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

Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) said Sunday ousting War Secretary Pete Hegseth is his “priority No. 1” if the Democrats retake the House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections.

A member of the House Armed Services Committee, Crow was asked by Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation about reports that Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton “received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel” in the Middle East.

“We know that the U.S. has drawn down from some military bases, some diplomatic posts,” she said. “What, if anything, can you tell us about this plot?”

“Iran remains a danger,” Crow said before attacking the administration’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine war and the conflict in Iran. “Pete Hegseth remains incompetent and is not doing what’s necessary to protect our service members, which is why he’s my priority No. 1 if we retake the majority, to make sure we oust him from the Pentagon, because our service members actually deserve competent, serious, real leadership that will protect them and do the right thing.”

Democrats are broadly expected to investigate members of the Trump administration and potentially attempt to impeach President Donald Trump himself if they retake the House. Brennan mentioned CBS News’s most recent polling, which shows “Democrats are on pace to have a narrow majority of about 11 seats.” She also asked Crow about a recent controversy involving Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who faces Senate ethics complaints that argue she deterred young professionals from serving in the Trump administration after making comments at a university event.

“The key here is we don’t want people to want to go work for a corrupt administration to try to line their pockets, like that is not servant leadership,” Crow answered. “If the message being sent from Donald Trump is, hey, come work for me and you’ll get a lot out of it, and you’ll get rich doing it. That’s not actually public servants.” Trump told the Washington Examiner he is “allowed” to preemptively pardon junior staffers after being asked about a report on Saturday that said, “White House attorneys are evaluating whether to issue mass pardons to junior staffers.”

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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Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul el Sayed distanced himself from an ad by the “Rebellion PAC” that takes aim at U.S. aid being sent to Israel.

“This ad is not affiliated in any way with the Abdul for Senate campaign,” the el Sayed campaign said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Abdul is focused on pushing back against Trump’s agenda that is raising prices for Michiganders. No one speaks for Abdul but himself and his campaign.”

The “Rebellion PAC” ad, posted by host of The Young Turks talk show Cenk Uygur, shows a couple walking through the grocery store while budgeting their purchases and blaming their monetary restrictions on U.S. funding of Israel. The couple in the ad says things like “we give Israel $4 billion a year,” “it’s costing us a lot of money to drop bombs on Gaza,” and “we have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians.”

“Why does Mike Rogers care so much about what Israelis want and so little about what you want?” the narrator says in the video. “Mike Rogers is for they/them. Abdul el Sayed is for you.”

The ad has received significant blowback online. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI), who challenged el Sayed in the primary, ripped the ad as a message of “fearmongering” ahead of the midterm elections.

“This type of fearmongering about Israel is wrong,” Stevens said on X. “It is not a winning strategy for any state. It does nothing to help Michigan Democrats win up and down the ballot in eight days.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent needled former President Barack Obama’s line about President Donald Trump decorating the White House like a Cheesecake Factory by dining at the chain restaurant on Monday.

“What’s with the gold?” Obama said about Trump’s renovation style during a campaign stop this weekend. “He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

Bessent trolled Obama on Monday by lunching at the Cheesecake Factory on Monday, ordering the French Dip cheeseburger.

“This is the man who built the museum that looks like Darth Vader’s tomb,” Bessent said of the Obama Presidential Center Museum. “And I would just tell the — I had a great meal, always have a great meal — and I would tell the Martha’s Vineyard set to give it a try.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned against underestimating former President Barack Obama’s message on the campaign trail in the 2026 midterm elections, saying it could stand as a preview of what Democrats’ messaging will be in 2028.

In an episode of his podcast Verdict, Cruz was discussing Obama’s recent quote in which he compared President Donald Trump’s White House renovations to a Cheesecake Factory restaurant renovated by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. When asked if this is an effective closing message for Democrats, Cruz said, “Yes and no.”

“I would not dismiss what Obama is doing there. I think it’s important to remember Obama may be the most effective Democrat politician of our lifetime,” he continued. “It’s either Obama or [former President] Bill Clinton. And the two of them literally stand head and shoulders above every other Democrat.”

Cruz called Obama’s communication skills “really powerful” and “really dangerous,” adding, “If we didn’t have the 22nd Amendment, it wouldn’t surprise me if Obama spent the rest of his life in the White House.” Cruz added that he believes Obama’s messaging over the weekend was a preview of the anti-corruption messaging Democrats will play in 2028.

“He gives you a preview of what to expect, both what to expect January of 2027, but also what to expect in the ’28 campaign,” Cruz said. “If the Democrats take one or both houses of Congress, you can expect hearing after hearing after hearing with a central focus on corruption, corruption being the major theme that the Democrats are going to push.”

Two former South Carolina governors, Democrat Jim Hodges and Republican David Beasley, issued a joint endorsement for Democrat Annie Andrews to be the next senator from South Carolina on Monday.

Hodges, who led South Carolina from 1999 to 2003, and Beasley, who led the state from 1995 to 1999, issued the double endorsement for Andrews in a video message, with Beasley saying that despite their political differences, “One thing we do agree on right now is this country is too divided, and the political rhetoric has gotten way, way out of hand.”

“Annie understands that leadership isn’t about making people angrier. Well, it’s about making things better,” Beasley said.

“She’s willing to put people ahead of politics,” Hodges chimed in.

Andrews is challenging incumbent Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), whom Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC) tapped to take the place of her brother, former Sen. Lindsey Graham, after he died this summer.

“We may have served as your governor from different political parties. But we agree South Carolina deserves better than more of the same political fighting,” Beasley said.

The Cook Political Report shifted the race in typically deep-red South Carolina from a “likely Republican” race to a “lean Republican” race toward Andrews’s favor in October. The outlet cited incumbent Graham’s poor performance in debates and said she “could face backlash for being elevated to the job purely because of her family name” when shifting the race.

Nordone leads Graham by single digits in RealClearPolitics’s average of the race’s polls, though she maintains a significant lead in the Polymarket odds.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) greeted cars at a drive-thru window at a McDonald’s in his district on Monday, taking a page out of President Donald Trump’s playbook just eight days before Election Day.

Lawler suited up in a McDonald’s uniform on Monday in Haverstraw, New York, according to videos from reporter Timmy Facciola. Trump did the same thing in 2024, standing behind a McDonald’s drive-thru window in Pennsylvania as he campaigned for president.

Lawler is facing a challenge from Democrat Cait Conley, who has seen a large influx of support from national Democrats, in a toss-up race in the lower Hudson Valley district. Conley currently leads in the Polymarket odds and led Lawler by 2 percentage points in a late September Emerson College poll.

Lawler won his 2024 election against Democrat Mondaire Jones by 6.3 points.

The Democratic Governors Association made an additional $5 million investment in Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms’s campaign to be Georgia’s governor.

DGA Chairman Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) traveled to the Peach State on Monday to campaign for Bottoms and announce the additional funding headed to her team. The group previously donated $11.5 million to her campaign.

Bottoms is facing off against Republican Rick Jackson, who is spending millions of his personal dollars, in the state’s toss-up governor race. Jackson leads by single digits in polling, according to RealClearPolling’s average on the race.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is heading to Iowa to campaign for incumbent Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) as he faces a tight challenge from Democratic state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott.

Johnson will be in Urbandale, Iowa, outside of Des Moines on Wednesday, according to Politico. It is a return trip to Iowa for Johnson, who campaigned in the state earlier in October in support of Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA).

Both Nunn and Miller-Meeks, GOP incumbents, are in races rated Leans Democrat by the Cook Political Report. Despite the limited polling on the Nunn-Garriott race, RealClearPolitics shows Polymarket’s odds in favor of Garriott.

Nunn won his 2024 race against Democrat Lanon Baccam by 3.9 percentage points.

Alaska’s Division of Elections released its current sample ballot for the Last Frontier’s statewide, ranked choice elections, providing a look into how voters will be able to decipher the difference between the two Dan Sullivans on the Senate ballot.

Incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) is listed on the ballot as “Sullivan, Dan S. (Registered Republican) Incumbent.” The second Sullivan, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., who is not the Republican incumbent but rather a former Forest Service employee, is listed on the ballot as “Sullivan, Daniel J. Jr.”

Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. had registered as a Republican in the state’s Senate race and was initially removed from the ballot by the state’s Division of Elections. After the Alaska Supreme Court restored his spot on the ballot, his party affiliation was changed to nonpartisan, as recommended by the division. The general election ballot, however, does not list any party for Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., while several other nonpartisan candidates in other races are listed as “nonpartisan” on their ballot spots.

President Donald Trump voiced concern on Sunday that Alaska voters may not know what “incumbent” means on the ranked choice ballot when viewing their choices.

The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit challenging the results of the state’s Senate race if it is impacted by “voter confusion.”

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) tried to clarify her viral quote about Mississippians being able to choose other proteins while beef remains high-priced during a local news interview on Sunday.

“Thank goodness, when mothers want to feed their families, when you go out shopping there are proteins, you want to feed meat — there are some cheaper prices,” Hyde-Smith said. “And that’s what that statement was about.”

Hyde-Smith’s earlier statement, in which she said there were “other proteins to choose from,” received pushback from Democrats who called her comments out-of-touch in the barbecue-loving state. Scott Colom, her Democratic challenger, seized on the quote and clipped an ad with it. The ad called on Mississippi to “pick another senator instead” of a different protein.

ONCE AN AFTERTHOUGHT, MISSISSIPPI CREEPS ONTO THE SENATE BATTLEFIELD

Hyde-Smith defended her statement and framed it in comparison to high gas prices. She said that with high gas prices, there is no alternative but filling your car with gas, whereas with beef, you can choose a different type of meat.

“Gasoline, unless you want to ride the bicycle, that’s your only option,” Hyde-Smith told WLOX News This Week on Sunday.

Ohio Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy is not backing down from his ad featuring Democratic nominee Amy Acton’s estranged mother.

In Ramaswamy’s controversial ad, Acton’s estranged mother Donna Arthur, who stayed married to a man who was indicted over allegations that he sexually abused Acton when she was a child, called Acton a liar. When asked Monday on Fox & Friends whether he stands by his ad after days of criticism, Ramaswamy did not back down.

“I’ll tell you the advice I was raised in: You never start a fight, but if you find yourself in one, you finish it, and you have to stand for what is right and what is true,” Ramaswamy said. “They’ve attacked me. They’ve defamed my mother to media silence. It’s unbelievable, and yet at the same time, they’ll trot out anything to attack a Republican.”

The Cook Political Report shifted the race between Ramaswamy and Acton from a toss-up to Leans Democrat on Friday after a week of Ramaswamy answering for the ad.

Former President Barack Obama launched a new ad in Maryland to vouch for Democrats’ redistricting referendum, a ballot measure that Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) is pushing hard for in the Old Line State.

“You may have heard that Republicans in Washington got some states to redraw their congressional maps in the middle of an election year,” Obama said in the ad released Monday. “They did it to try and hold on to power in Congress. You can help stop this Republican power grab by voting ‘Yes’ on Question 3. It lets Maryland draw its own fair maps.”

Maryland’s Proposition 3 would amend the state constitution’s rules around congressional redistricting. It would change some restrictions to apply only to state legislative districts and not federal congressional district boundaries, provide that the state constitution does not regulate federal congressional district boundaries, and bring challenges to redistricting straight to the state Supreme Court, according to Ballotpedia.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris rebuked a report that her husband, Doug Emhoff, privately told people he did not want her to run for president.

“I’m sure there are many who think that I should just sit at home and eat bonbons and cook Doug’s favorite foods,” Harris told CNN in an interview on the midterm campaign trail this year. She added that she can cook her husband’s favorite food and also run for president.

The response seems to be a reaction to claims from a Wall Street Journal report that Emhoff said he would prefer it if she did not run again in 2028.

HOW 2028 CONTENDERS ARE BOOSTING THEIR BONA FIDES DURING MIDTERM SEASON

“I feel so strongly and therefore am compelled, and maybe propelled, into doing this, because I know that I can help,” Harris said about the possibility she runs in 2028. “And how can I sit at home in the comfort of my home when I know there are things I can do to help? I don’t know any other life but that — that’s my point. I don’t know any life that is not about, ‘There’s a problem, what can I do to fix it?’”

She is one of many possible 2028 candidates taking to the midterm campaign trail to boost her standing with the electorate and try to show her campaign prowess ahead of the next presidential election.

Trump and Vance are stepping up their rallying efforts in swing states in the final week before the midterm elections.

Trump is scheduled to visit Corinth, Mississippi; Corpus Christi, Texas; Lubbock, Texas; Chillicothe, Ohio; Daytona, Florida; and Dubuque, Iowa. Vance will visit Belgrade, Montana; Topeka, Kansas; and Howell, Michigan.

All the states on the list except Michigan are typically considered safely red, indicating a tough fight for Republicans.