President has hit red states to drum up Republican support – and his increasingly strange performances are on full display
Montana, Tennessee, Alaska. In the run-up to an election, a Republican president typically wouldn’t be campaigning in these traditionally red states.
These aren’t normal times, however, and Donald Trump, an unpopular president leading an unpopular party, has held rallies in those states in the last week, seeking to drum up support. But a series of eccentric performances from the president means his behavior has been the focus, rather than any of the candidates he is backing.
In Maine, Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee for US Senate, and Susan Collins, the five-term Republican incumbent traded barbs on Thursday in their final debate ahead of the November midterms.
This was the fourth showdown between the pair. Collins has tried to cast Jackson as an inexperienced state lawmaker, and attempted to yoke him to the former nominee, Graham Platner, who dropped out of the race earlier this year following allegations of rape and sexual assault (which he still denies). Meanwhile, Jackson accused his opponent of corruption, and castigated her for her “moderate” persona in Congress.
Rising costs and threatened healthcare benefits are testing voters’ loyalty to Trump as Democrat Randy Villegas challenges David Valadao
Vanessa Martinez used to work two jobs to make ends meet. Now she works three.
In another era, the 26-year-old from California’s hardscrabble Central valley could have been a poster child for the American Dream, the sort of ambitious, up-by-her-bootstraps personality that politicians of both major parties like to highlight.
It’s indisputable that the political polarization of our time has reduced (and confused) the influence of economic conditions on US elections.
In September of 2024, in the waning weeks of the Joe Biden presidency, 65% of Republicans believed the US economy was getting worse. About six months later, as Donald Trump launched a trade war on the rest of the world with his “liberation day” tariffs, the share of Republican pessimists had dropped to 33%.
While presidents of both parties have long rewarded donors and allies with plum ambassadorships, Trump has chosen loyalists willing to go to bat for him regardless of the implications for US-foreign relationships.
Claims that James Talarico suffered a mental health crisis spread across rightwing media, offering a warning about disinformation ahead of the US midterm election
Where is James Talarico? The question ricocheted around rightwing echo chambers before metastasising into a conspiracy theory – and a reminder of the persistent danger of disinformation in the US midterm elections.
The smear campaign began when Talarico, the Democratic candidate for the US Senate in Texas, was not seen in public for nine days. His campaign was slow to explain why. While nature abhors a vacuum, Donald Trump and social media seize on one and weaponise it.
As the midterm elections loom, Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone travel to rural West Virginia, a Republican party stronghold, to explore how soaring gas prices, war in the Middle East and datacenter expansion are affecting Donald Trump's popularity among his base. Although the state remains staunchly Republican, there are signs of a new politics emerging – and local Democrats are looking to capitalize on it
Talarico casts himself as a moderate who would put Texans’ needs over party allegiances amid close contest against Republican Ken Paxton
James Talarico, the Texas Democratic nominee for Senate, sat face to face with skeptical Republicans and independents voters who grilled him on a slew of contentious issues including Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, abortion and foreign aid, during a CNN town hall co-hosted by the Jubilee Media digital platform on Wednesday.
One voter, a young Republican activist who volunteered at the party’s midterm convention in Dallas last month and recently appeared on Fox News as a supporter of Talarico’s opponent, questioned the authenticity of Talarico’s faith, referencing a past remark where he described God as nonbinary.
Texas AG and US Senate hopeful announced inquiry into alleged conspiracy between pediatricians, vaccine makers and insurance firms
Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas and the Republican candidate for the US Senate, is aligning himself with the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement by investigating pediatricians for giving vaccines – actions that could further restrict access to vaccines as deadly outbreaks unfold.
Paxton announced he would investigate an alleged conspiracy between pediatricians, vaccine makers and insurance companies in January, and at least one Texas pediatrician now says she is under investigation. Paxton linked his efforts to a campaign against vaccines from Donald Trump and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and directly referenced the Maha movement in his announcement. The president endorsed Paxton’s Senate run in May.
Recent polls show that American voters across the political spectrum are deeply dissatisfied with the Trump administration, and the upcoming midterm elections will provide them an opportunity to express how they feel. The Guardian's reporter Fabiola Cineas breaks down the four key issues that will drive voters to the polls
Donald Trump has yet to weigh in on the late night ruling from a federal judge that blocks him from barring CNN, MS Now and Politico access to the White House grounds.
Previously, the president had blasted Judge Timothy Kelly – a Trump appointee – for issuing a temporary pause on his media ban. That expired on Tuesday, and Kelly handed down a preliminary injunction that stops the administration from blocking the outlets while the litigation plays out.
Sabrina German, a poll official in Chatham county, details a typical election day, the pressure election workers face, and fallout from 2020 disputes
It’s not that Sabrina German doesn’t have political views. But as the director of voter registration for Chatham county, Georgia, talking politics is like breakdancing in traffic. “I don’t talk politics with anyone,” says German; she knows better.
America’s partisan minefield has trained much of the country – aside from that one uncle you avoid at weddings and funerals – to get pretty good at the art of political diplomacy in polite company.
The one I worry about most is voter anger – which both parties are not taking seriously enough
That chill in the air you are feeling is not the weather, it is the Republicans freaking out about the 2026 midterm elections. Midterms are always referendums on the incumbent, though the party in power usually would rather they weren’t.
This midterm feels less like a referendum on Trumpism than a dirge. It’s easy to see how Republicans got here, lulled into thinking that their guy, Donald Trump, could once again defy political gravity. Trump certainly thought he could.
Molly Jong-Fast is the host of the Fast Politics pod, contributing writer for the times and an analyst for MS Now
In this episode of Guardian Australia’s US politics podcast, co-hosts Reged Ahmad and Jonathan Yerushalmy take a look at the midterms, which are coming up in early November. All 435 house seats are up in this election as representatives only serve fixed two-year terms. In the Senate, 35 of 100 seats are up for grabs too, as senators serve six-year terms.
There are many predictions of a blue wave – a big win for the Democrats, who are tipped to take back the House and Senate. But are pollsters being too optimistic? What are the factors that could instead allow the Republican party and the Trump administration to hold onto power in Congress? They also look at why the US ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, has been ousted from her job – and whether criticism of the new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, is fair
Republican senator Dan S Sullivan is vying for re-election against Democrat Mary Peltola – and another candidate called Dan J Sullivan
Donald Trump has encouraged Alaskans to vote for the “real” Dan Sullivan, as he sought a breakthrough for the Republican incumbent senator in a tightly fought Senate race complicated by a rival candidate with a near-identical name.
Sullivan’s re-election campaign this year against Democrat Mary Peltola, a former US House lawmaker, has turned into one of the most hotly contested battles of the midterm elections, in which Democrats are hoping to seize back control of Congress and hamper Trump for the final two years of his presidency.
Elon Musk has become the biggest political donor of the 2026 US midterm elections cycle, funneling about $366m into political groups and campaigns as he backs conservative candidates and rightwing causes. The world’s richest person has poured more than $276m into politics since July alone, some of the most rapid political spending in US history. He’s targeting key races that will determine which party controls the US Senate.
The New York Times first reported the spending numbers, which will be released in a federal filing on Thursday. Musk’s spending outpaces his 2024 presidential election contributions, in which he sunk nearly $300m into Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
The Maga member believes the 2020 election was stolen and seemingly her new boss is saving the world from a cabal of satanic paedophiles. She’ll fit right in then
Poor Donald Trump. His (third) wife seemingly can’t bear to be near him and his (fifth) press secretary recently abandoned him to be with a baby she had only recently met.
“She decided she loved her children more than she loved Donald Trump,” the president lamented in August when Karoline Leavitt decided to step down a few months after giving birth. “I’m very upset about this. She has to go home and spend time with her children. That does happen on occasion with some people – when they love their children.”
Trump’s reform law that seeks to make coverage harder to get, and to keep, includes working 80 hours a month
It is a date keeping US healthcare providers up at night: 1 January 2027.
As the midterm elections loom, everyone from hospital leaders and to patient advocates are focused on the New Year, when Republicans scheduled the most controversial elements of their healthcare reform law to go into effect.
Though Democrats have a strong edge heading into the midterms, some races have openings for Republicans
While marquee races from Maine to Michigan get all the attention, and draw in a ton of money, a significant batch of lower-profile contests across the US could result in upsets.
Democrats have a strong edge heading into November’s US midterm elections, polls show. In recent days, election prognosticators have shifted even more races in favor of Democrats.
Gwinnett county is home to many immigrants and other newcomers, and how it votes could be decisive for Congress
Johanna Park might just be an ambassador for Gwinnett county, Georgia, one of the 10 most ethnically diverse counties in the United States.
Park owns Cafe Amico at Suwanee Town Center, one of her three Italian coffee shops in the area just north of Atlanta. She was born in Korea and lived much of her life in Argentina and Peru. She’s been in Gwinnett for more than 20 years, part of an early wave of Korean immigration that’s built Korean American car dealerships, banks, insurance agencies, supermarkets and restaurants like her own. It’s also a population that’s increasing in influence and not just numbers.
Roger Marshall says he has ‘no idea how this happened’ and repaid bill double for 2020 election watch party treats
The Republican US senator Roger Marshall says he has finally paid off a bakery debt – after six years and repeated collection attempts reported by a Kansas business that had supplied a large order of treats for a 2020 election watch party.
“We have absolutely no idea how this happened”, the Kansas senator wrote in a social media post containing a screenshot of the payment on a $678.75 invoice from Holly’s Sweet Treats as well as his $1,300 payment. “And we have repaid the bill … double.”
Comments were among the most direct overtures by Trump to woo Democratic senator into his Republican party
Donald Trump on Saturday openly encouraged Democratic US senator John Fetterman to switch parties and become a Republican just weeks before the federal midterm elections could reshape control of Congress.
“I’d love to see him as a Republican,” the presidents told reporters at Joint Base Andrews as he returned to Washington DC from a rally in Tennessee. “He does better as a Republican than he does as a Democrat.”
Republican Christopher Paul is running unopposed for seat despite allegations he raped two girls 20 years ago
A candidate for police chief in a small Louisiana town candidate is on course to be elected unopposed despite two charges of child rape pending against him, leaving his community to weigh whether to convert the position into an appointed office rather than one determined at the ballot box.
Christopher Paul, a Republican who on 6 August signed up to run for chief of police in the south-western Louisiana village of Elizabeth, was arrested on 8 September on allegations that he raped two girls in 2005 and 2006.
Dr Annie Andrews voices opposition to ‘biological men … in women’s sports’ in response to Republican attacks
Dr Annie Andrews, a Democratic Senate candidate in South Carolina, has responded to persistent efforts by Republicans to make trans athletes in women’s sports a wedge issue in the race.
In a restrained direct-to-camera statement, Andrews – a pediatrician – outlined her opposition to “biological men playing in women’s sports”, as her party pushes back against Republican attacks.
The most valuable education I received for becoming a political editor was growing up in Florida. During the entirety of the 18 years I lived there, it was a purple state that voted for Barack Obama twice, and while I would not say my community was diverse, the spectrum of political ideology was vast. I had a close friend who kept a life-sized cutout of George W Bush in her bedroom, and another who helped organize Amnesty International fundraisers against landmines. When the state turned deeply Republican in 2016, and remained that way, I continued to harbor a suspicion that it wasn’t the whole story.
Even so, nothing could prepare me for the sheer surprise when Angie Nixon – the state legislator who joined the Democratic Socialists of America running against Alex Vindman, a centrist with national name recognition – won the Democratic primary for Senate in Florida. That shock has continued in the months after, as we see the Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly running neck-and-neck with Republican Byron Donalds, who seemed like a shoo-in just weeks ago. And while Nixon is polling behind her Republican opponent, Ashley Moody, the race is much closer than anyone following Florida politics expected. So much so that the senior progressive senator Bernie Sanders has newly poured millions of dollars from his campaign funds into the state, and the popular congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went to campaign with Nixon last month.
Here in Michigan, we know that Canada is not our enemy. We need to end this tariff war now.
Candidates traded personal attacks and clashed over a range of issues in closely watched US Senate debates on Thursday, with control of Congress at stake
With just weeks left in the contentious midterm election campaign, candidates in a trio of highly-competitive Senate races debated Thursday night, clashing over the economy, tariffs, the Iran war and abortion rights, with control of the upper chamber at stake.
In Georgia, incumbent Democratic senator Jon Ossoff faced GOP representative Mike Collins. In Michigan, Democrat Abdul Al-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers debated over the state’s open Senate seat. And in Maine, longtime senator Susan Collins met Democratic challenger Troy Jackson. Democrats need to flip four Republican-held Senate seats to win the majority.
Cassidy Hutchinson told panel she had been told Trump lunged for wheel of SUV to try to join mob at Capitol
Prosecutors in the justice department’s civil rights division are seeking criminal charges against Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top Trump White House aide who gave explosive testimony to the committee that investigated the US attack on the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The potential charges involve lying to Congress, the person said.
Donald Trump’s latest campaign rally in San Antonio, Texas, was rocked by repeated protests as the US president urged Texas voters to back the embattled Senate candidate Ken Paxton. At least half a dozen demonstrators interrupted the US president during his speech, with some led away by police. One was physically assaulted by a Trump supporter as he tried to leave the arena. The Republican campaign to maintain control of the Senate has become increasingly focused on Texas, where the Democrat James Talarico has emerged as a serious threat
Donald Trump has urged James Talarico, the Democratic nominee in the US Senate race in Texas, to debate Ken Paxton – Republican attorney general that the president has endorsed in the election.
On Truth Social, Trump described Paxton as “ready, willing, and able” to take on Talarico – the 37-year-old state representative who has been leading in several polls.
In Georgia, Jon Ossoff, the Democratic incumbent will face off against Mike Collins – a congressman and the Trump-backed Republican nominee at 7pm ET.
At the same time in Michigan, progressive insurgent Abdul El-Sayed, will debate Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee also endorsed by the president.
Finally, it’s the second debate in Maine in as many days. Susan Collins, the five-term Republican incumbent will spar (again) with the Democratic nominee, Troy Jackson, at 8pm ET.
Having seemingly written off the midterms, the Republican bigwigs are making their pitches for 2028. But the current commander-in-chief could be looking closer to home
The US midterm elections are a month away and it’s looking rough for the Republicans. I wouldn’t discount devious schemes behind the scenes, but, on the face of it, the president and his entourage seem to be flailing. Donald Trump is desperately dangling money in front of voters and promising “a big surprise”. Meanwhile, the vice-president, JD Vance, and the GOP senator Ted Cruz seem more concerned with fighting over who will be Trump’s heir than with the midterms.
If the polls are to be believed, Vance is the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028. But while he may have great name recognition, Vance is also unlikable. According to the CNN analyst Harry Enten, he is one of the least popular vice-presidents in history. He’s also apparently made enemies within his own party, largely because of his scepticism about the Iran war. His detractors include Cruz, who told MS Now in August that Vance wasn’t a shoo-in for the nomination. The party, Cruz said, was still figuring out the best candidate and needed “to decide who we are, what do we believe”.
These graphics explain what the Democrats would need to do to flip the Senate and House of Representatives
A turning point in Donald Trump’s second term will soon arrive. On 3 November, voters across the US will decide whether to keep the president’s Republican allies in control of Congress, or return Democrats to the majority.
Many indicators of voter sentiment suggest the Democrats are favored to take back control of the House of Representatives, and potentially the Senate. Winning either would be a significant victory for the party and give it the power to block Trump’s legislative agenda and more aggressively investigate his administration.
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