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

President Donald Trump said Friday that he would protect Elon Musk from government weaponization if Democrats regain control of one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections.

Asked by a reporter if he is concerned about Democrats going after Musk, Trump explained that “we have to protect our brilliant people because we don’t have too many of them.”

The SpaceX CEO has drawn criticism from Democrats over his handling of Ukraine’s access to Starshield, a military-grade satellite network similar to Starlink. Musk reportedly ordered a slowdown of the Starshield system, limiting Ukraine’s ability to use the network for military operations.

Democrats threatened to take congressional action over Musk’s alleged efforts to hamper Ukraine in its war with Russia. Such a congressional investigation is dependent on whether Democrats can retake the House or the Senate.

“Elon said nothing wrong,” Trump said. “Elon is a very good guy. He’s a very different kind of a guy. But I think people have an obligation to protect our geniuses. You know, there aren’t that many of them.”

Musk has proven to be a strong ally of Trump and other Republicans, having spent up to $442 million on the election cycle. His latest contribution, totaling $76 million, was sent to his own America PAC in the first half of October.

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio — Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) encouraged Ohio voters to implore their friends to cast a ballot, even if they are “tired of all the negative ads and don’t really like politics.”

Husted’s comments, at a rally in Centerville, come after the state’s gubernatorial race was upended this week by the Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy receiving bipartisan criticism for an attack ad with the mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton.

“If they give you any backlash and they say, ‘Well, you know, I’m tired of all the negative ads, and don’t really like politics, and you know, I’m kind of worn out,’” he said. “You tell them this: If dead people can do it, you can too.”

Husted, who is in a tight race against former Sen. Sherrod Brown, criticized his Democratic counterpart’s record from half a century in public service.

The senator also remarked on President Donald Trump’s compliments regarding his physique.

“President Trump’s commented recently that I used to play football,” he said. “He said a few other things too.”

“All right, but here’s the deal. It’s like the fourth quarter of a football game. You get hit. You get knocked down,” Husted continued. “Are you going to get back up? Are you going to quit? Are you going to fight and win? And fight and winning means over the next 11 days you’re going to call people every day. You’re going to get them to the polls and you’re going to get out there and vote and you’re going to help us deliver a victory on Nov. 3.”

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio — Rep. Mike Carey (R-OH) urged residents in Centerville, Ohio, to be part of a “red wall” during the last stop on the first day of the state Republican Party’s bus tour before Election Day.

Carey’s 15th Congressional District was changed mid-decade to include Centerville.

“I had Pickaway County for one year, and I lost you in redistricting,” he told the crowd. “But I’ll tell you what, it’s great to be back.”

Carey, whose race is considered lean Republican by the Cook Political Report, criticized Democrats as liars.

“Democrats lie very loud, but you know what we as Republicans do?” he asked. “We tell the truth a lot longer.”

“And on Election Day, they keep talking about some type of blue wave,” the congressman said. “This, friends, is the red wall that will stop their little tidal pool.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who faces reelection next month, is touting her involvement in getting the Trump administration to provide additional tariff exemptions for Maine farmers.

“Many of our farmers and growers rely on specialized equipment, packaging materials, and other products from Canada that are either unavailable from American suppliers or cannot be replaced without incurring significant expense,” Collins said on Friday.

Some of the state’s agricultural industry players that get to benefit from the tariff exemptions include blueberry, potato, apple, and seaweed producers.

The 73-year-old senator’s statement coincided with an announcement from the White House that said some U.S. tariffs on Canada were being refined to “better serve the public interest.”

Among the products that are being removed from the scope of the tariffs are plywood sheets, some paper products, certain machinery and refrigeration equipment, and certain packing crates and boxes, according to a White House fact sheet. The list of goods matches the categories of products that Collins announced were receiving tariff relief.

The administration’s move to remove 50% tariffs on certain Canadian products appears to have been made to help Collins and other Republican candidates in the midterm elections, according to the Wall Street Journal. The new tariff actions will take effect on Oct. 30.

President Donald Trump gave words of praise to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who briefly appeared onstage at a Florida rally.

Trump first complimented Kennedy’s physique, saying he has the body of a 30-year-old man, before commenting on the HHS chief’s family legacy.

“Did anybody ever see the build, the body on Bobby? He’s got the body of a 30-year-old,” Trump told the crowd after Kennedy walked off stage. “But he has done an amazing job. … Think of it, think of it. He’s a Republican, and he’s the most important Kennedy in the Kennedy family by far.”

The president has repeatedly praised the physical appearance of Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), complimenting his strong backside, legs, and shoulders.

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, ordered Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom’s campaign to remove its artificial intelligence-generated ads that may violate state law.

“Recent AI-generated ads posted by the campaign on their social media platforms appear to violate State law against the use of ‘deepfakes’ to influence elections,” Fitch said in a statement on Friday. “The Attorney General asked that the ads be removed or else the office may file an injunction as authorized by law.”

One of the ads featured Colom’s opponent, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), running away from reporters. The video has been taken down.

“Cindy Hyde-Smith is clearly desperate, and she and her allies are once again trying to weaponize the justice system to distract from the real issues,” Colom said. “Clearly this was parody, maybe too close to home because she knows she does love to hide from her own constituents and reporters.”

Fitch made the legal threat in response to a complaint filed by the Mississippi Republican Party.

FT. MEYERS, Florida — President Donald Trump spoke at a rally on Friday at Florida Gulf Coast University for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), the GOP’s 2026 gubernatorial nominee for Florida, where attendees told the Washington Examiner that they support the president’s policies but are still concerned about elevated gas prices caused by the war in Iran.

Tom, a retiree who’s lived in nearby Naples since 2019, said he’s a longtime Trump supporter and often disagrees with his children over politics. He said he’s backing Donalds and Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) in 2026 because they share Trump’s views on immigration and Iran.

Tom added that it’s important to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and understands that the president is holding off on continuing his campaign until after the midterm elections. Still, he notes that unleaded gas in his neighborhood is currently around $4.19 a gallon and wanted the president to quickly conclude the conflict after Election Day.

“Everyone has their limit,” he told the Washington Examiner in an interview.

Cunningham, a lifelong Florida resident who is now retired, similarly supported Trump’s war in Iran but added that lowering gas prices should “be a priority” for the remainder of Trump’s term in office.

Donalds, as of Friday, was leading former Rep. David Jolly by 5.6 points. Moody is leading state Rep. Angie Nixon, Democrats’ nominee for Florida’s U.S. Senate seat, by 7 points, according to RealClearPolitics.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) presented a custom gold coin to President Donald Trump upon his arrival to Florida on Friday.

Engraved on the coin was Trump flipping his middle finger with the words: “YOU MISSED B****ES.” The message was presumably directed at those who prosecuted Trump before he returned to the White House last year.

DeSantis said he got the coin from a friend. Recapping his conversation with the friend, the governor said, “I need to get this to the president. Can I please have one to give to him?”

DeSantis gave the gift as Trump was on his way to a rally in Fort Myers, where the president is campaigning for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL). The congressman is running against Democratic candidate David Jolly for governor of Florida.

MARTINS FERRY, Ohio — Former Sen. Sherrod Brown downplayed the importance of national politics in his race to return to the Senate when asked by the Washington Examiner during a meet-and-greet with voters in Martins Ferry, Ohio.

“I don’t care what the national political climate is,” Brown told the Washington Examiner. “It’s what I’ve done all my life. I’ve always, I’ve taken on the reg system. I’ve taken on Wall Street. I’ve taken on the drug companies. I’ve taken on the oil companies. I’m one of the leaders against these data centers where Jon Husted’s given them a $2.5 billion tax break.”

When pressed on whether he would support a hypothetical Trump nominee for the Supreme Court should a seat open up, Brown demurred.

“I’ll have to see what happens when the Supreme Court nominations come up,” he said.

Brown is in a margin-of-error race to replace Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) in the Senate, who was appointed in 2025 to take over Vice President JD Vance’s seat in the chamber.

Brown, in turn, served three six-year terms in the Senate before he lost his seat in 2024 to Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH).

President Donald Trump said Friday that he is eager to headline a campaign rally this weekend in Michigan, where he gets to talk about progressive Democrat Abdul el Sayed.

“I look so forward to Michigan, and I think it’s going to be wild,” Trump told reporters. “Because he’s a total phony, he’s a little phony. And everything about him is fake, and he’s a liar.”

The president called el Sayed a “vicious, violent jihadist” who poses as a centrist.

“I can talk about a man who’s a Muslim Brotherhood person, who’s a jihadist, and he can’t be in our Senate,” Trump said.

El Sayed denounced the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt in 1928, after Republicans tried to tie him to the group.

The rally will take place Sunday in Port Huron, Michigan. Trump is expected to stump for Republican Mike Rogers, who is running against el Sayed for the Senate. Rogers previously represented Michigan in the House from 2001 to 2015 and unsuccessfully challenged now-Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) in 2024.

At least four Senate Democrats plan to headline a post-election event, called Popular Mandate, in Washington.

The Nov. 10 event will come exactly one week after Election Day, when Democrats may retake control of the House and even the Senate.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Andy Kim (D-NJ) will attend the event, joining prominent progressive leaders and policy experts in reflecting on the election results. CNN reported the event details.

The event is being organized by progressive economic think tanks Groundwork Action, Public Citizen, Roosevelt Forward, and Fighting Corporate Monopolies.

“Americans aren’t casting their ballots for half-measures or moral victories – they want leaders who will bring down costs, hold corporate bad actors accountable, and make billionaires pay their fair share,” Groundwork Action President and CEO Lindsay Owens said in a statement.

Democrats are preparing to hold other events following the midterm elections. For instance, Majority Democrats will host a Nov. 12-14 summit in Denver, where possible 2028 presidential candidates are expected to be in attendance.

President Donald Trump argued at length with a reporter over a question about Ohio Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s attack ad that featured his gubernatorial opponent’s mother, which has caused disagreement within the Republican Party.

“Why wouldn’t you listen to a mother that says that?” Trump told NBC News White House correspondent Monica Alba on Friday outside the White House. In the one-minute video, Donna Arthur repeatedly called her daughter, Amy Acton, a liar.

In response, Alba tried to say that Arthur “stayed with a stepfather who was charged with raping his stepdaughter in 1978.” The president kept interrupting her.

“You just keep talking,” he said. She responded, “I am answering you, sir.”

Trump went on to say he doesn’t “know anything about stepfathers” before giving a long-winded defense of the ad.

“I know that recently a mother got on television and said that her daughter should not be governor of Ohio,” Trump told reporters. “And she said, ‘I love my daughter, but my daughter lies all the time and lied about her opponent, and I can’t watch it.'”

“This has nothing to do with the stepfather or anything else,” he continued. “This has to do with the fact that a woman got out, the mother of a person running for governor of one of the greatest states, where I set records, and said that she’s a liar. Her daughter’s a liar. She said her daughter lied about Vivek, and the mother couldn’t take it anymore. She basically said her daughter should not … be the governor of Ohio.”

Warren Norman, the son of Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), announced Friday that he will not be sharing his father’s support for Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) in the general election.

Instead, Warren Norman will be voting for Democratic Senate nominee Annie Andrews.

“I didn’t make that decision lightly, and it isn’t personal,” he wrote in an op-ed for South Carolina news outlet FITSNews. “Senator Graham lost her brother this year, and I have nothing but sympathy for her family. My decision comes down to what I believe South Carolina needs in a senator, and what I’ve seen get in the way.”

“What we need is strength, courage and real leadership,” he continued. “We need senators with the backbone to stand up to pressure from both parties, including their own, and the commitment to root out corruption wherever they find it. My family has been involved in politics for years, and I’ve seen firsthand how rare that is. The pressure to go along to get along is enormous, and it is strongest at the top.”

The congressman’s son went on to say that while he disagrees with Andrews on certain issues, they agree on “fighting corruption and reforming insurance.” He added that she appeared “genuine” in his conversation with her.

“As of today, I’m leaning her way,” he said. “It will be the first time in my life I’ve voted for a Democrat in a partisan election.”

While he will be voting for Andrews in the Senate election, Warren Norman noted he will still support South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson for governor and other Republicans up and down the ballot.

His stance on Graham is slightly different from that of his father, who ambivalently supports the senator after losing to her in South Carolina’s Republican primary runoff election. The congressman recently said he will vote for the interim senator but not campaign with her.

“I would not do an event with her, and I made that pretty clear,” Norman said in a Wednesday radio interview with The Nashional Briefing with Kelly Nash, two days before his son’s op-ed was published. “When I conceded the race, I called her and congratulated her, but that’s the only time I’ve spoken with her.”

Warren Norman also revealed his family won’t vote for Graham. He has four adult children with his longtime wife.

President Donald Trump will vote Saturday morning in Florida, according to a White House aide.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump will be taking advantage of Florida’s early-voting period, which lasts until Oct. 31.

The president previously voted by mail twice in the red state this year before the midterm elections got well underway.

Trump is campaigning Friday in Fort Myers at a midterm rally, where he will reiterate his support for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) for governor.