democratic primary, was also expected to attend. But el Sayed’s campaign asked her to stay away Saturday following an increasingly bitter public dispute over Israel and divisions within the Democratic Party.

The rift presents another challenge for el Sayed as he tries to unite Democrats ahead of Tuesday’s election. Stevens received significant support from Jewish and black voters during the primary, raising questions about whether el Sayed can consolidate those constituencies in his general election matchup against Republican Mike Rogers.

El Sayed is locked in a closely watched Senate contest that could help determine control of the chamber. He will spend the final day of campaigning Monday alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who endorsed the progressive physician during the primary. The two campaigned together three weeks ago in Traverse City.

Warren’s appearance will give el Sayed another prominent progressive ally as he makes his final pitch to Michigan voters.

Rogers started Saturday with a stop in Grand Rapids followed by a rally at Whitmore Lake alongside Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY). Rogers will return to Grand Rapids on Monday evening alongside Michigan gubernatorial candidate John James for an evening rally.

Sabato’s Crystal Ball shifted two competitive Senate races toward Democrats Friday, citing late-cycle developments in Louisiana and Minnesota less than a week before Election Day.

In Louisiana, the forecaster moved the Senate race between Rep. Julia Letlow (R-LA) and Democratic farmer Jamie Davis from “Safe Republican” to “Likely Republican,” pointing to strong black voter turnout during the state’s now-concluded early-voting period. Trump is scheduled to hold a tele-rally with Letlow Monday to shore up GOP support.

In Minnesota, Sabato’s Crystal Ball also adjusted its assessment of the Senate contest between Sen. Tina Smith’s (D-MN) successor, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, and Republican former sportscaster Michele Tafoya, moving the race from “Leans Democratic” to “Likely Democratic.”

The forecaster cited doubts that Tafoya could overcome Flanagan’s advantage, despite polling showing a potentially narrower contest in other surveys. A New York Times/Siena University poll released Wednesday put Flanagan ahead 54% to 40%, though other polls have shown smaller margins.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is spending $450,000 to boost a trio of Democratic Senate candidates just days before the Nov. 3 election.

Ocasio-Cortez, who has been floated as a potential 2028 presidential or Senate contender, sent $150,000 a piece Friday to the campaigns of Maine Democrat Troy Jackson, Alaska Democratic nominee Mary Peltola, and Florida socialist candidate Angie Nixon.

Jackson, a former Maine state Senate president, and Nixon, a state representative, are both progressive Democrats who support “Medicare for all.” Jackson is running a neck-and-neck race against longtime incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) for the Pine Tree State’s Senate seat. Nixon, meanwhile, is running as a long-shot candidate against Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL). Peltola, a former Alaska congresswoman and centrist Democrat, is running for the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK).

“Mary, Angie, and Troy are three working-class Americans with a chance to transform the U.S. Senate,” Ocasio-Cortez told Axios. “Their elections would be consequential for the whole country, and I am proud to stand with them.”

Jackson and Nixon have both invited Ocasio-Cortez to campaign alongside them.

The donations follow Ocasio-Cortez’s earlier $1 million contribution to help Abdul el Sayed’s Senate campaign in Michigan, underscoring her financial involvement in Democratic Senate contests beyond her New York district.

President Donald Trump revealed on Friday that he recommitted to holding in-person rallies in Iowa and Kansas this weekend after officials from those states called him to visit one last time before the election.

Trump was planning to proceed with tele-rallies for the two red states before he changed his mind.

“I wanted to see if I could do tele-rallies,” he said at the White House. “I do them well, and it’s a great instrument, and it only seems to work for me because other people call and nobody gets on the phone.”

“I got a call from both states, Kansas and Iowa. We’re in good shape, I think, in a lot of states. We had a great rally yesterday, as you know, for Darline [Graham] in South Carolina,” he continued. “But I got a call from Iowa and from other people, and from my friends that are very, very good, and we have a couple of races that are very important. And they said, ‘If you could go, it would be better than a tele-rally.’ And I tried to talk them out of that. I said, ‘What about a tele-rally?’ But they asked me, so I’m going to do two on Sunday.”

Trump will travel to Iowa first, then to Kansas on Sunday. They will be his last in-person rallies of the election cycle. In the final days before the general election, Trump will be hosting tele-rallies across nearly 20 states.

The president explained his decision to move forward with the Iowa and Kansas rallies while hosting Stephen Hubbard, a U.S. citizen recently freed from Russia, in the Oval Office.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated another $36 million to Democrats in a mix of House, Senate, and gubernatorial races in the final week before Election Day, according to Politico.

The contribution comes after Bloomberg already gave $80 million to candidates in his party last week.

The Democratic megadonor gave $16 million to the House Majority PAC and $12 million to Everytown for Gun Safety. He also donated $2.5 million to Georgia gubernatorial hopeful Keisha Lance Bottoms, $2.5 million to Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, $2 million to Kansas Senate contender Adam Hamilton, and $750,000 to Texas gubernatorial hopeful Gina Hinojosa.

While Bloomberg has been an influential donor to the Democratic Party for the midterm elections, he is far surpassed by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is considered the single largest donor this election cycle. Musk has contributed over $445 million to support Republicans.

Vice President JD Vance is set to return to his home state of Ohio on Monday, the day before the election.

Vance will be campaigning in Swanton to show support for Vivek Ramaswamy, who’s running for governor, and Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), who’s seeking his first full term in the Senate. Swanton is located about 20 miles west of Toledo.

The vice president’s appearance will mark the sixth rally that he or President Donald Trump has held in the Buckeye State over the past month.

Also on Monday, Vance will visit Rome, New York, in the final campaign push before Election Day.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) weighed into California’s general elections with three new, home-stretch endorsements against incumbent Democratic lawmakers.

According to a report from Axios, Khanna has endorsed against incumbent Reps. Doris Matsui (D-CA), Mike Thompson (D-CA), and Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), backing each of their Democratic challengers, Mai Vang, Eric Jones, and Angela Gonzales-Torres, respectively, calling them “new generation leaders.”

Each of the districts is ranked “solid Democrat” by Cook Political Report, with primary voters elevating two Democrats to the general election ballots in the open-primary state.

A new Washington Post-Schar School poll has Democrat Adam Hamilton leading Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) by 10 points. This has given the megachurch pastor a lead of 2.6 points in the RealClearPolitics average, up from 0.2 points just last night. Kansas hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932. But the outlet has its own concerns about the poll.

“After more than 85,000 phone calls and nearly 50,000 text messages, a potential problem emerged,” the Washington Post reported Friday. “Democrats were far more enthusiastic about taking the poll than Republicans were.” The story went on to note that “Democrats were more than twice as likely as registered Republicans to complete the survey” after taking the interviewer’s call.

We’ve seen big red-state Senate polling misses before, including in Kansas. Six years ago, polls showed a close race, but Marshall won by 11 points. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) was down by a small margin in 2014, but he also won by 11 points. In 2020, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was only leading by 6 points in the same poll currently showing his sister tied with her Democratic opponent. He won by 14.

Maybe we’ll see another big polling miss this time. Or maybe the polls are telling the GOP something. “We’re having problems just getting Republican voters to respond to polls,” a Republican pollster told Axios. “At what point do we think these guys aren’t showing up at the actual polls on Election Day?”

It’s hard to tell the difference between a polling failure and a rural revolt. Trump’s Kansas rally with Marshall is back on.

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reaffirmed her support for Michigan’s Democratic Senate candidate Abdul el Sayed against his GOP opponent Mike Rogers on Friday, after criticizing his stance on Israel.

“Make no mistake: Democrats are united in a big blue wave For The People. To lower costs, protect healthcare and defend our democracy, we must elect a Democratic House and Senate” Pelosi wrote on X. “I urge everyone across America to support our Democratic Senate nominees, including @AbdulElSayed. Every seat matters. Every vote counts. Let’s win together!”

PELOSI SLAMS EL SAYED’S REFUSAL TO SAY ISRAEL SHOULD EXIST: ‘IT’S WRONG’

Her post came one day after she criticized el Sayed and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on the On Brand podcast, when the host, Donny Deutsch, said it was concerning “when you say Israel doesn’t have the right to be a Jewish state,” referring to Mamdani and el Sayed.

“It’s more than concerning. It’s wrong,” Pelosi said. “It’s wrong, and it isn’t a reflection of the Democrats in the Congress of the United States. This new person in Michigan, we’ll see if he gets elected to the Congress.”

Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R-AK) released a Superman-themed video advertisement on Friday about his middle initial as he faces a challenge from a candidate with the same name and a different middle initial, Dan J. Sullivan Jr.

The advertisement features a hopeful speech from Sen. Sullivan, followed by theme music and a voiceover from Man of Steel (2013) about Superman’s “S,” which is also the incumbent’s middle initial, standing for “hope.”

“Yes, Alaska, we have challenges, but the opportunities for our state in so many areas, like resource development, the gas line, our historic military buildup, and the thousands of good-paying jobs that these initiatives are bringing, are bringing a bright future for us,” Sullivan said in the ad. “That creates opportunities that far outweigh our challenges.”

Dan J. Sullivan Jr. is a former Forest Service employee who Republicans believe is a spoiler candidate propped up by Democrats. The New York Times released a report on Friday that the campaign of Democratic candidate Mary Peltola had a project to recruit a spoiler candidate named Dan Sullivan, though Peltola has denied the report.

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams released the numbers from the first day of early in-person voting on Thursday, showing that Bluegrass State voters are turning out more so far in the 2026 midterm elections than they did to date in the 2022 elections by a large margin.

According to Adams, 66,166 Democrats voted in person on Thursday, compared to 37,640 Democrats on the same first day in 2022; 60,793 Republicans voted early Thursday, compared to 39,349 Republicans on the same day in 2022; and 8,942 Independents voted early Thursday, compared to 4,972 Independents in 2022.

After the first day of in-person early voting, combined with the votes from in-person absentee voting and mail-in absentee voting, 7% of registered Democrats, 5% of registered Republicans, and 7% of registered independents have already voted in Kentucky.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) flew to Atlanta to campaign for Georgia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms four days ahead of Election Day.

Sherrill is the latest Democratic governor to hit the trail for Bottoms in the final days before her toss-up race against Republican candidate Rick Jackson. Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), the other Democratic governor elected by a double-digit margin in 2025, stumped in Georgia with Bottoms earlier this week.

Chairman of the Democratic Governors’ Association, Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY), recently announced an additional $5 million boost toward Bottoms’s campaign as blue governors push to add another to their fold in the Peach State.

The Department of Justice is sending poll monitors to Maricopa County, one of the nation’s tightest battleground districts in Arizona, on Election Day.

“We have been notified by the DOJ that they plan to have federal monitors in Maricopa County on Election Day. This is in line with previous experiences during past elections,” Jennifer Liewer of the Maricopa County Elections Department told the Washington Examiner.

This comes as local Arizona outlets report that the DOJ is sending election monitors in other parts of the state as well, including Navajo County. Navajo County is located in Arizona’s “leans Republican” 2nd Congressional District, while Maricopa is split among multiple congressional districts

“As the Civil Rights Division has done in the past, our monitors only observe. They do not intrude or interfere in any way in the voting process,” Justice Department Civil Rights Division attorney Anelise Powers told the Arizona Republic.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) met with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani at Gracie Mansion in Manhattan on Friday, just days ahead of the midterm elections on Nov. 3.

Khanna has publicly said he is “thinking seriously” about a potential 2028 Democratic presidential bid, with pundits expecting him to be one of many Democrats to announce a run after the midterm cycle concludes. The leftist California Democrat has been campaigning across the country alongside Democrats and progressives in states such as Michigan, Iowa, and Nebraska.

If he is seeking to test the waters in or shore up the leftist flank of the Democratic Party, Mamdani, a socialist, may be a key surrogate for progressive Democrats and socialist-aligned candidates in 2028.