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

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) conversed with 25-year-old conservative content creator, Mason Lemme, on their differences in beliefs on Israel at a rally for Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton.

Lemme approached the senator after waiting in the post-rally photo line Saturday morning, where the two engaged in a polite conversation that lasted a few minutes.

“I appreciate the time that he gave me,” Lemme told the Washington Examiner.

Lemme went on to share his concerns with the Republican Party in relation to Israel and American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s involvement in elections.

“It’s just concerning because especially my generation, we’re seeing a bunch of people that were pro-Trump, pro-conservative movement going ‘okay, why are we not being transparent about the Epstein files? Why are we going to war in Iran for Israel? Why?’” the 25-year-old said.

While Lemme has made his stance on Israel’s involvement in U.S. relations evident, he said he’ll vote Republican despite the candidate’s views on Israel when asked by the Washington Examiner.

“I’m not going to be the guy that’s not going to vote,” he said.

Cruz has been one of Israel’s most staunch supporters and has taken over $1.8 million from pro-Israel groups up until 2024, according to Open Secrets.

“I consider Prime Minister Netanyahu a close friend,” Cruz told the Washington Examiner earlier this week. “I have worked hand in hand with the Prime Minister for more than a decade. I admire him deeply. He is the only world leader for whom I have used the adjective Churchillian because he has a clarity of vision, a strength, and a gravity unlike other leaders. He sees the existential threat to his nation, and he is focused with all of his might on defending the people of Israel.”

This comes as the debate over Israel has become an increasingly divisive issue for both parties, particularly among younger voters.

Alaska Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola was injured in a car crash Saturday night, leading the challenger to postpone her campaign stops just nine days before voters head to the polls in the Last Frontier.

Peltola was headed to the Alaska Federation of Natives Annual Banquet when the car transporting her and her family was struck by another driver, according to her campaign.

“Mary and her family sustained minor injuries but are in good spirits,” campaign manager Cheryl Bruce said in a statement. “Unfortunately, per the advice of medical professionals, Mary’s upcoming events in Fairbanks and Bethel will be rescheduled for later in the week as she takes time to recover.”

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Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to detail the circumstances leading up to the Department of Justice filing a lawsuit challenging the results of Alaska’s Senate race because two candidates share the same name.

Blanche appeared on two different programs Sunday morning and was asked about President Donald Trump saying he directed the DOJ to pursue a legal challenge if the Senate race is affected by “voter confusion” related to incumbent Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan (R-AK) and former Forest Service employee Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. both being on the ranked choice ballot.

The attorney general appeared on CNN’s Face the Nation on Sunday and reaffirmed that he does not disclose his private conversations with the president. He also disputed the idea that Trump’s concerns about Alaska’s ranked choice voting system are new.

“I will never talk about any communications I have with the president of the United States,” Blanche said. “But what I will say is that the president is not shy to the American people and has been very clear with the American people about his concerns about what’s happening in Alaska.”

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Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers broke with President Donald Trump on Sunday, declining to agree with the president calling Democrat Abdul el Sayed a “vicious, violent jihadist.”

Rogers rejected the idea that he has referred to his opponent in such a manner, telling NBC’s Kristen Welker he has “never” called el Sayed a terrorist. Welker then pressed Rogers about Trump’s language regarding el Sayed, asking if it was up to his standard.

“No, I don’t — I’ve never called him a terrorist. I’ve never called him a terrorist,” Rogers said.

However, Rogers said on Oct. 10 that Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy calling el Sayed a terrorist was “exactly right” and released a statement following the primary elections that claimed el Sayed “pledged his support to the Muslim Brotherhood,” four branches of which the United States has designated terrorist organizations.

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Democratic Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turek unveiled a new ad on Saturday rejecting transgender women’s participation in women’s sports, pushing back on a blitz of Republican attack ads just over a week before Election Day.

Turek, a Paralympic gold medalist in wheelchair basketball, says in the ad, “As a kid in a wheelchair, I faced my share of bullying. It’s why I believe that no Iowan should face discrimination. As a Paralympian, I also know it’s important to have rules. It’s why I oppose males competing in female sports, something that is already illegal in Iowa.”

“I’m against taxpayers paying for sex changes too. Anyone tells you any different is lying. … It’s time to stop the nonsense from both extremes and start to focus on lowering costs for Iowans,” he concludes.

The ad follows an Elon Musk-funded attack ad on Turek claiming the candidate voted to use tax dollars to fund sex change surgeries for children.

Turek is in a toss-up race against Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA).

President Donald Trump railed against Alaska’s “corrupt” ranked choice voting system, claiming it was the sole reason Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) secured reelection.

Trump directed the Department of Justice to file a lawsuit challenging Alaska’s election results next week if it is determined the race was affected by “voter confusion,” as the incumbent and a challenger share the same name. Murkowski has publicly denounced the DOJ’s lawsuit, emphasizing the state’s ability to handle its elections.

“The Republicans’ Worst Senator, by far, Lisa Murkowski, of the Great State of Alaska (A State for which I produced, on a continuing basis, Billions and Billions of Dollars, and which Crooked Joe Biden and the Dumocrats had totally shut down — Then I came back, and delivered even more!), who only got elected because of Corrupt Ranked Choice Voting, is upset because I revealed what everyone knows, that the Ranked Choice Voting Ballot is a TOTAL DEMOCRAT SCAM meant to confuse the Voter, so that Senator Dan Sullivan will lose Votes to a man who has never participated in Politics before, named Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday.

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PERRY — A protester was ejected from President Donald Trump’s rally in central Georgia Saturday night.

The president’s team has recently begun using private security to assist law enforcement in preventing disruptions at Trump’s campaign events.

The protester on Saturday, an older man wearing a black t-shirt and blue hat, was escorted out of the facility after shouting a word or two shortly into the speech.

His disruption was so brief that the president didn’t stop talking or acknowledge the individual.

DETROIT — Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed took the stage Saturday night as the opening act for former President Barack Obama, where he invoked his immigrant roots and mentioned it was his first time seeing the former president speak in person.

“I love America enough to call on her to be America for all of her kids,” el Sayed told the Detroit crowd.

The son of Egyptian immigrants, el Sayed recalled watching Obama’s keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention while doing dishes at his parents’ home.

“I just stopped,” he said. “I got suds falling from my hands.”

Obama showed him “what elegance and grace and determination look like in a politician,” el Sayed said.

He also recalled meeting former President Bill Clinton after graduating from the University of Michigan in 2007. Clinton asked why he was going to medical school and suggested he might someday run for office.

El Sayed laughed at the idea.

“Mr. President, did you see my name?” he recalled. “There are 11 letters in my name, and I got two others after that. People like me don’t get to run for office.”

Then came Obama.

“He had a funny name. I got a funny name,” el Sayed said. “He’s tall and skinny, and, well, I’m five-eight.”

Megan Bunks, who was in the crowd, told the Washington Examiner, “I love Abdul. I’m going to vote for Abdul. But I’m here for Obama.”

There are 4,350 Michiganders in attendance at the event, which is being held in the gymnasium at Cass Technical High School.

DETROIT — Keith Coldicott thought he had scored the golden ticket.

The Detroit native had spent time on the waiting list for a ticket to see former President Barack Obama campaign in downtown Detroit on Saturday. When his chance to get inside looked increasingly unlikely, he decided to show up anyway at Cass Technical High School, bringing two friends along with him.

It quickly became clear they weren’t the only ones hoping to catch a glimpse of Obama.

The line snaked around the block as hundreds of people waited to see Obama take the stage alongside progressive Michigan Senate candidate Abdul el Sayed. After about an hour, Coldicott and his friends gave up. They would watch the rally on a livestream somewhere else.

Outside the school, meanwhile, the atmosphere was considerably less celebratory.

A small group of protesters gathered near the rally, at times creating a particularly heated scene as Obama supporters waited to get inside.

The dueling scenes, a packed line of Democrats eager to see one of their party’s biggest stars and angry protesters gathered outside, offered a glimpse of the political temperature surrounding one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races.

Obama’s appearance Saturday was designed to give el Sayed’s campaign a burst of Democratic star power on the first day of Michigan’s in-person early voting. But it’s clear the race has also become a flashpoint for some of the country’s most bitter political and racial tensions.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked el Sayed, a former public health official, using inflammatory rhetoric about his Muslim faith. Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers has also faced criticism after agreeing with internet personality Dave Portnoy, who called el Sayed a “terrorist.”

El Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, has called the rhetoric from Rogers and his supporters “deeply racist and Islamophobic.”

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Senate Democratic nominee James Talarico filled up the 1902 Nightclub Saturday afternoon with Election Day just over a week away.

A thousand rallygoers poured into the venue just 45 minutes away from Paxton’s rally earlier Saturday morning at Cooper’s Barbecue in New Braunfels, Texas.

In a series of interviews with the Washington Examiner, attendees expressed “hope” this will be the year Democrats elect a candidate statewide for the first time since 1994, as Talarico remains locked in a tight race against his opponent Ken Paxton (R-TX).

“On election night we will turn on MSNOW or Fox News or CNN or whatever channel you want to watch, and the announcers will say something that we did not get to hear in forever,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) said at the rally.

Texas flags were handed out to supporters before the rally began. Democratic congressional candidate Johnny Garcia, who is running in one of the five seats redrawn in Texas’ gerrymander last year, joined Talarico at his rally.

“They will say that for the first time in a generation, the state of Texas is going to be a Democrat in the United States,” he continued.

The rally included time to “build community,” as Talarico’s team encouraged the crowd to meet someone next to them and ask what brought them to the rally.

“There’s that moment in every game, the last play, the last drive, when you have to leave it all on the field,” Talarico said.

The Justice Department is sending poll monitors to six Georgia counties, all of which are left-leaning districts, in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.

Georgia is a battleground state, featuring intense elections this cycle at the Senate and gubernatorial levels. The DOJ is sending election monitors to Bibb, Cobb, Chatham, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The development comes after Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, announced in August that the DOJ would send 1,000 observers nationwide, in what she termed “the largest monitoring effort” in the agency’s history.

Monitoring elections is a normal part of the DOJ’s duties. However, the latest effort marks a substantial expansion of that effort. The department under former President Joe Biden sent roughly 400 monitors to 64 jurisdictions across around two dozen states on Election Day in the last midterm year, 2022. This year’s effort will more than double that number, while sending monitors to all 50 states.

CLEVELAND — Former President Barack Obama criticized President Donald Trump for his lack of focus on affordability and corruption allegations surrounding him, his family, and his administration.

“[Trump] seems very focused on home renovations,” Obama told a crowd in Cleveland. “What’s up with gold? … He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

He added: “You remember that old thing about draining the swamp? The only thing that got drained was the Reflecting Pool.”

CLEVELAND — Former President Barack Obama told an energized crowd in Cleveland that the 2026 midterm elections feel different, and the country is “ready for change.”

“That’s what you have a chance to do in 10 days,” Obama told the crowd. “After two years of chaos, and cruelty, and corruption, and incompetence, you get a chance to say enough’s enough.”

Obama particularly criticized President Donald Trump regarding the Iran war and War Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“How much time do you think this defense secretary spends looking himself in the mirror?” he asked. “They’re not serious people. 
And the problem is you end up having to pay the price.”

Obama also connected the war with Iran and Trump’s tariffs to affordability concerns.

CLEVELAND — A crowd gathered for former President Barack Obama’s rally in Cleveland with Democratic nominees Sherrod Brown and Amy Acton broke out into chants as Brown referred to President Donald Trump.

“Lock him up,” those assembled in the Cleveland Public Auditorium repeated.

Democrats criticized Republicans for chanting the same about the party’s 2016 presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton.

CLEVELAND — Ohio Democratic Senate nominee Sherrod Brown also opened with a message of thanks for his gubernatorial counterpart, Amy Acton.

“Thank you for your strength, your courage, your integrity,” Brown told the crowd after the release of an ad with her estranged mother by her opponent Vivek Ramaswamy.

Brown also criticized his own opponent, Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), over his corporate interests and response to demands for transparency regarding the federal Jeffrey Epstein investigation.

“They say you are the company you keep,” he said. “Husted surrounds himself with utility executives and pedophile protectors in our state [and] he’s backed by the data center companies, the big tech billionaires, and dark money from out of state — Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, [and] Donald Trump.”