2026 elections live updates: Candidates push to mobilize midterm voters

Sen. Ted Cruz issued a stark warning to conservative voters on his Verdict podcast on Friday, cautioning that Republicans risk losing both chambers of Congress and face a total wipeout in Texas.

Sounding the alarm over massive early turnout among Democratic stalwarts, Cruz stated that Republicans could suffer a devastating defeat across eight to ten close Senate races if base conservative voters remain home on Tuesday.

“We could lose Texas … If the election were over today, if just the early votes that have been cast so far were counted, Republicans would lose massively. It would not be close,” Cruz said. We would lose both the House and Senate. It would be a bloodbath.” 

Pointing to early voting data in his home state, Cruz warned that the entire statewide Texas Republican ticket is in serious jeopardy of falling to Democrats in a historic shift. Cruz emphasized that the election remains a battle of turnout, noting that the GOP retains a larger total pool of registered voters who typically vote on Election Day.

“Now, some conservatives, they say, I don’t trust the polls, the polls are all wrong. Well, let me tell you that there is a bias in the polls. They do skew left,” Cruz said. But I can tell you, having run a lot of campaigns, having examined a lot of numbers, these data are not fake. The Democrats are massively outturning out the Republicans. We got to fix that.” 

Closing out his multi-state campaign swing, Cruz urged conservative, independent, and libertarian voters to get to the polls immediately to avert a Democratic legislative sweep.

Heading into the final weekend before the midterms, Republican nominee Ken Paxton and Democratic nominee James Talarico are making their last pushes to mobilize voters across Texas. 

Paxton is rallying base supporters in Houston on Saturday as part of his statewide “Come and Take It” bus tour, emphasizing conservative legal victories and driving turnout. 

Meanwhile, Talarico is in Dallas for a “Texas Together” block walk and GOTV drive, targeting urban and suburban voters to cap off his final push before Tuesday.

CBS News has confirmed that Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign has asked his former primary rival, Rep. Haley Stevens, to stay away from all remaining campaign events in the final days before Tuesday’s election, according to two sources familiar with the matter. 

This development, which was first reported by Politico, follows a public dispute between the two Michigan Democrats, who had been expected to make a rare joint appearance Sunday at a Detroit church alongside SC Rep. Jim Clyburn to help galvanize Black voters to support El-Sayed in his Senate race. 

On Friday, Stevens called on El-Sayed to condemn an outside group’s ad linking US military aid to Israel to rising grocery prices, which she characterized as antisemitic. She also called on El-Sayed to apologize for previous remarks that she said linked US support for Israel to Michigan’s affordability challenges and urged him to remove a campaign ad featuring conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.

El-Sayed’s campaign has said it has no affiliation with the outside ad. In a response Friday night, El-Sayed accused Stevens of attempting to rehash their acrimonious Democratic primary battle, saying she “seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago,” rather than focusing on defeating Republican Mike Rogers.

This comes just days after Stevens’ fiancé, Jason Turkish, publicly announced he would vote for Rogers, despite Stevens reaffirming her support for El-Sayed during a CNN interview. 

Read more here.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries joins Democratic nominee Elaine Luria in Virginia Beach on Saturday, October 31, for a final-weekend Get Out The Vote rally. 

The event marks the final day of early in-person voting in Virginia, with Jeffries rallying base voters in key coastal precincts to boost Democratic turnout in the battleground 2nd Congressional District. 

Days before Election Day, Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa is stepping into the ring for a critical voting bloc in the Lone Star State: Hispanic men.

Hinojosa’s campaign plans to air a 30-second advertisement Saturday during Mexican boxing superstar Canelo Álvarez’s fight against Christian Mbilli, an effort to reach Hispanic voters, especially Latino men, who played a significant role in President Trump’s 2024 victory.

The advertisement is titled “No Te Dejes,” a Spanish expression meaning “Don’t let yourself be pushed around,” and repeats Hinojosa’s central campaign message: “Fight back.”

According to her campaign, the spot contrasts Hinojosa’s proposals to protect public schools, restrict data center expansion and lower taxes with what she argues is three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s prioritization of wealthy donors and large corporations.

Read more here. 

Latino voters in South Texas may play a pivotal role in the midterm elections, spurred by conversations about illegal immigration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations. 

It’s a bloc that swung towards President Trump in the 2024 presidential election. But the key U.S. Senate race between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton remains tight. CBS News’ latest poll shows nearly 60% of Hispanics backing Talarico. Texas has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1998. 

Griselda Vera told CBS News that ICE operations dominate local conversations in Mission, Texas. Some families “aren’t even leaving their homes,” she said, and others “are scared to call the police in case of an emergency.” She thinks that fear might translate to the ballot box. 

“I think that the community is tired of being under attack,” Vera said. “We’re tired of having a foot on our neck.” 

Not everyone agrees. Arturo Salas, a resident of McAllen, Texas, said he supports mass deportations and a border wall. He emphasized the need for law and order. 

“You broke the law. You cannot break the law, brother. You can’t,” Salas said. “Why have a law if it’s gonna be irrelevant?” 

Texas resident Raul Ortiz, who has served in the U.S. Border Patrol for over 30 years, said the past two years are the quietest he’s ever seen the southern border. While he praised the Trump administration for slashing illegal border crossings, he worried that the crackdown has instilled fear among workers critical to the country’s economy. 

“I think Americans want moderation. They want something in the middle,” Ortiz said. “We have an immigrant population out there that is important to our society, and then we also need to recognize that we have some folks in here that don’t belong in this country. We need to figure out how to get them out.” 

Nearly 50 million people have already voted in the 2026 midterm elections, according to data collected by the University of Florida’s Election Lab. 

Over 26,831,000 early voters had filled out their ballots in-person, the lab said. Around 22,863,000 votes came from returned mail ballots. In total, 49,564,545 people had voted early as of Friday evening. 

The voting data does not include information from New Hampshire and Alabama. The states have not reported data to the lab. 

On the evening before Halloween, Democratic Nominee for Texas Senate James Talarico spoke to a crowd that his campaign says consisted of 1,900 people. 

A noticeably coarse-voiced Talarico spoke for roughly 26 minutes on the Wood Stage at Aggie Park on the Texas A&M Campus, amid rainy weather. 

“This election shouldn’t be about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. It’s bigger than that. This election should be about chasing a vision of what this state can be,” Talarico said. “Texas public schools that are the envy of the nation, a Texas economy that is second to none, and Texas families that are stronger and healthier than they’ve ever been before. This won’t happen overnight, but a giant state deserves giant dreams.” 

Talarico was joined by Brazos County Precinct 4 Commissioner Wanda Watson, Texas House 14 Candidate Janet Dudding, Texas State Senate District 5 Candidate Paul Thomasson, Democratic House Candidate Caitlin Rourk (TX-10) and Texas Commissioner Candidate Clayton Tucker.

Cesareo Sifuentes-Roacho contributed reporting. 

A California judge late Friday ordered the federal government to stop demanding that state and local election officials separate out ballots or not count certain votes from alleged noncitizens, and to stop threatening officials with criminal prosecution if they do not comply.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson came in response to a lawsuit filed a day earlier by labor unions and other groups, accusing the Trump administration of intimidating California election workers and interfering in the administration of the midterms.

The Justice Department has pressed officials in California this month to separate out mail ballots for roughly 20,000 people it alleges are not U.S. citizens, and has issued grand jury subpoenas for officials in Los Angeles County — part of a sweeping campaign by the Trump administration. Federal officials have also suggested for months that election workers could be prosecuted if they fail to stop noncitizens from voting.

Read more here.

During his rally in Florida late Friday, near the tail end of a weekslong campaign blitz, President Trump acknowledged that  “28 days of this crap is a lot,” telling the crowd his “voice is … operating at about 49.2%.”

“I thought this was going to be my last one,” he said. “I thought this was it. I thought I could relax.”

Instead, Mr. Trump is planning to visit Iowa and Kansas on Sunday, two states with tight Senate races. He canceled his weekend rallies in both states on Thursday, but announced a day later that they’re back on.

He told the crowd in Daytona Beach that “they called me in Iowa and they called me in Kansas, and they said, ‘Sir, would it be possible to do a little rally of about 50,000 people each?’ And I said, ‘Does it matter?’ They said, ‘We just want to make sure that we win.'”

The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal judge to order Alaska officials to segregate all ballots that rank Daniel J. Sullivan, a Senate candidate with the same first and last name as the GOP incumbent.

The filing came in a civil lawsuit from the Trump administration seeking to block the certification of Alaska’s Senate election if Democrat Mary Peltola wins due to “voter confusion.” Those efforts were amplified this week after The New York Times reported that operatives linked to Peltola’s campaign helped recruit Daniel J. Sullivan — allegations Peltola has denied.

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward wrote Friday afternoon that “there is a substantial risk that Mr. Sullivan’s sham candidacy will mislead voters and ultimately result in an electoral process that lacks integrity.” For that reason, he argued, a preliminary injunction should be issued ordering Alaska to “preserve and segregate all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan for the purposes of investigating whether such ranking was the product of voter confusion, should such an investigation become necessary.”

The federal government is also asking for expedited discovery into Peltola’s campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Woodward asked a judge to rule by Monday.

Alaska election officials opposed the request, arguing the Justice Department’s lawsuit “lacks any merit.” They also said votes are “comingled in the ballot box on Election Day” and therefore can’t be segregated without violating ballot secrecy requirements, and noted that “the ballots (whether segregated or not) will not reveal any voter’s reasons for voting for Daniel J.”

And they said an order to preserve ballots is unnecessary since the state already saves ballots for 22 months.

“The United States’ delay further undermines its request for expedited consideration. It waited until two weeks before Election Day to file a lawsuit about issues that arose months ago,” the state said.

The defendants in the case include Alaska Division of Elections Director Carol Beecher, who previously attempted to keep Daniel J. Sullivan off the ballot. State courts overturned that decision.

President Trump was interrupted by multiple people early in his Florida rally. 

A protester was escorted out at 8:12 pm. Mr. Trump claimed the person was a “paid protester.” Several minutes later, another person interrupted him. 

“What a loser,” he said. “Get him out of here.”

President Trump has taken the stage at a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, as he seeks to boost Republican Senate, House and gubernatorial candidates.

The CBS News data desk has added South Carolina to its list of battleground Senate races, rating it Republican-leaning, as new data and public polls show the contest could be closer than initially expected.

Republican Sen. Darline Graham is running for a full term, after she was appointed to the Senate earlier this year to replace her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham. The Democratic nominee is Annie Andrews.

President Trump won the state by an almost 18-point margin in 2024, and Lindsey Graham won reelection against a well-funded challenger by 10 points in 2020. But recent polling suggests the race could be tight: A New York Times/Siena College poll released Wednesday showed a tied race.

Mr. Trump has campaigned heavily for Darline Graham, holding a rally in South Carolina on Thursday.

CBS News is now tracking a total of 11 Senate battlegrounds. 

Five states are rated toss-ups (Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Texas and Alaska), three lean toward Republicans (Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina) and three lean toward Democrats (Georgia, North Carolina and New Hampshire).

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate, hit back at Rep. Haley Stevens, whom he defeated in the primary, after she demanded an apology for comments he made about Israel.

The dispute between the former Democratic rivals comes two days before they are expected to appear at an event in Detroit with Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina — marking one of their only joint appearances since the contentious primary.

In a statement Friday night, El-Sayed says his former rival “seems intent on relitigating a primary that ended three months ago” instead of focusing on beating the Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers and addressing Michiganders’ cost of living concerns. 

Stevens said in an earlier statement Friday she planned to appear with El-Sayed on the campaign trail, but she expected him to apologize for comments about Israel and condemn an ad from an outside PAC that she said was antisemitic. She also wanted El-Sayed to take down his own ad featuring Tucker Carlson. 

“Abdul promises to get money out of politics,” she said. “He can begin by getting Israel out of his explanation for everything Michigan cannot afford.”

Read more here.

Speaking about her closing message to voters, GOP Sen. Susan Collins said, “My final message to the people of Maine is to think about who can do more for Maine.”

“If I am fortunate enough to be reelected, I will be fifth in seniority among the 100 senators. My opponent [Democrat Troy Jackson] would be either 100 or 99,” she said while campaigning in Milo, Maine. 

“And the fact is that seniority, relationships, knowledge and experience all really count in the Senate. They’re the key to whether or not you’re effective,” she continued. “It has been 92 years since a Maine senator was chair of the Appropriations Committee. I feel that I’ve had a once-in-a-century opportunity to really deliver for Maine and for America.”

Collins, who is seeking a sixth term in a blue-leaning state, has made her role atop the Senate Appropriations Committee central to her campaign, touting the federal funds that she has helped secure for projects in Maine.

The Justice Department’s top prosecutor in Alaska called new reporting about the origins of an independent candidate’s Senate campaign “troubling,” and said the new information “has resulted in a significant surge of law enforcement assets” to the state. 

But Michael Heyman, the U.S. attorney for the District of Alaska, declined to detail what specific crimes are being investigated as Daniel J. Sullivan, a candidate with the same first and last name as the Republican incumbent senator, Dan Sullivan, is set to appear on the ballot Tuesday. Heyman said he’s “not making any assumptions on whether a crime has been committed or not.”

“That’s what we do, is we investigate whether a crime has been committed under several theories, so I’m not going to comment on what those theories are, and I’m also not going to put the cart before the horse,” he said.

Read more here.

President Trump hedged his bets Friday when he talked about the midterms in the Oval Office. 

“Tuesday, we’re going to see how it all works out,” he told reporters. “I think we’re doing well. Typically, a president, whether he’s good or bad, Republican or Democrat, loses the midterms. Nobody’s ever explained why. But I think we have a shot at doing well, maybe very well, but you know, pretty well.”

Speaking in the Oval Office with Stephen Hubbard, an American who was recently freed from a Russian prison, the president addressed the back and forth over whether he would hold in-person rallies in Kansas and Iowa. 

“I wanted to see if I could do tele-rallies, because I’m very successful with — we’re batting unbelievable at tele-rallies. 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,” Mr. Trump said.

“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 Darlene [Graham] in South Carolina. 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.”

The president said he would travel to Iowa first and then to Kansas.

“Monday is going to be exciting. But Sunday is going to be a very exciting day,” he said. “And then Tuesday, we’re going to see how it all works out. I think we’re doing well.”

Petersburg, Alaska — Daniel J. Sullivan, the independent candidate running for Senate in Alaska whose name is almost identical to the Republican senator running for reelection, left his hometown of Petersburg earlier this week, multiple sources confirmed to CBS News.

One resident and former student of Sullivan’s said she saw Sullivan on a flight to Anchorage on Monday — two days before The New York Times first reported that he was recruited by operatives linked to Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign. The source added she did not know where Sullivan was headed, but another friend said he and his wife are known among friends as “world travelers.” 

Dozens of Petersburg residents also told CBS News they never saw or received any campaign materials like mailers, flyers, brochures or signs since the former elementary school teacher announced his candidacy last spring.

“I don’t think it’s a serious candidacy,” said Andrew Worhatch, a Petersburg fisherman. “I haven’t seen a platform.”

Read more here.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected the Justice Department’s request for California to set aside disputed ballots received in the midterm election.

The panel’s 2-1 ruling is the latest setback for the Trump administration’s efforts to assert control over state-run elections.

The administration has alleged California sent ballots to some 20,000 people who may not be U.S. citizens. It wants the state to set those ballots aside and not count them until citizenship can be verified. California officials say the list is highly unreliable and likely includes many people who are U.S. citizens.

A district court judge already forcefully denied that request and warned that the Justice Department’s demands could disenfranchise citizens.

“As the district court found — and we discern no clear error — there is no feasible way to identify and segregate the ballots of specific individuals without potentially catastrophic effects on the entire system,” the appeals court wrote.

The Justice Department said in a court filing on Friday that it sent letters to all 50 states reminding them of their obligation to preserve election records for 22 months after an election. 

The disclosure came in a filing in a suit brought by Democratic groups and officials over the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure states to remove alleged ineligible voters from their rolls. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., is overseeing the case. The judge had directed the DOJ and DHS after a hearing on Thursday to identify states where federal officials had sent communications since July 1, 2026. 

The administration told the judge that federal agencies contacted election officials in five states about voters they identified as potentially ineligible. 

The lawsuit, filed Oct. 20, was brought by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Democratic Governors Association, Nevada State Democratic Party, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and a California voter.

The government confirmed it sent communications to California, Nevada, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Washington. (DHS contacted California, Nevada, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, while the Justice Department contacted California and Washington.) 

The government said the July 16 letters to California, Nevada and Pennsylvania did not demand that states remove voters, withhold ballots or segregate ballots, but asked state officials to work with DHS to verify whether individuals identified through a preliminary analysis were noncitizens.

In the final days of her campaign, incumbent Sen. Susan Collins is focusing on bolstering support in the northern, more rural part of Maine through smaller-scale stops highlighting projects and developments she helped secure for local communities.

On Friday morning in Greenville, a town of about 1,400 year-round residents on the southern tip of Moosehead Lake in Piscataquis County, Collins attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a new childcare facility at Greenville Consolidated School. The facility will accommodate more than 60 children and include a new town recreation and fitness center.

During brief remarks ahead of the groundbreaking, Collins spoke about her role in advancing the project and the impact the new facility will have on the community.

“I worked hard to secure more than $1.5 million in federal funding to advance this project because I am so confident that it will produce a great return in terms of quality of life,” Collins said. “Quality child care helps children be ready for school as active and engaged learners. It promotes economic development by enabling parents to work, further their education and increase their own skills, knowing that their children are in a safe and happy environment. This supports the businesses that are already here, and it helps the region attract even more employers.”

Collins did not take questions at the event. 

Election Day is fast approaching, and many candidates for office are busy doing everything they can to convince any remaining undecided voters.

And then there are Democrats running in New York City Districts 7 and 13, areas so blue that candidates for Congress don’t need to campaign at all. 

Darializa Avila Chevalier is running in the 13th District. Claire Valdez is running in the 7th District. They’re both members of Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA. 

“We’re still encouraging folks to go out. Early voting has already started. Election Day is Nov. 3,” Avila Chevalier said.

The district she’s running in covers parts of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx. Valdez’s district covers parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Both are viewed by election analysts as safely Democratic. 

The inevitability of their victories doesn’t make them any less notable, since they’re both DSA members, along with Mayor Zohran Mamdani. 

Mamdani’s endorsement of both of them was the key to their primary victories over more experienced, non-DSA opponents, according to political expert and law professor J.C. Polanco. So does that make Mamdani the most powerful politician in Washington who doesn’t work out of Washington?

Read more from CBS News New York here.

Supporters of Democratic Senate nominee Mary Peltola in Juneau, Alaska, told CBS News they still support her bid. 

Peltola is facing intense criticism over a New York Times report that operatives aligned with her campaign were involved in the Dan Sullivan recruitment effort. Peltola has denied any involvement or knowledge of the scheme.

Democrat Bob Coghill said he thinks the controversy could hurt Peltola with late deciders. 

“I do think it will hurt her chances,” Coghill said. “I think there are people that will see this as something just a little too clever, a little too untoward, and it’s going to hurt some votes of the people who — particularly the last-minute voters.”

Carter Bancroft, an independent voter heading to vote early for Peltola, said he disliked the political gamesmanship, but questioned the push to prosecute Peltola.

“Seems like a mess,” Bancroft said. “Seems to me possible, probable, that he is in this race to confuse things.”

He added: “I don’t like the shenanigans that go on on both sides, gerrymandering in a variety of ways, that it seems like politicians stump more on confusing people, in many ways, than they do on actual issues. I feel like that’s possible here, and I don’t like that. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem — it may be tasteless if that’s true, but it’s not criminal.”

Democrat Leah Haskell-Cummins called the allegations against Peltola “ridiculous” and “fearmongering.” She said the ballot clearly distinguished between the two Dan Sullivans, making voter confusion unlikely.

A coalition of labor unions and civil rights organizations — including the Service Employees International Union; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the NAACP; and the League of United Latin American Citizens — have sued the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security, alleging that federal officials are unlawfully intimidating California election workers and interfering with the administration of the midterm elections.

The 46-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California on Thursday, accuses the Trump administration of using subpoenas, threats of criminal prosecution and demands involving voter eligibility to pressure state and local election officials. Plaintiffs argue that the actions exceed federal authority and threaten the lawful processing and counting of ballots.

The groups are seeking a court order barring federal officials from threatening election workers or improperly interfering with ballot processing. 

President Trump will hold rallies in Iowa and Kansas on Sunday, reversing course on plans to cancel the events and hold tele-rallies instead.

A source familiar with the plans told CBS News the rallies “were rearranged for scheduling purposes to accommodate dozens of additional tele-rallies that were recently added to the President’s schedule.”

Mr. Trump bristled on Thursday when a reporter asked whether he had canceled the Kansas rally because he is “sick of travel.”

“You’re sick to ask that question. You are sick,” Mr. Trump said. 

“I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas. … You’ve been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect. You are disgusting. Put yourself in shape. You look like hell,” he added.

GOP candidates in Iowa and Kansas are in close races for the Senate. Mr. Trump was in Iowa last week and held a rally in Kansas on Oct. 19. 

Speaking to KCMO radio in Kansas, President Trump said voters need a “190 IQ” to understand the ballot in Alaska, and said people don’t know what the word “incumbent” means. 

Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan is on the ballot, but so is Daniel J. Sullivan. Democratic candidate Mary Peltola has come under scrutiny after a New York Times report that operatives aligned with her campaign sought out a candidate named “Dan Sullivan” to add to the ballot and peel voters away from the incumbent senator. 

“You need about 190 IQ to figure out the ballot,” the president told KCMO. “They put a ballot down where they’re talking about the incumbent Republican, and the other one. Most people don’t know in Alaska, in a lot of other states too, what does incumbent mean? They don’t know what incumbent means.”

The sitting senator Sullivan has “Incumbent” and “Registered Republican” next to his name on the ballot, while Daniel J. Sullivan’s name stands alone:

Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, submitted a mail ballot for the midterm elections in Illinois, the Vatican said Friday.

“Pope Leo XIV has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so. The Holy See Press Office confirms that in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago,” the press office said in a statement.

The statement said Leo also voted while living in Peru, where he served as a missionary priest and bishop for years.

“The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes,” the Vatican said.

Read more here.

In an interview with Kansas City’s KCMO radio Friday morning, President Trump said he “would imagine” incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall is in “good shape” in the race against Democrat Adam Hamilton. A scheduled Trump rally in Kansas this weekend was abruptly canceled, replaced by tele-rallies. An Iowa rally was also canceled. 

“I just want to make sure he’s in good shape,” the president told KCMO. “I would imagine he would be, but, just, nobody does more for the farmers as a group. But this man is respected by everybody in Washington. … And when Kansas needs something, I will tell you, he will call me a lot. Sometimes I say, ‘Roger, just relax.’ We’ll take care of it. He’s a great guy.”

On Thursday, the president said the Kansas rally was canceled because Marshall is “doing very well.”

The Senate race in Kansas is unexpectedly tight, given that Mr. Trump won the state by 16 points in 2024.  

Why Pennsylvania could be one of last states to count ballots this Election Day

With four days until Election Day, Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and city commissioners are urging people to vote.

Officials on Thursday escorted the media through a warehouse in Northeast Philly known as Philadelphia Election Headquarters. Every ballot placed in the city, whether in person or by mail, ends up at the warehouse to be counted on Election Day.

As mail-in ballots are returned, they are first sorted by a huge machine that separates the envelopes by ward and division.

Then, they are stored securely behind locked cages and won’t be touched until Tuesday.

Unlike most states, Pennsylvania doesn’t allow workers to start processing mail-in ballots until Election Day.

Then, starting at 7 a.m., workers use heavy-duty machines known as extractors to open the envelopes, but a person has to physically remove the ballot. From there, election workers sit at long tables and flatten the ballots before they are scanned and counted.

Read more here.

Vice President JD Vance had been scheduled to be in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Friday for a press conference on fraud, but the trip has been canceled, according to a source familiar with the visit. 

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.

Read more here.

Voting in the midterms is already well underway, with 44.8 million Americans already casting ballots as of Thursday evening, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.

That includes nearly 23.6 million in-person early votes and 21.3 million returned mail ballots.