Midterm Updates: Trump reverses course on canceling rallies

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President Trump will head to his adopted home state of Florida on Friday for a rally in Daytona Beach, after canceling a set of weekend visits to Kansas and Iowa.

The stop in Florida — a onetime swing state that has increasingly leaned red — comes as Republican Sen. Ashley Moody vies for reelection against Democrat Angie Nixon, and as GOP Rep. Byron Donalds seeks the governor’s office against Democratic candidate David Jolly. There are also a handful of closely watched House races.

A day earlier, Mr. Trump campaigned in South Carolina for GOP Sen. Darline Graham.

The president has crisscrossed the country in recent weeks, holding rallies both in battleground states and on redder terrain. He has typically urged voters to “pretend that I’m on the ballot.”

He canceled rallies planned for Kansas on Saturday and Iowa on Sunday, which the Republican National Committee said was because the party is “in a strong position.”

Instead, he is planning to hold telerallies in 19 states in the coming days.

In a rally on Thursday, Democratic Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola offered some of her fullest public remarks on the controversy that has roiled her state for days.

“I just want to clear the air. I knew nothing about any other candidates on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters. I know I can beat Dan Sullivan,” she told supporters in the state capital of Juneau.

Peltola has faced two days of intense questions about how a man with nearly the exact same name as her Republican opponent, Sen. Dan Sullivan, ended up on the ballot in one of the nation’s most competitive Senate races. The New York Times reported Thursday that Democratic operatives linked to Peltola’s campaign helped recruit a man named Daniel J. Sullivan — allegations Peltola’s team and national Democrats have strongly denied.

The Justice Department has issued new subpoenas in a criminal investigation into the election, CBS News reported, and the Trump administration is suing to block the election from being certified if Sen. Sullivan loses due to “voter confusion.” President Trump says both Peltola and Daniel J. Sullivan should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted.

Alaska’s Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered a state-level investigation, and said Thursday the probe could “impact whether somebody is seated in the U.S. Senate.”

A Peltola campaign spokesperson pushed back, calling Dunleavy’s comments a “threat to overrule the will of Alaska voters.”

“Mary won’t be intimidated by Dunleavy, Sullivan, or any of their DC allies who are trying to steal this election from Alaskans before votes are counted,” the spokesperson said.

As the controversy over the two Dan Sullivans draws nationwide reactions, CBS News visited remote Petersburg, Alaska, to look for one person who hasn’t spoken out — Daniel J. Sullivan.

The retired teacher hails from the small fishing town, located on an island in southeastern Alaska that’s only accessible by air or sea. In prior interviews, he has insisted he isn’t trying to trick people and is genuinely interested in becoming a senator.

CBS News visited his house, only to find no one home.

But we spoke with a friend and former colleague who said Daniel J. Sullivan wouldn’t do anything malicious.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this was actually, some campaign person may have come up with this idea,” Mary Ellen Anderson said. “Whether Dan bought into it or not, I don’t know. I don’t think so. I can’t imagine him being used that way.”

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed will make a joint appearance with Rep. Haley Stevens at an event in Detroit on Sunday, two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News, marking one of their only side-by-side campaign events since facing off in the primary.

The Associated Press was first to report the event.

Stevens endorsed El-Sayed, but the former rivals — who offered starkly differing visions for the future of their party during the primary — largely haven’t campaigned alongside each other.

On Wednesday, Stevens’ fiancé, Jason Turkish, told The Detroit News he plans to vote for Republican nominee Mike Rogers, arguing El-Sayed — a vehement critic of Israel — had acted “recklessly toward the safety of Jews in the community.”

In a CNN interview later that day, Stevens reaffirmed her support for El-Sayed, saying, “We’re a household divided.” She added that El-Sayed still needs to work to win undecided voters.

Ohio governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s controversial attack ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, is off the air after the Republican spent about a quarter of what his campaign initially said it would invest to run it.

Ramaswamy said during a campaign appearance in Vandalia, Ohio, on Thursday that the ad’s planned run was over. His campaign originally said it would spend $4 million to air the ad, but data from the ad-tracking firm AdImpact showed it spent roughly $1 million.

The divisive spot had provoked backlash in Ohio and among politicians of both parties. It featured Donna Arthur calling her daughter a lifelong liar. That was despite the two having not seen each other for nearly 50 years. Arthur lost custody of her children in 1978 after her husband, their stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton when she was 12.

Ramaswamy had defended the ad, though a later version trimmed some portions.

Acton campaign spokesperson Addie Bullock said in a statement that Ramaswamy “should never have run his despicable ad in the first place, and it’s totally unsurprising that he took it off the air in the most cowardly way possible, without even the hint of an apology to Dr. Acton, her family, or to the people of Ohio.”

President Trump and Vice President JD Vance said they supported the decision to air the ad. The president said he told Ramaswamy to leave it on the air, adding “she’s fair game.”

— CBS / AP

The Justice Department has issued grand jury subpoenas to state and local officials in California, according to sources with direct knowledge and copies seen by CBS News.

The move escalates a dispute over allegations by the federal government that the state may have as many as 20,000 non-citizens registered to vote ahead of the midterm elections.

The subpoenas were issued between Oct. 21 and 24. News of the subpoenas came not long after a judge rejected the Trump administration’s bid to require California election officials to separate out tens of thousands of mail ballots.

“There’s a lot of pissed-off farmers right now at Trump and Marshall,” said Kansas farmer Jeff Preisser, “because you see the situation we’re in.”

In the final stretch of Kansas’ unexpectedly competitive Senate race between Republican Sen. Roger Marshall and Democrat Adam Hamilton, the Preisser family laid out their situation for CBS News, handing over a piece of paper detailing their heightened expenses.

It cost them $737,375 more to operate their farm in 2026 than last year, almost entirely due to higher diesel and fertilizer costs wrought by the Iran war. Meanwhile, drought, low commodity prices and trade wars have cut their revenue by $325,000.

The squeeze has pushed Kansas farms to the edge — scrambling farmers’ political loyalties.