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Updates
(69)Key developments
• Red state events canceled: President Donald Trump will no longer headline a rally Sunday in Iowa, sources told CNN. He also scrapped plans for a Saturday event in Kansas and is instead planning as many as 20 telerallies, officials said. Meanwhile, some GOP officials have expressed relief at the canceled rallies. “He hasn’t moved the needle anywhere,” one told CNN.
• Alaskans weigh in: Several voters in Anchorage told CNN the state’s Senate race controversy is not influencing who they are voting for. The Justice Department had refiled a lawsuit seeking to block the potential results as it conducts a criminal probe into whether state Democrats sought to confuse voters.
• Democrats’ hopes soar: The forecaster “Inside Elections” has shifted 63 races in Democrats’ favor this week. Optimism is rising within the party that it can seize a Senate majority, and new CNN polling shows Democratic candidates leading in Michigan and Texas.
Trump cancels red state events on weekend before midterms. Here's the latest campaign news
President Donald Trump has scrapped plans for weekend rallies in red states Iowa and Kansas. He’s instead planning as many as 20 telerallies in a strategy shift days ahead of the midterm elections.
For now, the only in-person event Trump has planned is a rally in Florida on Friday.
More on this and other headlines:
- Trump lashes out: The president said his decision to scrap the Kansas event had nothing to do with the GOP candidate’s electoral prospects or his own stamina, berating a reporter who asked about his health. Some top Republican officials quietly expressed relief. “He hasn’t moved the needle anywhere,” one said.
- Alaska Senate race: State officials said that a judge should reject the Justice Department’s attempt to seize on the new revelations about the recruitment of a spoiler candidate in its Senate race. The DOJ has accelerated a criminal probe into whether Alaska Democrats sought to confuse voters, issuing dozens of new grand jury subpoenas and homing in on new potential charges, according to sources. Several residents in Anchorage told CNN the controversy is not influencing who they are voting for.
- Robocall push: Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico responded to a recent push of AI-powered robocalls attacking his campaign, saying it is “pretty rich that they are using AI bots to attack me over data centers.” Talarico said he has criticized data centers that don’t “meet the demands of the people who live in these communities.”
- Incendiary ad goes offline: The campaign of Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, is no longer running a controversial ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent Amy Acton. “It ran to completion, and we put up four other ads,” the Columbus Dispatch reported Ramaswamy as saying.
- DOJ appeals ruling again: For a second time in a week, the Justice Department launched an emergency appeal of its case seeking to segregate ballots in California, based on a controversial list of 20,000 supposed noncitizens assembled by the Trump administration. It also issued federal grand jury subpoenas to local election officials.
CNN’s Gabe Cohen, Kylie Atwood, Patrick Svitek, Alayna Treene, Kevin Liptak, Tierney Sneed, Jeff Zeleny, Hannah Rabinowitz, Jeff Zeleny, Isa Mudannayake, Alejandra Jaramillo, Kaitlan Collins, Molly English, Ed Lavandera, Ashley Killough, Taylor Romine and Christian Sierra contributed reporting.
Highlights from today's campaign events
With less than a week before Election Day, Republicans and Democrats are racing to reach voters. Here’s what some high-profile politicians said at their Thursday events:
President Donald Trump rallied in South Carolina.
- On Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed: Trump dubbed Black and Jewish voters supporting El-Sayed “crazy,” adding to a cacophony of attacks on the candidate related to his Muslim faith.
- On polling: Trump slammed recent polling as “totally phony,” asking how many of his supporters had been polled.
Vice President JD Vance appeared in a Fox News town hall in Texas.
- On $5K check promise: Vance defended Trump’s promise to give $5,000 to every US adult if they elect GOP congressional majorities, and claimed they would be different from the stimulus checks handed out under former president Joe Biden.
- On Trump’s “ass” comments: Vance said it’s an example of a politician not “taking himself so seriously.” Trump has commented on Ohio Sen. Jon Husted’s derrière repeatedly.
- An “exception” among GOP: Vance said he’s an “exception” within a Republican Party that’s not paying enough attention to young people’s affordability issues. He blamed illegal immigration and investors buying up homes for high prices.
- On immigration: Vance argued that Democrats El-Sayed and James Talarico “reject the idea of assimilation.” He added: “This is why we have the immigration policy that we do.”
El-Sayed spoke at a rally in Kalamazoo.
- On criticism of his Muslim faith: El-Sayed spent a good chunk of time attacking Trump but tried to bring the focus back to affordability. “My name and my faith are not the reason you can’t afford your groceries,” he said.
- On joint appearance with former rival: El-Sayed brushed aside questions about why it has taken him so long to invite his Democratic primary rival, Rep. Haley Stevens, to join him on the campaign trail. They are set to make a rare joint appearance on Sunday after reports of tensions.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris was in Atlanta, Georgia for back-to-back events.
- Criticism of Trump administration: Harris said the administration was “lining their pockets on the backs of working people of America” and that it showed “a level of cruelty like we have never seen and a level of hypocrisy.” Her comments parallel that of former president Barack Obama, who earlier blasted Trump for years of “chaos, and cruelty, and corruption.”
CNN’s Jeff Zeleny, Patrick Svitek, Alejandra Jaramillo, Kaitlan Collins, Molly English, Christian Sierra, Tierney Sneed, Tori B. Powell and Taylor Romine contributed reporting.
Alaska tells court new revelations about Sullivan recruitment are irrelevant to DOJ suit
Alaska officials said that a judge should the reject the Justice Department’s attempt to seize on the new revelations about the recruitment of a spoiler candidate in the state’s Senate race, arguing Thursday the Trump administration’s revamped lawsuit seeking to potentially block certification suffers the same flaws as its original complaint.
Alaska said that “even assuming the worst” about the “motives” of Daniel J. Sullivan, a candidate who has the same name as the GOP incumbent, the Justice Department established no legal right for a federal court to intervene.
“Nor does Daniel J. wanting to confuse voters say anything about whether he will succeed in doing so,” Alaska said in the Thursday court filing, noting the steps election officials took to distinguish Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan from Daniel J. Sullivan in how they were identified on the ballot.
The Alaska officials noted that even in the reworked lawsuit, the DOJ had not provided any evidence of voters casting ballots for the wrong Sullivans.
They accused the DOJ of “gamesmanship” in filing the amended complaint, which restarted a round of briefing over whether the case should be thrown out. They’re asking Judge Sharon Gleason to keep case’s timeline on track for her to rule by Monday
“This will ensure that Alaskans heading to the ballot box (as well as those who have already voted) have confidence that their votes will count and the U.S. Senate election result will be timely certified free from unlawful interference by the United States,” they wrote.
Vance says Trump's $5K payments would be different from Biden stimulus checks
Vice President JD Vance defended President Donald Trump’s promise to give $5,000 to every US adult if they elect GOP congressional majorities — a proposal that’s faced some criticism on the right, including for its price tag and potential to exacerbate inflationary pressures.
During a Fox News town hall on Thursday, a member of the audience pressed Vance on how those $5,000 checks would be different from stimulus money handed out under former President Joe Biden — whom, the questioner noted, the Trump administration has routinely blamed for inflation.
“First of all, what we’re talking doing is not green energy boondoggles. What the president has said is that Americans ought to be able to keep more of their money,” Vance said.
“So I think it’s much different to tell Americans you can keep more of your own tax dollars than we’re going to give billions and billions of dollars to a green energy scam that’s going to drive up prices, bankrupt a lot of people and fundamentally not actually help that many Americans, if any at all,” he added.
El-Sayed brushes off question about upcoming event with Stevens amid reported tensions
Abdul El-Sayed brushed aside questions tonight about why it has taken him so long to invite his Democratic primary rival, Rep. Haley Stevens, to join him on the campaign trail in hopes of trying to “unify the party.”
When pressed why the two haven’t spoken or campaigned together, the Michigan Senate candidate grew testy.
El-Sayed and Stevens will campaign together Sunday in Detroit, a campaign spokesperson confirmed Thursday. The Democrats’ joint appearance will be the first in recent months after reports of tensions between them.
Vance claims El-Sayed and Talarico "reject the idea of assimilation"
Vice President JD Vance argued that two Democratic Senate candidates — Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and James Talarico in Texas — “reject the idea of assimilation” as he tried to make the case for their Republican opponents.
“When I talk about Democrats being so weird these days, Abdul El-Sayed, James Talarico, the various people who are running all over the country, is they actually reject the idea of assimilation,” Vance said at a Fox News town hall taped in Texas earlier Thursday.
Vance went on to recount a story about taking one of his kids to the emergency room a couple years ago and encountering several translators for different languages.
“How about if everybody spoke English and we could hire more doctors and less translators?” Vance said, to applause from the audience at the town hall.
“I’ll just say: This is why we have the immigration policy that we do. And this is why — Mike Rogers in Michigan and Ken Paxton in Texas — support these guys, support that immigration policy that protects American identity,” Vance continued.
El-Sayed says his name and faith "are not the reason you can’t afford your groceries”
During a campaign rally, Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed addressed comments from his opponents criticizing his faith, saying, “Let me just tell you, I am Muslim.”
As Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed spends his last days on the campaign trail, he used Thursday night’s rally to address comments from his opponents criticizing his faith, saying, “let me just tell you, I am Muslim.”
“And I’m an American who believes in the Constitution, and that that shouldn’t matter, because it doesn’t matter how you pray or if you pray at all,” El-Sayed said during a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan. “We all believe in an America big enough for all of us, unless of course you are the president or vice president.”
El-Sayed spent a good chunk of time attacking President Donald Trump instead of his opponent, GOP nominee Mike Rogers. He mentioned Trump’s recent comments calling El-Sayed “Muhammad” or “Ramadan,” but tried to bring it back to his focus on affordability.
But despite the frequent attacks focusing on his identity, El-Sayed said the people of Michigan “take our differences as an invitation for a conversation” and are “open-hearted.”
“It’s time for us to build out the Michigan we deserve. A Michigan that is bigger than their hate. A Michigan that is bigger than their smallness,” he said.
Vance says he's an "exception" among GOP not focused on young people's affordability
Vice President JD Vance said he’s an “exception” within a Republican Party that is not paying enough attention to young people’s affordability issues.
“Most Republicans don’t. I think that I’m an exception,” Vance said in response to an audience member who asked how the right expects young people to start families when housing costs are so high.
Vance went on to blame illegal immigration and Wall Street investors buying up homes for the high prices — two issues that he said the Trump administration is tackling.
Vance says Trump's comments about Husted's "ass" are attempt to "shake things up"
Vice President JD Vance defended President Donald Trump’s recent tendency to compliment Ohio Sen. Jon Husted’s derrière, saying it’s an example of a politician not “taking himself so seriously.”
“Well, first of all, I’m jealous. The president’s never said that about me,” Vance joked to Fox News’ Jesse Watters when the host asked him about Trump’s comments during a town hall taped earlier Thursday in Texas.
“I just think it’s a good example of a politician who is not, who doesn’t take himself so seriously. Get up there and have a good time, and it’s having a good time in the service of saving the United States of America,” he added.
Trump has repeatedly commented on the Ohio senator’s physique at rallies over the past month, and has even credited it with improving the embattled Republican’s poll numbers.
President Donald Trump commented once again about Ohio Sen. Jon Husted's body while giving a speech at a rally in North Carolina.
El-Sayed and Stevens to campaign in Detroit, Michigan in rare joint appearance
Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and his former primary opponent Rep. Haley Stevens will campaign together Sunday in Detroit, a campaign spokesperson confirmed Thursday.
The Democrats’ joint appearance will be the first in recent months after reports of tensions between them. The Associated Press first reported the news.
Stevens narrowly lost to El-Sayed in the August primary. She appeared with him at unity events in the days immediately after the primary, but conversations dried up after.
Both exchanged bitter and personal attacks during the primary — El-Sayed said Stevens was controlled by pro-Israel interests and “literally the least capable candidate in America,” while she said of him, “Everyone in America understands you want to blame all of your problems on Jewish Americans.”
Neither made much effort to build the relationship afterward.
Michigan Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens reaffirmed her support for Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed after The Detroit News reported her fiancé said he’s voting for Republican candidate Mike Rogers in the state's high-stakes Senate race.
On Wednesday, Stevens reaffirmed her support for El-Sayed after The Detroit News reported that her fiancé said he’s voting for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers.
CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere contributed reporting.
Trump is scrapping campaign stops with days to the midterms. That's not like his last term
President Donald Trump is scrapping plans to headline rallies this weekend in Iowa and Kansas, which officials say will allow him to conduct more tele-rallies.
But that’s a lot different than the last time he was president and fighting to get GOP candidates across the finish line.
In the final 72 hours before the 2018 midterms on November 6, Trump held seven rallies in as many states, a review of news reports at the time shows. He went to Montana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana and Missouri.
Addressing the cancellation of his Kansas rally this time around, Trump said Sen. Roger Marshall, the GOP candidate there, was “doing very well.” And he lashed out at a reporter who inquired about his health.
“The reason is, I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas. I’m going to Florida tomorrow, and I’ll do — if something else comes up,” he said. “But he said, ‘You’re not going to Kansas, sir. Are you feeling well?’ You’ve been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect.”
At a rally earlier in the day, Trump had boasted about how hard he was working on the trail.
“The one thing I can say is that no president has ever worked so hard on a midterm. You know, most presidents, including me, the first couple of times, you sort of take it easy, stay home,” he said.
Republicans rush to capitalize on Times story about Alaska spoiler candidate
Republicans are scrambling to capitalize on Wednesday’s report from The New York Times that Democratic operatives affiliated with Alaska Senate hopeful Mary Peltola helped recruit a spoiler candidate with the same name as the Republican incumbent.
The story arrived six days before the midterm election, leaving little time to produce and air ads highlighting the controversy. Meta, for example, has already stopped accepting new political ads for the election.
GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan has sought to draw awareness to the story through a series of TV appearances, including multiple interviews on Fox News and Newsmax. Sullivan’s campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee released videos attacking Peltola over the story, though it was unclear if they were paying to run them anywhere.
One super PAC supporting Sullivan, We Stand With Dan PAC, launched a radio ad Thursday telling listeners that the Times “just published an explosive story.”
“[Democrats] packed and funded the ranked-choice ballot against Sen. Dan Sullivan,” a narrator says in the minute-long spot. “The New York Times just put an exclamation point on a Peltola campaign built on lies. Shame on you, Mary Peltola.”
Peltola’s campaign has continued to deny involvement in the efforts described in the Times story.
"Both sides are doing it": Alaskans say Senate race controversy won’t affect their vote
Several voters at a crowded polling center in Anchorage’s midtown neighborhood told CNN the controversy surrounding Alaska’s Senate race is not influencing who they are voting for.
The Justice Department has dramatically accelerated a criminal probe into whether Alaska Democrats sought to confuse voters by recruiting a Senate candidate with the same name as Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, after a report by The New York Times described an alleged coordinated effort linked to Democratic candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign.
Another independent voter, 50-year-old Jay Taylor who said he was “not a Trumper,” agreed, saying the controversy has gotten “way out of proportion” and argued that “the average Alaskan already knows who they are voting for.”
Election officials said they have seen long lines since the beginning of the early voting window last week, as Alaskans turn out to vote in a race that could decide the balance of power in the Senate.
Some GOP officials express relief at Trump's decision to cancel 2 weekend campaign visits
There’s little doubt President Donald Trump would have drawn large crowds during weekend campaign visits to Kansas and Iowa, given his popularity among the MAGA faithful, but some top Republican operatives in both states quietly expressed a sigh of relief at the canceled rallies.
A second Republican official said the Trump rallies were too time-consuming during a peak period when GOP activists would otherwise be door-knocking, canvassing and doing other get-out-the-vote activities.
The president has visited nearly every state on the Senate battleground map aside from Maine – many more than once. The White House decision to cancel the Midwest appearances was causing a tremendous amount of buzz, but few complaints among party stalwarts.
What's on the line for Elon Musk in the midterm elections
Billionaire Elon Musk has been a mega-donor in the midterms, as he and groups aligned with President Donald Trump are putting tens of millions of dollars into races to help Republicans.
Ronan Farrow, an investigative reporter and contributing writer at The New Yorker, explains what’s at stake for the world’s richest man.
Talarico criticizes AI-powered robocall push in final days of campaign
Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, who is running in Texas against GOP nominee Ken Paxton, responded to a recent push of AI-powered robocalls attacking his campaign, saying it is “pretty rich that they are using AI bots to attack me over data centers.”
The robocall campaign is powered by Lone Star Liberty, a pro-Ken Paxton super PAC that received $10 million from Elon Musk, which is looking to target Talarico for allegedly taking money from “data center special interest” groups, audio recordings reviewed by CNN show.
Talarico said he has criticized data centers that don’t “meet the demands of the people who live in these communities.”
CNN has reached out to Paxton for comment about the campaign.
Long lines ahead of rally for Michigan's Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed
Long lines of voters twist outside of a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed as he makes his final push before the midterm election.
New CNN polling shows him having a 7-point lead over Republican Mike Rogers, but El-Sayed said earlier in the day “we’re going to run like we’re 10 points down.”
Trump scraps another rally, this one in Iowa, in strategy shift days before midterms
President Donald Trump is calling off a second planned rally for this weekend as he shifts strategy days before the midterm elections, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Trump will no longer headline a rally in Dubuque, Iowa, that was scheduled for Sunday, the sources said. Earlier Thursday, he had called off a separate rally in Kansas.
Instead, the president is planning as many as 20 telerallies in the days before Tuesday, hoping to maximize his presence in competitive districts where Republicans are running in close races, officials said.
CNN's Manu Raju reports from Iowa where polls indicate that the reliably red state has shifted to battleground territory. Democratic nominee Josh Turek is looking to defeat Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in the race for the US Senate, while Democratic nominee Rob Sand and Republican nominee Zach Lahn are vying to be governor of Iowa.
For now, the only in-person event Trump has planned ahead of Tuesday is a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Friday.
Officials said he is expected to spend Tuesday evening at the White House as results come it.
Democratic super PAC investing $750k into incredibly tight South Carolina Senate race
A Democratic super PAC will spend $750,000 on digital advertising to support Annie Andrews in the final days of the South Carolina Senate race.
Specifically, the digital ads will focus on “Graham raising healthcare costs” and drug prices, French posted on X.
Recent polling shows the race has tightened into a virtual tie in a state that few expected to be competitive at the beginning of the cycle.
A New York Times/Siena poll shows Andrews leading 57%-37% among independents and even pulls 7% of Republican likely voters. Some Republicans have expressed concerns about Graham’s lack of experience.
