The DON JONES INDEX…
	GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED 11/6/26... 14,364.31 10/30/26... 14.347.67 10/23/26... 14,350.53 6/27/13... 15,000.00 Original
*(THE DOW* JONES INDEX: 11/6/26… 51,523.06; 10/30/26… 52,342.56; 6/27/13… 15,000.00)**.

LESSON for FRIDAY, NOVEMBER SIXTH, 2026 – “FLIP, FLOP and FLY!”

Halloween is over. Election Day is over. America stumbles onwards through Veterans Day and Thanksgiving towards the happy holiday season of Christmas (or Chanukah, if you will) with hopes of better days ahead, irregardless of grim days behind – and America is left looking forward to worse or better days and looking back over a wall of words as positions of authority flipped, President Trump flopped and dissidents flew with the eagles, if not always the angels.

INTO THE HOME STRETCH –HALLOWEEN and BEFORE

If nothing else, the 2026 midterms brought the usual conjunctions of cash and corruption from candidates and donors to the public at large as President Trump proposed a $5,000 payout to all (legal) voters on the condition that Republicans kept control of the Congress.

This followed promises fulfilled to grant $500 ACA (Obamacare) refunds to “approximately 950,000 Americans across 30 states who purchased health insurance through the federal marketplace without receiving premium assistance.”

“The administration describes the payments as a refund of excess marketplace user fees that were collected through insurance premiums. The White House says the money accumulated during the Biden administration and is now being returned to consumers,” wrote Marca (ATTACHMENT ONE).

Recipients were obviously grateful and prepared to say so on Election Day although critics pointed out that payments would reach only around 5% of people enrolled in ACA marketplace plans, and that the $500 amount might be “considerably smaller than the premium increases experienced by many households during 2026.”

The $5,000 payout... many calling it legal bribery... was announced during the Republican Party's first midterm convention in Dallas on September 9. Estimates suggested that distributing $5,000 to approximately 240 million adult citizens could cost around $1.2 trillion or more... a sum equal to Elon Musk’s net worth which Djonald UnThrifty said would be paid for by unspecified tariffs... and would have to be approved by (a presumably Republican) Congress – although some deficit hawkish elephants expressed concern.

As either an alternate or supplement Trump “also returned to the idea of tariff-funded payments of up to $2,000 for eligible Americans,” Marca added – and other fiscal incentives have included government investment accounts for children, “with $1,000 contributions for eligible children born between 2025 and 2028,” as well as potential payments connected to healthcare and other government programmes.

While pundits pondered the perspicacity of the payoffs, the donor class was shoveling its swag into what even the nominally pro-Trump Fox admitted were “the nastiest barrage of attack ads yet.” (October 26^th, ATTACHMENT TWO)

The most notorious big field of filth was, of course, Ohio Gov. Vivek Ramaswamy’s exploitation of the estrangement of challenger Amy Acton’s mother... standing by her man, even though Cledith Arthur was indicted for raping Amy Acton when she was 12 years old. The couple “disappeared”, and the stepfather was never tried before his death. Acton had had no contact with her mother since 1978 until she popped up in VR’s virtually repulsive advertisements that motivated even outgoing Gov. Mike DeWine to denounce the ad (although Trump, not surprisingly, called at a campaign masterstroke).

Fox correspondent Howard Kurtz then noted a bipartisan barrage of attack ads of varying degrees of truthiness which, he concluded, made him “feel like taking a shower.”

Other donkey diatribes linked Texas musician and Congressional candidate to his “onetime accordionist’s child molestation charges more than a decade ago” while in the Lone Star Senatorial race, ‘Pub Ken Paxton’s AI generated ads called Dem James Talarico a tax cheat (Talarico replying “I don’t have to use AI, because the truth about Ken Paxton is bad enough").

Republicans countered with disclosures upon Virginia’s Democratic state Senator L. Louise Lucas’ indictment on federal racketeering charges related to her co-ownership of a cannabis business (which she denied, playing the race card); while attorneys for Jared Kushner sued Vanity Fair for alleging “secret foreign financial dealings” without evidence.

Some of the bipartisan diarrhea highlighted hypocrisy: a candidate for Des Moines city council was called "just plain dangerous" for kids — but the Flockstress, incumbent Shellie Flockhart, had once pleaded guilty to child endangerment after driving drunk with two of her children.

And some was just weird, like the still unfolding Klondike Kapers of the two Dan Sullivans (see below).

Cotton picked though ads for five presidential cycles, before calling 2026 “dirtier and more unhinged than ever” and the concluded with the crucial question for 2026 (and probable incentive for many of the malicious missives: “How many voters will just stay home?”

More of the same... some justifiable, if sordid; some not... crawled off the pages of the New York Post (Oct. 30, ATTACHMENT THREE).

Rotten Republicans included Ohio Rep. Max Miller, accused of beating his wife, two year old daughter and assorted “girlfriends”; Paxton (above) for private and public sector frauds that led to impeachment and narrow escape from conviction by the State Senate; Georgia Rep. Mike Collins for paying a get-around-girl intern $10,000 to work a no-show job between 2023 and 2024 on behalf of his then-chief of staff – as well as supporting a Nazi son-in-law, and a campaign staff of drunks, anti-Semites and Ku Klux Klansmen; Florida primary loser Rep. Cory Mills, for offenses including stolen valor; North Carolina dropout Chuck Edwards for inappropriate conduct with much younger female staffers and Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), who stepped down amid revelations of sexual relations with staffers, one of whom lit herself on fire and died.

Dirty DemoDonkey Congressthings included “Squadstress” Ilhan Omar (D-Mn)... target of ICE raids on Columbus Day accusing her of a sham marriage to her brother to help him secure a green card; LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), charged with assault whilst trying to block authorities from arresting Mayor Ras Baraka at the Newark ICE headquarters; Henry Cuellar (D-Tx) for hiding $600,000 from the Azerbaijani government in overseas bad banks: resigned Eric Swalwell (D-Ca), (accusations of rape), and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla), COVID relief fraud; LaKesha Womack (D-NC)... served with a felony summons for failure to return a rental car in 2019; Jimmy Gomez (D-Ca) for kissing a much younger congressional aide during a party to mark the start of the August recess in 2023; Peltola (as above for Decoy Dan); Pulido (also as above plus a history of raunchy social media postings and anti-gay comments; and... perhaps most famously, said the Post Toasties... Maine dropout Senate wannabee and rape suspect Graham Platner.

And these were only the beginnings...

Penultimate projections of midterm results from Forbes (October 30, ATTACHMENT FOUR) shouting out “Lookie, lookie, here comes Cookie” as pollsters there opined that Democrats could “pick up as many as 20 seats,” and the minimum of five to flip the Congress.

They cited Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, represented by Rep. Jeff Crank, Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District, represented by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, and the open South Carolina 1st Congressional District all shifting from “lean Republican” to toss ups. Toss ups in Pennsylvania and Ohio moved to “lean Democratic.

Four polls all had generic Democrats winning... from Harvard/Harris at four points to Reuters/Ipsos (9), Emerson (10) and Economist/YouGov (11).

The Kalshi gamblers gave Democrats a 92.6% odds for winning the House last Friday afternoon.

Al Jazeera’s pick of the polls (also a week ago, ATTACHMENT FIVE) had Democrats with a 51.4 to 43.2 Real Clear Polling lead. Marquette Law pollsters found voters disapproved of Trump 61-37 with responding citing the kitchen table as their reason for dissatisfaction.

Jazzie Liz Melimopolous viewed the most notable Congressional races and found, as did others, that Talarico and El Sayed were leading (CNN)

Alaska, however, is not expected to report for several days, or even weeks, due to the complications of the two Dan Sullivans atop an already complicated and time-gobbling ranked choice system with litigation likely to create even longer delays.

Al Jazeera’s US correspondent Alan Fisher said the dispute could have consequences beyond Alaska if the Senate’s control depends on the result.

“If this becomes the key seat in the battle for the Senate, we might not actually know who has control there for several days, maybe even weeks after November 3,” Fisher said.

President Trump has been campaigning in South Carolina, Vance in Texas and Democrats Barack Obama endorsed candidates Jon Ossoff (Senator) and Keisha Lance-Bottoms (Governor) in Georgia. Kamala Harris also campaigned in Georgia.

President Trump cancelled appearances in Kansas and Iowa in favor of virtual campaigning. Where human faces appeared, he addressed his supporters directly, asking the crowd to pretend that he was on the ballot.

“And I am on the ballot because all of these things that we’ve done, all of these incredible successes that we have,” he added.

RNC chair Joe Gruters seconded Trump’s optimism – telling the Hill and News Nation that Republicans would sweep the midterms with victories in Maine, Texas, Ohio and Alaska — and even in North Carolina, where handicappers predicted would “likely go blue.”

“We put up candidates that can win and common-sense mainstream candidates, and I think that will make the difference,” Gruters told NewsNation’s Blake Burman.

Finally last Friday, CNBC reported that Wall Street was preparing for a House flip and possibly another in the Senate as investors expect a blue wave in next week’s midterm elections, with Democrats surge in polls and President Donald Trump’s approval rating remains low.

“(B)ecause Trump has another two years of his presidency, a divided government would likely create gridlock that would prevent congressional leadership in opposition to the president from getting much done, analysts are advising their clients."

CNBC’s Garrett Downs cautioned that a divided government “typically makes must-pass legislation, like government funding and raising the debt ceiling, harder to enact. A debt ceiling standoff — or first-ever default on federal debt — could be particularly damaging.” (ATTACHMENT SEVEN)

And expensive. An Oct. 29 report from Piper Sandler analyzing Congressional Budget Office data projected that policy proposals from Democrats “would add $5 trillion to the deficit over the coming decade.” The analysis assumes repeals of Trump’s tariffs and reversing cuts to Medicaid, nutrition programs and Affordable Care Act subsidies.

But, with Joneses wanting more on their kitchen tables, “(a) blue House is the obvious consensus base case,” Wolfe Research said in an Oct. 27 report. The firm surveyed 138 investors and found 96% of those polled believed Democrats would prevail in House control.

“The scale of polling error that would be required for Republicans to retain House control would be unprecedented in modern history, well above the polling error in the famously bad 2020 cycle,” Wolfe wrote.

Wolfe is less bullish on a Democratic Senate, though investors clearly see a possibility that Democrats regain control of both chambers of Congress.

But if they do, Downs speculated, the next two years will be an investigatory and impeachment party with not only politicians in the dock but also “companies that have done business with the Trump administration” with the clock ticking down on a debt ceiling likely to be reached next year with both parties seeking to blackmail their adversaries.

More pollsters, at home and abroad, have reached more or less the same conclusion – a flipped House and a Senate almost evenly divided... contingent, perhaps, on the Alaska fiaska and, of course, Veep Vance holding the tie breaking vote.

Over the waves, the conservative Times of London interviewed (o)ne of America’s leading election experts, Allan Lichtman; “back with a confident forecast for next week’s midterm elections: the Democrats will win both chambers of Congress.”

Lichtman, a professor of history at American University in Washington, “has been in the prediction game since he went against the grain in 1982 to say that Ronald Reagan would be re-elected two years later, even as polls wrote him off during a recession.” (ATTACHMENT EIGHT)

Arrogant, opinionated and nasty (he scoffs at “phonies like Nate Silver”) and claims to have developed 13 “keys” to foretell Presidential votes — indicators including the economy, incumbency, scandal and social unrest — and “applies similar time-honoured tests to the midterms”... with an emphasis on the war, tariffs, the “obscenely rich” billionaire donors (like Musk) fomenting “vast disinformation” and the “enthusiasm gap”, as well as “really bad” Republican candidates that have made races more difficult than they should be, naming Ken Paxton in Texas, Roger Marshall in Kansas and Darline Graham in South Carolina.

And that’s even without mention of Vivek Ramaswamy!

Lichtman also brings a historian’s eye to an era where more excitable analysts see uncharted waters. “We are in a strange time but when you look at situations where there’s an unpopular war and the president’s approval rating is low, 1966 is a great example,” he said. “Lyndon Johnson [a Democratic president] had just won one of the biggest landslide victories in 1964. But then things were going bad for the country, the [Vietnam] war was going sour. Urban riots were sweeping the country and Democrats took a huge pasting in 1966.”

Silver, fighting back on the liberal Independent U.K. expressed some of the caution at which Lichtman scoffs – increasing his prediction for Democrats retaking the senate to a 79 percent probability (12% more than his enemy pollster), but... like the coward Lichtman says he is... cautioned on his Substack that Democrats’ polling leads in key Senate battleground states, including Texas, Ohio, Alaska and Maine, “are all just a normal-sized polling error away from flipping.” (ATTACHMENT NINE)

And President Donald Trump’s favorite pollster, CNN’s Harry Enten, also predicted Democrats will win big next Tuesday.

“Any Democrats telling you they aren’t winning the Senate [besides] a couple of seats are sandbagging expectations,” one particularly dismayed senior Republican told Politico.

Trump, however, has dismissed unfavorable polling as “fake.”

Newsweek (Halloween morning, ATTACHMENT TEN) updated Silver’s Friday figures, cutting the probability of Dems taking back the Senate back down from 79% to 77.7% with the final division being a 53 – 47 ass-tacular majority. Decision Desk lifted the probability to 80% while VoteHub clocked in at a more conservative 63 percent chance of controlling the Senate, “including a 60 percent probability of winning both chambers.”

Newsweek’s Sam Stevenson ventured that eight Senate races were within four points in at least one polling average examined by Newsweek; this places them among the contests most likely to determine control of the chamber.

In ALASKA, as of 7AM, October 30, the RealClearPolling average gave Peltola a 1.2-point advantage, 49.4 percent to 48.2 percent, based on surveys conducted from October 1 through October 16. Decision Desk HQ gave Peltola a 60 percent chance of winning and rated the race a tossup.

IOWA incumbent Ashley Hinson (R) and Democrat Josh Turek, a two-time Paralympic wheelchair-basketball gold medalist, were separated by one of the narrowest averages in the country. RCP gave Hinson a 0.5-point lead; DD gave Republicans a 53 percent probability, “effectively treating Iowa as a coin flip.”

Methodist megachurch minister Adam Hamilston, the Democrat, led Sen, Roger Marshal by an even narrower 0.2 point advantage (RCP) in Kansas, but DD raised Marshall’s chances to 58%, a tossup,

OHIO Sen. Jon Husted, appointed to the seat previously held by Vice President Vance, trailed former Sen. Sherrod Brown by 2.6 points in the RCP polls and 8% at DD, which gave Dem. challenger Troy Jackson a 57% margin and an RCP 1.4 point lead, making the state another tossup in MAINE.

The Islamic Socialist El Sayed was... believe it or don’t... “the strongest Democratic probability among the eight races examined” in MICHIGAN with a 3.2 RCP lead and 72% DD probability.

SOUTH CAROLINA’s Darline Graham Nordone, appointed after the sudden death of her brother, Lindsey Graham, faced Democrat Annie Andrews in a race that had become more “competitive than South Carolina’s recent voting history might suggest” with a 2.7 point RCP advantage ant 65% DD probability of holding the seat

TEXAS, where all that money went (above) was calling it a waste, although by narrow margins – a 2.1%RCP and 60% DD advantage, close enough to be categorized a toss-up.

And, for Halloween, the Daily Signal (October 31^st, ATTACHMENT ELEVEN) added a spookily comedic touch with “drag-loving, trans-pushing, scripture-defacing Texas Senate candidate James Talarico wearing the costume of a “beef-loving, border-closing, Bible-loving, truck-driving, prototypical Texas man,” putting Halloween costume queen Heidi Klum to shame, while El-Sayed donned a mask and lab coat to hide the reality of a “raging anti-Israel zealot who seems to favor Hamas the way trick-or-treaters favor Snickers.

The cheap, off-the-rack “I’m a Moderate” costume that got Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill elected governors of Virginia and New Jersey, respectively got a comeback in the clothing choices of “radical dirty trickster” Peltola,

Amongst the ghouls, Democrats “from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., to Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., on down,” the message was simple: “When we resume power, we will hunt Donald Trump, his family, his associates down like we’re Jason and they’re unsuspecting teens staying in an isolated cabin in the woods... (t)his to the cheers of the bloodthirsty throng that lifts toasts to the killing of Charlie Kirk and curses Thomas Crooks for having bad aim.”

And the ghosts – “(p)hantom voters that emerge from the grave, from warehouses, from across the border, from thin air, after the sun is set and the moon is high” were casting illicit ballots harvested by Democrats “like the grim reaper harvesting souls.”

Sunday talkster candidate Haley Stevens, loser to El-Sayed in the Michigan primary, threw a pumpkin at the jihadist by pivoting to endorse GOP Senatorial candidate Mike Rogers (November 1^st, ATTACHMENT TWELVE) while The Bern on “Face the Nation” expressed his hope for Florida longshot Angie Nixon and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy lamented: “The Democrats are not winning the election, Republicans are losing it.” (ATTACHMENT THIRTEEN)

“Trump is effectively a lame duck now. The rest of the country knows his time is coming to an end,” David Smith in the liberal Guardian U.K. predicted (ATTACHMENT FOURTEEN).

The President, Smith pointed out, “spoke admiringly of a senator’s posterior,” boasted about his renovations of the White House and “baselessly” accused El-Sayed of being a terrorist, while repeating in rallies across America: “Pretend I’m on the ballot.”

GUK called that plea “music to the ears of Democrats” as poll after poll showed that he would lose the House... and, perhaps, the Senate... because voters no longer like him.

“Donald Trump nationalised these races, and now they’ll lose seats because of it,” said Michael Steele, a former chair of the Republican National Committee. “He made himself the referendum. Individual candidates wanted to run their individual races but he told them: ‘Put me on the ballot.’ He has political instincts for himself, but no political instincts for the party.”

After pointing out the midterm losses suffered by Clinton, Obama and Trump 1.0. Smith counted off the reasons to vote for Democrats... the war, economy, new issues like the AI datacenters, old chestnuts like the EpFiles and exploits of corruption like his family exploitation of crypto cronies, the Qatari plane, White House golden ballroom, triumphal arch and green reflecting pool. His personal fortune, howsoever masked and anonymous through convoluted capers and cutouts, has surged – “from $2.3bn in 2024 to $6.5bn, according to Forbes.”

Think tankers interviewed by GUK reiterated the issues of tariffs, diesel and the erosion of support among Latinos (especially in Texas), young white men (in working class communities) and old-line conservatives (like employers impacted by ICE or farmers by costly diesel and fertilizer) and the Guardian reiterated the accusation, by MS Now correspondent and former RNC chair Michael Steele, that Trump had “lied to his tribe.”

Again, in state by state matchups, Smith alluded to Ohio, where the President countered working-class anger from Brown, “a grizzled populist with deep ties to organised labour” with a strange fascination about incumbent Jon Husted’s posterioral physique; to Islamophobic tirades, calling El-Sayed a “jihadist” in Michigan and across the rest.

Tara Setmayer, a co-founder and chief executive of the women-led Seneca Project, said: “We have seen what Donald Trump has done when he had guardrails; now he has none... Trump is looking at the sun setting on his presidency and we all know that he is deathly afraid of being out of power. He’ll do anything to stay in power, even if that means creating another constitutional crisis to try to stop Congress from being seated. We cannot suffer from a lack of imagination of what these people are capable of.”

Steele (above) predicted that Democratic House would “immediately assert control over federal purse strings” and block Trump’s vanity projects; Larry Jacobs, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, predicted two years of revenge, retaliation and investigations while Republicans would turn to infighting over 2028.

That said, Democrats will be squawking and squabbling too, with advocates of Newsome, Ossoff, AOC... even Kamala Harris... elucidating and elbowing as the Presidential wars draw near. But, after the voters speak on November 3^rd, the noise will... for a time... go away.

First, however, would come Monday, November second... the Mexican Day of the Dead... when MAGAnauts would hold up the dropoff in border crossings against liberal accusations of ICE brutality and money spurting like blood...more than $11.6B according to Fox correspondent Lee Carter, who downgraded the spending beneath “the five words as would explain this election better than a thousand campaign commercials.

“Affordability. Socialism. Corruption. Trump. Turnout.

“Each tells us something about the American electorate,” Carter opined. “Together, they reveal something neither party should find particularly comforting.

“Americans may be less interested in voting for somebody than in voting against something.”

Taken in order, the “somethings” represented...

AFFORDABILITY

“Americans don't experience the economy as a collection of statistics,” Carter wrote, they experience it “as a series of small humiliations” (putting something back on the grocery shelf, declining dinner invitations, postponing vacations).

The good news for ‘Pubs is that convincing voters that Trump 2.0 hasn’t made their lives better, “is not the same as convincing them that Democrats will.”

SOCIALISM

Carter, citing polls showing “the share of Republicans energized to vote against socialism has climbed from 50% to 59% in just a month,” means that they see the American Way as in danger and, even if they are unhappy with their own party, ‘Pubs “may be willing to vote for a party they don't particularly like to stop one they fear even more.”

CORRUPTION

“Draining the swamp” has long been a campaign promise, but now, apparently, “the swamp has become a bipartisan swimming pool.”

“Democrats have eagerly made corruption a central attack against Republicans,” Carter acknowledged, but they should also be careful “about throwing stones from inside their own rather expensive glass houses” as witness the fiaska in Alaska.

There’s hate and paranoia aplenty for either party to exploit – if they can and if they will.

TRUMP

The President “may understand something that the conventional election narrative is missing.

“Trump's national approval ratings are weak. His base, however, remains intensely loyal.

“Those aren't contradictory facts.

“They're the defining feature of his political appeal.”

Carter says that Trump supporters “might be motivated to save Donald Trump from a Democratic Congress.”

What he does not say is that independents and even some Democrats have always loved underdogs... from Rocky Balboa to... Djonald 2.0?

TURNOUT

“The most consequential difference in an election isn't always between Republicans and Democrats,” Carter concludes. “It's between people who are angry enough to vote and people who are exhausted enough to stay home.

“Democrats are angry about what Republicans have done.

“Republicans may be frightened by what they believe Democrats will do...

“And a relatively modest number of independents deciding to stay home or to show up could rewrite the headlines.”

As perhaps a subset of “affordability” Max Zahn of ABC (ATTACHMENT SIXTEEN) posited “inflation” and compared the campaign strategies, beginning with...

THE WAR in IRAN

Some candidates, mostly Democrats, have proposed an end to the Iran war as a means of dialing back price hikes.

"We were promised no new foreign wars, but here we are, 185 days into a new foreign war and Nebraskans are paying the price," Dan Osborn, an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Nebraska, said at a debate in September.

On his campaign website, Osborn calls for "ending the wars that drive up prices and costs the lives of American servicemen and women," pointing specifically to the Iran war.

Other midtermers like Jon Ossoff (D-Ga) and think tankers like Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institute's Hutchins Center for Fiscal and Monetary Policy, advocating ending the war, no matter what the consequences.

President Trump countered with his oft-stated belief that the war has been worth it “to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.”

DEATH and TAX CUTS

Republican midtermers have supported the One Big Beautiful Bill with Iowa Senatorial candidate Ashley Simpson’s campaign website saying: "Ashley has always believed it is YOUR money, not the government's money,” while Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Nb) glorified Himself by contending: "Pete Ricketts is helping Nebraska families, workers, seniors, and small business owners keep more of their hard-earned income," and Kara Reynolds, an economist at American University, told ABC News that, while tax relief “can give you income you can use to compensate for higher prices," lowering taxes can be a “fiscal stimulus” that, by fueling more consumer spending, “exacerbates inflation.”

Rejecting the Communistic premise and prospect of more gumment regulations, ABC’s Zahn also pointed out that relief from regulations as a means of achieving greater efficiency, especially in the area of housing. Improved productivity, they say, would generate added supply, leading to lower prices.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has called for speeding up the permit process and easing environmental reviews as part of a plan to "Build, baby, build!"

“Members of both parties in Congress voted overwhelmingly to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which aims to reduce home prices by removing regulation and bolstering the supply. The measure became law in July.”

Milesi-Ferretti (Brookings, above) said a larger supply of homes could eventually ease prices -- but not anytime soon.

"If you want to make a case for boosting supply, that's a case to make. But it's a case you have to make with a realistic assumption of the time horizon," Milesi-Ferretti said.

Reynolds, above, clouted Communists and nuked NIMBY’s alike by venturing that she thought “zoning law changes will have a much bigger impact on housing supply than anything the federal government can do."

And Democrats -- and some Republicans -- criticized tariffs issued by the White House as a cause of price increases “and called for a reduction of some levies” as, for example, the tolls on allies like Canada as both inflationary and harmful to American foreign policy interests – a view shared by both Michigan Senatorial candidates El-Sayed and Rogers as well as tankers Reynolds and Milesi-Ferretti who, again, invoked time (the measure, not the magazine) while Reynolds warned that, once tariffs have caused the merchers to increase what they charge for groceries, tools, Halloween candy and Christmas cards, “there's no incentive for them to lower the prices."

Some brink o’death campaigns in “once unimaginable territory” remained too close to call on Monday, according to the Downballot (ATTACHMENT SEVENTEEN), as Republicans found themselves “forced to defend seemingly impregnable bastions” ranging from the elevated heights of the House, Senate and Governor’s races down through state legislatures to the more humble local dogcatcher, coroner and sewer inspector contests.

More polls... many previously noted, others not (like the Hart and Lincoln Park survey monkeys who found the Louisiana Senate contest to be a Day of the Dead Heat between Republican Rep. Julia Letlow and Democratic farmer Jamie Davis)... showed a Democratic surge turning red states purple and purple states blue.

Downballot added Kansas and South Carolina to the Louisiana thriller and noted the rise of AI generated mis- and dis-informative commercials with the fabrications falling from the tongues of the afflicted candidates themselves as in the Accountability Project’s contention that Davis (who, if elected, would the first Black person to win a statewide election in Louisiana since Reconstruction) wants to be our U.S. senator, “but his values are not Louisiana values.”

Nor, apparently, is his skin color.

“The cakewalk turned into a knife fight,” an unidentified state Republican recently told Politico.

“Political observers are now closely watching to see whether Republican attacks on Black political power will result in unusually high turnout among Black voters, who represent 31% of registered voters, according to the secretary of state.

“Davis, who described himself as a “gun-packing Democrat” during a recent appearance on a conservative radio show, also needs to win over a significant number of white residents who almost always support the GOP but may have soured on Trump. That remains a challenging task, but Letlow’s allies are no longer acting like it’s an impossible one.”

Dixie Downballoteers also cited House races in Florida and North Carolina where Democrats remain the underdogs in all of these races, but are happy “to see Republicans struggling in places they haven’t had to think about in years.”

Further Downballot Senatorial discourses continued in Connecticut, where Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, was hospitalized on Saturday after experiencing a stroke. He was not up for re-election and, should he be replaced, the seat will remain safely Democratic.

Michigan elected the radical El-Sayed despite primary loser Haley Stevens endorsing Republican Mike Rogers. Most donkeys defended the nation’s first Islamic Senator and Chuck Schumer... angling for Majority Leader, now... called Stevens’ action a “despicable betrayal”.

In ballot initiatives, Alaska narrowly preserved the ranked-choice rules as will delay their Senate contest to Christmas or beyond. Peltola has denied being a part of the Double Day conspiracy.

Israel, like America, had critical elections recently and, while PM Netanyahu struggles to keep his job in the post-electoral machinations, the Times of Israel (November 2, ATTACHMENT EIGHTEEN) tested Jews’ longstanding support for Democrats, weighed pro-Israel candidates from both parties, and measured the far left’s influence on support for moderates.

“With Democrats hoping to exploit US President Donald Trump’s unpopularity to win control of Congress during Tuesday’s midterm elections, the stakes are high for Jews as well, with many of their concerns on the ballot,” wrote TOI’s Luke Tress

“A central issue (was) how Jews (would) handle the Democratic Party’s increasing hostility to Israel.

“Most American Jews have long been aligned with the Democratic Party, but far-left candidates have alarmed some Jewish voters in areas including New York and Michigan,” Tress added as Cenk Uygur, a far-left commentator, posted an El-Sayed ad blaming Israel for expensive groceries in the US.

“Nonnegotiable Michigan”, a Jewish advocacy group, said, on Sunday, that it was urging Jewish Democrats to write in Emma Lazarus, the 19th-century Jewish American poet, as a candidate if they could not support either El-Sayed or Rogers.

She did not win. Also, she is dead.

In Georgia, Sen. Ossoff, who is Jewish , angered some Israeli advocates by voting to cut off arms sales over the Palestinian question, but Republican Mike Collins’ family members and former employees “have come under scrutiny for far-right politics, including antisemitic and white supremacist views.”

And the New York State governor’s race pitted the moderate, incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul against Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman, who is Jewish.

“Hochul is supportive of Israel and New York’s Jewish communities and has attacked Blakeman’s ties to Trump during the campaign,” the TOI reported.

“Blakeman sought to tie Hochul to Mamdani, anti-Zionist protests and antisemitism.”

The TOI also previewed the Congressional 25^th district race in Florida pitting pro-Israeli candidates from both parties.

Among Muslims, Al Jazeera (Nov. 2 with a little help from Reuters and the A.P. – ATTACHMENT NINETEEN) reported on several Senatorial races and said that El-Sayed spent his final day before the election “campaigning alongside Michigan Democratic Representative Debbie Dingell and Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.”

He also urged supporters to vote as he rallied at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.

“If we’re nervous about where we’re going to go from here, go vote,” he said.

The Jazzies also reported that a federal judge in Washington is due to hear arguments early on Monday in a lawsuit over whether immigration agents can be present at polling places.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in September that agents would not patrol polling sites but could enter to respond to threats or serve warrants on people. The plaintiffs argue that such operations would violate a federal restriction on armed personnel at voting places and could intimidate voters.

The Department of Homeland Security has said ICE is not planning operations targeting polling locations.

On the eve of the midterms, President Trump opted to forgo the campaign trail “and instead focused on his renovations at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, drawing attention to an expensive, problem-plagued repair job in a place far away from most of the people his party wants to persuade. (PBS, Monday morning... updated Monday afternoon... ATTACHMENT TWENTY)

“It was an unusual closing argument for Republicans to keep control of Congress. But it conforms with the way the president has devoted considerable time, attention and money in his second term on beautifying his Washington surroundings.”

After he finished his remarks on Monday, Trump stood silently while triumphant music played and he held up a poster with an image of the previously algae-clogged pool, reiterating what liberals have called fictitious allegations of vandalism. “It was his last public appearance before Election Day.”

A21X Takeaways – CBS

A22 IUK OWEN SCOTT

The Independent U.K. (late at night, Monday ATTACHMENT TWENTY TWO) revealed that. on the eve of the midterms, President Trump made “odd Elvis Presley posts” and “wild claims about the Vietnam war” which, he said, “he could have won in a week.”

Trump uploaded the picture, which shows the right half of his face beside the left half of the King of Rock and Roll’s, late on Sunday night. That same day, he told attendees at a rally that it would have taken him a week to win the near-20-year Vietnam War, reiterating remarks he’d made in Dubuque on Saturday.

POTUS did not caption the Elvis image when he uploaded it to Truth Social, nor did he explain why he posted it.

However, Trump has often shared his love for the legendary singer and even bestowed him with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom during his first term.

Earlier this year, Trump toured Graceland - the iconic mansion that Elvis once called home - while appearing in Memphis to talk about the deployment of federal law enforcement to combat crime rates.

“Elvis would be very happy about that,” Trump quipped, referring to a reduction in crime rates, before adding: “I love Elvis.”

“All my life I have heard about Graceland,” Trump also said during the trip. “I was around with Elvis in his semi-prime, at least, right?”

As to Vietnam, Trump said: “They dropped whatever the hell that red c**p is that they…kept dropping it in the forest.”

Then, an audience member shouted to Trump that the chemical in question was Agent Orange - a herbicide used by the U.S. Military to kill forests in Vietnam in order to remove enemy cover.

“Agent Orange, even though it’s red,” Trump said, before seemingly confusing the name of a Vietnamese city: “Agent Orange, they drop it in the forest for years and years and years, instead of going after Ho Chi Minh City and the different places.

“I would have won that war in one week.”

The last of the Day of the Dead villains was, of course, Mad Vlad in Moscow where the official Russian newscasters at Tass claimed Trump had channeled Stalin and Khruschev and would “sidestep Congress” through EOs if Democrats won the midterms.

Tass cited a report by Reuters that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and White House Counsel Will Scharf’s office are drawing up the plans, the agency said. The administration is considering new tariffs on critical minerals and wind turbines, stricter visa rules for foreign students and temporary workers, and measures to reduce housing costs that Trump could implement without congressional approval. According to a White House official, Trump’s team is examining what the president "can legally do on his own, where he could push the limits of his authority and how to defend those decisions in court."

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3^RD – D-DAY

CNN takeaways, issued at 2:17 AM highlighted that last messages of Campaign 2026 before the voting with coverage of Senate candidates in races that could determine control of the chamber making their final pitches, the President’s speech at the Reflecting Pool while the Supremes vetoed Trump’s veto of thousands of ballots in California. (ATTACHMENT TWENTY FOUR)

At 5:29 AM EST (updated 5:56), the (anti-Beijing) South China Morning Post reported that, in his reflecting pool speech, President Trump called the Democrats “the most most extreme and dangerous” in American history, the day before voters decide which party controls Congress. (ATTACHMENT TWENTY FIVE)

“These are the most dangerous candidates ever put up,” he said.

In his speech on Monday, Trump accused Democrats of supporting open borders, higher taxes, gun restrictions and gender transition treatment for children, singling out El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for the Senate in Michigan; describing him as a “jihadist”. The president cited a recent report that El-Sayed had campaigned at a mosque where a speaker called the United States the “House of Satan”.

The report, published by the conservative outlet The Daily Wire, said El-Sayed had appeared at the Islamic Centre of Detroit in March while campaigning in the Democratic primary. It said a speaker at the centre had used the phrase during a 2025 talk.

El-Sayed has denied that he or his family have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Remember, a party that hates America cannot be allowed to rule over the people who built our country,” Trump said.

The president also accused Democrats in Alaska of “corrupt” conduct over a second candidate named Dan Sullivan appearing on the ballot against the Republican incumbent of the same name.

He also reiterated his promise that every adult would receive US $5,000 if Republicans won, on condition that the money was spent in the United States,,, without saying how he would fund the payments,,, and, again, blamed vandals for damage to the new surface, which began peeling after the pool was refilled in the summer. The US Justice Department charged former Olympian David Hearn with damaging the pool but later dropped the case.

A “drubbing in the midterms” will make Trump even more dangerous to the entire world,” charged the liberal Independent U.K, on Tuesday morning with the polls opening on the East Coast. (Tuesday 03 November 2026 08:26 GMT – ATTACHMENT TWENTY SIX)

Win or lose, Trump has often seemed “unhinged” warned IUK world affairs editor Sam Kiley... who counted off the clues to how he will behave towards the rest of the world from relationship with the Kremlin.

The President will flip, himself... “from being a menace to America’s allies to an outright enemy,” Kiley predicts. “From Cuba to Taiwan, from Iran to the Democratic Republic of Congo, he will prioritise only the enrichment of his own country (and family) and the interests of Vladimir Putin.

“We know this because that is how Trump has behaved since he returned to the White House only last year.”

So, counting down the octagons... we’ll hear many more octagonal tentacles of terror if UFC honcho Dana White is, as now rumored, Trump’s new SecPress... “Ukraine will face a truly terrible time. Taiwan needs to prepare for the moment when China looks set to invade with a nod from Trump,” who will abandon the island (and its essential chipmaking capacities) in favour of Xi Jinping’s authoritarian regime, Cubans need to prepare for a Venezuelan-style American assault, the removal of their president and the rapid colonisation of their present and future economy (as has happened in Caracas, and is likely to happen in Havana – albeit on a far bloodier level.

Iran (and others) will join North Korea among the cluster of rogue nuclear powers pending another attack on the mullahs... an easy pledge to keep, Kiley figures – given that his decision “to join Israel in targeting Iran has played badly and lost his party support even among Republicans.”

As also losing Bibi his job.

“But it is Ukraine and Europe, among America’s Nato allies,” Kiley believes, “where Trump’s agenda will be most keenly felt now that he is a “lame duck”, constitutionally barred from another term.

“Britain, the EU, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Baltic States, Poland and all the Scandinavian states plus Canada have said that Russia is already prosecuting a hybrid war against the West. There are serious concerns that this will escalate further and come close to outright war.

“Trump doesn't believe or accept this. He has, however, undermined Nato by threatening to invade Canada and Denmark (via Greenland).”

Having often appeared to be unhinged. IUK predicts that, after 3 November, he will be unbound – a veritable Djonald Unchained.

If he is truly demented, another IUKster pair suggested, POTUS may move towards dictatorship under martial law – either before the midterms (not realized) or after (a turd still on the table),

Convicted and pardoned elections clerk and active denier Tina Peters has been welcomed into the Trump inner circle, arguing that the president has the authority to deploy federal law enforcement to investigate election processes if criminal activity is suspected.

Peters told Trump the law allowed him to do so without Congressional compliance, and her attorney, Peter Ticktin told MSNOW that Trump should be ready to “enter an emergency order that basically would be tantamount to martial law.” (Tuesday 03 November 2026 12:34 GMT – ATTACHMENT TWENTY SEVEN)

Also On Election morning, while the voters were doing their grim or gleeful duty, CNBC’s Garrett Downs warned that a Democratic victory and flip of the House, if not the Senate would render the President’s remaining legislative priorities “severely kneecapped”, and even the basic functions of government (like the budget) could become gridlocked. (ATTACHMENT TWENTY EIGHT

“The election results could trigger an immediate market reaction, particularly as the Senate outcome becomes clearer,” the Washington Policy Strategy Group of Stifel wrote Sunday in an analyst report, where it predicted Democrats will win the House while the Senate remains too close to call. More presciently, they warned that the market’s knee-jerk profits “could reverse as investors recognize that gridlock remains the most likely policy outcome in either case.”

And so it has come to pass.

“If Republicans defy the conventional wisdom and maintain their Senate majority,” investors hoped, “then we would expect a relief rally in the sectors that might react negatively to a Democratic victory,” Stifel wrote – even though “Democrats would still govern the House and gridlock would prevail. In this scenario, Senate Republicans would act as a check on both the Democrats and many of Trump’s populist impulses.”

“(D)eals would still need to be brokered with the White House, and the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold could still prove a hurdle that requires bipartisanship.”

CNBC also predicted that, blocked from promoting and passing any useful information, Democrats “are also widely expected to use any majority in Congress to launch investigations into the White House and businesses that have worked with the Trump administration.”

As Day Concluded with some results in and other still out, but looking bad for Republicans the media called the results a flip for both the House and Senate, a flop for Republicans and a flyaway win for the Democrats in even the flyover states.

THE NUMBERS

With two races too close to call, the Democrats led 54-44 in the Senate and 252-161 in the House. See updates here. (ATTACHMENT TWENTY NINE)

THE OVERLOOK

Interested parties, foreign and domestic, looked down over a changed world on Wednesday according to ABC (ATTACHMENT THIRTY) among others – with emphasis placed upon personalities, of course, but also the issues: economic, cultural, foreign and the war.

Regarding the latter, Iranians on Wednesday struck a defiant tone, celebrating U.S. voters’ rebuke of President Donald Trump in the midterm elections while many in the Middle East waited to see how the results could affect the Iran war. That would be on the American side, of course, as Iran’s jihadist suicide gumment continued to assert that “those who harbor even a slight hope for a change in behavior or partisan and factional shifts within the system of domination, or who imagine that by giving concessions to America they can dissuade it from hostility toward the Iranian nation, they are gravely mistaken.”

Thousands marched through Tehran on Wednesday to commemorate the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy and celebrate the U.S. election results.

Demonstrators burned American and Israeli flags and chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” They displayed effigies of Trump and Netanyahu alongside caricatures of the two leaders.

“Trump has gone too far in everything and that’s one reason for his defeat in the election,” Hananeh Jahed, a demonstrator told Western journalists even more nervous now as prospects waxes that, if they were kidnapped, there might be no release.

“The decisive defeat of the United States and the Zionist regime in recent developments and elections is the result of the Iranian nation’s steadfastness and strength,” Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani said. “Even political rivals in the United States have acknowledged that this failure was the result of the Iranian people’s ingenuity and perseverance.”

Iran’s influential hard-line judiciary chief, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi, said on social media that “Trump failed both in war and in politics. We will certainly impose even more defeats upon him."

But in a partial gestured towards postponement of the Apolypse (if not exactly peace), Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, wrote Wednesday on X that "Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message.” Isolated strikes on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz failed to prevent prices for gas and oil to moderate, however slightly.

Domestic surrender monkeys were falling all over themselves to claim the bananas of peace and blame others for the problem in the first place.

And some of the President’s long term enemies celebrated the midterms. Cheering on Maine donkey Troy Jackson at home in Bangor and defending El Sayed, Halloween’s favorite horror writer, Stephen King, called Trump’s prediction that “hordes of jihadis” would come to America and blow things up, “garbage” and that the voters had said “Enough.” (Radar, November 4, ATTACHMENT THIRTY ONE)

And Trumply frenemy Stephen Bannon was also rendered “speechless” according to another Radar finding on Wednesday. (ATTACHMENT THIRTY TWO)

"That can't be right," Bannon said quietly during an election-night broadcast on Real America's Voice after being told figures suggested Republicans were barely ahead among men.

And in an interview published Sunday in the Financial Times, Bannon predicted that an electoral defeat would ignite a Republican "civil war" between the MAGA movement and more traditional party figures.

Another, even more virulent traitor... MTG... told the social media, reported by the Savannah Now Morning News on Wednesday afternoon, that the results were a "total referendum on Trump."

Sounding more like the Squad than the squid she’d been at the beginning of Trump 2.0, Greene accused Trump of “abandoning campaign promises and prioritizing wealthy donors over Americans struggling with the cost of living,” and criticized the president over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, U.S. involvement in a foreign war, tariffs and rising gas and diesel prices.

"And Republicans stood behind him silently clapping like trained baby seals," she scoffed. (ATTACHMENT THIRTY THREE)

The American midterms also generated cautious optimism in former Soviet satellites where sentiments that Russia may have scrapped Communism do extend to imperialism – the Trump – Putin bromance being looked upon as a dangerous development as might encourage further adventures behond the Ukrainian borders.

“The Democrats’ sweeping victory in the US midterm elections is a setback for Vladimir Putin because it limits his ability to “manipulate” Donald Trump and strengthens Congress’s power to challenge the US president’s Russia policy,” an anonymous “foreign policy expert” told the Polish TVP World. (ATTACHMENT THIRTY FOUR)

The flips included several Republican lawmakers who opposed US military assistance to Ukraine, “potentially strengthening congressional support for Kyiv.”

Speaking to TVP World’s On the Record program, Ian Brzezinski, who served as US deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO policy under President George W. Bush, said the election results would make it harder for Putin to influence Washington’s policy toward Moscow.

“It’s negative because it constrains his [Putin’s] ability to manipulate President Trump. That’s kind of the bottom line on this,” Brzezinski told program host Adam Jasser.

CONGRESS COULD PUSH BACK

Brzezinski, who is a senior fellow at the US-based Atlantic Council think tank, said the incoming Congress could take a tougher stance against Moscow, including by imposing stronger sanctions, restoring US assistance to Ukraine and restricting Trump's ability to withdraw American troops from Europe.

Brzezinski also argued that the election results should reassure European allies concerned that Trump’s approach to Russia and NATO represents a permanent shift in American foreign policy.

“Trump quite literally reflects a minority view, a tiny minority view of what our role in the world should be,” he said, referring to the current US administration’s relationship with Europe and its stance on Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“There’s a lot of reasons to make the long bet on the transatlantic relationship. Make the long bet on America,” Brzezinski said.

Reuters (ATTACHMENT THIRTY FIVE) took a look at how some of the international hotspots viewed the American midterms.

In the MIDEAST, they ventured that Trump's “loss of control over Congress will shape the course of his country's eight-month-old conflict with Iran.”

Some Gulf governments “now believe Trump has more reason than ever to seek a peace deal and that another full-scale assault on Iran is less likely after the midterms”, two sources familiar with Gulf government ‌thinking told Reuters.

But others warned that Trump's electoral drubbing may also embolden Iran.

"If Tehran recognises that Trump needs a deal, but not just any deal, a genuine opportunity could emerge to end the war," said Ebtesam al-Ketbi of the Emirates Policy Center. However, reading the vote as weakness could instead invite "a new military escalation", she added.

In ISRAEL, opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seized on the Democrats' wins to lambaste him for a loss of bipartisan American support under his watch, as they sought to forge a coalition following an inconclusive Israeli election last week where Bibi led over opposition General Gadi Eisenkot with the balance of power held by a collection of small, Arabic parties not sympathetic to Netanyahu’s wars in Gaza and the West Bank.

The energy market wagered on Wednesday that the elections could breathe more life into US-Iran peace talks. Oil dropped for a third day, but tight stock levels prevented a larger selloff, analysts said.

Trump has largely halted direct US financial and military aid to UKRAINE as it fights a Russian invasion, despite broad support from Democratic and Republican lawmakers. “He has angered members of Congress, including many Republicans, by lifting sanctions on Russian diesel and waiving sanctions on Russian energy only weeks after signing them into law,” Reuters pointed out and... in 2027... control of both chambers of Congress will allow Democrats to propose new aid to Ukraine.

If Zelenskyy gets gets enough backing from Republicans to secure a two-thirds majority, “a new aid package would survive a Trump veto,” Reuters predicted. “However, any boost to US aid is unlikely to come quickly, and it will not address Ukraine’s most pressing need — a deficit of US-made Patriot air defence interceptors to protect its energy infrastructure and cities this winter.”

CHINA may have cause to welcome the results as a referendum on Trump’s tariffs, but relations will likely maintain a state of "fragile stability", said Chim Lee, industrial policy analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit in Beijing. Their Asian rival, INDIA, also hopes for a break on trade policy... after the US midterm losses, “President Donald Trump’s capacity to impose arbitrary tariffs will certainly face a challenge. At some point he needs the Congress’s approval for trade actions,” Reuters surmised and, “to that extent, he’s weakened," said Anup Wadhawan, a former trade secretary to India's federal government.

AI AND TECH

Exit polling revealed to Reuters that many US voters were concerned about the aggressive buildout of AI data centres, “which sent shivers through the shares of major Asian chip manufacturers.”

Tech stocks began falling Wednesday morning and the decline brought down the rest of the market.

The Atlantic Council think tank (November 4^th, ATTACHMENT THIRTY SIX) gathered a conclave of commentators to assess the impact of the midters on oil tankers in Hormuz, relations with NATO, immigration, defense policy and the likelihood of an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine through threats or deals.

The experts and their takes were...

WILLIAM F. WECHSLER, senior director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East programs at the Atlantic Council said that they were unlikely to lead to an end of the Iranian war but, in fact, (combined with Trump’s yanking of US financial support from Israel) might embolden the regime to conquer some of the smaller Gulf States or even invade Israel.

LANDON DERENTZ, Atlantic Council vice president for energy and infrastructure and senior director of the Global Energy Center predicted that affordable prices at the pump and diesel into the trucks that carry the majority of American commerce from ports to inland retailers and that “sustained economic pressure” was the most likely treatment of Iran (but with renewed military escalation a viable alternative, even at the expense of regional stability and energy prices).

JOSH LIPSKY, vice president and chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council and a former advisor at the International Monetary Fund, contends that the strength of the Democrats’ majorities in both the House and Senate “means they will enter two major fiscal fights in a strong negotiating position” – particularly on the 2027 budget bill, which must be re-funded by December 11^th. “Don’t be surprised to see (deals),” Lipsky predicts.

Trump, however, will be Mr. Veto on reducing tariffs – with a possible exception in China, where find “a rare area of bipartisan consensus.”

TORREY TAUSSIG, director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a former director for European affairs on the National Security Council, pointed out that, with regard to NATO, Trump, rather than the Congress, will dictate military and political policies – with the consequences being threats to “annex Greenland, make Canada the fifty-first state, and withhold protection from NATO allies that do not spend enough on defense.” Now that Democrats control the legislative branch, many on both sides of the Atlantic will be looking to see if the party can wrestle some degree of control away from the executive branch in foreign and security policy.

He ventures that Democrats will have a “recalibrating” effect on transatlantic security. “Come January 2027,” Taussig opines, “Democrats will chair every committee and subcommittee in the House and Senate, including the appropriations committees and those important for European security and foreign policy (the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, House Armed Services Committee, and House Foreign Affairs Committee).” While Trump still maintains broad executive privileges in the foreign policy arena, “Democrats will start paving the way for a new approach to working with US allies.”

JOHN HERBST, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a former US ambassador to Ukraine, expressed a belief that Trump’s pro-Putin policies might at least be muzzled, if not overturned. In particular, the sale of Russian diesel fuel to the US, (a violation of US sanctions policy neutering the Lindsay Graham sanctions bill); the shutting off of vital intel to Ukraine coming from the Starlink and Starshield satellite systems; and the flip among Trump-centric media and more than a few Republican officeholders may be (and in the case of restoration of Ukraine services) already have been subject to scrutiny.

This means that Team Trump will face a much higher cost for a Kremlin-friendly policy than it had before. That is no assurance that it will revert to an actual “peace through strength” policy when dealing with Moscow. But Russian war bloggers have been mourning the election results because they believe Trump will no longer be able to help Putin.

Graham Brookie, the Atlantic Council’s vice president for technology programs and strategy, as well as the senior director of the Digital Forensic Research Lab contends that both President and Congress “must address the significant trust deficit the American public has toward the technology.”

“Despite the significant Democratic gains in the election, AI skepticism transcended partisan lines, with many Republican candidates—from Michigan to Texas—advocating for slowing down the AI infrastructure buildout or increasing the regulation of the tech sector,” Brookie wrote. “Likewise, there are an increasing number of bipartisan policy proposals on AI safety in the current Congress—such as the FRONTIER ACT or the AI Kill Switch Act—which will likely reemerge in some form in the next Congress,” as polling shows that 75 percent of Americans “view AI with fear or concern rather than excitement, especially when it comes to affordability, employment, education, the environment, safety and security, and many other issues.”

KENTON THIBAUT, senior resident China fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab within the Atlantic Council Technology Programs, expressed hope that Democratic control of Congress “could strengthen political support for US-China coordination on AI safety, particularly around frontier-model risks, incident reporting, and crisis communications.”

He reports “some bipartisan support” for Democratic priorities as could include “defining which AI incidents trigger bilateral notifications, establishing protocols for information sharing, and supporting technical exchanges on model evaluations and catastrophic risks”; measures whose acceptance will “depend on the administration’s willingness to negotiate and Beijing’s readiness to accept reciprocal safeguards.”

JÖRN FLECK, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center says that Europeans “can expect the Democrats in the next Congress to signal a more constructive US reengagement in transatlantic relations, on Ukraine, and even on trade issues. But European decisionmakers are right to have tempered expectations about how much a Democratic Congress will translate into substantial US policy changes on what matters most to the continent: support for Ukraine, US commitments to European security, and greater stability in trade and tariff policies.

Even with a strong majority in both chambers of Congress, Democrats will struggle to impose meaningful limits on Trump’s conduct of foreign policy, given his constitutional powers and willingness to push the envelope... remaining Reaganite hawks in the Senate may not continue to mute their opposition to the president’s dealings with Moscow and Beijing or his pressure on Kyiv and allied European capitals. But Europe simply cannot afford to fatalistically write off the next two years given the president’s powers and what is at stake for the continent in US foreign and defense policy.

TRESSA GUENOV, senior director for programs and operations at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, predicts that Democrats will have to face critical munitions stockpiles and associated defense production issues denied or ignored by Trump and to look into reports of inappropriate business practices within the DoD (or DoW – as Sec. Pete prefers). These fundamental issues won’t be easy to address and will require urgent bipartisan attention and rapid coordination across several committees before the new Congress is even sworn in this January.

THOMAS S. WARRICK, a nonresident senior fellow with the Adrienne Arsht National Security Resilience Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security who previously served as deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy in the Department of Homeland Security is calling for bipartisan progress on immigration policy as opposed to simple policing.

The United States needs a solution along the lines of the 2023–2024 bipartisan Senate compromise or the bipartisan Dignity Act. The 120^th Congress should update the 2024 compromise legislation, reallocate existing appropriations from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to other priorities, mandate a major shift in detention and asylum policy, and send it to the White House attached to whatever Trump considers must-pass legislation. Even if bipartisan immigration reform does not pass in 2027, it will help set the agenda for 2028.

LESLIE SHEDD, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and former senior adviser to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, cites the midterm losses of at least ten experienced Republican national security voices as the newcomers must decide how to deal with Israel, itself conflicted and facing an American Congress far less supportive of its causes and far more likely to cut military aid; intransigent Iranian jihadists and the question of if and how far should help for Ukraine be marshaled.

JASON MARCZAK, vice president and senior director at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, foresees a Venezuelan policy that would include investigations as could stretch from looking at who benefits from oil agreements to how revenues are managed and the legal authority for those arrangements, as well as greater scrutiny of the extent to which a pathway to a democratic transition is taking shape sponsored by the House Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees, and the Senate Foreign Relations, Banking, and Finance committees – especially now as elected-but-deposed President Machado has returned to face off, again, against Maduro Veep turned Trump trixie Delcy Rodriguez.

The liberal “Conversation” (Nov. 4^th, ATTACHMENT THIRTY SEVEN) declared that, following the blue wave, a new wave of investigations is likely to occur with a top target being the man they still call DefSec Hegseth. President Trump has defended his creation, so the world “should prepare itself for the possibility that a politically wounded and angry Trump could now decide to vent his frustrations abroad.”

Politico (4:45 AM, October 7th ATTACHMENT THIRTY EIGHT) dispatched early morning reporters Jordain Carney and Calen Razor to create sharp questions to two Supremes (Clarence Thomas, 78, and Samuel Alito, 76) whom many ‘Pubs are urging to retire... and do so now!... so that a lame duck Congress can confirm Trump’s replacements before a likely Democratic win in 2028. Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley and Majority Leader John Thune both said they'd race to confirm a late nominee in the event of a flip – but Alito told Bloomberg News in an interview published Tuesday that he would “stick around” at least until the court’s current term ends early next summer. Thomas, meanwhile, hasn’t publicly addressed his retirement plans in years and has otherwise given no signs of imminent plans to quit.

Even before the midterms, both men faced a mountain of pressure to consider stepping down, given the stakes. Politico’s reporters recall how Democrats “remain bitter over the Republican blockade of President Barack Obama’s final Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, and could block a fourth Trump justice.”

“One of the reasons we need to make sure that we do everything we can to take back the Senate is [to] not let Trump put such horrible justices, MAGA justices, on the Supreme Court and the lower courts,” Senate Minority Leader Schumer said. “A post-Nov. 3 announcement would be the first time since the 1922 retirement of Mahlon Pitney that a Supreme Court justice announced his or her departure in the lame-duck period after a midterm election, according to the Congressional Research Service; (such) announcement would kick off a chaotic sprint on Capitol Hill, giving Republicans just five scheduled session weeks to cobble together 50 votes for a Trump nominee.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) of the Judiciary Committee said he would “absolutely” support filling an end-of-year vacancy told Politico: “I can’t think of anything other than health,” that would cause a justice to quickly step down. Thune, too, added that if a justice had plans to retire, “They would have done it already.”

Unless, of course, ‘Pubs were just waiting to see if midterm results were bad enough to warrant it.

And now that the Senate has flipped (effective Jan, 3rd) Reuters (November 4, 2026 2:53 PM, ATTACHMENT THIRTY NINE) also raised the question of a lame-duck SCOTUS replacement (or two) as kindly konservative kommentators expressed koncerns about the “health prospects” of the two old Supremes.

Thomas has given no public indication of wanting to step down. Alito said last month he would remain for the duration of the current nine-month term, which began in October, even if Democrats were to retake the Senate. Thomas and Alito did not immediately respond to questions from Reuters about whether they are considering retiring.

'NAKEDLY POLITICAL'

Although justices mulling retirement often consider the politics of the president and party control of the Senate in making a decision, "they do not like to broadcast that they do so," Cornell Law School professor Michael Dorf said.

"Absent an acute health crisis," Dorf said, "a decision to retire in the next several months would appear, and would in fact be, so nakedly political that I doubt Justice Alito or Thomas would take it."

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a prominent Republican who mounted an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2024, wrote on social ‌media: "Chance of confirming a worthy successor to Justice Thomas and/or Alito during President Trump's term: Zero."

"If a Republican is elected president in 2028, that president will not be able to appoint any justices or judges until Republicans regain the Senate," said legal analyst Ed Whelan of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, who served as a Justice Department official under Republican President George W. Bush.

"Given the deep hole, that might not happen until 2033," Whelan said – when Thomas would be 84 and Alito 82... over the average retirement age of around 80 for Supreme Court justices but not by much.

Three justices have died in office this century. Conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist died in 2005 at age 80. Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016 at 79. Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020 at 87 after which Trump 1.0 and a Republican Senate confirmed Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett swiftly in the weeks after Ginsburg's death to build the court's current 6-3 conservative edge. Ginsburg's decision not to retire during Obama's presidency to clear the way for a like-minded successor was seen by many liberals as a serious miscalculation that led to a dramatically more conservative court.

Some conservative legal commentators addressed the possible political and actuarial implications if the pair do not risk the legacy damage of retiring and Democrats keep the Senate for years.

"The Senate is lost until 2032, so I hope Thomas and Alito got on their treadmills this morning," Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, wrote in a social media post.

Josh Hammer, a Newsweek podcaster and former clerk to Judge James Ho of the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote in a social media post: "I hope Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito have historically great health insurance plans."

And the liberal MS Now (Nov. 4, ATTACHMENT FORTY) said that, as of Election Eve, both justices had signaled they will not step down, with Alito telling Bloomberg that he plans to stay on at least through the current court term, which doesn’t end until after the new Senate majority is seated. If Thomas stays on through the following court term, he will become the longest-serving justice ever.

“Lame-duck Supreme Court confirmations might be unlikely this year. But they would not be shocking, in light of Republicans’ historical prioritization of the court and the uncertain future that otherwise lies ahead for the Trump-anointed legendary duo. They are in their late 70s, which is not terribly old by the court’s standards. But especially if a Democrat wins the White House in 2028, the pair would be into their 80s by the next potential time that a Republican president and Senate could replace them.”

MS Now cited not only the the death of Clinton-appointed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at 87 in September 2020 which allowed Trump and Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell to push through Barrett’s election year confirmation, but Joe Biden’s appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson after Justice Stephen Breyer, a Clinton appointee, retired at 83 amid pressure from the left to avoid another hostile takeover.

Thomas and Alito have no serious health concerns that are publicly known, though each was briefly hospitalized in recent years. Alito was treated for dehydration in March after feeling ill during an event in Philadelphia. Thomas missed arguments in cases in 2022 when he was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms.

So, MS NOW’s Jordan Rubin also raised the legacy issue – will the two soldier on until future retirement or death and, whatever partisans might make of their rulings, be remembered as honest men... or will they, like so many others, bend the knee to Trump and go away with their pensions and health insurance leaving behind scandalous and scoundrelous bequests to their friends, families and reputations?

Finally, Ed Whelan of the (old-school legacy) conservative National Review (Wednesday morning, post-midterms, ATTACHMENT FORTY ONE) listed the SCOTUS issue as Number One of his ten Confirmation Tales depressed (or, given the distaste for Donnie by the Buckley ghosts, perversely satisfied) that “(i)f a vacancy somehow arises, Trump will not be able to get a nominee confirmed.”

Further, his Number Two extended the Democratic revenge and retribution against a 2028 Republican victor (a Vance, a Rubio, Stephen Miller or other) to the entirety of at least his (or her) first term, as also would lower-court appointments be killed off by the angry donkeys. A Democratic President, however, would quickly appoint with Senatorial confirmation of any replacement for Sonia Sotomayor (who turns 75 in 2029).

The NR speculated that at least five ‘Pubs – maybe six (see Attachment) “aren’t going to be eager to support a MAGA nominee” as such a stunt would taint their legacies too.

BACK to the FUTURE

“After a huge win for Democrats, both parties now face a reckoning as they prepare for the 2028 presidential race – and the post-Trump era,” Laurel Rapp of the Chatham House Think Tank (November 5^th) ventured.

“President Trump will remain an enduring presence into the 2028 election cycle, especially on matters of foreign policy,” she penned, pending his health and sanity and fending off the prospect of a madman apocalypse, “(b)ut attention will increasingly move to his potential successors and the parties’ respective visions for the future.”

“Democrats face a competitive primary season for the first time in eight years. This offers an opportunity for genuine debate but also risks stoking significant infighting,” as Ms. Rapp cited the dangers of “ideological purity tests”, inter-partisan disputes over “Israel, use of military force, defence spending and immigration”... and that’s not even mentioning the kitchen table.

“Republicans, meanwhile, face the massive task of revitalizing a party defined by Trump for the last decade – while also managing his likely moves to compel loyalty and cement a MAGA succession plan.” Although unstated, another thirty some Senatorial seats and all the House mice running in ’28 run a risk of being punitively primaried should they fail to Millerize their response to Trump’s lame duck agenda despite the varied and visible general election legacies that Rapp counts off - expensive wars, tariff-related economic disruption and allegations of corruption.

On these issues, Rapp singled out foreign policy issues like Iran, Israel, military spending and immigration. Looking forward to potential progressive versus centrist candidates in 2028, Rapp first looked back to the “anointing of Biden/Harris in 2024 (which) denied the party the chance to grapple with genuine differences and work to shape an inclusive, representative platform” and the diversity has only grown deeper since.

The centrist/partisan divide will also affect the future of Trumpublicans – not to mention the MAGA movement to nominate “troubled, scandal-marred candidates like Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton and Ohio House incumbent Max Miller.” Republicans Of The Future (ROTFis) may also struggle to hold the caucus together and avoid backstabbing and defections, particularly in the midst of a likely barrage of Democrat investigations – some of which may elicit criminal charges for the next AyGee to pursue.

Trump will soon be departing after a decade, as Rapp hummed, of being the “darling of the right and foil for the left.” The central challenge for both Republicans and Democrats “will be not simply to reconstitute what has been broken, drawing on what worked in the past. Each will need a new vision.”

And who will be the eyes in the faces of 2028 aspirants of their respective parties (as well as, perhaps, some disgruntled radicals or centrists or radical centrists running as independents)? We’ll close out this lesson with profiles from the center-left Newsweek and center-right, increasingly Trump skeptical Fox.

Early in the morning with election results already showing manifestations of the Blue Wave, Newsweek solicited Costas Panagopoulos, a distinguished professor of political science at Northeastern University, who told Newsweek in a phone call before the election that it “would be premature to conclude that a Republican wipeout in 2026 would spell disaster for Republicans in 2028."

“Sometimes when a party loses big in the midterm election cycle,” he added, “they could still come around and remain in power or win the presidency in the following presidential year."

For Republicans, Newsweek’s Sam Stevenson wrote (ATTACHMENT FORTY THREE) implications will be greatest for Veep Vance.

"Republicans will need to do some soul-searching after the 2026 midterms about what the party looks like post-Trump and who is best positioned to reflect those shifts, if any," Panagopoulos said and while the most recent RealClearPolling average placed Vance at 38.6 percent, ahead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio at 26.4 percent, Donald Trump Jr. at 9.8 percent, and Ron DeSantis at 7.5 percent, Vance has also Vance has also acknowledged that he may not run, citing his four children and his wife’s dislike of politics. "Of course, there’s a chance," he said when asked whether he might sit out the race.

"If Republicans suffer big losses in 2026, my guess is that the president will be blamed, and by extension, so will anyone so closely linked to his administration and its policies, including the vice president and other high-profile members of his cabinet," Panagopoulos said.

As for the others, Rubio may be somewhat insulated by a foreign-policy role but must show that international prominence can translate into primary support.

“Trump Jr. possesses the family name but no government record, while DeSantis must persuade Republican voters to reconsider a candidate they rejected in 2024,” Stevenson wrote.

On the donkey-cide, RCP polling found Harris remains the early leader at 24.2 percent through Halloween.

“She was followed by Gavin Newsom at 14.2 percent, Pete Buttigieg at 13.1 percent and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at 11.8 percent...” Newsweek continued, then came Ossoff at 9.6 percent, “Shapiro at 5.5 percent, Andy Beshear at 4 percent and (J. B.) Pritzker at 3 percent.

The incumbents not running themselves, raised their profiles by stumping for fellow Dems across the country (see Attachment). The top five, Stevenson noted... as well as the sixth through ninth and some not even listed (like the DJI’s own choice, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona – like most others, undecided for now) “now have to show that their midterm activity generated money, turnout or organization rather than attention alone.”

After flipping at least seven Senate seats in ruby-red states and battleground, Fox (ATTACHMENT FORTY THREE) listed Ossoff atop its list of potential 2028 candidates after taking 59% of the midterm vote/ Gambling platform Polymarket placed his chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination at 24%. Behind him, AOC also strengthened her position following a re-election victory, gaining 78% of the vote in November, lifting her Polymarket odds to 15%.

Behind her came Newsome, who is term-limited and cannot seek another term. In September, he said his children would have the final say on whether he pursues a presidential campaign in 2028, according to Politico. Then, surprisingly, El Sayed,,, ahead of Harris “although questions about her 2024 loss and the party's future direction could complicate a bid,” and Shapiro.

With Trump constitutionally barred from seeking another term (and less and less likely to be able to overturn the 22^nd Amendment through repeal or revolution), Fox listed several prominent Republicans already being discussed as potential successors, although none has formally announced a presidential campaign.

Vance and Rubio, as with Newsweek, were considered the leaders with DeSantis, who also will be termed out after January, giving him time to consider a potential 2028 bid – when there will also be the same 435 Congressional seats up for election as well as 34 Senatorial contests: 19 seats currently held by Republicans and 15 held by Democrats.

AI OVERVIEWS upon reactions from person, nations and organizations regarding the midterms past and prospects future are listed as ATTACHMENT “A”, Abroad, CHINA promised to “continue working” with the winners, RUSSIA characterized the outcome as a “setback” for Bad Vlad’s friend, Trump while UKRAINE noted that "President Trump is still president," telling Counteroffensive News that both Putin and Trump "speak the same language," while still expressing hope “that Trump would focus on achieving a ceasefire after the elections.”

He might have mentioned Melania!

IRAN said no matter who was President, the war on America would continue but ISRAEL, facing its own electoral crisis and partisanship, posted statements from Netanyahu opposition leaders followed President Trump's Fox flip flop that the U.S. would end its $4 billion annual aid to Israel by late 2026,

The Euros expressed some hope that NATO would recover but a now embattled French Pres. Macron and his right-wing nemesis Marine Le Pen dodged comments or comparisons to America (although others called the results “excellent” for democracy; German Chancellor Merz said that Trump’s continual bypassing even a supportive Congress with EOs meant more of the same for two years and U.K. PM Andy Burnham said the Congressional flip presented “a global opportunity to unite around the cost-of-living crisis and end ongoing conflicts.”

Canadian PM Mark Carney expressed satisfaction that the results would lower the tariff temperatures and put an end to the fantasy of an American conquest of their “51^st state” while rejecting U.S. allegations from Ambassador Pete Hoekstra regarding Canadian interference in the midterms, “calling the accusations baseless and expressing disappointment in the envoy's comments.” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum highlighted the victories of political figures with Mexican roots, “specifically pointing to governor-elects Xavier Becerra in California and Gina Hinojosa in Texas, (and) expressing pride in the political participation of Mexican-Americans.” Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado denounced Socialism and thanked the Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for actions taken on January 3rd to depose Nicolás Maduro, stating it opened a "floodgate to freedom". (Trump-supported Maduro VP Delcey Rodriguez. And the Socialists and Communists in Cuba hailed the UN vote to condemn America’s economic embargo, leading to a brawl between Ambassador Mike Waltz and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla while Trump again raised the prospects of invasion.

Finally, Greenland characterized renewed White House promises to “acquire or annex” the large, but lightly populated island as “an attempt to pivot away from a difficult election night for the GOP, which saw Democrats make significant sweeps in Congress.”

Celebrities like George Clooney (who called the Trump administration a “Kakistocracy”) and revenants like Barack Obama also checked in – the former President with judgments that praised underdogs like Talarico and Troy Jackson and a statement from USA Today that voters want "a politics that brings people together rather than divides them, and leaders who offer concrete solutions to the challenges they face".

IN the NEWS: OCTOBER 30th to NOVEMBER 5th, 2026

Friday, October 30, 2026

Dow: 51,720.31

Headed into the midterms, Republicans contend that the e-con-me is improving; Dems say no. The GDP is up from 3.1 to 3.4% but, as wages fall behind inflation, luxury spending by the billionaires are up, spending on necessities is down. Record early voting: 44M versus 32M in 2022.

As the wars go on, more tankers slinking through the Straits and gas and oil prices are stable or even slightly down. Israeli PM Netanyahu led but failed to dominate, blames Arabic parties for “stealing the election” while Trump’s BFF Bad Vlad Putin predicts nuclear war. “If the EU wants war, we are ready.” Dmitrti Peskov adds: “But on Our terms,” rejecting the Ukrainian cease fire. At home, DefSec/WarSec Hegseck fires Gen. Brett Sylvia, the Pentagon's top military planner, for leaking bad words to the media, drawing disgust from the troops.

The Alaskan October surprise – a Democratic dirty trick in recruiting a Dan R. Sullivan to poach votes from Republican Dan S. to benefit donkey candidate Mary Peltola; the DoJ promises prosecutions while some may believe the Dems have lost their high moral ground to the benefit of Trump. Peltola does a Sergeant Schulz: “I know nothing!”

Overseas, Pope Leo hosts the Notre Dame v. Villanova hoops in Rome – ND beats Leo’s alma mater. Elsewhere in Italy, there are riots against the high cost of living, as are already burning in France and starting up all across the Old World especially among labor and youth as governments respond with mass arrests and beating.

Saturday, October 31, 2026

Dow: Closed

It’s Halloween and a spooky Wall Street tech plunge wipes out $1 trillion; some compare this to the Chinese economic meltdown. AI has become a major midterm issue as defenders say it is a “tool” for, not replacement of workers.

Flash floods are worse than ever as cars and homes and people are swept away from Baja Mexico north to Vegas with longer term forecasts predicting serious damage on election day.

Disasters include a fiery plane crash that kills 9 in Green Acres, Florida, while a mass shooting at the Sprit Halloween store in Fairfield, Cal while police kill pirate in wild shootout on a stolen yacht in the harbor at Newport, R.I.

ICE agent arrested for running down an alien and breaking his legs and ribs says they were hunting for a different migrants (who, it turns out, has been dead for nine years) and denies intentional murder, while other ICEmen attack and pistol whip a dog walker who tries to return the taser they were using on others.

(Lower) Fed courts sock it to the President as Trump’s lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for $10B for linking him to Jeffrey Epstein

Sunday, November 1, 2026

Dow: Closed

Daylight Savings time begins on Talkshow Sunday as The Week host asks: “is the US poised for backlash?” while Martha Raddatz finds red states like Texas endangered as Latinos are flipping against Trump and his ICEmen... wondering, now, whether angry Dems will vote or stay home.

The media unlooses its opinionators like Jonathan Karl, who says Democrats are playing defense in hope that Trump will alienate voters as he tells them to pretend he’s on the ballot. Trevor Ault cites Alaska’s ranked choice voting and the double Dans may mean it till take weeks to say who won the Congress. Jay O’Brien says Dems must focus on affordability and accountability, Speaker Mike predicts an upset; defeat would mean that voters were stupid; several others worry about DoJ prosecutions of election workers.

The ABC roundtablers agree that victory or defeat will come down to turnout, Donna Brazile cites the “Blacklash” on affordability after gerrymandering, former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (ND) says conservative farmer and businesses in the Midwest are angry at ICE worker roundups and tariffs, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy says polls are wrong because Republicans are afraid of polling and Democrats are not winning, Republicans are losing.

The Bern says Elon Musk is now richer than the bottom 53% of America while the Hill/News Nation panelists say that the swingin’est swing state voters are so afraid of DoJ prosecutions and MAGAmob thubs that they lie to pollsters.

Monday, November 2, 2026

Dow: 51,983.98

It’s the Day of the Dead south of the border and the end of the line for the politicians and their filthy, negative ads. President Trump turns to telecampaigning as he stays home by the (finally) repaired White House Reflecting pool, reflecting on old grievances and touting the greenness of the grass and also says he will not give any more arms to Israel after reading polls on the war and West Bank occupation.

A weekend of drivel drives many to distractions, of which there are plenty. 60,000 New Yorkers run in the marathon and, although a 24 year old girl drops dead, most finish safely. Winners are Sweden's Andreas Almgren and Kenya's Sheila Chepkirui. Gabby Williams leads the Golden State Valkyries to victory over the Atlanta Dream in a 7 game WNBA final while, at nite, Da Bears upset defending NFL champs Seattle. Harry Styles finishes his Mad Square residency dressed as Elvis Presley and a rat and, while “You Can See Everything” defeats “Clayface” with a weak, spooky, 10.6M Hollywood B.O.. there are hits aplenty on the way... sequels to the Avengers, Zootopia, Prada and Frozen and, on the toob, Matt Damon and David Letterman guest on the “Gilded Age” and new seasons begin for “All’s Fair”, “Nobody Wants This” and “Traitors”.

Presumed NoKo hackers steal billions in crypto in what authorities call “the biggest bank robbery in history” while skeptics as: “but is it money?” Crypto, AI and especially data centers are influencing many local elections as voters fear loss of water and higher energy bills.

As flooding replaces drought in the Four Corners states and in Florida, in and around Mar-a-Lago, Donnie and Melania are grateful that they voted early – two weeks ago.

Tuesday, November 3, 2026

Dow: 51,786.72

The blue wave sweeps over America as Republicans are reduced to pinning their hopes on Mr. Veto, Mr. E. O. and the Supremes while Democrats celebrate and some begin thinking about 2028.

The bad news is that Pubs fail to get enough souls to the polls and, while some say “the enemy is here and we have to get rid of them,” asses, like Styles-ish rats, prove difficult to exterminate.

The good news, the media say, is that early voters (58M strong) prompt the beginning of the era of end of the era of the sore loser as even the most angry Republicans say they accept the results. But will Trump (as MAGA releases new red caps with the word “Veto”)? Other say the next two years will be “something else” as sore winners celebrate with denunciations and there is risk that critical legislation like the budgets and foreign policy will be held hostage by partisans.

Yet the best news is that all of the filthy jibber jabber electioneering is over – for another two years!

Wednesday, November 4, 2026, 2026

Dow: 53,356.12

Donkeys celebrate, ‘Pubs snarl as blue waves rise out of the “seismic earthquake” full of historic first rattles the men, the media and the markets as both House and Senate flip and the unlikeliest of developments develop. Kansas goes blue for the first time in 94 years. Deep red Mississippi’s Senatorial candidate Scott Colom leads by 43 votes with counting still going on, Alaskan double dip Peltola by about a thousand. President Trump continues to deny reality, but Veep Vance admits, “it was the war.”

Leo becomes the first Papal American voter and huddles with Bob Dylan (in a black cloak that some compare to evil Emperor Palpatine) while stocks soar skywards (unlike the ancient 22 year old space station which crashes to earth off Indonesia), the granddaughter of MLK turns 18 and votes for the first time.

Seventeen women become Governors, a Texas near-sweep leaves Ted Cruz the only high sheriff left as despised James Talarico surmounts acres of money (much of which was supplied by Elon Musk, who spent over half a billion to win three races and lose 29) and denounces “corrupt forever wars” and the masked men at crooked poker games. Voters in Florida and the Four Corners brave torrential storms; New York enters a fourth week of drought and Socialist Mayor Mandabi congratulates Jihadist El Sayed in Michigan where the irony is that Veep Vance will have to swear him in.

But at least there’s some good news for the President – he won’t have to pay out the $5,000 per capita had the Congress remained MAGA. Votes are still being counted as night falls and then...

Thursday, November 5, 2026

Dow: 51,523.06

...the numbers are confirmed (exept in Mississippi and Alaska). Dems hold majorities of ten Senatorial seats and 92 in the House – the irrepressible Don Trump tosses out new “Mister Veto” hats while Cabineteers and Supremes figure their futures. After what Florida Gov. Ron calls the “extinction-level event,” Speaker Mike says he will not run for Minority Leader and the vengeful asses begin plotting impeachment strategies (still probably out of reach re: POTUS but viable for DefSec/WarSec Hegseck who continues the shadow war with Iran and MWAAHAA Bobby Junior.

Oil prices are down, jobs up but investors, especially the techsters who now realize that the blue tsunami sweeping over state and local gumments mean hard times for data centers and AI job killing robots and the Dow, NYSE and techly S&P all lose back what they gained yesterday – and more. Foreigners, at least those still calling themselves democracies, are cautiously optimistic... but anxious that a lame duck Trump might take his pity party nuclear despite Melania out diplomatting the inept Witkoff and Jared by achieving a cease fire in the starving Uke city of Olesha. (Why wasn’t she the one calling for voters to pretend she was on the ballot, say the losers.) President Zelenskyy carefully congratulates the blues, Sad Vlad Putin sulks, bombs Uke school to kill children and plots revenge on America with Iran and NoKo while China pauses to look the situation over, then goes back to making stuff to make money as the tariff walls tremble.

Not making money: investors. Wednesday’s “sea of green” turns to “sea of red” as stocks... especially tech like Nvidia (losing a tril)... crash over fears Dems will impose regulations on data centers. Non tech losers include CVS and John Deere and the UAE sponsored rebel LIV golf league pronounced DED as defectors like Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau (still owed $5.77 million) wonder whether the PGA will let them return.

As more killers kill and robbers rob, CaliGov Newsome kicks off his ’28 campaign by commuting the executions of over five hundred mass murderers and lethal pedophiles, outraging the victims’ families (like Marc, father of Polly Klass) and giving elephantine and Palpatinian aspirants hope for a better future on a law and order and death platform in 2028, despite Trump’s denial he won’t seek dictatorship.

DefSec/WarSec Hegseck vows nobody will take his job... not the voters, not Congress... (and not even Trump!).

On Wednesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1,569.40 points, or 3.03%, to close at 53,356.12 on November 4, 2026, driven by a post-midterm election relief rally after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress.

Market Overview and Midterm Reaction

Dow Jones Performance: The 30-stock index jumped 1,569.40 points (3.03%) to finish at 53,356.12, marking its best single-day performance since April 2025.
Broader Indices: The S&P 500 rose 1.58% to 7,688.62, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.44% to 25,736.51.
Catalysts: Investors cheered the prospect of a divided government, which historically reduces the likelihood of radical policy overhauls. A sharp drop in crude oil prices (with Brent falling more than 8% amid hopes for a resolution to the Iran conflict) and lower Treasury yields also boosted overall risk appetite.

AI Sector and Tech Divergence

Data Center & Chip Pressure: The artificial intelligence trade faced distinct headwinds due to concerns over tighter regulatory scrutiny and potential restrictions on the rapid AI data-center buildout under a Democratic-led Congress. Semiconductor shares fell, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF dropping 1% and chip leader Nvidia slipping nearly 2%. Smaller neocloud and data center firms like CoreWeave dropped over 10%.
Big Tech Relief: Selected "Magnificent Seven" heavyweights—including Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms—advanced as investors rotated away from capital-intensive infrastructure plays into more defensive or software-centric giants. Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) held steady after issuing strong quarterly results that briefly eased broader spending anxiety.
Tesla & SpaceX Decline: Elon Musk-backed Tesla (-3.3%) and SpaceX (-3.8% to -4.8%) lagged behind as markets weighed the political fallout for high-profile Republican donors.

But, on Thursday the stock market tanked amid concerns that a shift in congressional political control following the U.S. midterm elections could slow the construction of data centers that power artificial intelligence services.

Stocks sank across the board, but technology companies with a hand in the AI sector were hit especially hard. The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 1,422 points, or 5.5%, to close at 24,315. The drop means the tech-heavy index is now in a "correction," or down more than 10% from its most recent all-time high, set in October.

The broader S&P 500 dropped 335 points, or 4.4%, to end at 7,354, while the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,833 points, or 3.4%.

THE DON JONES INDEX

CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000

(REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013)

Gains in indices as improved are noted in GREEN. Negative/harmful indices in RED as are their designation. (Note – some of the indices where the total went up created a realm where their value went down... and vice versa.) See a further explanation of categories HERE

ECONOMIC INDICES (60%) THE WEEK’S CLOSING STATS...

CATEGORY

VALUE

BASE

LAST

CHANGE

NEXT

VALUE (ORIG.)**

CHANGE (to JAN – JUNE 2026) from 100%

JULY 17

Reconfigured

October 23rd

LAST WEEK

THIS WEEK

OUR SOURCES and COMMENTS

INCOME

(24%)

6/17/13*

% UP – DOWN

Wages (hrly. Per cap)

1350

10/23/26

+0.050%

11/26

1,909.78

70.89%

1,353.92

1,360.04

1,366.87

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/average-hourly-earnings 37.81 38.00

Median Inc. (yearly)

600

10/23/26

+0.055%

11/6/26

1,474.31

40.75%

600.80

601.46

605.04

605.38

605.72

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 68,460 503 535 573

Unempl. (BLS – in mi)

600

10/23/26

+2.439%

11/26

555.52

614.28

629.26

http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000/ 4.2 4.1

Official (DC – in mi)

300

10/23/26

+0.156%

11/6/26

216.73

299.92

309.27

309.70

310.31

310.79

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 6,993 7,086 7,078 069 058

Unofficl. (DC – in mi)

300

10/23/26

-0.0075%

11/6/26

259.80

299.62

284.26

320.74

320.78

320.80

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 13,197 12,426 2,425 423 422

Workforce Participation

Number

Percent

300

10/23/26

+0.006%

-0.56%

11/6/26

295.81

299.98

298.74

298.71

298.44

296.77

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ In 162,678 3,129 121 111 100 Out 106,898 5,393 429 671 5,520 Total: 269,576 522 550 782 620

60.346 334 .516 460 122

WP % (ycharts)*

150

10/23/26

+0.651%

10/26

149.25

149.27

150.00

https://ycharts.com/indicators/labor_force_participation_rate 61.40 .80

OUTGO

(15%)

Total Inflation

1050

10/23/26

+0.4%

8/26

901.77

1050

1052.10

1037.35

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +.4 .9

Food

300

10/23/26

+0.1%

8/26

257.37

300

299.40

298.89

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +.1 0.0

Gasoline

300

10/23/26

+3.9%

8/26

181.96

300

320.10

287.73

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +3.9 9.1

Medical Costs

300

10/23/26

-0.2%

8/26

267.14

300

300.30

298.20

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm -0.2 +0.3

Shelter

300

10/23/26

+0.3%

8/26

238.38

300

299.70

297.31

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm +0.3 .4

WEALTH

(6%)

Dow Jones Index

300

10/23/26

+0.461%

11/6/26

400.18

299.80

295.37

303.79

300.77

299.38

https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/index/ 52,056.60 52,867.88 52,342.56 51,523.06 51,285.73

Home (Sales)

(Valuation)

150

10/23/26

+0.25%

-2.70%

11/6/26

137.08

155.60

154.17

152.61

158.23

147.79

146.81

147.79

146.81

147.79

146.81

https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics

Sales (M): 3.98 .99 Valuations (K): 429.1 417.5

Millionaires (New Cat,)

150

10/23/26

+0.065%

11/6/26

137.72

150.15

150.32

160.58

160.67

160.77

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 24,508 523 535 549 565

Paupers (New Category)

150

10/23/26

+0.035%

11/6/26

134.69

149.92

149.82

145.18

145.13

145.08

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 37,116 129 139 151 164

GOVERNMENT

(10%)

Revenue (trilns.)

300

10/23/26

+0.074%

11/6/26

485.69

300.85

301.77

292.73

292.89

293.11

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 5,537 543 415 418 422

Expenditures (tr.)

300

10/23/26

-0.108%

11/6/26

287.16

299.59

298.86

290.01

289.70

289.39

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 7,456 465 421 429 437

National Debt (tr.)

450

10/23/26

+0.180%

11/6/26

344.44

448.90

446.23

432.99

431.61

430,83

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 40,257 330 395 524 597

Aggregate Debt (tr.)

450

10/23/26

+0.235%

11/6/26

352.67

448.15

445.20

434.59

433.70

432.68

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 115,997 6,270 476 716 989

TRADE

(5%)

Foreign Debt (tr.)

300

10/23/26

-0.039%

11/6/26

252.18

295.57

293.90

301.03

300.93

299.71

http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 9,356 359 361 364 401

Exports (in billions)

150

10/23/26

-1.40%

11/26

197.73

145.70

137.24

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 315.2 NC

Imports (in billions))

150

10/23/26

-5.06%

11/26

130.49

145.32

139.14

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 420.6

Trade Surplus/Deficit (blns.)

150

10/23/26

-16.10%

11/26

182.61

108.06

84.07

https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/current/index.html 105.6

SOCIAL INDICES

(40%)

Events of the Week

ACTS of MAN

(15%)

World Affairs

450

10/23/26

+0.2%

11/6/26

466.24

448.20

448.65

443.82

444.71

445.60

Forced into runoff, Israeli PM Netanyahu says Arabs stole the election. Italian protesters join French and more in cost of living riots; gumment says “many had been drinking.” The Eiffel tower is closed

War and terrorism

300

10/23/26

+0.2%

11/6/26

280.07

298.80

298.22

292.58

293.16

293.77

Facing Election Day, President Trump calls Iran war “peanuts” and halts aid to Israel which both fails to please anti-Semites and drives Jews back to the sane, old Democrats. Wars and terror continue, but under the radar for now until POTUS decides what to do next.

Politics

450

10/23/26

-0.3%

11/6/26

450.15

448.20

447.75

442.40

441.07

In wake of midterms, oil prices drop to under $90/barrel – gas and diesel expected to follow but tech... and in particular the data centers and AI merchers lost their shirts.

Economics

450

10/23/26

-0.1%

11/6/26

426.64

450.00

449.55

442.41

441.53

441.09

With Halloween and midterms over, merchers turn to Christmas. Defenders say AI is a “tool” and not a “replacement” for workers (like in automated retail checkout lines). Hard times for John Deere, CVA and Midterms, otherwise called an epoch of equality... LIV golf; dozens of Shrimp Baskets and Hardees closing. DoorDash closes deal to buy Instacart for $17B.

Crime

150

10/23/26

-0.2%

11/6/26

201.34

149.55

149.40

147.32

147.17

146.88

Mass shootings: 19 (4 deaths) over Dallas Halloween, 7 at Spirit store in Solano, Ca, 9 at Alabama football game. Gunman kills woman then is killed himself at a Citibank in Tampa, mailwoman goes postal in Cedar Rapids, two deputies shot in Spokane domestic violence case, escaped Tennessee killer captured in Kansas City, Cleveland pitchers arrested for throwing pitches to help gamblers.

ACTS of GOD

Environment/Weather

450

10/23/26

-0.1%

11/6/26

275.85

447.30

446.85

440.63

440.19

Flash floods batter Four Corners and Florida for days; cars swept away by storms in Baja headed north to Vegas (where Jerry Seinfeld is going back for a residency). Two killed in and around Port St. Lucie but over 60 saved after 38” of rain this week force homeowners to hide atop stoves and cabinets – by today, “200 year floods” raise rivers 18’ on the Georgia/Tennessee border.

Disasters

450

10/23/26

-0.1%

11/6/26

463.08

450.00

449.55

451.35

450.90

450.45

Failing 22 year old space shuttle crashes to Earth near Indonesia; fiery plane crash that kills nine in Green Acres, FL blamed on weather and then tail falloff, not terror; deadly copter crashes on Mt. Everest and, at home, in Miami. Director Michael Mann “Heat” accidentally shoots self, but survives. In better news, heroes on horseback save an autistic 6 year old from death in the woods,

LIFESTYLE/JUSTICE INDEX

15%

Science, Tech, Education

600

10/23/26

-0.3%

11/6/26

617.97

600.00

596.40

597.59

595.81

Four NASAtronauts finish 320 days in simulated Mars landing some compare to Pauly Shore’s “BioDome”. Creaky old ISS finally crashes off the coast of Indonesia. Tech stocks crash Thursday after gains on Wednesday: Nvidia loses 22% – worst in 40 years and compared to the Chinese meltdown as Chinese spy girl targets CEO Jensen Huang. Record 6B cyberheist from Binance, presumably by NoKo hackers. called the biggest bank robbery ever. AI videos fingered in faked footage for vacation rentals.

Equality (econ/social)

600

10/23/26

+0.5%

11/6/26

675.06

603.00

600.61

603.63

Midterms called a epoch for equality... women, black, Latino and gay challengers win.

Health

600

10/23/26

-0.1%

11/6/26

440.46

595.06

591.85

593.05

592.45

“Wired” merching Death Clocks that tell how long you’ll live for $69. Rare amoebic disease in Louisiana tap water, measles kills NY child, bird flu takes human in Yakima, Wa. FDA says energy drinks kill, TV docs say new, aggressive form of colon cancer hitting young adults. Over a million Ford 150s recalled for “unexpected downshifting”. “Mombies” moms in Fairfield, CT do undead dance to raise $ for breast cancer research.

Freedom and Justice

450

10/23/26

11/6/26

477.76

449.55

445.52

445.07

Fed court throws out Trump’s EpFiles slander suit against Wall Street Journal, Virginia sues to block Trump Arch. In civil legal matters, McD’s McRib sued for having no rib meat, just “alternative” cuts of pork, Crichton widow sues The Pitt for copying ER, commissioning Noah Wyle to play another doctor; in criminal, old cold cases (Clancey, Jon Benet) percolate while Diddy prosecutor Jacqueline Kelly takes over as AyGee in Cornell rape cases and actor Russell Brand convicted of no no’s.

CULTURAL and MISCELLANEOUS INCIDENTS

Cultural and mortality incidents

600

10/23/26

+0.1%

11/6/26

595.85

450.45

455.40

453.58

454.13

After World Series win, Milwaukee celebrates Brew Crew. The Pope in Rome holds secret meeting with Bob Dylan after Villanova alum Leo hosts Roman game with Notre Dame but loses – as does James Thomas (78), last to finish NY marathon won by Andreas Almgren and Sheila Chepkirui... celebrities trick or treat in Hollywood to promote next Avengers movie

RIP: actors Elke Sommer, CBS VP Linda Mason, Mets pitcher Jerry Koosman, R(etire)IP, newsman Bill Ritter with Alzheimers,

Miscellaneous incidents

450

10/23/26

+0.1%

11/6/26

555.05

450.90

455.25

456.16

456.61

British man can and does walk 31,000 miles around the world. Living dead toddler found alive in Arizona morgue.

The Don Jones Index for the week of October 30th through November 5th, 2026 was UP 16.64 points

The Don Jones Index is sponsored by the Coalition for a New Consensus: retired Congressman and Independent Presidential candidate Jack “Catfish” Parnell, Chairman; Brian Doohan, Administrator. The CNC denies, emphatically, allegations that the organization, as well as any of its officers (including former Congressman Parnell, environmentalist/America-Firster Austin Tillerman and cosmetics CEO Rayna Finch) and references to Parnell’s works, “Entropy and Renaissance” and “The Coming Kill-Off” are fictitious or, at best, mere pawns in the web-serial “Black Helicopters” – and promise swift, effective legal action against parties promulgating this and/or other such slanders.

Comments, complaints, donations (especially SUPERPAC donations) always welcome at feedme@generisis.com or: speak@donjonesindex.com.

ATTACHMENT ONE - FROM MARCA

What are the payouts and refunds you could get after the Midterm Elections? Every proposal of different candidates

Donald Trump has put several potential payments at the centre of the Republican midterm campaign, including $500 healthcare refunds and a proposed $5,000 dividend

by 30/10/2026 - 06:34 CDT

Donald Trump turns the White House into the setting for Halloween: candy, costumes, and even an Air Force One flight

Trump's national security warning: Golf course deemed "deadly danger" to White House staff

With the November 3 midterm elections approaching, financial relief has become an important part of the political debate in the United States.

President Donald Trump has promoted several potential payments to Americans, ranging from healthcare refunds already being distributed to a much larger cash dividend that would depend on the outcome of the elections.

The proposals have attracted attention from voters struggling with rising living costs, but there is an important distinction between payments that are already being issued and promises that remain uncertain.

One of the most concrete initiatives is Trump's $500 Affordable Care Act (ACA) refund.

Announced in September, the programme is intended to return money to approximately 950,000 Americans across 30 states who purchased health insurance through the federal marketplace without receiving premium assistance.

The Treasury Department began sending the payments in October. However, eligibility is limited: people must have enrolled in qualifying coverage through HealthCare.gov during 2026 and paid their premiums without receiving federal premium tax credits. Residents of states operating their own insurance exchanges are excluded.

The administration describes the payments as a refund of excess marketplace user fees that were collected through insurance premiums. The White House says the money accumulated during the Biden administration and is now being returned to consumers.

Nevertheless, the initiative has attracted criticism over how many Americans will benefit. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) estimates that the payments will reach only around 5% of people enrolled in ACA marketplace plans.

It has also highlighted that the $500 amount may be considerably smaller than the premium increases experienced by many households during 2026.

TRUMP'S PROPOSED $5,000 DIVIDEND AND OTHER POTENTIAL PAYMENTS

The most ambitious promise is a proposed $5,000 payment to every adult American citizen if Republicans retain control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate following the midterms.

Trump announced the idea during the Republican Party's first midterm convention in Dallas on September 9. He described it as a dividend reflecting the country's economic performance and suggested tariff revenue could help finance the payments.

However, the proposal is far from guaranteed. Estimates suggest that distributing $5,000 to approximately 240 million adult citizens could cost around $1.2 trillion or more.

Congress would need to approve the spending, and questions remain over whether tariff revenue could realistically cover the bill.

The idea has also encountered resistance from some Republicans. Critics have warned that borrowing such a large amount could increase the national debt and potentially add pressure to inflation.

Senator Bernie Moreno has expressed support for preparing legislation, but there is no approved programme or confirmed payment date.

Trump has also returned to the idea of tariff-funded payments of up to $2,000 for eligible Americans. That proposal has been discussed previously, but it has not become an approved nationwide payment scheme.

The Supreme Court's decision against key tariffs has also complicated the argument that tariff revenue could finance such a dividend.

Other financial initiatives have also featured in Trump's wider campaign messaging. These include proposed government investment accounts for children, with $1,000 contributions for eligible children born between 2025 and 2028, as well as potential payments connected to healthcare and other government programmes. However, these should not be confused with universal cash refunds available to every voter.

For Democrats and other candidates, affordability remains a major campaign issue, but the proposals highlighted in these reports do not establish a comparable nationwide $5,000 payment offer from an opposing candidate.

Democrats have instead criticised the limited reach of the healthcare refunds and argued that they do not compensate for the higher costs many families are facing.

Ultimately, Americans should not assume that voting in November will automatically make them eligible for a new government payment.

The $500 healthcare refunds are a specific initiative with restricted eligibility, while the $5,000 dividend and other proposed payouts still face political, financial and legislative obstacles. The election result could influence whether some of these ideas advance, but none of the larger promised payments is guaranteed.

Who do you vote for in Midterm Elections? Every race that will be decided next Tuesday

What is Biden's move from the White House like and the entry of Donald and Melania Trump?

Defying the 22nd Amendment: Trump Claims He Has a 'Right' to Run in 2028 Because 'They Cheated Me' in 2020

ATTACHMENT TWO - FROM FOX

MIDTERMS UNLEASH WHAT MAY BE THE NASTIEST BARRAGE OF ATTACK ADS YET

Ken Paxton's AI-generated spot and Vivek Ramaswamy's personal ad draw fact-checkers and bipartisan criticism alike

Published October 26, 2026 3:00am EDT

Kamala Harris says Democrats have ‘been pissed’ for the last year and a half

Fox News correspondent CB Cotton reports on former Vice President Kamala Harris’ comments while campaigning for New Hampshire Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Chris Pappas on ‘Fox Report.’

It’s last-minute garbage time as the midterms are just over a week away, with candidates uncorking their dirtiest ads, their filthiest charges and their ugliest rhetoric.

This barrage is fueled as never before by social media and a surging public interest, since any one of a dozen states could tip the battle for Senate control.

I feel like taking a shower.

The chairman of Montana’s Democratic Party, Shannon O’Brien, just resigned, underscoring the extreme sensitivity to national politics. The party, she said in an MS NOW essay, "is more divided than ever, not because of our values but because of the race for the U.S. Senate … The winner of this race will almost certainly vote on a nominee to the Supreme Court."

THE NINE KEY RACES THAT WILL DECIDE WHO CONTROLS THE SENATE, AND WHERE THEY STAND

O’Brien said there are "real questions" about the Democratic candidate’s views on such issues as abortion and poverty.

Virginia’s Democratic state Senator L. Louise Lucas was just indicted on federal charges including racketeering conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, related to her co-ownership of a cannabis business.

The probe predates the Trump administration, but Lucas vowed to fight back: "I grew up under Jim Crow. I’ve seen what happens when people in power try to silence those who stand up to them."

It’s like an echo chamber. President Trump has already nationalized the election by saying people should vote as if he’s on the ballot and barnstorming with increasingly tough talk about the Democrats.

A local council member in suburban Des Moines, Shellie Flockhart, appeared in an ad ripping a Democratic candidate as "just plain dangerous" for kids — but the Washington Post reported that she once pleaded guilty to child endangerment after driving drunk with two of her children.

A Vanity Fair report alleging secret foreign financial dealings by Jared Kushner has prompted his attorney to threaten legal action and demand evidence supporting the claims.

A splashy piece in Vanity Fair, containing allegations against Jared Kushner, just happened to come out now, prompting Kushner’s lawyer to put the magazine on notice of a potential lawsuit.

The attorney for the president’s son-in-law argued that Vanity Fair had failed after repeated requests to produce "a single bank statement, wire transfer record, account number, or other verifiable evidence supporting these extraordinary accusations."

DNC LAWSUIT ACCUSES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OF DIVERTING $20M IN FEDERAL FUNDS FOR 'PROPAGANDA' ADS

The article, which Kushner calls "completely insane," is based on a forthcoming book claiming that Russian security services hacked his phone, disclosing $700 million in secret foreign transactions, and that his signature is on an account set up by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The timing sounds more than coincidental.

After decades of political coverage, I immediately knew that the toxic ad by Vivek Ramaswamy — featuring Democrat Amy Acton’s long-estranged mother calling her a liar — would be more than just an issue in the Ohio governor’s race. I sensed that it would quickly become a national referendum on sleaziness.

The mother, Donna Arthur, sided with her second husband, even though Cledith Arthur was indicted for raping Amy Acton when she was 12 years old. The couple disappeared, and the stepfather was never tried before his death. Acton has had no contact with her mother since 1978.

To their credit, many Republicans, led by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, have denounced the ad. Trump has defended it as fair game, saying he doesn’t know anything about a stepfather and that Democrats would certainly use such an ad against him.

In far lesser-known races, the mudslinging grows by the day.

In Texas, Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz is sending a torrent of emails about her opponent, saying "Bobby Pulido is unfit to serve in Congress." When his fellow bandmate "was arrested on a child rape charge, Bobby went to his uncle, the crooked district attorney, and the charge disappeared along with three other felonies. Gone."

‘CAN’T TRUST AMY ACTON’: VIRAL AD DISTRACTS FROM WHAT’S REALLY AT STAKE IN CRITICAL RACE, GOP STRATEGIST SAYS

Pulido told Politico that he never knew about his onetime accordionist’s child molestation charges more than a decade ago.

"I’ve apologized for everything that I’ve ever joked about that offended anybody … There’s a lot of tweets in there that I’m embarrassed of. There’s jokes that I’ve told that I apologize for," he said.

But the Washington Free Beacon says Pulido "has given shifting stories and conflicting information surrounding his child molester bandmate."

In the more prominent Senate race in Texas between Ken Paxton and James Talarico, the attorney general has been running an AI-generated spot saying his Democratic opponent "voted for an income tax" and "Texans can’t afford Talarico’s radical agenda."

Fact-checkers call the income tax charge false, and Talarico’s response ad says, "I don’t have to use AI, because the truth about Ken Paxton is bad enough."

But how many voters, in Texas and across the country, will take the time to sort out such charges and counter-charges? How many will just tune out the high-decibel attacks? How many will hit the mute button?

Personally, I feel numb after scrutinizing the seemingly endless barrage on the airwaves. I fact-checked ads for five presidential cycles, but this is dirtier and more unhinged than ever.

And the crucial question for 2026: How many voters will just stay home?

ATTACHMENT THREE - FROM NEW YORK POST

MIDTERM VOTERS FORCED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN ALLEGED ADULTERERS, ABUSERS, CRIMINALS AND OTHER ETHICALLY CHALLENGED POLS

By Ryan King Published Oct. 30, 2026 Updated Oct. 30, 2026, 7:13 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — They can’t all be winners.

On Election Day, millions of voters across the country will be forced to decide whether to elect ethically or criminally challenged candidates as they juggle their political and moral priorities.

From allegations of adultery and abuse to criminal indictments, a number of midterm candidates on both sides of the aisle managed to survive their primaries or had scandals emerge after securing their party’s nomination, creating a dilemma for voters.

Here are some of the most scandalous pols on the ballot Nov. 3:

Max Miller

Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) is facing accusations that he abused his ex-wife, Emily Moreno — the daughter of Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) — including that he shoved her during a Feb. 1 custody exchange this year, and deliberately dumped hot water on her in 2024.

The Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services also launched an investigation earlier this year after the couple’s 2-year-old daughter suffered a broken collarbone, but opted not to bring charges.

Miller has vehemently denied the allegations, which came to light during his nasty custody fight with Emily, and declined to drop out of the race ahead of an August deadline — despite his own former father-in-law calling on him to resign and seek psychological help.

AG Letitia James fixated on Trump — not policy — at last-minute campaign stop with Rep. Jasmine Crockett

Trump gives blunt, one-word answer on if he’ll resume Iran strikes after midterms

Haley Stevens’ mom rips misogynistic trolls who say Jewish fiancé to blame for El-Sayed stunner

Miller previously faced abuse accusations from another ex-girlfriend, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who he sued for defamation. The case was eventually settled before trial.

The congressman’s northeast Ohio district, which voted for President Trump by 11 points in 2024, is now seen as a toss-up.

Ken Paxton

Texas Senate hopeful Ken Paxton is facing a really tight election in a red state.Getty Images

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been haunted by a string of scandals, including cheating on his state senator wife, a securities fraud indictment in 2015, accusations of giving preferential treatment to a donor, and allegations of misappropriating public resources.

Paxton was impeached by the GOP-led Texas state House in 2023 and narrowly escaped conviction by the state Senate.

Now he faces a shockingly competitive Senate race against state Rep. James Talarico, who is trying to be the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Texas since 1988.

Ilhan Omar

“Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar has accused the Trump administration of weaponizing government against her.James Keivom for NY Post

“Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) had her DC home raided by the feds on Columbus Day and is believed to be facing a federal probe into whether or not she engaged in a conspiracy to commit immigration fraud alongside other members of her family.

Ilhan Omar's relative timeline

Significant dates into Rep. Ilhan Omar’s past relationships, which point to a potential sham marriage with her brother.

· 1981 or 1982 — Ilhan Omar is born in Mogadishu, Somalia. Her birth year is in dispute — there are allegations she made herself a year younger to later qualify for citizenship as a minor.

· 1995 — After four years in a refugee camp in Kenya because of the Somalian civil war, Omar and her family emigrate to the US.

· 2002 — Omar marries Ahmed Hirsi (right) in an Islamic ceremony. They applied for a marriage license, but, she said, “we never finalized the application and thus were never legally married.” They have two children.

· 2009 — Omar marries Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Evidence points to Elmi being her brother, and that she married him so he could legally live in the US after the family wanted him out of the UK.

· 2012 — Omar still lived with Hirsi during this time, witnesses told the Post, and they had a third child this year. Elmi also reportedly leaves Minnesota this year.

· 2016 — The FBI and Department of Homeland Security investigate claims Omar married her brother, as she runs for Minnesota’s legislature.

· 2017 — Omar’s divorce from Elmi is finalized.

· 2018 — Omar officially marries Hirsi. She runs for Congress for the first time and wins.

· 2019 — Omar leaves Hirsi for Tim Mynett (left), a political consultant who is paid by her campaign. They marry the next year.

· 2021 — A Biden-appointed US Attorney in Minnesota officially shuts down the investigation into Omar’s alleged immigration fraud.

In 2000, her father obtained his citizenship, a privilege that was extended to Omar, who was believed to be 17 at the time. Federal law enforcement officials are apparently investigating whether she was actually 18 when her father was naturalized, and thus ineligible for the minor benefit.

As part of the alleged conspiracy, the feds are also looking into whether Omar married her brother to help him secure a green card. Omar has denied both accusations and claimed that she is the victim of government weaponization due to her criticism of the Trump administration.

LaMonica McIver

Rep. LaMonica McIver is facing a criminal indictment for allegedly trying to impede law enforcement at an ICE facility.AP

Last year, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) was charged with trying to block authorities from arresting Newark Mayor Ras Baraka during an oversight trip to the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in that city.

She was charged with assaulting, impeding, and interfering with law enforcement. McIver claimed to have turned down a plea deal with the feds and has since pleaded not guilty.

Her attempts to dismiss the case were rejected, including by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Similar to Omar, McIver has contended that she is the victim of government weaponization.

Henry Cuellar

Rep. Henry Cuellar got a surprise pardon from President Trump last year.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who represents a competitive district on the outskirts of San Antonio, was indicted in May 2024 on charges of bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy after allegedly taking $600,000 from the Azerbaijani government and a Mexican bank.

Prosecutors alleged the money was funneled to Cuellar through a complex network of shell companies in exchange for him promising to influence US foreign policy in Azerbaijan’s favor while sitting on a key House Appropriations subcommittee.

In a stunning move, Trump pardoned Cuellar in December of last year, though the president later expressed regret that the congressman didn’t change parties in return.

Cuellar has denied wrongdoing.

Bobby Pulido

House candidate Bobby Pulido has faced a string of controversies over his raunchy past social media posts. A Latin Grammy winner Bobby Pulido has been haunted by revelations of his raunchy social media history in which he has made sexually suggestive posts about women, as well as anti-gay comments.

“I want a photo of your tit signed by @grupo_pesado,” Pulido wrote in Spanish in one ribald 2014 X post.

In 2017, the singer expressed his thoughts on homosexuals by telling a male admirer: “1. I don’t like those guys. 2. You can’t have children. 3. Stop being a jerk already.”

Pulido has defended the many past sordid posts as jokes that didn’t survive Google Translate.

He also faced controversy over his ties to his longtime former bandmate Frankie Caballero, who was convicted of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in 2014.

Jimmy Gomez

Rep. Jimmy Gomez is facing a House Ethics Committee probe.

Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) is facing a House Ethics Committee probe into “inappropriate sexual contact with a House staffer.”

The Post previously reported on the married dad kissing a much younger congressional aide during a party to mark the start of the August recess in 2023.

House rules restrict lawmakers from making “unwelcome sexual advances or conduct” toward employees.

Mike Collins

Rep. Mike Collins is trailing incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) in the state’s key Senate race.

Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) has faced controversy over accusations of improperly paying a former intern, who had a romantic relationship with the congressman’s then-chief of staff, $10,000 to work a no-show job between 2023 and 2024.

That matter is being probed by the House Ethics Committee.

Collins, who is vying for Georgia’s Senate seat, also took heat over his son-in-law’s posting of Nazi imagery on social media, his former digital director William Paul’s drunken antisemitic tirade toward Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), and two campaign staffers having links to an ex-Ku Klux Klan leader.

The Peach State Republican insists he doesn’t harbor racist views.

Mary Peltola

Alaska Dem Mary Peltola has been accused of helping recruit a fake “Dan Sullivan” to confuse voters.

Former Rep. Mary Peltola was hit with a late-breaking scandal this week after a bombshell New York Times report revealed links between her team and an effort to recruit a man named Dan J. Sullivan, also known as “Decoy Dan,” into her Senate race.

Here’s the latest on the ‘Decoy Dan’ scandal in the ongoing Alaska Senate race:

· Trump ask to set aside ‘Decoy Dan’ Alaska Senate ballots ‘not even possible’: attorneys

· Feds ‘surge’ law enforcement to Alaska after ‘troubling new revelations’ in ‘Decoy Dan’ Senate scheme

· Bari Weiss faced ‘significant resistance’ from CBS News on the ‘Decoy Dan’ scandal: insiders say

· Dem Mary Peltola doesn’t fully deny involvement in ‘Decoy Dan’ scheme to confuse Alaska voters

For months, Republicans had been deeply suspicious about the presence of “Decoy Dan” in the race, given that his name is nearly identical to incumbent Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R-Alaska). But until the Times report emerged Wednesday, they lacked solid proof that Democrats recruited him.

Now the Justice Department is intensifying its investigation over the alleged efforts to recruit the second Dan Sullivan to confuse Alaskan voters in the highly competitive Senate race. Alaska’s Republican governor has annouced a state investigation into whether Democrats should face criminal charges.

Peltola’s campaign issued a very carefully worded statement in response to the report, claiming “the Alaskans for Mary campaign has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign.”

LaKesha Womack

LaKesha Womack was served with a felony summons at a campaign event this month.

Democratic North Carolina congressional hopeful LaKesha Womack was served with a felony summons at a campaign event earlier this month over failure to return a rental car in 2019.

Womack is challenging Rep. Tim Moore (R-NC), who is favored to win re-election.

CONGRESSIONAL CLEAN-UP

Ironically, 2026 saw multiple incumbent lawmakers go down due to various scandals.

In April, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) resigned amid rape and sexual assault accusations, while Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) stepped down amid revelations of sexual relations with staffers, one of whom lit herself on fire and died.

Swalwell, who is currently under federal investigation, has denied the rape accusations.

That same month, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-Fla.) resigned amid accusations she swindled $5 million in COVID-19 relief and used it for her campaign. She pleaded not guilty to federal charges and ran for another term in Congress anyway but crashed and burned in a primary.

Outgoing Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) was also bested in a primary this year after the Army veteran faced allegations of stolen valor, financial misconduct, and domestic abuse. He has denied all those claims.

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) dropped out of his re-election race and was censured by his House colleagues over inappropriate conduct with much younger female staffers.

And perhaps most famously, Maine Democrat Graham Platner dropped his Senate bid after being accused of rape by one ex-girlfriend and physical abuse by another former flame, claims he has vehemently denied.

ATTACHMENT FOUR - FROM FORBES

BLUE WAVE LIKELY: 12 SEATS (COULD) SHIFT LEFT AS DEMOCRATS COULD HAVE LARGEST MAJORITY SINCE 2009

By Sara Dorn, Oct 30, 2026, 02:13pm EDT

Democrats could pick up as many as 25 seats in Tuesday’s election, giving them their largest majority since 2009, nonpartisan election prognosticator Cook Political Report predicted Friday, shifting 12 races left.

Key Facts

If Democrats win all 18 toss-up seats and all of the races they’re favored to win, they’ll hold 240 seats, more than after the 2006 and 2018 so-called “blue wave cycles,” Cook wrote Friday.

Cook predicts the party will pick up a minimum of five seats.

Colorado’s 5th Congressional District, represented by Rep. Jeff Crank, Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District, represented by Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, and the open South Carolina 1st Congressional District all shifted from “lean Republican” to toss ups.

Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, represented by GOP Rep. Rob Bresnahan, and Ohio’s 9th District, represented by Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, moved from toss ups to “lean Democrat.”

Democrats consistently beat Republicans in generic congressional ballot polls—an Emerson College poll taken this week found the party ahead 10 points, a Harvard CAPS/HarrisX poll found Democrats up by four points, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found them with a nine-point lead, and an Economist/YouGov poll showed an 11-point lead.

Big Number

92.6%. That’s the Kalshi betting odds for Democrats winning control of the House, as of Friday afternoon.

Democrats also appear poised to pick up multiple Senate seats and possibly win control of the chamber. Of seven toss-up races, six are held by Democrats. Polls consistently show Democrats ahead in the majority of competitive races.

Democrats need a net gain of three seats to win control of the House. They last won control in 2018, gaining 41 seats, before Republicans took back the majority in 2022.

ATTACHMENT FIVE - FROM AL JAZEERA

US MIDTERMS: 4 DAYS TO GO – WHAT THE POLLS SAY AS TRUMP REINSTATES RALLIES

Trump cancels Kansas and Iowa rallies, opting for telephone events across nearly 20 states ahead of US midterms.

By Elizabeth Melimopoulos

Published On 30 Oct 2026 30 Oct 2026

With four days to go before the United States midterm elections, Democrats are leading national polls as both parties make their final push for votes.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has reversed his decision to cancel campaign rallies in Kansas and Iowa, while a legal dispute threatens to delay the Senate result in Alaska.

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WHAT DO THE LATEST POLLS SAY?

Democrats lead Republicans by 51.4 percent to 43.2 percent, according to RealClearPolling, with a difference of 8.2 percentage points.

Charles Franklin, professor of law and public policy and director of the Marquette Law School Poll, said Trump’s declining approval ratings and economic concerns are alarming Republicans.

A Marquette Law School poll conducted in Wisconsin from October 14 to 22 found that 37 percent approved of Trump’s performance, while 61 percent disapproved.

The poll also found that only 16 percent of respondents felt better off financially than a year ago, compared with 42 percent who said they were worse off. Another 42 percent said their situation had not changed.

“Democrats are more enthusiastic and more certain they will vote,” Franklin told Al Jazeera.

“That is giving Democrats an important edge, and reflects Republican disappointment in current national conditions.”

In Arizona, where voters face rising living costs, a retiree told Al Jazeera that grocery prices had become a major concern.

“We’re retired, and every time we go to the grocery store, it makes me wonder what the heck is going on,” the voter said.

In Texas, Democrat James Talarico leads Republican Ken Paxton by 49 percent to 43 percent, according to a CNN poll released on Thursday. In Michigan, the same pollster suggested Democrat Abdul El-Sayed was ahead of Republican Mike Rogers, 49 percent to 42 percent.

However, Franklin warned: “Polls are not perfect predictions of outcomes.

“We could see those close races go either way, either due to polling errors or due to voters moving just a little more in one direction or the other.”

In Alaska, there is also a complication: a legal dispute that could delay the result of a Senate race.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN ALASKA’S SENATE RACE?

The battle for Alaska’s seat could continue in court after voting closes on November 3. The dispute centres on two candidates named Dan Sullivan: the incumbent Republican senator and an independent candidate with the same name, who is also registered as a Republican.

Trump has accused Democrats of recruiting an independent candidate to confuse voters and take support away from the Republican senator.

“It was a scheme. It was an election fraud. Total election fraud,” Trump said.

The Department of Justice has taken legal action over the dispute, while Alaska Democratic candidate Mary Peltola denied the accusations.

“I feel like this is yet another diversion from the issue that Alaskans want to talk about, which is affordability,” she said.

Al Jazeera’s US correspondent Alan Fisher said the dispute could have consequences beyond Alaska if the Senate’s control depends on the result.

“If this becomes the key seat in the battle for the Senate, we might not actually know who has control there for several days, maybe even weeks after November 3,” Fisher said.

What has happened on the campaign trail in the past 24 hours?

Trump travelled to South Carolina to campaign for Republican senator Darline Graham – sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham – who is running against Annie Andrews in a close race.

In Rock Hill, Trump encouraged voters to cast their ballots and cautioned his supporters not to take the election outcome for granted. Trump said Darline Graham was in the lead but that he still had to campaign there. “In politics you never know, right? So you got to get out and vote.”

He also addressed his supporters directly, asking the crowd to pretend that he was on the ballot.

“And I am on the ballot because all of these things that we’ve done, all of these incredible successes that we have,” he added.

“Texas ain’t surrendering. Texas is not becoming California. It’s going to stay Texas, ain’t that right?” Vance told supporters.

Well-known Democrats have also joined the campaign trail.

On Wednesday, former Democratic President Barack Obama gave a speech in Georgia supporting Senator Jon Ossoff, criticising Trump’s management of the economy and his approach to the war on Iran.

When Al Jazeera asked about Obama’s visit, Ossoff’s Republican opponent, Mike Collins, said it showed “the desperation of Jon Ossoff, because he knows he’s losing”.

“If he was winning so big, he wouldn’t have brought anybody in,” Collins said.

Democrats also campaigned in Texas and Georgia on Thursday.

In Dallas, Senate candidate James Talarico held a rally as part of his final campaign tour, while former Vice President Kamala Harris joined Ossoff at Clark Atlanta University, urging young people to vote.

Harris also campaigned in Macon, Georgia, where she criticised the Trump administration over rising living costs.

“We have a moment now to turn pain into purpose,” Harris told Democratic volunteers. Harris also urged supporters to participate in local and statewide contests.

Later, at Clark Atlanta University, she asked students to stay engaged.

“Don’t overlook those races, because those are the folks who make decisions about your life every day,” she said.

What happens next on the midterm campaign trail?

A day after cancelling both of his appearances to hold telephone rallies, Trump has brought his campaign rallies back in Kansas and Iowa.

According to a source close to the Trump administration, the president will attend both events in person on Sunday, rather than going to Kansas on Saturday and then to Iowa on Sunday as was originally planned.

The source said the schedule had been altered so as to include more telephone rallies, which, in turn, enabled Trump to campaign virtually in several states.

The change occurred after Trump told reporters on Thursday that he did not see the need to go to Kansas, where the Republican Senator Roger Marshall is running against Democrat Adam Hamilton.

“I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas,” Trump said.

When a Reuters reporter asked whether the decision had anything to do with fatigue from travelling, Trump rejected the suggestion. “I feel perfect,” he said, before insulting the reporter.

Trump is also scheduled to hold a rally at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Friday at 23:00 GMT.

At the same time, Harris is due to address the Fulton County Democratic Party’s Fulton Forward dinner in Atlanta, Georgia.

Vance had planned a news conference with the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud in St Cloud, Minnesota, on Friday, but the visit was cancelled on Thursday. No reason was immediately given.

ATTACHMENT SIX - FROM THE HILL

RNC CHAIR PREDICTS GOP SENATE WINS IN ALASKA, TEXAS, 3 OTHER BATTLEGROUNDS

by Sarah Davis - 10/30/26 7:42 PM ET

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Joe Gruters remained optimistic Friday evening about his party’s chances in next week’s midterms, predicting big wins in key battleground states despite troubling polling numbers for the GOP.

Gruters told NewsNation’s Blake Burman he expects Republicans will win Senate races in Maine, Texas, Ohio and Alaska — all of which The Hill’s nonpartisan election forecasting partner, Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), lean “narrowly” toward Democrats. He also predicted a GOP victory in North Carolina, which the handicapper says will “likely” go blue.

Burman pressed the RNC chair on generic ballot polling that displayed a disadvantage for Republicans running this election cycle. An Emerson College Polling survey released Friday found Democrats held a 10-point lead over Republicans on a generic ballot.

“We put up candidates that can win and common-sense mainstream candidates, and I think that will make the difference,” Gruters told Burman. “So yes, maybe the generic ballot, we’re not doing so hot, but when it comes to candidates that are well known and they’re getting their message out, yes, we do have the benefit.”

DDHQ places the Democrats’ chances of regaining control of the House this November at 82 percent, according to a Friday forecast. The party has a slimmer chance at retaking the upper chamber of Congress, with the nonpartisan election handicapper placing this probability at around 62 percent.

The RNC chair also addressed President Trump’s reversal on his decision to cancel two rallies set for this weekend in Iowa and Kansas. The president announced Friday the events were back on and will both be held in person on Sunday.

“Listen, all these decisions are being made in real time,” Gruters said. “I mean, we’re looking at data, looking at where we may need to help certain candidates and people, and so there may be some more changes.”

Gruters also weighed in on Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s (R) response to reports that Democratic nominee Mary Peltola’s campaign was involved in an effort to recruit a candidate in the state’s Senate race with the same name as incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan (R).

When asked by Burman whether the RNC would seek to stall the certification of this election if Peltola was successful, Gruters said he would “follow the governor’s lead.”

“We’ll see [where] that investigation ends up, but we’re going to be ready to help any way we can,” he said.

On Friday, the top federal prosecutor in Alaska announced his office was involved in a separate investigation into whether any laws were broken in this alleged spoiler candidate effort. Peltola and her campaign have denied any involvement in the candidate’s recruitment.

ATTACHMENT SEVEN – FROM CNBC

WALL STREET BRACES FOR DEMOCRATIC GAINS AS 2026 MIDTERM ELECTION NEARS

By Garrett Downs Published Fri, Oct 30 20266:00 AM EDTUpdated Fri, Oct 30 20263:11 PM EDT

Key Points

· Wall Street expects a sweeping Democratic victory in next week’s midterm election, as the left surges in public polls and President Donald Trump’s approval rating remains low.

· Democrats are widely expected to take control of the House of Representatives, and analysts believe they are also within striking distance of a Senate majority.

· The midterms will determine who controls Congress for the remainder of Trump’s term.Investors expect a blue wave in next week’s midterm election, as Democrats surge in polls and President Donald Trump’s approval rating remains low.

Public polling suggests Democrats are likely to take control of the House of Representatives, and analysts who parse what politics means for investors are in overdrive to tell their clients how to prepare for what Congress will look like after the Tuesday election.

Concern about the spending plans and priorities of a Democratic-controlled Congress permeates analyst reports reviewed by CNBC. But because Trump has another two years of his presidency, a divided government would likely create gridlock that would prevent congressional leadership in opposition to the president from getting much done, analysts are advising their clients.

Most analysts believe Democrats are also within striking distance of a Senate majority, though that outcome is significantly less likely than a House flip according to the polls. Next Tuesday’s elections will determine which party controls both chambers of Congress for the remainder of Trump’s presidency, after two years of full Republican control.

Divided government typically makes must-pass legislation, like government funding and raising the debt ceiling, harder to enact. A debt ceiling standoff — or first-ever default on federal debt — could be particularly damaging.

Wall Street watchers are also expecting Democrats to try to advance an ambitious and expensive agenda should they gain control of Congress. An Oct. 29 report from Piper Sandler analyzing Congressional Budget Office data projected that policy proposals from Democrats “would add $5 trillion to the deficit over the coming decade.” The analysis assumes repeals of Trump’s tariffs and reversing cuts to Medicaid, nutrition programs and Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Major policy swings — and big spending packages — become less likely as a divided government is unlikely to agree on issues. That’s a dynamic the market typically enjoys. Trump’s veto power would effectively block major Democratic policies from becoming law.

“A blue House is the obvious consensus base case,” Wolfe Research said in an Oct. 27 report. The firm surveyed 138 investors and found 96% of those polled believed Democrats would prevail in House control.

Wolfe is less bullish on a Democratic Senate, though investors clearly see a possibility that Democrats regain control of both chambers of Congress.

Fifty-eight percent of investors the firm surveyed believed Democrats would gain control of the Senate, while 42% believed Republicans would retain control of the chamber. The investors surveyed were more bullish than Wolfe itself, which puts the chances of a Democratic Senate at 49%.

Other analysts are largely coalescing around the potential for a good night for Democrats.

“A blue wave scenario has become our base case,” an Oct. 20 report from TD Securities reads. An Oct. 23 Raymond James report says “Democrats are in a solid position to win a majority in the House of Representatives and are increasingly likely to win enough seats to capture a Senate majority.”

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Even if Democrats sweep both chambers, protracted battles could still play out as Republicans maintain the White House and the Senate must still surpass the 60-vote filibuster threshold.

Democrats winning control of the Senate could allay concerns about the Federal Reserve’s independence from Trump, TD predicted.

That’s because any new Fed members would need to be confirmed by the Senate, which would be unlikely to support a nominee who wouldn’t support the central bank charting its own course.

Democrats are also expected to investigate companies that have done business with the Trump administration should they win control of a chamber. The majority party in Congress holds subpoena power on committees. Some Democrats have already telegraphed their investigative priorities ahead of the election.

The debt ceiling is likely the most critical sticking point for the economy that lawmakers will need to address during the next Congress, unless Republicans raise it during the lame-duck session between the election and the start of the next Congress in January. The Bipartisan Policy Center expects the U.S. will reach the debt limit between late-winter and mid-summer 2027.

“While negotiations around the debt ceiling may come down to the wire, a Democratic Congress would make it slightly more likely that a bill is passed than a divided Congress,” TD said.

If Congress does not raise the debt ceiling, the U.S. could default on its debt, causing catastrophic economic consequences.

Democrats, should they control one slice of government, are expected to demand concessions from Republicans in exchange for their votes to raise the debt ceiling. That sets up a potential standoff, which analysts note Republicans could avoid if they lose next week and raise the debt ceiling during the lame duck.

″[R]aising the debt limit before January could substantially reduce leverage Democrats have over healthcare, Medicaid, SNAP, and broader domestic spending priorities in the next Congress,” Raymond James told its clients.

Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect that the Bipartisan Policy Center projects the U.S. will reach its debt limit next year. An earlier version mischaracterized the center’s projection.

ATTACHMENT EIGHT – FROM THE TIMES OF LONDON

WHAT AMERICA’S ELECTION ORACLE FORECASTS FOR THE MIDTERMS

Allan Lichtman developed a system for predicting voting results and, for more than four decades, he has been right nearly every time

Polling suggests President Trump’s Republican Party will lose seats in the House and Senate

By David Charter, Washington Thursday October 29 2026, 6.24pm GMT, The Times

One of America’s leading election experts, Allan Lichtman, is back with a confident forecast for next week’s midterm elections: the Democrats will win both chambers of Congress.

Nobody sticks their neck out quite like Lichtman, a professor of history at American University in Washington. He has been in the prediction game since he went against the grain in 1982 to say that Ronald Reagan would be re-elected two years later, even as polls wrote him off during a recession.

Lichtman, 79, built an impressive pedigree, correctly predicting nine of the past 11 s. Despite calling 2024 for Kamala Harris, he remains unrepentant about his method.

He developed 13 “keys” to foretell presidential votes — indicators including the economy, incumbency, scandal and social unrest — and applies similar time-honoured tests to the midterms.

His indicators for assessing the fate of Congress centre on presidential approval, the generic poll, party enthusiasm and early voting.

“When the approval rating for a president is as low as Trump’s, on average the White House party loses 40 House and six Senate seats,” he told The Times. “It’s not a prediction, that’s just showing how heavily the winds are blowing against Republicans.

“The other thing I look at is not just the horse-race polls but the generic congressional poll, and that’s very heavily favouring Democrats, by seven to 11 points. That’s pretty predictive, more so than the individual race polls.

“I look at the enthusiasm gap — usually Republicans turn out at a higher rate but this time it looks like the Democratic enthusiasm is higher. The final thing I look at is the early vote. Over a third of voters have already voted. So far, it looks pretty good for Democrats.”

A year ago nobody thought Republicans would have trouble holding the Senate, given that Democrats needed a net gain of four seats to overhaul a 53-47 deficit, in races mainly taking place on red turf. But the impact of President Trump’s tariffs and the war in Iran has dramatically altered calculations. He has embarked on a marathon rally tour to bolster candidates in a dozen mainly red states.

“I have predicted a 67 per cent chance that the Democrats would take back the Senate,” Lichtman said, “I think the most likely but not necessarily definitive outcome is 51-49. This is not based on a model, understand, it’s just based on my knowledge of history and current politics.”

He said that “really bad” Republican candidates had made races more difficult than they should be, naming Ken Paxton in Texas, Roger Marshall in Kansas and Darline Graham in South Carolina.

“Here’s what’s so indicative about these candidates — no one’s giving to the candidates. All the money is coming from these outside billionaires,” he said. “It’s a shame — our system is founded on sovereignty of the people, not sovereignty of wealth. But a tiny number of obscenely rich people are able to exercise such influence on our politics.”

· Who will win the 2026 midterm elections? Polls and predictions

The states he thinks the Democrats will flip are Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, while holding the closely fought contest in Michigan. He added that Democrats were competing for Senate seats in other states and could well win Alaska, so his prediction was erring on the side of caution.

“It’s amazing that Democrats are competitive in South Carolina, which Trump won by 18 points [in 2024]. Kansas has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since the Great Depression in 1932 and yet that’s a neck-and-neck race, as is Iowa,” he added. “Alaska, I think Mary Peltola [the Democratic Senate candidate] could pull that out and it’s another deep red state. But then... So if you had told me the map would look like this eight months ago, I would have said you were nuts.”

He would not give numbers on a predicted outcome for the House of Representatives, which is held at present 218-214 by Republicans. “Democrats need so few seats to take the majority. I give it over a 90 per cent chance,” he said.

Lichtman insists his forecasts still carry weight after his miss with Harris. “I learn from every election,” he said. “My 13 keys — and they’re only for the presidency, not for midterms — goes back to 1860. I developed the keys in 1981 and my first prediction ahead of time was in April 1982, two-and-a-half years before the election, when I predicted the re-election of Reagan when his approval ratings were in the dumps. So I’ve been doing this for well over 40 years. The only one I missed was 2024, which was a very strange situation.”

Lichtman discounts his other miss, the extremely close race between George W Bush and Al Gore in 2000, saying Gore would have won if votes ruled inadmissible by the authorities in Florida had been counted.

“No one has a record like that. Not even close,” he said “Nothing is 100 per cent perfect — and being 90 per cent perfect or so is a pretty good track record. As I’ve emphasised so many times, I’m not psychic … with a crystal ball. My system is based on history. It’s got a very long run and historical patterns can be broken.

“Two very unusual things happened in 2024. One, something I’ve never seen before: leaders of the party openly trashing publicly their sitting president and their unanimous party nominee. That was a unique situation. I was very strong at the time, not afterwards, saying Democrats are making a huge mistake doing that. Plus, driving the nominee out of the race creates an ‘open’ seat and open seats are very bad for the party holding the White House.”

The other factor that “broke the pattern” in 2024 was widespread disinformation, he said. “We’ve always had disinformation but never to the degree we saw in 2024, led by the richest person in the world [Elon Musk] who also controlled X with 200 million followers. He spread vast disinformation.” Blame Canada justified!

Asked if he will tweak his 13 keys for future presidential predictions, Lichtman said: “I’m very reluctant — you know, my forecasting system is a tiny element of my legacy. I’ve written 14 books, I’ve got two more in the works, and I’ve been in 110 civil rights cases as an expert. So I’m very reluctant to change a model on the fly. I’m still thinking about it.

“For 45 years, I’ve been putting myself out on a limb, not like phonies like Nate Silver [an independent forecaster] who was wrong about 2016. He said, ‘I told you Donald Trump had a 29 per cent chance of winning.’ He’s always hedging. So he never can be wrong and he can never be really right.”

As for this year’s midterms: “It would be a huge Democratic sweep if not for the intervention of the billionaires. The last number I saw just amazed me, $11 billion spent on this cycle. It smashes all records by a huge margin.”

ATTACHMENT NINE – FROM IUK

TOP POLLSTER NATE SILVER MAKES MAJOR UPDATE TO HOW HE SEES THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS UNFOLDING

Silver also cautioned that Democrats’ polling leads in key Senate battleground states ‘are all just a normal-sized polling error away from flipping’

By Rhian Lubin in New York Friday 30 October 2026 18:19 GMT

Election analyst Nate Silver has increased his prediction for Democrats retaking the Senate to a 79 percent probability, citing strong recent polling. While Democrats are also favored to retake the House, Silver warned that polling leads in key battleground states remain vulnerable to standard margin-of-error shifts.

Election analyst Nate Silver has given a major update to his midterm election predictions – and it’s good news for the Democrats.

Silver predicts there is now a 79 percent chance of Democrats taking the Senate, up from his previous estimate of 75 percent, as Republicans brace themselves for a blowout.

“Very strong polls for Democrats in individual Senate races over the past couple of days,” Silver posted on X. “Polls can be wrong, that's what models/probabilities/markets are for, but I think we're past the point where you can honestly say ‘polls show the Senate is too close to call.’”

The election forecaster revealed his new figures on The Argument YouTube show. “It's 79 in the Senate,” he said. “That's a little bit higher than prediction markets, but I feel decent about that actually.”

But Silver also cautioned on his Substack that Democrats’ polling leads in key Senate battleground states, including Texas, Ohio, Alaska and Maine, “are all just a normal-sized polling error away from flipping.”

Democrats “remain strong favorites” to retake the House, Silver added.

President Donald Trump’s favorite pollster, CNN’s Harry Enten, also predicted Democrats will win big next Tuesday.

“Look at it now, up like a rocket. We’re now talking 223 seats. This is north of the 218 that Democrats need to take back the U.S. House of Representatives,” Enten said Wednesday.

Next week’s elections are widely considered a referendum on the Trump administration after nearly two years in power. Trump’s approval ratings have tanked to historic lows amid his deeply unpopular war in Iran, and as Americans continue to struggle with the cost of living.

Republicans are bracing themselves for “a brutal evening” as some members are already expressing resignation about losing their majorities in Congress, Politico reports.

“Once the dominoes start falling it becomes hard to stop them,” one senior Republican strategist toldthe outlet.

They are nevertheless facing “a worse position than they expected earlier this year,” according to Politico.

“Any Democrats telling you they aren’t winning the Senate [besides] a couple of seats are sandbagging expectations,” one particularly dismayed senior Republican is quoted as saying.

Around 40 million Americans have already cast their ballots in an election that will have major repercussions for the second half of Trump’s final term. If Democrats do retake the House and the Senate, it would render him a lame duck, powerless to pass his legislative agenda and under investigation by emboldened Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Trump has dismissed unfavorable polling as “fake.”

ATTACHMENT TEN – FROM NEWSWEEK

WHO WILL WIN THE MIDTERMS? WHAT POLLS SHOW 3 DAYS OUT

By Sam Stevenson Oct 31, 2026 at 05:00 AM EDT

Three days before the midterm elections, Democrats are strongly favored to win the House of Representatives but hold a narrower advantage in the Senate; there, several potentially decisive races remain within a normal polling error.

The result will determine which party controls the congressional agenda, leads committees and oversees President Donald Trump during the final two years of his term.

Midterm elections have historically created difficulties for the president’s party, allowing voters to check the White House without removing its occupant. This year, that effect could extend beyond the House and threaten Republicans’ 53-47 Senate majority.

Nate Silver Revises Democrats’ Chances of Winning the Senate

Undecided Iowa Voters Are Making Up Their Minds in Tight Hinson-Turek Race

Donald Trump’s Approval Rating Quietly Shifts in America’s Cities

Democrats need a net gain of four seats for outright control because Vice President JD Vance can break a 50-50 tie in favor of Republicans. With several decisive races close simultaneously, a modest national polling error in either direction could alter the outcome across multiple states.

What To Know

The following details were checked by Newsweek at 7 a.m. ET on Friday, October 30.

Silver Bulletin, which updated its forecast on October 29, gave Democrats a 95.1 percent chance of winning the House, with an average projection of 240 Democratic seats to 195 Republican seats. It put their probability of controlling the Senate at 77.7 percent, with an average division of 53 Democratic seats to 47 Republican seats.

In his October 29 update, Nate Silver said Democrats remained strong favorites to retake the House. However, he added that their polling leads in Texas, Ohio, Alaska and Maine were each within the range of a normal polling error.

Decision Desk HQ, last updated at 7:25 a.m. on October 29, gave Democrats an 80 percent chance of winning the House and a 60 percent chance of controlling the Senate. It projected 238 House seats and 52 Senate seats.

The 1600

VoteHub gave Democrats an 89 percent chance of controlling the House and a 63 percent chance of controlling the Senate, including a 60 percent probability of winning both chambers.

Forecasts are not directly interchangeable because they make different assumptions about polling, political fundamentals and uncertainty.

They also differ from polling averages, which measure current voter preference rather than the probability of an eventual result.

Eight Senate races were within four points in at least one polling average examined by Newsweek; this places them among the contests most likely to determine control of the chamber.

ALASKA

Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman and the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress, is challenging Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.

The ballot also includes Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. Under Alaska’s ranked-choice system, lower-placed candidates are eliminated and their votes transferred until one candidate wins a majority.

Trump and Vance have argued that the similar names could confuse voters, which Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. denies.

As of 7 a.m. ET on October 30, the RealClearPolling average gave Peltola a 1.2-point advantage, 49.4 percent to 48.2 percent, based on surveys conducted from October 1 through October 16. Decision Desk HQ gave Peltola a 60 percent chance of winning and rated the race a tossup.

IOWA

Republican Representative Ashley Hinson, a former TV journalist, and Democrat Josh Turek, a two-time Paralympic wheelchair-basketball gold medalist, are separated by one of the narrowest averages in the country.

At the time of writing, the RealClearPolling average gave Hinson a 0.5-point lead, 46 percent to 45.5 percent, based on surveys conducted between September 29 and October 28.

Decision Desk HQ gave Republicans a 53 percent probability, effectively treating Iowa as a coin flip.

KANSAS

Democrat Adam Hamilton, the founder of a Methodist megachurch, is attempting to defeat Republican Senator Roger Marshall in a state that has not elected a Democratic senator for nearly a century.

The RealClearPolling average gave Adam Hamilton a 0.2-point advantage, 46.1 percent to 45.9 percent—the slimmest margin of all the races in this Newsweek analysis.

Decision Desk HQ gave Republicans a 58 percent probability and placed Kansas in its tossup category.

OHIO

Former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown is seeking a return to the chamber against Republican Senator Jon Husted, who was appointed to the seat previously held by Vice President Vance.

The RealClearPolling average gave Sherrod Brown a 2.6-point lead, 47.9 percent to 45.3 percent, based on polls conducted between October 5 and October 26.

Decision Desk HQ gave Democrats a 54 percent probability of winning Ohio, making it one of the closest Senate races in its model.

MAINE

Democrat Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger and former state Senate president, is challenging Republican Senator Susan Collins, who is seeking a sixth term.

The RealClearPolling average gave Jackson a 1.4-point lead, 48.7 percent to 47.3 percent, based on surveys conducted from September 23 through October 26.

Decision Desk HQ gave Democrats a 57 percent probability and categorized Maine as a toss-up.

MICHIGAN

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health director, faces Republican Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and former chair of the House Intelligence Committee.

The RealClearPolling average gave Abdul El-Sayed a 3.2-point lead, 48.8 percent to 45.6 percent, based on polling conducted from September 28 through October 27.

Decision Desk HQ gave El-Sayed a 72 percent chance of winning, the strongest Democratic probability among the eight races examined.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Republican Senator Darline Graham Nordone, appointed after the sudden death of her brother, Lindsey Graham, faces Democrat Annie Andrews in a race that has become more competitive than South Carolina’s recent voting history might suggest.

The RealClearPolling page gave the Republican a 2.7-point lead, 47.7 percent to 45 percent. The average covered polling conducted from September 28 through October 26.

Decision Desk HQ gave the Republican a 65 percent probability and rated the race Lean Republican.

TEXAS

Democratic State Representative James Talarico and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton are contesting a seat that would ordinarily be expected to favor the GOP.

The RealClearPolling average gave James Talarico a 2.1-point lead, 48.6 percent to 46.5 percent, based on polling conducted from October 8 through October 27.

Decision Desk HQ gave Democrats a 60 percent probability and categorized Texas as a toss-up.

What Happens Next

No polling average or forecast guarantees an outcome. Turnout, the composition of the electorate and the possibility of a polling error affecting several similar states in the same direction could still change which party controls the Senate.

Election Day is November 3.

ATTACHMENT ELEVEN – FROM THE DAILY SIGNAL

GHOSTS, GHOULS, AND GARISH COSTUMES: MIDTERM EDITION

by Al Perrotta October 31, 2026

Today is Halloween, a time for ghosts, ghouls, and garish costumes. The same could be said for the midterms.

Take costumes. Has there been any costume more garish this year than drag-loving, trans-pushing, scripture-defacing Texas Senate candidate James Talarico? All campaign long, he’s been wearing the costume of a beef-loving, border-closing, Bible-loving, truck-driving, prototypical Texas man.

His fake getup puts Halloween costume queen Heidi Klum to shame, challenged only by those mysterious 12 days when he was wearing an invisibility cloak.

Or how about Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s mild-mannered doctor costume? Take off that mask and lab coat and you find a raging anti-Israel zealot who seems to favor Hamas the way trick-or-treaters favor Snickers.

A cheap costume that candidates can get off the rack en masse at the DNC? The “I’m a Moderate” costume. The costume was all the rage last year, leading to Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill being elected governors of Virginia and New Jersey, respectively. The minute they were sworn in, they shed the moderation garb quicker than if the fabric caused a rash.

The party is passing those costumes out like Smarties this year, hoping to duplicate last year’s masquerade success.

This includes Alaska Senate nominee Mary Peltola. Pull off the moderate mask and you find a radical dirty trickster, according to The New York Times and Peltola’s former campaign manager. The Times broke the news that Peltola’s campaign aides helped recruit a second Dan Sullivan for the race in an effort to divert votes away from Sen. Dan Sullivan. And, according to that former campaign manager, Elisa Rios, Peltola knew all about it.

Looks like Peltola’s putting the trick in “trick or treat.”

On Wednesday night, Peltola dismissed the growing scandal as a “distraction” and “diversion.”

Pro Tip: A politician calling a scandal a “diversion” is usually shorthand for, “I did it, just like Freddy Krueger.”

THE GHOULS

While voters are telling candidates, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Democratic Party leaders are telling voters, “It’s vengeance, baby!”

The big pitch to the base, from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., to Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., on down, is simple: When we resume power, we will hunt Donald Trump, his family, his associates down like we’re Jason and they’re unsuspecting teens staying in an isolated cabin in the woods.

This to the cheers of the bloodthirsty throng that lifts toasts to the killing of Charlie Kirk and curses Thomas Crooks for having bad aim.

Jeffries declared, “Beginning on Day One, we’re going to hold the crooks accountable,” and “Accountability is coming to all of these sick extremists.” As we learned during the Biden years, “sick extremists” means Catholics praying at abortion mills, parents speaking at school board meetings, and average folks who say chopping off the healthy body parts of children is a bad thing.

RASKIN SAYS THE INVESTIGATIVE WORKLOAD WILL BE “GARGANTUAN.”

Slotkin, the same former CIA spook who tried to convince young military members to mutiny against Trump, literally wants those connected to Trump persecuted to intimidate young conservatives from serving their country.

This creature is the anti-John Kennedy: “Ask not what you can do for your country, but what we can do to you for wanting to serve your country.”

The message couldn’t be clearer if it were written in blood: Make a noise, MAGA people, and you will be savaged like the survivors in “The Quiet Ones.”

THE GHOSTS

All who hold honest elections dear head into this Halloween weekend haunted by the ghosts of 2020 and 2022, and this spring’s Los Angeles mayoral race. Phantom voters that emerge from the grave, from warehouses, from across the border, from thin air, after the sun is set and the moon is high.

We worry that states could summon these ghosts through enchantments disguised as election rule adjustments, then harvest illicit ballots like the grim reaper harvesting souls.

Should you dare try to cast out these ghosts, you yourself are condemned. Just this week, the U.S. attorney trying to get California to hold off counting 20,000 ballots from “likely non-citizens” until they can be checked out? Not only did one judge block the effort, but another judge ruled it’s unlawful for him to even serve.

Anyone who tries to stop illegal ballots in California? The governor says they’ll be arrested.

The journalists who were exposing how easily illegal immigrant Somalis can game Minnesota’s election system? Charged with a felony.

But the efforts to banish these ghosts must not, cannot stop.

For on this Halloween, three days from Election Day, one does not worry that the voters will speak. Only that the ghosts, ghouls, and tricksters will speak louder.

And that thought should scare every American.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

ATTACHMENT TWELVE – FROM WASHINGTON POST

DEMOCRAT HALEY STEVENS APPEARS WITH MICHIGAN GOP SENATE CANDIDATE MIKE ROGERS

The appearance of Stevens, who recently clashed with Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed over an ad, marked a stunning turn. She previously said she wanted a Democratic victory in the Senate race.

By Violet Jira 11/1/2026

ATTACHMENTS 13.A AND 13.B - FROM SUNDAY TALK SHOWS (NOVEMBER 1^ST) EXCERPTS

POLLS WRONG – former Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Bloomberg TV “It’s not that the Democrats are going to win this election,” he said. “Republicans are going to lose it.”

PRAISE FOR ANGIE NIXON – The Bern on “Face the Nation” I think Angie Nixon in Florida is running a great grassroots campaign. She pulled off a huge upset in the Democratic primary. I think she has a real chance to win the general election. (See full transcript here.)

ATTACHMENT FOURTEEN – FROM GUK

ARE THE US MIDTERMS GOING TO SEE A BLUE WAVE OF DEMOCRATS WINNING SEATS – OR A BLUE FLOOD?

‘Trump is effectively a lame duck now. The rest of the country knows his time is coming to an end.’

Donald Trump uttered five words this summer that could seal the Republican party’s fate: ‘Pretend I’m on the ticket’

by David Smith in Washington Sun 1 Nov 2026 01.00 EDT

He spoke admiringly of a senator’s posterior. He baselessly accused a Muslim candidate of being a terrorist. He boasted about his renovations of the White House. He quipped that his own supporters couldn’t afford a hamburger at his Mar-a-Lago club. Every now and then, he spoke about the cost of living, and other everyday concerns of voters.

Donald Trump has held dozens of campaign rallies before next week’s US midterm elections. The 80-year-old remains convinced that he can prove the doubters wrong again and help Republicans retain control of the US Congress. But it was five words he uttered at this summer’s Republican convention in Dallas that could seal his party’s fate: “Pretend I’m on the ticket.”

That plea was music to the ears of Democrats. It helped ensure that the midterms will deliver a national verdict on Trump’s second term in the White House. And opinion polls suggest that the judgment will be damning, piercing his aura of invincibility, reshaping the final two years of his presidency and setting the stage for a fierce battle to succeed him.

Pain is the norm for White House incumbents when the midterms roll around. In 1994, Bill Clinton suffered a 54-seat setback in the House of Representatives; in 2010, Barack Obama lost 63; in 2018, Trump himself lost 40. He seems unlikely to defy history this time. Trump goes into the elections with the lowest approval rating of any president before the midterms since Harry Truman’s Democrats were crushed 80 years ago.

The coalition that in 2024 powered Trump to the greatest comeback in modern political history has suffered blow after blow: his failure to fully release the Jeffrey Epstein files detailing ties of the elite to the child sex offender; the growth of datacentres in rural communities; an eight-month-old war in Iran that he promised would be over in weeks; a relentless rise in the cost of fuel and food.

The anger over Trump’s broken promises has been compounded by a whiff of corruption, and the perception that he is using the presidency to enrich himself and his family. He accepted a plane from Qatar to use as Air Force One, decorated the Oval Office in gold, demolished the White House East Wing to make way for a $400m ballroom and is planning a triumphal arch in Washington. His personal fortune meanwhile has surged – from $2.3bn in 2024 to $6.5bn, according to Forbes.

‘MUCH MORE MACRO THAN MAGA’

With Republicans clinging to a paper-thin 218–214 margin in the House and 53–47 lead in the Senate, opinion polls indicate a rising “blue wave”. A recent Reuters/Ipsos survey gave Democrats an 11-point lead, 47% to 36%, on the generic congressional ballot, while Trump’s approval rating stood at 32%. Voters will also choose governors in 36 states and three US territories, and decide thousands of state legislative contests.

Tens of millions of early votes have already been cast, with habitual Republican turnout lagging behind Democratic participation in critical battlegrounds. So dire is the environment for Republicans that conservative Super Pacs backed by billionaire Elon Musk, who has poured $366m into saving Republican candidates, are being forced to dump emergency funds into strongholds like Kansas, Iowa and Texas.

Trump won the presidency in 2024 after promising to curb inflation and lower prices; instead, the opposite has happened. Across the country, voters are confronting an affordability crisis exacerbated by two defining choices of Trump’s second term: a sweeping regime of foreign tariffs and the fateful decision to launch airstrikes on Iran in February.

Chris Matthews, a political commentator and former presidential speechwriter and congressional aide, said: “He’s losing on cost of living and affordability. Older people on limited incomes are focusing on what it costs to live each month. It’s much more macro than Maga. No matter what he does for Maga people, the power of macroeconomics is much stronger and people are going to vote against him.”

The economic fallout of the Iran war, which Trump frequently downplays as a “little detour”, has reverberated across global energy markets. Diesel prices have soared, sending shock waves through agriculture and freight transport from the Central valley of California to the grain belts of Iowa and Ohio.

Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former official in the Clinton White House, points out that voters can directly attribute their economic misery to the president. “There’s a very clear line between his actions and the things people don’t like,” she said.

“It’s going to be the tariffs and it’s going to be the war: both self-inflicted wounds. He didn’t have to raise tariffs; that was his theory of the world, which turned out to be wrong. Bombing nuclear sites in Iran was one thing, but going to all-out war turned out to be a mistake. Voters connect his actions to things they don’t like.”

This frustration is fuelling an energetic mobilisation among Democratic candidates, particularly women running in districts that once seemed out of reach. Jessica Mackler, the president of Emilys List, which is backing 247 female candidates this cycle, notes that voters feel the economic system is actively stacked against them.

“Voters understand that the corruption coming out of Washington is directly linked to why they can’t get ahead, and why they find it so hard to make ends meet,” Mackler said. “Cost of living is a huge driver but voters are desperate for new leadership who have lived their pain and understand it.”

A ‘DEVASTATING REFERENDUM’ ON TRUMP

For months, Republican strategists urged their candidates in tight suburban races to keep national politics at arm’s length, and focus on local accomplishments, perhaps hoping that Trump might quietly concentrate on his day job in Washington. Instead, the president has embarked on a whirlwind tour across the country, denouncing Democrats as “communists” while touting a strong economy, secure border and historic drop in violent crime.

But Steele, a co-host of the MS Now network’s the Weeknight, argues that core conservative voters feel increasingly betrayed by a president who promised to avoid foreign entanglements and bring down costs. “Donald Trump lied to his tribe … He said he wouldn’t engage us in foreign wars; we’re now turning the corner into a year of a war he started and people are saying: ‘I can’t even afford to put gas in my car.’”

Perhaps no development in the 2026 midterms is more alarming to Republican strategists than the dramatic erosion of support among Latino voters. In 2024, Trump made historic inroads with Latino men, sparking triumphant declarations of a permanent multiethnic, working-class coalition.

Yet no sooner had he taken the oath of office than he unleashed an aggressive, high-visibility deportation campaign featuring heavily armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in cities and agricultural hubs.

Larry Jacobs, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “Donald Trump launched his radical deportation strategy and it has powerfully alienated the fastest-growing part of the electorate.

“A year ago, Republicans thought they had established a new Hispanic coalition that would guarantee five new seats in Texas alone. They may lose all of them. Economics is a driving factor, but opposition to Trump’s deportation policies has contributed massively to the magnitude of the defections.”

Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center thinktank in Washington, notes that the Latino shift is visible across public polling and state-level data, saying: “Whether it’s a 15-point shift or a 30-point shift, it’s a big deal. Unless every piece of evidence we have is wrong, Latino voters are having serious buyers’ remorse.”

This dynamic is evident in Texas, where no Democrat has won statewide office since 1994. James Talarico, a 37-year-old state representative and former public school teacher who preaches a gospel of social justice, is taking on Republican state attorney general Ken Paxton in the most expensive Senate race in history.

Paxton, a staunch Trump ally, has been bogged down by years of corruption allegations, personal scandal and securities fraud charges. Despite $300m in outside Republican spending, led by Musk, Talarico has a narrow lead in most polls.

Jacobs views Texas as a bellwether for the post-Trump Republican party. “If Paxton loses, it’s going to send a very powerful signal to future Republican leaders about how they handle immigration,” he said. “It proves that attacking the fastest-growing part of the electorate is political suicide. Texas is a devastating referendum on Donald Trump.”

A TEST FOR DEMOCRATS

While Democrats appear heavily favoured to pick up the four net seats required to capture the House of Representatives, their path to taking the Senate is a steeper climb. Yet because of Trump’s dismal approval ratings and the economic shock of the Iran war, the Senate battlefield has expanded into states that voted for Trump by double digits in 2024.

In Ohio, former Democratic senator Sherrod Brown is mounting a comeback bid against incumbent Republican Jon Husted. Brown, a grizzled populist with deep ties to organised labour, has capitalised on working-class anger over fuel prices and plant closures, as well as local opposition to datacentres. In a peculiar recurring feature of his rallies in the state, Trump has frequently veered off-script to praise Husted’s physique. (“His ass was like a big piece of muscle,” according to the president.)

In Michigan, Republican Mike Rogers is up against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a 41-year-old doctor and former Detroit health director bidding to become the first Muslim senator in the US. Republicans have aggressively targeted El-Sayed over past foreign policy statements, while pro-Israel Super Pacs have poured millions of dollars into the state to defeat him. Trump has launched Islamophobic tirades, calling El-Sayed a “jihadist”.

Olsen said: “El-Sayed is the biggest test for progressives. If he wins stateside in an industrial heartland state like Michigan, progressives will argue they have the upper hand heading into 2028.”

However, Kamarck cautions against over-interpreting progressive strength. She insisted: “The progressives are a minuscule portion of the Democratic party. This is an overblown story. The moderates are winning the vast majority of these races across the country.”

In Maine, veteran Republican senator Susan Collins is fighting for her political life against Democrat Troy Jackson, a lumberjack and former president of the state senate. Collins has attempted to distance herself from Trump, appearing on the trail with independent former senator Joe Manchin, but Democrats have relentlessly hammered her votes for conservative supreme court justices and other Trump priorities.

In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola is mounting a challenge to Republican senator Dan Sullivan. The contest has become embroiled in a legal dispute after the justice department sought to block certification of a possible Peltola victory. Her allies reportedly helped recruit a decoy candidate with the name Dan Sullivan to confuse voters. Peltola’s campaign denies involvement.

‘He’ll do anything’

Election integrity remains a broader national concern. Trump’s repeated, unsubstantiated claims of election fraud have prompted Democrats and voting-rights organisations to prepare legal teams and observers for disputes or federal interference. The administration says federal election monitors will follow the law, and has denied plans to send troops or immigration agents to polling stations.

Tara Setmayer, a co-founder and chief executive of the Seneca Project, a women-led political action committee, said: “I am extremely worried. We have seen what Donald Trump has done when he had guardrails; now he has none. He has power and people who are aligned with him in the attack on our election integrity in positions of power.

“This is a great concern to me because Trump is looking at the sun setting on his presidency and we all know that he is deathly afraid of being out of power. He’ll do anything to stay in power, even if that means creating another constitutional crisis to try to stop Congress from being seated. We cannot suffer from a lack of imagination of what these people are capable of.”

A Democratic victory in either chamber will effectively stall Trump’s domestic legislative agenda, leaving his administration to rely on executive orders. Hakeem Jeffries, who would likely become the first Black speaker of the House, has pledged to immediately unleash subpoena power to investigate administration corruption, foreign policy decisions in Iran, and the personal financial enrichment of the Trump family.

Jacobs said: “It’s going to be a fistfight. I’m not expecting major legislation to pass. I think there will be extensive investigations of Donald Trump and his cabinet, and that’s what we’re going to get for two years.”

Steele believes that a Democratic House will immediately assert control over federal purse strings. “Congress will freeze money on projects like tearing down the East Wing for Trump’s ballroom, and they’ll reassert oversight over the Kennedy Center,” he said, referring to the national arts complex and living memorial to the 35th president. “Trump is effectively a lame duck now. The rest of the country knows his time is coming to an end.”

Indeed, before the last vote is counted, attention will likely turn to the presidential contest in 2028. For Republicans, a crushing midterm loss could accelerate the race to a post-Trump future. JD Vance is currently positioned as the heir apparent to the Maga movement, but figures such as the senator Ted Cruz of Texas and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, could also be in contention.

Steele commented: “Republicans need to recognise that the future of the party does not rest solely with the Maga base. It rests with winning back the suburban, moderate and Hispanic voters this administration has isolated.”

Under pressure from a restive base, Democrats will also be preparing for a sprawling contest to decide the future direction of their party – and how it can turn the page on the Trump era. The next Democratic presidential candidate is equally uncertain, with outgoing California governor Gavin Newsom, Georgia senator Jon Ossoff, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and even former vice-president and 2024 nominee Kamala Harris among those regularly mentioned.

Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution thinktank in Stanford, California, said: “Voters are tired. When you combine high prices, the endless argument and the constant noise of Donald Trump, people want a change from the status quo.”

“On November 3, the voters are going to speak – and Donald Trump is not going to like what they have to say,” he predicted.

ATTACHMENT FIFTEEN – FROM FOX NEWS

LEE CARTER: THE 5 WORDS THAT EXPLAIN THIS ELECTION BETTER THAN ANY COMMERCIAL

With political ad spending exceeding $11.6B, Americans may be voting against something rather than for somebody

Published November 2, 2026 9:00am EST

Eleven billion dollars.

Actually, more than that. Political advertising spending and reservations have now exceeded $11.6 billion, making this the most expensive election cycle for political advertising in American history.

For that kind of money, you'd think somebody might have figured out how to make groceries cheaper.

MIDTERMS UNLEASH WHAT MAY BE THE NASTIEST BARRAGE OF ATTACK ADS YET

Instead, Americans have endured months of attack ads, apocalyptic warnings and politicians insisting that civilization itself is on the ballot. Again.

As a researcher, I've spent much of this year studying what Americans believe, what frustrates them and, perhaps most importantly, what might motivate them to vote.

And I've become convinced that five words explain this election better than a thousand campaign commercials.

Affordability. Socialism. Corruption. Trump. Turnout.

Each tells us something about the American electorate. Together, they reveal something neither party should find particularly comforting.

Americans may be less interested in voting for somebody than in voting against something.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS AREN’T PICKING A POLITICAL TEAM, THEY JUST FEEL PICKED ON

And the two parties are betting on very different fears.

AFFORDABILITY

Washington has a remarkable talent for telling Americans how well they're doing while Americans are busy wondering how they're going to pay for everything.

Inflation is cooling! The stock market is booming! Economic growth is strong!

Wonderful.

Now explain why a family of four needs a financing plan to buy groceries and a second job to take everyone to Disney World.

Here's what politicians keep missing: Americans don't experience the economy as a collection of statistics. They experience it as a series of small humiliations.

FOX NEWS POLL: SQUEEZED BY COSTS, FRUSTRATED VOTERS TURN TO THE DEMOCRATS

Putting something back on the grocery shelf. Declining a dinner invitation. Explaining to your child why the family vacation will have to wait another year.

The economy isn't what Washington says is happening. It's what Americans can afford to do.

Republicans have spent much of this campaign telling voters that things are getting better. Democrats have spent it reminding them how expensive everything remains.

The Democrats have the easier argument.

But there's a catch.

Convincing voters that Republicans haven't made their lives better is not the same as convincing them that Democrats will.

One requires an attack ad. The other requires an actual plan.

SOCIALISM

For years, Republicans have warned that Democrats are taking America toward socialism. The accusation has been deployed so enthusiastically that you'd think Karl Marx was running for Congress in every competitive district.

Democrats often dismiss it as tired political fearmongering.

They may be making a serious mistake.

In polling I've been examining, the share of Republicans energized to vote against socialism has climbed from 50% to 59% in just a month.

Think about what that means.

Republicans can be disappointed in their candidates, frustrated with the economy and unhappy with their party's performance while remaining extraordinarily motivated to vote.

Why?

Because they may believe the alternative is worse.

Disappointment makes people complain. Fear makes them act.

Democrats see socialism as an outdated Republican talking point. Many Republicans see it as a threat to the country they love.

That doesn't mean Republicans are necessarily happy with their own party.

It means they may be willing to vote for a party they don't particularly like to stop one they fear even more.

And that's a potentially powerful turnout strategy hiding in plain sight.

CORRUPTION

Remember when draining the swamp was a campaign promise?

Apparently, the swamp has become a bipartisan swimming pool.

According to research from the Brennan Center and Wesleyan Media Project, nearly one-third of congressional television ads this cycle have referenced government ethics or campaign finance.

Americans increasingly suspect that the people running the country are playing by an entirely different set of rules.

Democrats have eagerly made corruption a central attack against Republicans.

But they should be careful about throwing stones from inside their own rather expensive glass houses.

Consider Alaska, where reports that Democratic-aligned operatives helped recruit a second candidate named Dan Sullivan have sparked allegations of election manipulation. Democrat Mary Peltola has denied knowing about the effort.

Whatever the ultimate findings, the controversy is a reminder that political hardball doesn't have a party registration.

But there's something deeper happening here.

When Americans are working harder and getting less while politicians and well-connected insiders somehow keep getting richer, every economic frustration begins to look like evidence of a rigged system.

The grocery bill isn't simply too high. Someone must be benefiting.

Healthcare isn't simply too expensive. Someone must be gaming the system.

You can convince voters that your opponent is corrupt without convincing them that you're honest.

And when voters believe everybody is playing dirty, the winner may inherit the office without inheriting much public confidence.

TRUMP

Donald Trump isn't running for Congress.

You'd never know it.

He's crisscrossing the country, dominating headlines and rallying supporters as though his own name were printed at the top of every ballot.

And he may understand something that the conventional election narrative is missing.

Trump's national approval ratings are weak. His base, however, remains intensely loyal.

Those aren't contradictory facts.

They're the defining feature of his political appeal.

Democrats have spent more than $163 million on advertising mentioning Trump since September 1, compared with roughly $11 million by Republicans.

Apparently, the Democratic Party's most valuable campaign surrogate is the Republican president.

But Trump has an advantage of his own.

Many of his supporters aren't Republicans who happen to like Trump.

They're Trump supporters who happen to vote Republican.

And those voters don't always show up when he isn't running.

Which may explain why he's campaigning as though he is.

His supporters may not feel particularly inspired to save the Republican Party. But they might be motivated to save Donald Trump from a Democratic Congress.

Democrats want this election to be a referendum on Trump.

Trump wants it to be a referendum on whether his supporters will defend him.

Both sides are making the same man the center of the election.

They're just hoping voters respond in opposite ways.

TURNOUT

And that brings us to the word that could determine everything.

Turnout.

The polls tell a remarkably consistent story. Democrats have an advantage. Economic frustration is widespread. The president is unpopular.

But elections aren't simply a measure of public opinion.

They're a measure of who participates.

As a researcher, I believe deeply in what polling can tell us. We can measure attitudes, identify motivations and model which voters are likely to show up.

But there's a reason we call them likely voters.

The most consequential difference in an election isn't always between Republicans and Democrats. It's between people who are angry enough to vote and people who are exhausted enough to stay home.

Democrats are angry about what Republicans have done.

Republicans may be frightened by what they believe Democrats will do.

Independents may be frustrated with both.

And that creates a fascinating question.

Which emotion will actually get people out of the house?

Gallup recently found that 56% of Americans have given considerable thought to this election, a record for this point in a midterm cycle.

But paying attention and participating aren't the same thing.

A wave of Democratic enthusiasm in safely blue districts won't change control of Congress. A smaller Republican surge in a handful of competitive races could.

And a relatively modest number of independents deciding to stay home or to show up could rewrite the headlines.

The polls can tell us where voters stand.

Tuesday will tell us which voters stand up.

And that distinction could determine the election.

Here's what I suspect both parties will get wrong once the votes are counted.

If Democrats win big, they'll declare that America has rejected Trumpism and embraced their vision.

If Republicans outperform expectations, they'll insist voters have reaffirmed the president's agenda.

Both may be mistaking a victory for an endorsement.

Voters can fire one party without falling in love with the other.

And they can stick with a party they don't particularly like because they're more afraid of the alternative.

That's the paradox of American politics in 2026.

We have two parties desperately trying to win an election in a country increasingly skeptical that either deserves to.

After more than $11 billion in political advertising, thousands of polls and enough promises to wallpaper the Capitol, Americans may be sending a remarkably simple message.

They don't want politicians to win another argument.

They want someone to make their lives better.

Tuesday will tell us who wins power.

What happens afterward will tell us whether they deserved it.

ATTACHMENT SIXTEEN – FROM ABC

HOW DO MIDTERM CANDIDATES PLAN TO FIGHT INFLATION? ECONOMISTS EVALUATE THEIR PROPOSALS

Proposals include tax cuts and an end to the Iran war.

What to know about health issues, rising costs on ballot in midtermsABC News’ Devin Dwyer reports on the issues voters are weighing, and Cynthia Cox, senior vice president and director of KFF’s Program on the Affordable Care Act, discusses the ACA.

By Max Zahn

November 2, 2026, 3:32 PM

The final sprint to Tuesday's midterm elections has kicked up a flurry of headlines about attack ads slung by candidates and verbal jabs thrown by current and former occupants of the White House.

An issue crucial to households' bank account balances, however, has preoccupied voters for the duration of campaign season: Affordability.

The Iran war set off a monthslong surge of inflation as fuel prices climbed in response to unrest in the Middle East, U.S. government data shows. In response to rising prices, a jump in bond yields has pushed up rates for loans like credit cards and mortgages, threatening to worsen the financial crunch.

US economy grew at 3.4% annualized rate in 3rd quarter, government data shows

Candidates for Congress have voiced a range of proposals meant to address the price woes, including tax cuts, an easing of regulations, a removal of tariffs and an end to the Iran war.

Some economists spoke to ABC News about whether the proposals could cool off inflation. Analysts praised some policies and criticized others, but they all acknowledged that no single measure could dramatically shift the price picture, at least anytime soon.

Here's what to know about some affordability proposals made on the campaign trail, according to experts:

END THE WAR IN IRAN

The Iran war triggered a rise of inflation earlier this year as a historic oil supply shortage pushed up prices for gasoline, groceries and other essentials.

Some candidates, mostly Democrats, have proposed an end to the Iran war as a means of dialing back price hikes.

On his campaign website, Osborn calls for "ending the wars that drive up prices and costs the lives of American servicemen and women," pointing specifically to the Iran war.

When asked last month how he would bring down prices, Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who is up for re-election, vowed to "end this disastrous war in Iran."

See charts and graphs here.

Analysts who spoke to ABC News attributed elevated prices for gasoline and some other goods to ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has damaged oil infrastructure and forced firms to take up costly means of transporting crude.

The national average price of a gallon of gas stands at $4.16 a gallon, which marks an increase of $1.18 since the outset of the Iran war in February, according to AAA data. Gas prices jumped more than 9% in September from August, accounting for more than half of the overall price increase that month, the most recent month on record, U.S. government data showed.

"The war has a lot to do with what has happened to oil prices and of course to the refined product prices," Gian Maria Milesi-Ferretti, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institute's Hutchins Center for Fiscal and Monetary Policy, told ABC News. "Ending the war would be salient."

President Donald Trump has acknowledged the rise in oil prices while maintaining that the war has been worth it to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. He has also predicted that fuel prices will fall quickly when the conflict ends.

After the war, "oil prices will come plummeting down even lower than they were at the start of the conflict," Trump said in September at the United Nations General Assembly.

In the event of a peace deal in the Middle East, assuming it brought all fighting to a halt, oil prices would likely fall as supply challenges eased, but the reduction in price could take time as producers repair oil infrastructure in the region, some analysts said.

Gas prices, meanwhile, would likely fall at a delayed pace as retailers sell through refined product purchased while oil prices were at higher levels, they added.

"Even if we ended the Iran war today, I think it's going to take a while for those energy prices to come down," Kara Reynolds, an economist at American University, told ABC News. "We're underestimating how much of the capacity of production has been destroyed in that area."

Tax cuts

President Trump's signature One Big Beautiful Bill, which included a range of tax reductions for both individuals and businesses, has drawn praise from Republican candidates on the trail. Many of them have touted tax cuts as a means of keeping money in people's pockets and relieving affordability woes.

Ashley Hinson, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Iowa, has called for such tax relief.

Hinson's campaign website says: "Ashley has always believed it is YOUR money, not the government's money. She has been laser focused on lowering taxes for working families and empowering all Iowans with opportunities."

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., who is running for re-election, also mentions this approach on his campaign website. "Pete Ricketts is helping Nebraska families, workers, seniors, and small business owners keep more of their hard-earned income," the website says.

Economists who spoke to ABC News described tax cuts as a potential way to ease affordability woes by sheltering some of an individual's income from taxes.

At the same time, they said, a resulting uptick in consumer spending would risk heightened inflation in the event the increase in demand were to outpace the supply of goods. If a larger amount of money were to chase after a similar amount of goods, they said, prices may rise.

"In general, tax relief can give you income you can use to compensate for higher prices," Reynolds said. "The problem is when you lower taxes that can be seen as a fiscal stimulus. To the extent that's fueling more consumer spending it exacerbates inflation."

Tax cuts also reduce revenue taken in by the federal government, which could add to the nation's $40.5 trillion debt in the absence of an equivalent reduction in spending, analysts said. A further increase in debt could hike interest rates for government debt as borrowers seek higher yields in return for increased risk of default.

A potential rise in Treasury rates, in turn, could hike borrowing costs for consumers, making it more expensive to take out a mortgage or pay off a credit card.

"Public debt is already rising and the cost of financing it is going up," Milesi-Ferretti said.

Ease regulations and improve supply

Both Republican and Democratic candidates have proposed relief from regulations as a means of achieving greater efficiency, especially in the area of housing. Improved productivity, they say, would generate added supply, leading to lower prices.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has called for speeding up the permit process and easing environmental reviews as part of a plan to "Build, baby, build!"

Members of both parties in Congress voted overwhelmingly to pass the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which aims to reduce home prices by removing regulation and bolstering the supply. The measure became law in July.

Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., a co-author of the measure, advocates for its approach on his campaign website. "My bill cuts red tape and makes it more affordable to build new homes," the website says, presenting the effort as a means of "making the American dream affordable."

Analysts who spoke to ABC News said solutions of this type could succeed in reducing home prices, though progress would likely take a matter of years due to the prolonged start-to-finish duration of housing construction.

"I like the supply-side ideas," said Harry Holzer, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University and a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor. "We've made it ridiculously expensive to build in America."

Milesi-Ferretti, of the Brookings Institute, said a larger supply of homes could eventually ease prices -- but not anytime soon.

"If you want to make a case for boosting supply, that's a case to make. But it's a case you have to make with a realistic assumption of the time horizon," Milesi-Ferretti said.

Reynolds, of American University, questioned the potential impact of steps taken at the federal level, since she said zoning regulation often critical to the approval of new home construction typically falls under state or local jurisdiction.

"I think zoning law changes will have a much bigger impact on housing supply than anything the federal government can do," Reynolds said.

Removal of tariffs

On the campaign trail, Democratic candidates have criticized tariffs issued by the White House as a cause of price increases. Many Democrats -- and some Republicans -- have called for a reduction of some levies.

In all, the current level of U.S. tariffs will cost the typical American household $1,077 per year, according to an estimate released by the Yale Budget Lab in August.

Levies imposed on Canada over the summer have drawn close attention from candidates in states near the Northern border. Many of those states play host to closely contested Senate races that may determine which party retains control of the upper chamber.

"Trump's tariffs have hurt American manufacturers, American workers, and our wallets," Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan, said in a post on X last week.

In a campaign released last week, Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers urged an end to the "tariff war" with Canada.

Analysts said tariffs had pushed up some consumer prices, saying levies had raised costs for importers, who often pass along added expenses to shoppers.

"Tariffs add to price pressure," said Holzer, of Georgetown University.

Still, the analysts said, it is difficult to anticipate the outcome of a reduction in levies, due in part to ambiguity about the exact price effects of a given tariff and uncertainty surrounding the willingness of retailers to ease prices once they've raised them.

"How much savings you'll see once you reduce the tariffs depends on what happened in the first place when tariffs were imposed," Milesi-Ferretti said.

The Trump administration has touted levies as a means of pressuring foreign companies to build facilities in the U.S. and employ American workers.

"By imposing tariffs to address non-reciprocal foreign trade practices, President Trump is incentivizing companies to reshore jobs and production lines back to American soil," the White House said in a memo issued last month.

In some cases, producers slashed wholesale prices paid by importers in an effort to take on some of the cost associated with a tariff. Some retailers, meanwhile, chose to swallow some of the additional tax rather than pass it to shoppers in the form of higher prices, Milesi-Ferretti added.

"There will be some benefit for consumers but it will take some time to work through the system," Milesi-Ferretti said.

Reynolds voiced skepticism about substantial savings for shoppers.

"The fact is once firms have increased prices there's no incentive for them to lower the prices," Reynolds said.

ATTACHMENT SEVENTEEN – FROM THE DOWNBALLOT

MORNING DIGEST: THE BATTLEFIELD MAKES ONE LAST PUSH INTO UNIMAGINABLE TURF

Deep red states and districts that had never looked competitive now have the GOP panicked

by David Nir and Jeff Singer Nov. 2

In the waning days of the 2026 midterms, the electoral battleground has pushed into once unimaginable territory as Republicans find themselves forced to defend seemingly impregnable bastions.

Louisiana’s Senate race offers one of the most striking examples. Allies of Republican Rep. Julia Letlow are launching a last-minute ad campaign targeting Democrat Jamie Davis, a farmer and former local elected official in rural Tensas Parish in the state’s northeastern corner.

The offensive began shortly before Davis and the Louisiana Democratic Party each released a poll showing the race tied. A Hart Research survey Davis put out Friday finds the two candidates with 45% apiece, while the state party two days later released a Lincoln Park Strategies poll finding a 47-47 deadlock.

“The Democratic surge in recent polls, including in red states like Kansas and South Carolina, is due largely to the dissatisfaction with Donald Trump and the Republican majority, and Louisiana is NO different,” Hart said in its memo for the Davis campaign. The survey showed Donald Trump with a 48% favorable rating in a state he carried 60-38 just two years ago.

The only prior polls of the contest to replace Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, whom Letlow defeated for renomination earlier this year, were a pair of Davis internals from July and September that both found him trailing by 4 points. Letlow’s backers haven’t d any data of their own, but they’re treating the Democrat as a real threat.

“He wants to be our U.S. senator, but his values are not Louisiana values,” says the narrator in a new ad for a group called the Accountability Project. As the audience sees an AI-generated version of Davis walking toward the camera, the narrator charges that he’s wrong on issues like abortion, gun rights, and immigration.

FEC data shows the Accountability Project and other conservative groups spent about $1.4 million during the final week of October to help Letlow, who—until now—didn’t seem to need any assistance in what was supposed to be an anticlimactic general election.

But Democratic donors have taken an interest in Davis, who would be the first Black person to win a statewide election in Louisiana since Reconstruction. Davis outraised Letlow roughly $3 million to $900,000 from the start of July through Oct. 14, and he even enjoyed a small advantage in spending during that stretch.

“The cakewalk turned into a knife fight,” an unidentified state Republican recently told Politico.

The Louisiana GOP’s zeal to roll back Black representation in the House may have also made it tougher for Republicans to defend what should be a safe Senate seat.

Republicans responded to the Supreme Court’s late April decision to gut the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais by passing a new congressional map that transformed Democratic Rep. Cleo Fields’ 6th District from a majority-Black constituency into a predominantly white district that would have backed Trump by a 64-34 margin.

Fields, one of only four Black Louisianans to serve in Congress since Reconstruction, decided to run for the state Senate rather than wage an all-but-doomed campaign for reelection.

But the GOP’s demolition of Fields’ district could boomerang. Political observers are now closely watching to see whether Republican attacks on Black political power will result in unusually high turnout among Black voters, who represent 31% of registered voters, according to the secretary of state.

Davis, who described himself as a “gun-packing Democrat” during a recent appearance on a conservative radio show, also needs to win over a significant number of white residents who almost always support the GOP but may have soured on Trump. That remains a challenging task, but Letlow’s allies are no longer acting like it’s an impossible one.

Similar dynamics are also on display in an ever-larger number of House races where Republicans are making a late drive to stop Democratic opponents they were unworried about just weeks ago.

One of those contests is in Florida’s 16th District, an open seat Trump carried 56-43. Former college development director Sydney Gruters, who is also the wife of Republican National Committee chair Joe Gruters, appeared to be a shoo-in when Trump pledged to endorse her before she even announced her campaign, but things haven’t gone according to plan.

GOP groups have spent roughly $2 million to boost Gruters and attack Democrat Kelly Kirschner, a former mayor of Sarasota, while Kirschner’s allies have deployed about $200,000 in support of his campaign to replace retiring Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan.

A survey from Public Policy Polling conducted early last month showed Kirschner trailing just 43-39 in his campaign to flip the 16th District, which includes part of St. Petersburg as well as other central Florida communities like Bradenton. No one else has released any recent data on this contest.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina’s deep-red 13th District, freshman Rep. Brad Knott has been airing ads arguing that Democrat Paul Barringer, a healthcare consultant, is most at home in “the D.C. swamp.”

Knott, as WUNC notes, is one of several Tar Heel State Republicans who once seemed assured of winning another term, but he may be especially vulnerable if the GOP’s gerrymander breaks down.

Knott was one of several Republicans who campaigned for the 13th in 2024 after the GOP radically transformed what had been a swing district into a conservative seat, prompting Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel not to seek reelection. (Nickel is now running without opposition in Tuesday’s election for Wake County district attorney.)

In the primary two years ago, Knott trailed wealthy attorney Kelly Daughtry 27-19, but he never had to test his skills in the expected runoff. Ahead of the second round of voting, Trump backed Knott, a well-connected former federal prosecutor, spurring Daughtry to drop her bid. Knott went on to beat an unheralded Democratic opponent 59-41 as Trump was carrying the district by a similar spread.

But 2026 is another matter entirely. Republicans all but surrendered the state’s open U.S. Senate seat a month ago to former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who has maintained his wide polling lead against opponent Michael Whatley, Gruters’ predecessor at the RNC.

And it’s not just newcomers like Knott who are alarmed. Republicans with far more established pedigrees are also spending money to run ads in districts that Trump easily won.

Indeed, one such incumbent is none other than Richard Hudson, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

While Hudson has an almost impossible task as he tries to defend his party’s slim House majority, his own reelection in the reliably red 9th District seemed like an afterthought. But Richard Ojeda, a former state senator from West Virginia who waged a well-funded congressional campaign in his home state in 2018, is once again raising serious money for a tough race.

The pro-Democratic House Majority PAC released a survey from PPP last month showing Hudson ahead only 46-42 in a Fayetteville-area constituency Trump carried 57-42. HMP’s close ally, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, jumped into the race late last week with a new ad attacking the NRCC’s chief.

Democrats remain the underdogs in all of these races, but they’re happy to see Republicans struggling in places they haven’t had to think about in years. Whatever happens in these races on the fringes of the electoral map, the enormous battlefield has only boosted Democrats’ chances of reclaiming control of Congress—as someone like Hudson knows all too well.

THE DOWNBALLOT

Our hour-by-hour guide to election night 2026

Finally, Election Day is almost here! But with literally thousands of races on the docket, how will you make sense of election night? The supremely knowledgeable Jeff Singer, our managing editor, joins us for the last pre-election episode of The Downballot podcast to give us an hour-by-hour overview of the key contests to watch…

SENATE

CT-Sen

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, was hospitalized on Saturday after experiencing a stroke, according to his office.

“The doctors are encouraged by his progress, he is awake and alert, and we are optimistic he will make a full recovery,” his chief of staff said in a statement.

Murphy, 53, was first elected to the Senate in 2012 after serving three terms in the House. He is not up for reelection again until 2030.

MI-Sen

Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens issued a last-minute endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers’ Senate campaign on Sunday, a move that shocked her party and drew furious rebukes throughout Michigan and across the country.

“Hey, Michigan. As you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” Stevens said in a video she posted on X. “And he’s right, and that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today.”

After narrowly losing the Democratic primary to Abdul El-Sayed in August, Stevens swiftly backed him, saying in a statement that she was “proud to offer my support” and “prouder to continue to work together to make sure this Senate seat remains blue.”

In response to Sunday’s news, El-Sayed called Stevens’ about-face a “distraction” and told reporters, “None of this matters.” Other Democrats, however, reacted with rage—and reaffirmed their support for their nominee.

“Congresswoman Stevens is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future,” state party chair Curtis Hertel wrote on social media.

“This is a despicable betrayal from Rep. Stevens,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, the leader of the party’s Senate caucus, posted. “Senate Democrats are united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed, because we know he will fight for the economic interests of working families in Michigan, unlike Mike Rogers, who is a tool of Donald Trump and billionaire donors.”

Stevens’ chief of staff, meanwhile, issued a statement saying that he, along with “many members of our team,” had resigned from the congresswoman’s staff. Some House Democrats also told Politico they want to boot Stevens from their caucus. (Her term ends in January, and she will most likely be succeeded by state Sen. Jeremy Moss, a fellow Democrat.)

Stevens’ defection comes after many Michiganders have already voted. According to statistics from the Michigan secretary of state, nearly 2.2 million voters have cast ballots, either by mail or during the in-person early voting period, which ended on Sunday. In 2024, the first year Michigan offered early voting statewide, just over 60% of voters voted before Election Day.

According to an average of polls calculated by FiftyPlusOne, El-Sayed holds a 50-45 lead on Rogers.

HOUSE

FL-13, FL-14

The conservative No Going Back PAC just redirected at least $750,000 in spending from Florida’s 14th District to the neighboring 13th, switching from offense to defense in the campaign’s waning days.

According to AdImpact data shared by Florida Politics, the PAC, which is funded by Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc., had intended to use those funds in its effort to unseat Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor in the 14th. Instead, though, it’s now seeking to shore up Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in the 13th, where she faces a difficult challenge from Democrat Leela Gray.

BALLOT MEASURES

MA Ballot, AK Ballot

The campaign to bring top-two primaries to Massachusetts has outraised the opposition by a wide margin, according to new campaign finance reports compiled by Axios.

Backers of Question 3, which would alter the state’s electoral system, are also promoting Question 1, which would expand the state’s public records law to include most documents held by the governor and legislature.

Supporters of these two measures, who’ve received much of their funding from the private equity sector, have raised $7.8 million for both campaigns, though it’s not clear how much funding is getting directed toward each ballot measure. Opponents of Question 3, meanwhile, have taken in just $317,000, mostly from labor groups.

Most surveys have also found the “yes” vote ahead in the Question 3 contest, though a pair of recent surveys find voters rejecting the plan, which would require the Bay State to follow the same approach as California and Washington.

If a majority votes “yes” on Tuesday, all candidates from all parties for most offices would compete on a single ballot rather than in separate partisan contests starting in 2028. The two contenders with the most votes, regardless of party, would then advance to the general election.

Morning Digest: Massachusetts could adopt a top-two primary. Democrats are warning of disaster.

The contest is taking place on the same evening that voters in Alaska will decide—for the second time in a row—whether to keep their unique top-four primary or return to the partisan primary system used in most other states.

The Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday that the effort to defeat Ballot Measure 2 has taken in a total of $10.4 million, compared to $2.5 million supporters have raised. This wide gap, though, is still smaller than the $14.8 million to $170,000 advantage the “no” side enjoyed when it narrowly beat back the first repeal attempt.

That razor-thin 50.1 to 49.9 outcome meant all candidates would continue running on a single primary ballot, with the four contenders with the most votes advancing to a general election conducted under ranked-choice rules.

The system attracted renewed attention on Wednesday when the New York Times reported that Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign recruited a little-known retired teacher named Dan J. Sullivan to run for the Senate to make reelection tougher for Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, the Republican incumbent. Both Dan Sullivans advanced past the August primary and will face off against Peltola and a minor Republican named Gerald Heikes.

The story spread widely and prompted Republicans to launch a late ad campaign attacking Peltola, who has denied knowing anything about the alleged effort to recruit Dan J. Sullivan. However, the report may have broken too late to have an impact in a contest where a large number of ballots have already been cast.

There has been little reliable polling about Ballot Measure 2’s prospects, though one rare survey showed the contest as tight as could be. Data for Progress in mid-October found voters deadlocked 48-48 over whether or not to repeal the system.

ATTACHMENT EIGHTEEN – FROM THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

EL-SAYED, AIPAC, ANTISEMITISM AND ISRAEL: 5 US MIDTERM RACES TO WATCH

Tuesday’s votes will test Jews’ longstanding support for Democrats, weigh pro-Israel candidates from both parties, and measure the far left’s influence on support for moderates

By Luke Tress 2 November 2026, 10:39 pm

With Democrats hoping to exploit US President Donald Trump’s unpopularity to win control of Congress during Tuesday’s midterm elections, the stakes are high for Jews as well, with many of their concerns on the ballot.

A central issue is how Jews will handle the Democratic Party’s increasing hostility to Israel.

Most American Jews have long been aligned with the Democratic Party, but far-left candidates have alarmed some Jewish voters in areas including New York and Michigan.

Some of the races will test whether anti-Zionism in the party and issues surrounding Israel and antisemitism will alter Jewish American voting patterns.

Polling indicates that American Jews are also largely opposed to Trump.

Other elections are pitting pro-Israel candidates from each party against one another, while yet others will test potential presidential candidates or measure the far left’s influence on support for more moderate Democrats.

El-Sayed in Michigan

The Michigan Senate race, pitting Democrat Abdul El-Sayed against Republican Mike Rogers, is serving as a litmus test for Jews’ longstanding support for the Democratic Party.

El-Sayed has repeatedly alarmed Jews with his rhetoric about Israel and Jewish issues, particularly his response to an attempted terrorist mass killing at a Michigan synagogue and preschool: “Hurt people hurt people.” He later apologized for the comment.

Democrats will likely need to hold onto the Michigan Senate seat to gain control of the chamber. The Democratic incumbent, Gary Peters, is retiring.

The race’s role as a crucible was clear over the weekend when El-Sayed’s opponent in the Democratic primary, Haley Stevens, issued a shock endorsement of Rogers.

Stevens and El-Sayed, while both Democrats, had been uncomfortable as teammates since the primary. Those tensions climbed further when El-Sayed supporter Cenk Uygur, a far-left commentator, posted an El-Sayed blaming Israel for expensive groceries in the US.

El-Sayed distanced himself from the ad, but the video sparked a back-and-forth with Stevens, who also criticized El-Sayed for his relationship with streamer Hasan Piker, Uygur’s nephew.

Leading Democrats fumed at Stevens after her endorsement, with Jewish Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced her “despicable betrayal.”

In the Michigan maelstrom are many Jewish voters who are opposed to both El-Sayed and the Republican Party.

Nonnegotiable Michigan, a Jewish advocacy group, had pushed El-Sayed to make commitments to Jewish safety and self-determination for weeks.

On Sunday, the group said it was urging Jewish Democrats to write in Emma Lazarus, the 19th-century Jewish American poet, as a candidate if they could not support either El-Sayed or Rogers.

Other Jews in Michigan are supporting El-Sayed.

2 PRO-ISRAEL CANDIDATES IN THE HUDSON VALLEY

New York’s 17th Congressional District, north of New York City, presents a different kind of test.

The race is between incumbent Republican Mike Lawler and Democratic challenger Cait Conley.

Unlike some other contentious House races, both Lawler and Conley are pro-Israel.

Conley is a decorated military veteran and former national security official who has backed Israel’s partnership with the US and distanced herself from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s anti-Zionism.

Lawler is an outspoken supporter of Israel who has built ties with Jewish communities, particularly Orthodox and Hasidic groups, in the Hudson Valley district since taking office in 2023.

An estimated 19 percent of the district’s residents are Jewish, according to a 2024 study commissioned by the Jewish Electorate Institute. Many Jewish voters in the district are Orthodox and lean conservative.

Conley will test the performance of a moderate, pro-Israel Democrat against a Republican with similar positions on Israel.

The two candidates are neck and neck in polls.

A POTENTIAL PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN GEORGIA

In Georgia, incumbent Democratic Jewish senator Jon Ossoff is running against Republican Mike Collins.

Some of Collins’s family members and former employees have come under scrutiny for far-right politics, including antisemitic and white supremacist views.

Ossoff has angered some Jewish community members by voting to cut off some arms sales to Israel.

Ossoff has the backing of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.

The race is significant because Ossoff is seen as a potential 2028 presidential contender.

Polls put Ossoff ahead.

Mamdani an issue in NY governor race

The New York State governor’s race puts the moderate, incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul against Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman, who is Jewish.

Hochul is supportive of Israel and New York’s Jewish communities and has attacked Blakeman’s ties to Trump during the campaign.

Blakeman has sought to tie Hochul to Mamdani, anti-Zionist protests and antisemitism.

Jews are targeted in hate crimes far more than any other group in New York City, the largest Jewish community in the US, according to NYPD data.

Hochul has drawn some fire from pro-Israel Jews for her collaboration on campaigns and legislative initiatives with Mamdani, although she has distanced herself from some of his anti-Israel positions.

Hochul on Sunday, at the close of the campaign, went to a sports bar in Queens with Mamdani and US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another prominent anti-Israel voice on the left.

Hochul holds a firm lead in the mostly Democratic state and has secured endorsements from Jewish groups, including Hasidic organizations in New York City.

Jewish votes for Blakeman could offer evidence of dissatisfaction with the Democratic establishment in New York State and show that an association with Mamdani and the far left can drag down more moderate Democrats with Jews.

PRO-ISRAEL JEWISH DEMOCRAT FIGHTS IN FLORIDA

US Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, is running against Republican Scott Singer in Florida’s 25th Congressional District.

Both candidates are Jewish and are largely aligned on Israel, condemning accusations of genocide in Gaza and opposing efforts to cut off US military aid to Israel.

Moskowitz, an outspoken opponent of antisemitism on the left, has said he is “proud” to have the backing of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, a group that has been demonized on much of the left.

Singer, the former mayor of Boca Raton, has criticized Moskowitz for voting for the war powers resolution in 2026 that came in response to the Trump administration striking Iran without congressional approval.

Singer has also sought to tie Moskowitz to the Democratic Party’s left flank.

The two candidates are close in polls, although surveys have found varying results.

A loss for Moskowitz would remove one of the more prominent pro-Israel Jewish voices from the Democratic Party in the House.

JTA contributed to this report.

ATTACHMENT NINETEEN – FROM AL JAZEERA

Trump, Vance Campaign With Candidates On Last Day Before US Midterms

Republicans and Democrats hold last rallies from Washington to Michigan and Texas as polls point to a tight race for Congress.

By Reuters and The Associated Press Published On 2 Nov 2026 2 Nov 2026

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have begun their final push ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, with Republican and Democratic candidates spreading out across the United States for a last day of campaigning.

On Monday afternoon in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC, Trump urged supporters to vote in Tuesday’s midterm election.

· Trump leans into Islamophobia and conspiracy in last-ditch campaign rallies

· US midterms: 1 day to go – Democrats rally around El-Sayed amid attacks

· As Islamophobia ramps up in US midterms, Texas Muslims eye local stakes

“If the people who voted for me and voted in the last election … if they go out and voted just a good portion of them, we will win in a landslide,” he said, before conceding that this could be an uphill battle.

“Now, that doesn’t happen because usually whoever is the sitting president, whether Republican or Democrat, good or bad, … for some reason the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms,” he added.

Trump also referred to the Senate race in Alaska as a “fraudulent election”.

“In Alaska, the Dumbocrats conspired to get a fake Dan Sullivan on the ballot to confuse voters,” he said.

The administration had renewed a legal push to bar Alaska from certifying its election results, alleging that Democrats conspired to recruit a “spoiler” candidate to divert votes from the Republican incumbent of the same name, Dan Sullivan, but US District Judge Sharon Gleason on Sunday dismissed the lawsuit, describing the request as “infeasible”.

Republicans are trying to hold their majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives despite Trump’s low approval ratings and polls predicting that the Iran war, high energy prices and the affordability crisis could mean a strong night for Democrats.

TRUMP STAYS IN WASHINGTON

Closing the campaign at the Reflecting Pool was a departure from Trump’s recent strategy. The US president has staged more than 25 rallies in largely conservative areas over the past month, and wrote that Sunday’s rally in Kansas was the “last stop” of his 2026 midterm campaign tour.

The Reflecting Pool was also politically awkward. Trump’s renovation of the historic landmark ran nearly three months late and cost more than 10 times the initial budget. The “American flag blue” liner also began peeling after he declared the work complete, according to The Associated Press news agency.

In an interview on the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast, Trump said that, if he had to work with a Democrat-led Congress, he would become “Mr Veto”.

“It wouldn’t be the first time [we] have a president and he doesn’t have the Senate. They set stuff up, you veto it. After a month or two of getting things vetoed, they come over, and you make a deal,” he said.

The president also indicated he would be willing to pardon people around him if he considered it necessary.

“I would if I needed to, sure,” Trump added.

Vance stumps in New York

Constantino is running to succeed longtime Republican Representative Elise Stefanik, who is not seeking re-election. A Siena Research Institute poll shows the race could be close despite a Republican registration advantage of about 80,000 voters.

“A new poll conducted by Siena Research […] shows that while voters in the district still favor Republicans more broadly, that sentiment does not necessarily translate to support for Constantino,” North Country Public Radio reported.

Buller is challenging Democratic Representative John Mannion in the neighbouring 22nd congressional district, which includes Rome.

QUESTIONS ABOUT IRAN WAR

Travelling back through Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Vance spoke to reporters about the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran. Trump had threatened renewed fighting after the midterm election.

Vance, however, suggested that “good conversations” with Iran were ongoing, and that new attacks were not a foregone conclusion.

“The president and I both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement. We’re going to keep on working at it,” Vance said.

“You never know, of course. The Iranians are always a little unpredictable, and as the president always says, he retains kinetic options. He retains non-kinetic options. But we’ve certainly made some progress. We’ll see if we can make some more.”

DEMOCRATS TARGET KEY SENATE RACES

In Michigan, Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed spent the final day before the election campaigning alongside Michigan Democratic Representative Debbie Dingell and Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.

He also urged supporters to vote as he rallied at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.

“If we’re nervous about where we’re going to go from here, go vote,” he said.

In Texas, Democrats James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa are making final pushes for the Senate and the governor’s race, respectively, with a joint rally in Austin at 6:30pm CT (00:30 GMT on Tuesday).

Talarico’s opponent, Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, is scheduled to appear in Conroe at noon CT (18:00 GMT) and Allen at 6:30pm CT (00:30 GMT).

Polls show Talarico narrowly ahead of Paxton, while Governor Greg Abbott’s lead over Hinojosa has narrowed.

OTHER KEY SENATE PUSHES

In Maine, Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson will make campaign stops in Yarmouth, Scarborough, South Portland and Portland, with events scheduled from 9am ET (14:00 GMT) to 6pm ET (23:00 GMT).

In Iowa, Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek will be touring Harlan, Onawa, Le Mars and Sioux City to meet with voters, from 10am CT (16:00 GMT) to 6pm CT (00:00 GMT).

In Kansas, Democratic Senate candidate Adam Hamilton will be out from 7:30am CT (13:30 GMT) to 1pm CT (19:00 GMT), speaking to voters across Wichita, Topeka and Lawrence. The final event of the day has not yet been announced.

ICE AT POLLS IN COURT

Separately, a federal judge in Washington is due to hear arguments early on Monday in a lawsuit over whether immigration agents can be present at polling places. Common Cause, UnidosUS, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and the city and county of Denver are challenging the US administration’s position that armed agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may enter polling places for immigration enforcement.

The Department of Homeland Security has said ICE is not planning operations targeting polling locations.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY – FROM PBS

TRUMP OFFICIALLY REOPENS LINCOLN MEMORIAL REFLECTING POOL ON EVE OF MIDTERM ELECTIONS

Updated on Nov 2, 2026 4:03 PM EST — Published on Nov 2, 2026 9:55 AM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Republicans and Democrats were making their final pitch to voters on the eve of Election Day, President Donald Trump opted to forgo the campaign trail and instead focused on his renovations at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, drawing attention to an expensive, problem-plagued repair job in a place far away from most of the people his party wants to persuade.

It was an unusual closing argument for Republicans to keep control of Congress. But it conforms with the way the president has devoted considerable time, attention and money in his second term on beautifying his Washington surroundings.

Trump, wearing a white "USA" hat, even seemed to admit that he had spent much of his time focused on improving the capital city.

"We have a lot of great things planned for Washington, and I could get into the nation, but for that, you don't have enough time," Trump said.

Instead of focusing on issues voters have said they're worried about, Trump dedicated a large portion of his remarks to his D.C. makeover and the pool, announcing its official re-opening, joking that he wanted to name it after himself, and repeating his false claims that the repair work he ordered was vandalized.

After he finished his remarks on Monday, Trump's stood silently while triumphant music played and he held up a poster with an image of the previously algae-clogged pool. It was his last public appearance before Election Day.

Democrats, for their part, were spending the last 24 hours before Election Day making their case in areas where Republicans have long dominated, while trying to contain the fallout from a messy intraparty split in Michigan. Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed was brushing aside concerns that his prospects could be hurt after his former primary opponent threw her support behind his Republican opponent Mike Rogers.

WATCH: Trump should 'take stock' and 'own' election outcome, Sen. Tillis says

In addition to giving the speech on Monday afternoon, Trump also was scheduled to participate in nine telerallies for Republicans, where he uses brief remarks on a mass phone call to plead for voters' support.

Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, hit the campaign trail with more traditional stops in New York and Ohio, where Republicans were fighting for House and Senate seats.

Trump touts renovations as voters worry about the economy

The Reflecting Pool, a long, narrow basin at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, is one of Washington's most iconic sites. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously gave his "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the memorial in 1963, looking out over the pool.

But this summer it became a focus of Trump's attention, with the president frequently speaking about his plans for the shallow pool on social media, at the White House and beyond. He displayed posters about the project in the Oval Office and even had his motorcade drive him over the resurfaced pool before it was refilled.

The pool was soon clogged with algae blooms, and its "American-flag blue" liner began peeling and floating up in chunks. The Justice Department charged former Olympian David Hearn with intentionally damaging the Reflecting Pool but then dropped the case this summer after determining he was not responsible.

But the president continues to repeat false claims that vandalism — rather than shoddy workmanship — was to blame for a new blue surface peeling away.

On the platform where he spoke Monday, signs were hanging that said "Restoring Our Capitol" and "The Reflecting Pool." A poster perched on a display board showed the reflecting pool under the words, "Back, and more beautiful than ever!"

He waxed on about the particular color blue he selected to have the bottom of the pool painted, the kinds of grass and types of columns he had selected for repairs around Washington, and held up a series of blown-up images of rusted pipes taken during the renovation process.

He then started repeating some of his midterm elections pitch, defending his record and attacking Democratic nominees, before eventually turning back to the pool.

The president's message in the closing days of the midterm campaign was similarly detached from voters' concerns about the high cost of living. He's called affordability a "hoax" while boasting to audiences far from the nation's capital about his renovations of the reflecting pool and the White House, along with repeatedly praising the physiques of the GOP's nominees.

Vance stuck closer to the party message as he campaigned Monday in Rome, New York. As he campaigned for Republican House candidates Kailee Buller and Anthony Constantino, he touted Trump's moves to end taxes on tips and overtime and secure the border while branding Democrats as "lunatics" who have contempt for American voters.

DEMOCRATS TRY TO FLIP REPUBLICAN-FAVORED SEATS WHILE GRAPPLING WITH FRACTURES

Democratic candidates were working to capitalize on widespread disaffection over high prices, the fallout from Trump's war with Iran and historical trends that typically favor the party out of power in midterm elections.

In places like Iowa, where voters have not elected a Democratic governor in two decades, Democrat Rob Sand was asking canvassers knocking on doors to help break that streak.

WATCH: How does The Associated Press call 2026 midterm election winners? 4 things to know

"This is it," said Sand, who faces Republican Zach Lahn. "We have 30-whatever hours to change the direction of the state of Iowa."

He was appearing with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, who cited his own races as proof that a Democrat can win over Trump-backed candidates in states like his own and Iowa.

IN MICHIGAN, DEMOCRATS DEAL WITH FALLOUT FROM A DRAMATIC SPLIT

Democrats in Michigan — a key state in their efforts to try to retake the Senate — were trying to keep their coalition together after a shock on Sunday when Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens announced she would back the GOP candidate instead of her party's nominee, appearing at a church service with Mike Rogers.

Stevens — who lost in the primary to Abdul El-Sayed — is a staunch supporter of Israel, while El-Sayed is a fierce critic of the U.S. ally. He has also been criticized for past remarks regarding a Michigan synagogue attack and for appearances with controversial streamer Hasan Piker.

El-Sayed, who campaigned on Monday with fellow Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, told supporters worried that Stevens' endorsement could hurt him that "If we're nervous about where we're going to go from here, go vote."

Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Ankeny, Iowa, Mike Householder in Ypsilanti, Michigan and Mike Catalini and Moriah Balingit in Washington contributed to this report.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY ONE – FROM CBS (TAKEAWAYS)

2026 ELECTION LIVE UPDATES AS TRUMP TELLS GOP "WE GAVE THIS A VERY STRONG SHOT," MIDTERM CANDIDATES MAKE FINAL PITCHES

By Caroline Linton Updated on: November 2, 2026 / 5:11 PM EST / CBS News

What to know leading up to Election Day 2026:

· More than 57 million Americans have already voted early ahead of Election Day, this Tuesday, Nov. 3, according to the University of Florida Voting Lab.

· As the campaign season comes to a close, President Trump delivered his final scheduled remarks of the 2026 midterm elections. "We gave this a very strong shot," Mr. Trump said Tuesday at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

· A rift between Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens, whom he defeated in the primary, spilled into public view as Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers on Sunday. Leading Democrats condemned Stevens, while Mr. Trump praised her decision.

· Watch live coverage of election results Tuesday evening on CBS News and get the latest updates on CBSNews.com and streaming on CBS News 24/7.

Trump: "Tomorrow is the most important midterm election in the history of our country"

During a telerally for Republican candidates in New York, President Trump told his supporters that "tomorrow is the most important midterm election in the history of our country."

"You have to pretend I'm on the ballot because when I'm on the ballot, we get almost 50% more voters out," he said, predicting a "tremendous victory" if his supporters show up to vote.

Mr. Trump held the virtual event for GOP Rep. Mike Lawler, who is running in a competitive district, and New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman.

By Joe Walsh

14m ago

Debbie Dingell says "you're seeing a backlash" to Haley Stevens endorsing GOP candidate in Michigan Senate race

Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell told CBS News that Rep. Haley Stevens' last-minute decision to endorse the Republican candidate in the state's tight Senate race is "galvanizing many communities."

"You're seeing a backlash," Dingell said in an interview on "The Takeout with Major Garrett."

On Sunday, Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers, reversing course after previously backing fellow Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. The decision followed days of tension between Stevens and El-Sayed, who were opponents in the Democratic Senate primary and offered vastly different visions for the future of the party — particularly on U.S. support for Israel, which El-Sayed strongly opposes. The move drew plaudits from Rogers and other Republicans and outrage from Democrats.

"We saw a lot of people come out with strong statements last night that are, you know, considered new Dems or moderates talking about the importance and what is at stake, if we do not keep the seat Democratic and what happens if we elect somebody who is not going to stand up to Donald Trump," Dingell said. "I've had Black pastors talk to me and say ... 'Who said she represented us?'"

Dingell continued: "There's a lot of anger in how she did what she did yesterday as well. So, but you know what? I want everybody to focus on, they need to vote tomorrow."

By Joe Walsh

40m ago

Why some Texas Democrats are forecasting a "Hispanic hurricane" in midterms

Two years ago, President Trump made historic gains with Hispanic voters nationwide and won a majority of Texas Hispanics, upending conventional wisdom and setting back the Democratic Party's hopes of making the state competitive.

But now, Hispanics may be coming back.

They're frustrated with the state of the economy and concerned about the Trump administration's immigration policies. These factors and Mr. Trump's sagging approval ratings are giving Democrats hope in Texas' competitive Senate, House and governor's races.

"There's a Hispanic hurricane coming," said Democratic strategist and CBS News political contributor Chuck Rocha, who advises the Democratic Senate and gubernatorial candidates in Texas. "We just don't know quite yet if it's going to be Category 2 or Category 5, but it's washing ashore right in front of the GOP, and they don't know what to do about it."

But Republicans say enthusiasm for Democrats is still muted.

By Fin Daniel Gómez, Joe Walsh, Camilo Montoya-Galvez

4:37 PM

Trump says he'll go on Sean Hannity's Fox News show tonight

Taking to Truth Social, the president said he'll be joining Sean Hannity's Fox News show Monday night at 9 p.m., in what could be his final pitch before Election Day.

"This is the Golden Age of America with 25 Trillion Dollars of Growth and Wealth being created just since my Election — A very short period of time," he wrote. "There has never been anything like it in World History, nor has there been anything close."

Mr. Trump touted tax breaks on tips, overtime and Social Security.

"It has all been a BLESSING for our Country," he said. "It is my Great Honor to be your President during this Great Time in American History!"

By Kathryn Watson

4:33 PM

University of Florida Election Lab says 57 million Americans have voted early

As of Monday afternoon, more than 57 million Americans have cast their ballots, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.

Nearly 32 million people have voted early in person, and more than 25 million have cast their ballots by mail, according to the UF Election Lab.

That 57 million number easily surpasses the nearly 46 million who voted early in the 2022 midterm elections.

By Kathryn Watson

4:27 PM

Senate hopeful Troy Jackson says "I feel good" about home turf in Northern Maine

During a campaign stop in the Portland area, Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson told CBS News "I feel good" about voters in Northern Maine.

"I mean, I've been winning up there for two decades," Jackson said, pointing to his time representing the area in the Maine state legislature.

Both Jackson and Republican Sen. Susan Collins hail from the state's northernmost county, Aroostook County. Collins is from Caribou, and Jackson is from the small logging town of Allagash, which is even further north. The county is heavily GOP-leaning.

"I don't know that I'm going to win … in that area, but you know, I feel good," he continued. "People up there know that I've been fighting for them for a long time, and I'm an Aroostook County guy. You know, that's where I live and that's where my heart is."

Maine leans Democratic, but Collins has a long history of outperforming other Republicans. She is seeking a sixth term, and has run on her record of bringing federal funding home and pointed to her record of pushing back against President Trump.

Collins supporter Tom Knowlton called the senator "awesome," saying she "gets s*** done."

But Democrats have argued she hasn't pushed back enough. Jackson supporter Marge Baird told CBS News the race is "very big for the state of Maine."

"Susan Collins was wonderful in the very beginning, many years ago, and just isn't helping right now," she said.

By Jericka Duncan, Alan He, Joe Walsh

4:13 PM

At Paxton event, Ted Cruz warns Democrats could win every statewide race in Texas "if the election were over today"

During an event for Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz warned supporters: "If the election were over today, the Democrats could well win every single statewide position in Texas."

Cruz issued a similar warning last week, as Paxton faces a competitive contest against Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico.

"If the election were today, it would be ugly," he said Monday. But he noted that there are more Republicans than Democrats in Texas, arguing: "If our people show up tomorrow, we win."

Cruz also addressed the divisions among Texas Republicans since Paxton defeated incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn in a bitter primary earlier this year. His message to Republican voters was: "Whatever you're upset about, it's fine. Spend the next two years trying to make the party do better. But tomorrow, show the hell up."

During the event in Conroe, Texas, located in Montgomery County north of Houston, Paxton told the crowd that a vote for Talarico is "a vote for a guy named Chuck Schumer to run the U.S. Senate, and I know Montgomery County won't like that."

By Joe Walsh

3:55 PM

Democrat Josh Turek urges supporters in Iowa Senate race to do "just a little bit more than what we've done before"

During a campaign stop at a small business, the Democratic candidate in Iowa's competitive Senate contest reminded people that he won his first state House race in 2022 by just six votes.

Josh Turek urged his supporters to make "six touch points" in the final stretch before the election, by speaking to people about the race or bringing them to the polls.

"If each and every one of us does just a little bit more than what we've done before, it will be the difference between winning and losing this election," Turek said in Onawa, Iowa.

In brief remarks, Turek said, "Iowans are struggling" with the impacts of tariffs and the Iran war.

The Republican nominee, Rep. Ashley Hinson, is also closing out her campaign by focusing on the cost of living. President Trump held a rally for Hinson last month, but she has put some distance between herself and the president, calling for the Iran war to come to a "successful and immediate end" and vowing to "push back on [Mr. Trump] when necessary."

One Turek supporter who attended the Onawa event, Doug Zima, said his top issue is "anti-Trump."

"I think we need sanity in the Senate," he told CBS News. "Iowa has the oldest senator and now we need to balance it, I think, with a Democrat to balance out Chuck Grassley."

By Kaia Hubbard

3:36 PM

Vance: "I feel good about tomorrow, but obviously it's in the hands of voters"

After campaign stops in New York and Ohio, Vice President JD Vance told reporters: "I feel good about tomorrow, but obviously it's in the hands of voters."

Asked about Sunday's seismic news that Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens is backing Republican Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers, rather than Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, Vance said, "I certainly think it helps."

"I think it drives home the message, maybe gives certain voters who … wouldn't normally vote for a Republican permission, knowing that the Democratic congresswoman in Michigan is going to support Mike Rogers. I think a lot of people from across the political spectrum can, too," the vice president said.

By Joe Walsh

3:15 PM

In key South Texas House race, both candidates wary of ICE crackdown

The competitive House race in Texas' 15th congressional district — a working-class, predominantly Latino region near the U.S.-Mexico border — could be a major test of the politics of immigration and whether the Hispanic voters who swung toward Republicans two years ago will swing back toward Democrats.

Both candidates, including the Republican, are expressing concerns about President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. The district includes the border city of McAllen.

Tejano music singer and Democratic candidate Bobby Pulido is hoping to win back the Latino voters who have increasingly favored Mr. Trump and Republicans in recent years, including by focusing on concerns over Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Pulido said Republicans secured the southern border, but "now there's chaos in the streets," pointing to "aggressive ICE enforcement." The Democrat told CBS News he will "be sure to let my side know that we can't have a chaotic border. Absolutely not."

His opponent, incumbent Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz, has tried to distance herself from Mr. Trump's deportation crackdown. She told CBS News she has warned the White House and Republican leaders that ICE operations are hurting the local economy.

"Enforcement should focus on the cartels and the criminals, not hardworking immigrant families," she said. De La Cruz added that, while she expects Republicans to win in Texas, she believes "it's a wake-up call for Republicans to remain focused on affordability and to come to a solution when it entails immigration."

— Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Suvro Banerji

2:41 PM

Trump says Republicans gave midterms a "very strong shot"

After kicking off his remarks talking about the reflecting pool and other projects of his in Washington, D.C., Mr. Trump turned to the midterms. He claimed Democrats want people in the country illegally so they can vote.

"With your vote, we will decide these extremists will be given power or not power," the president said. "We'll either keep America strong — I think we're having, this is the golden age of America. We've never done anything like it."

Mr. Trump said all the records he's made won't matter "if we're going to be foolish and let people who hate our country win an election."

The president reiterated that a sitting president's party often loses the midterms, setting up the potential possibility for Republican losses Tuesday.

"For some reason, the sitting president doesn't win the midterms," the president said. "But we gave this a very strong shot."

By Kathryn Watson

2:24 PM

Trump touts Reflecting Pool renovation in closing message before midterms

In his final scheduled remarks before Election Day, aside from telerallies, President Trump made the case that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is better and more beautiful than ever before.

He claimed that other presidents, including his predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama, tried to renovate it but they were unable.

"It's a complete job and we're very proud of it," the president told reporters, with the reflecting pool in the background.

"We fixed the leaks, we resurfaced the bottom in a beautiful dark blue, very dark blue, they call it American flag blue, but it's very dark," Mr. Trump said. "And if you had a regular blue, like I personally love the lighter color blue, but then you wouldn't have any reflecting."

The president reiterated claims that the Trump administration was unable to prove in courts about vandals with knives tearing up the reflecting pool. The Trump administration ultimately dropped charges against an Olympian charged with vandalizing the pool, in addition to other people charged with vandalism.

It's not clear why the president chose to focus on the reflecting pool the day before Election Day.

"This is a massive piece of pool," he said. "There's never been anything like it, when you look at the size. It's the biggest anywhere in the world by far."

Tacked onto his remarks about the reflecting pool, the president claimed the country is creating trillions of dollars in wealth since the beginning of his presidency, through tariffs.

"Our whole country is booming," he said. "We're booming like we've never boomed before."

By Kathryn Watson

1:10 PM

Trump to deliver election eve speech at Reflecting Pool with sign, "Back, and more beautiful than ever!"

Hours before Election Day, President Trump is delivering a speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with a message for the American people — "Back, and more beautiful than ever!"

That's what's written on a sign, with an aerial photo of the pool, where Mr. Trump is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m. Reporters had begun assembling about an hour ahead of the speech.

Giving Washington a makeover, from the Kennedy Center to the triumphal arch, has been a cornerstone of his second term in office.

It's not clear why the president chose this spot for his remarks, which a White House official said will "highlight this administration's achievements to make the country safer and wealthier while drawing a clear contrast between the Republicans' commonsense America First agenda and the Democrats' radical, America Last agenda."

By Kathryn Watson

12:31 PM

Vance tries to tie Democratic candidate in northern New York district to Biden: "Blake Gende-Biden"

Vice President JD Vance campaigned in northern New York for Republican Anthony Constantino, who was backed in the primary by President Trump, attempted to tie Democrat Blake Gendebien to former President Joe Biden.

Calling him "Blake Gende-Biden," Vance said that Democrats are "trying to get you to send a message that even here in beautiful upstate New York, the communists can win."

By Caroline Linton

11:48 AM

Trump turns to Supreme Court in dispute over California ballots

The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to intervene in its effort to force California election workers to set aside mail ballots from thousands of people it claims are not U.S. citizens.

The Justice Department's request for emergency relief came after a federal appeals court on Friday declined to order California officials to segregate the ballots cast by more than 20,000 people included on a government list of suspected noncitizens.

More than 6 million mail ballots have been returned statewide as of Sunday, according to the California secretary of state's office. Voting has been underway in California since early October.

The emergency appeal to the high court came in the fast-moving legal battle unfolding in the run-up to Tuesday's elections. The Trump administration so far has not been successful in convincing lower courts to require the ballots at issue to be put aside.

But in the request to the Supreme Court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer said the government is seeking a "modest remedy" that will ensure any ballots cast by people who are not American citizens do not "debase or dilute valid votes."

"Once California commingles the challenged ballots with lawful ones, there is no way to get the challenged ballots back," he wrote in a filing. "The only way to preserve the district court's ability to grant relief to the United States after a full merits proceeding, therefore, is to segregate the challenged ballots now."

By Melissa Quinn

9:16 AM

Kathy Hochul, Bruce Blakeman hit the campaign trail hard as early voting ends in New York

The candidates in the New York governor's race traversed the state on Sunday, looking to score late points with voters ahead of Tuesday's election.

Gov. Kathy Hochul was in New York City, which typically votes blue, and Nassau County Executive and Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman spent part of his time in Suffolk County, Rensselaer County, and Oswego County, parts of the state where political experts say he stands a chance to gain some votes.

Sunday marked the final day of early voting. The New York City Board of Elections said the unofficial total number of ballots cast in the city was 690,526. Statewide, more than 1.7 million voted early, according to the state Board of Elections.

Read more at CBS New York.

By Lisa Rozner, Elijah Westbrook

8:57 AM

Trump says he has "never worked the midterms like I have this one"

In an interview with conservative influencer Miranda Devine's Pod Force One, President Trump said he has "never worked the midterms like I have this one."

"This is really because I think it's so important," Mr. Trump said. "We've done so well. The country is so hot. We want to keep it that way."

Mr. Trump said he had been reflecting on how these rallies could be his last ones for a while, saying he feels "a little bit" nostalgic.

"I bring it up," Mr. Trump said of these being his last campaign rallies. "There's never been anything like it."

Mr. Trump also said he would become "Mr. Veto" if Democrats take control of Congress, but he added that he will probably make deals with them.

"I guess I'll become Mr. Veto," Mr. Trump said. "I'm not going to let them run. And then at some point, we'll probably make deals."

Mr. Trump said he would "love to run again" for president, but he acknowledged that the language in the Constitution is "very exacting."

By Caroline Linton

Updated 8:24 AM

El-Sayed raised over $2.4 million since Stevens endorsed Rogers, campaign says

The campaign of Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed confirmed in a statement Monday that they raised over $2.4 million for his Senate bid on Sunday, the day his primary rival Rep. Haley Stevens publicly backed Republican Mike Rogers. The statement said it's a single-day record for the campaign.

It comes as leading Democrats express that they feel betrayed by Stevens' endorsement of the GOP nominee.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Stevens' endorsement a "despicable act" while House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said Stevens "has chosen to dangerously betray Michigan families' healthcare, freedoms and future with her horrific endorsement of Mike Rogers."

El-Sayed said "none of this matters" and that he is more focused on issues important to the 10 million Michiganders.

"I'm a lot more focused on the 9,999,998 that are not the ones you guys are talking about, okay? They pay too much in gas. They pay too much in groceries," he told reporters, brushing off questions about Stevens and Rogers.

"At the end of the day, I actually don't think about Haley Stevens," he added. "I'm just less interested in the politics of it all than I am in the policy of it all. … None of this matters."

By Aaron Navarro, Kiki Intarasuwan

8:14 AM

Vance to hold rally in Rome, New York, for GOP candidate Anthony Constantino

Vice President JD Vance is holding a morning rally for Republican Anthony Constantino, the GOP candidate in the northern New York district that stretches from Albany to the Canada border. President Trump won the district by more than 20 points, but Republicans are fighting to hold onto the seat.

A Siena University poll in October showed Democrat Blake Gendebien with a narrow lead. Current GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik, a longtime Trump ally, is not running for reelection after she explored a run for governor, which she later abandoned.

By Caroline Linton

7:49 AM

Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers make their case in "60 Minutes" interviews

Control of the U.S. Senate will come down to just a few battleground states, including Michigan, where a close and contentious race has been playing out between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers.

Both candidates sat down separately with "60 Minutes" correspondent Ross Douthat in the closing days of the campaign. They spoke about the experiences that shaped them and their visions for the state and the nation's future.

Watch the interview here and read our fact-check here. You can also watch extended versions of the interviews with El-Sayed and Rogers on YouTube.

Updated 7:30 AM

Trump to hold event at Washington D.C. Reflecting Pool on day before Election Day

President Trump will be holding an event at Washington, D.C.'s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Monday afternoon, the day before Election Day.

Mr. Trump told reporters that he wanted to hold an event there "just to show how beautiful it is." The president has made renovations to Washington a central theme of his second term in the White House, although the Reflecting Pool renovations have not gone so smoothly.

"But it's finished," Mr. Trump said. "It looks beautiful. Hasn't worked since 1922. It's always leaked terribly, and it works really well now. We had it working well, but it was vandalized."

The Trump administration announced plans to resurface the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in April and paint it "American flag blue" at the president's request. Images showed the water turning green less than two weeks after Mr. Trump announced that the site had reopened to "rave reviews."

Days later, chunks of peeling paint from the blue coating were spotted in the water. Mr. Trump claimed in a Truth Social post, without any evidence, that it had been vandalized. Five people were arrested for vandalism, but the Justice Department later acknowledged in a court filing that "botched installation" by the contractor was to blame.

Charges were eventually dropped against Olympian David Hearn, who asked the Justice Department's internal watchdog to investigate — a request which was denied.

By Olivia Rinaldi, Sara Cook

Updated 7:30 AM

Ken Paxton campaign no longer has Alamo event scheduled

Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton's campaign will no longer hold an event on the eve of Election Day at the Alamo, as originally advertised.

The campaign has not publicly commented on the change of plans. But Monday's schedule included events in Conroe and Allen, both of which are hundreds of miles from San Antonio, where the Alamo is located. The Allen event is set to start at 6:30 p.m. CT, which would not give him time to get to San Antonio that night.

The Paxton campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Read more here.

By Caroline Linton

Updated 7:30 AM

Stevens says she "absolutely" wants Democrats to win Senate but stands by Rogers endorsement

Haley Stevens gave her first interview since she endorsed Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers on Sunday, telling CNN's Anderson Cooper she felt like there was a "weight off my shoulders."

During their 15-minute interview, Cooper repeatedly asked Stevens why she changed her mind after she reportedly told her colleague Rep. Debbie Dingell in a phone conversation Saturday night that she was not going to endorse Rogers.

Stevens confirmed the conversation took place but never gave Cooper a direct answer about what changed her mind. She told him, "That's just where I landed with this. I woke up this morning clear-eyed, fresh and, you know, focused on what was in my heart, and that's that."

Asked again what changed her mind, Stevens replied, "I was there and just, you know, alone with my thoughts. I was writing things out, and look, this level of anger and the things that we are seeing — look, we all want Democrats to win. I'm a really proud Democrat. And by the way, Abdul's got every other Democrat with him. He just doesn't have me and a few other people who love this party."

"Nothing with me changed, Anderson," said Stevens, who had previously endorsed El-Sayed.

She cited El-Sayed's alliance with left-wing streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker and a controversial ad from Rebellion PAC that tied the war in Gaza to increased costs at home. It shows a couple in a grocery store shopping for food for their children, and the woman instructs her husband to put the eggs back, saying, "We have to set that $7 aside for killing Palestinians." El-Sayed said his campaign had nothing to do with the ad.

"That ad was very painful," Stevens said. "There are so many Democrats who want to vote for our Democratic nominee, and they're just being told, 'Hey, this is a party you don't belong in, or this is a campaign you don't belong in.'"

Stevens told Cooper she "absolutely" wants Democrats to take control of the Senate after Election Day and that it's essential for Democrats to retain the seat in Michigan to take control of the Senate.

Cooper pointed out that in August, Stevens had posted on social media that Rogers would be "another rubber stamp for Donald Trump's dangerous agenda. We can't afford to give MAGA another Senate seat in November." He asked Stevens, "Why is it OK now ... why can you afford to give MAGA another Senate seat in November?"

Stevens replied, "Well, why is it OK to have the Democratic Party and a top nominee injecting ... this type of anger and lack of kindness?"

Cooper asked if she was referring to being disinvited from a planned joint appearance with El-Sayed Sunday.

"Anderson, I was just trying to help this campaign and stand up for people who feel hurt," Stevens replied.

Cooper interviewed Dingell immediately following Stevens, and Dingell described Stevens' appearance as "one of the most painful interviews I have ever watched."

"I'm very concerned that this has all become a distraction," Dingell said.

By Caroline Linton, Kiki Intarasuwan

Updated 7:30 AM

Trump held campaign rallies in Kansas and Iowa on Sunday

President Trump spoke Sunday at campaign rallies in Iowa and Kansas, two states with unexpectedly tight Senate races.

The president spoke for almost 90 minutes Sunday evening in Salina, Kansas, marking his final campaign stop before Tuesday's election.

"This is my 30th rally, and I'm closing it down tonight. This is it. I had to come here to make sure that Roger got elected," he said of Kansas GOP Sen. Roger Marshall, who is being challenged by Democrat Adam Hamilton.

Earlier, in Dubuque, Iowa, he rallied for Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson and gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn.

The weekend's rallies in both states were briefly called off on Thursday in favor of telerallies, but the White House announced a day later that they were back on.

Updated 7:30 AM

These battleground races will determine House and Senate control

Control of the House of Representatives will come down to a number of battleground seats. CBS News has identified 47 House districts that will likely determine which party will have the majority.

Of those seats, 20 are currently held by Democrats and 27 are held by Republicans. Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority, with 218 seats, plus an independent who normally caucuses with them. Democrats hold 214 seats. There are two vacancies.

CBS News' Battleground Tracker model estimated on Oct. 25 that Democrats are on track to take control of the House with 229 seats. There is still a path for the GOP to keep the House: The Battleground Tracker's estimates ranged from 215 Democratic seats — which would give Republicans a narrow majority — to 237 seats.

On the Senate side, CBS News has identified 11 key races that could determine control of the Senate.

Senate battleground races

The latest CBS News estimate on key U.S. Senate races.

See Map: John KellySource: CBS News election data desk estimates here

Eight of those seats are currently held by Republicans: Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.

The other three are held by Democrats: Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire.

Republicans currently hold 53 Senate seats to the Democrats' 47.

By Caroline Linton

Updated 7:30 AM

Federal judge throws out effort to block certification of Alaska Senate results

A federal judge in Alaska threw out the Trump administration's lawsuit seeking to block certification of the state's Senate election results in this week's midterm elections if the Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan loses.

U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason wrote in a 20-page order Sunday that the Justice Department did not have proper legal standing to bring the suit last week. The suit aimed to block the state's election results from being certified because a teacher named Daniel J. Sullivan is also on the state's ballot, alleging that it was a deliberate effort to confuse voters and aid the Democrat in the race, Mary Peltola.

The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY TWO – FROM IUK

TRUMP POSTS ODD ELVIS PRESLEY PIC AND MAKES WILD CLAIMS ABOUT VIETNAM WAR ON EVE OF MIDTERMS

Speaking in Iowa, Trump remarked upon the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam war and claims he could have won that conflict in a week

By Owen Scott

Monday 02 November 2026 11:26 GMT

Now playing: Trump boasts ‘I would have won Vietnam on one week’

Trump makes extraordinary claim that he could have won the Vietnam war in a week

Ahead of the midterm elections, President Trump made claims that he could have won the Vietnam War in one week and shared a side-by-side image of his face and Elvis Presley on Truth Social. During a rally in Dubuque, Iowa, on November 1, 2026, he also discussed the use of Agent Orange and critiqued past military conflicts.

The commander-in-chief, whose party is heading into what could be a difficult midterm election cycle, did not caption the Elvis image when he uploaded it to Truth Social, nor did he explain why he posted it.

However, Trump has often shared his love for the legendary singer and even bestowed him with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom during his first term.

Earlier this year, Trump toured Graceland - the iconic mansion that Elvis once called home - while appearing in Memphis to talk about the deployment of federal law enforcement to combat crime rates.

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Trump’s final midterms speech really kicked the Republicans while they’re down

Trump has a meltdown over Alaska lawsuit being tossed by federal judge

“Elvis would be very happy about that,” Trump quipped, referring to a reduction in crime rates, before adding: “I love Elvis.”

“All my life I have heard about Graceland,” Trump also said during the trip. “I was around with Elvis in his semi-prime, at least, right?”

Trump’s post comes just two days before millions of Americans will head to the polls for the midterm elections.

Ahead of the elections, polls have shown that the Democratic Party could increase its power in Congress - with Republicans currently holding a majority in both the House and the Senate.

Despite the GOP facing grim polling figures and voter frustration with the Trump administration’s record on the cost-of-living and war in Iran, the president has encouraged voters to “pretend” that he is on the ballot.

Also on Sunday, Trump appeared at a rally in Dubuque, Iowa, where he spoke about the ongoing situation with Iran and military action at the start of the year that resulted in the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

“Vietnam, 21 years, thousands and thousands of people killed, hundreds of thousands of people killed,” Trump said, remarking on previous conflicts. “Afghanistan, years and years… We never fight to win.”

“I could have won the Vietnam War in a week, you know,” he suggested. “They dropped whatever the hell that red c**p is that they…kept dropping it in the forest.”

Then, an audience member shouted to Trump that the chemical in question was Agent Orange - a herbicide used by the U.S. Military to kill forests in Vietnam in order to remove enemy cover.

“I would have won that war in one week.”

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Trump rages in one-word all-caps retort after losing ‘Dan Sullivans’ ballot ruling

Concern mounts for Democrat Haley Stevens after ‘trainwreck’ interview

Ho Chi Minh City, once known as Saigon, was the capital of South Vietnam - which was allied with the U.S.

Hanoi was the capital of communist North Vietnam.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY THREE – FROM TASS

WHITE HOUSE PREPARES TO BYPASS CONGRESS IF DEMOCRATS WIN MIDTERMS — MEDIA

The administration is considering new tariffs on critical minerals and wind turbines, stricter visa rules for foreign students and temporary workers, and measures to reduce housing costs

WASHINGTON, November 2. /TASS/. The White House has been working for months to advance US President Donald Trump’s agenda through executive actions that sidestep Congress if Democrats secure control of the legislature in the midterm elections, Reuters reported, citing sources.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and White House Counsel Will Scharf’s office are drawing up the plans, the agency said. The administration is considering new tariffs on critical minerals and wind turbines, stricter visa rules for foreign students and temporary workers, and measures to reduce housing costs that Trump could implement without congressional approval. According to a White House official, Trump’s team is examining what the president "can legally do on his own, where he could push the limits of his authority and how to defend those decisions in court."

White House lawyers are advising officials on how to respond to congressional requests and investigations and have sought a Justice Department opinion on the president’s right to keep private communications with advisers shielded from congressional scrutiny, Reuters reported.

Trump previously said he will become "Mr. Veto" if Democrats win a majority in either chamber of Congress in the midterm elections.

The US will hold its congressional midterm elections on November 3, with one-third of Senate seats and all House of Representatives seats contested. Republicans currently control both chambers.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY FOUR – FROM CNN (TIMELINE. TAKEAWAYS)

FROM ALASKA TO MICHIGAN, CANDIDATES HIGHLIGHT CRITICAL STAKES OF SENATE CONTROL IN CLOSING MESSAGES

Meanwhile, new polls show that Democrats are within striking distance of taking control of the Senate.

Updated 2:17 AM EST, Tue November 3, 2026

What we covered on election eve

• Making their case: Senate candidates in races that could determine control of the chamber made their final pitches. From Michigan to Maine, Texas to Alaska, they outlined the stakes in contests that are also seen as a referendum on the first two years of President Donald Trump’s second term.

• Trump’s message: The president closed out his midterm campaign blitz with a speech at the Reflecting Pool, where he held up photos touting his administration’s renovations. Earlier in the day, he said he would “veto everything” if Democrats win back power in Congress.

• Top court weighs in: The Supreme Court quickly shut down Trump’s effort to force California to sideline potentially thousands of ballots that the Justice Department claims may have been cast by noncitizens, rejecting the administration’s emergency request hours after it was filed.

18 hr 13 min ago 8:04 AM 10/2

Peltola celebrates "positive" campaign, urges Alaskans to get out and vote in final rally

By Lex Harvey

Mary Peltola, the Democratic Senate candidate, closed out her campaign on election eve, urging Alaskans to get out and vote.

“It’s still a close race,” she said at a Monday evening rally in Fairbanks, urging her supporters to help their friends get to the polls. “If you have transportation, help somebody who doesn’t have a ride. Help somebody who is disabled. Help somebody who otherwise would not think of going, or would not have the wherewithal to go.”

Peltola said her team has run “the best race Alaska has ever seen.”

“We have kept this so positive,” she added. “We’ve kept this focused on Alaskans. We are not interested in smearing our friends and neighbors, and future colleagues.”

In recent days, Peltola’s campaign has been marred by drama after the New York Times reported its alleged involvement in recruiting another man named Dan Sullivan to run for Senate to confuse voters. Peltola has denied she knew anything about the alleged scheme.

In response, the Trump administration filed a lawsuit seeking to delay the certification of the race before the election was held. A federal judge threw out the lawsuit on Sunday.

“They’re crying election interference as they’re interfering in an election,” Peltola said Monday. “We know hypocrisy when we see it.”

Read more

19 hr 24 min ago 6:53 AM 10/2

Marjorie Taylor Greene says Trump's focus on the Reflecting Pool was "the wrong message"

By Taylor Romine

President Donald Trump focusing on the Reflecting Pool in his final speech before the midterms “was absolutely the wrong message,” former U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins tonight.

“I was very disappointed, with Americans struggling with the continued rise of inflation that’s been going on since Covid, high prices with gas and diesel and constant complaining about the cost of health insurance and health care with no one listening to them — standing in front of the reflecting pool that most Americans, I would say 99.999% of Americans don’t ever think about on a daily basis was absolutely the wrong message to send to Americans, asking them to go vote for Republicans tomorrow,” she said.

Greene, once an avid Trump supporter, fell out with the president last year, which also led her to resign from her seat as a Republican congresswoman in Georgia.

Since the contentious breakup, Greene has been outspoken about some of Trump’s actions.

Speaking with Collins, Greene said she has “no idea” why he chose to focus on that, and said he should’ve focused on the mandate Republicans were given in 2024 to “make life easier for Americans.”

“However, the past two years haven’t been about that at all,” Greene said.

Read more

19 hr 26 min ago

Talarico speaks of power of the "underdogs" in final Texas rally

By Jeff Zeleny

James Talarico closed his Democratic Senate race in Texas with a rally tonight in Austin, imploring a few thousand supporters to believe in the possibility of their power at the ballot box Tuesday.

“Tomorrow night, we are going to do something extraordinary. We are going to do something historic,” Talarico said. “We are going to shock the nation, shock the world when we beat the billionaires and take back Texas.”

It was the final stop on his 21-city “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts” tour, a nod to the fabled Texas TV show “Friday Night Lights.”

He spent one more night assailing Republican rival Ken Paxton and his biggest patron, Elon Musk, who has contributed more than $168 million to the campaign that has become the most expensive non-presidential race in the nation’s history.

“They are scared. They are terrified,” Talarico said. “They see what we see: that we’re about to win this election tomorrow night.”

“We are the underdogs,” he added. “We are literally going up against the richest man in the world.”

“This election is a battle between the powers that be and the powers that ought to be.”

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19 hr 27 min ago

Stevens defends GOP endorsement in lengthy post and denounces Democratic response

By Danya Gainor

Less than 48 hours before Election Day, Rep. Haley Stevens ignited a Democratic firestorm in pulling her endorsement from her party’s Senate nominee in Michigan and backing Republican Mike Rogers. After Democrats took to publicly branding her a traitor, Stevens on Monday said that scrutiny has troubled her “almost as much” as the choice to break ranks in the first place.

In a nearly 900-word post to X with the title “The Decisions We Make,” Stevens relived the fast-moving weekend spat, standing by her shocking decision to rescind her endorsement for Abdul El-Sayed and denounced the Democratic Party’s efforts to push her out.

“Instead of asking why a lifelong Democrat reached this point, some leaders rushed to condemn me, question my motives, and push me out,” she wrote. “That response reveals something deeply troubling about what is missing in today’s Democratic Party.”

She continued: “We cannot preach inclusion while punishing dissent. We cannot promise to heal a divided country if we cannot tolerate disagreement among ourselves. And we cannot build a lasting majority by making Americans feel their concerns are unwelcome.”

The Michigan Democrat had posted her endorsement reversal to X on Sunday morning — racking up 29 million views — but did not post again on the platform until Monday night, the eve of a nail-biting Election Day. In the interim, she sat for a combative interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper Sunday evening, where she struggled to articulate why she changed her mind.

“Loyalty to a party should never require abandoning your values or judgment,” she wrote Monday. “We can build a stronger, more welcoming, more courageous Democratic Party.”

Signing off, Stevens wrote, “I plan to help lead that effort.”

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19 hr 44 min ago

Trump makes final midterm push in a series of telerallies

By Alejandra Jaramillo and Molly English

With no “God made Trump” video to introduce him, and no clip of CNN’s Harry Enten walking through the polls — across several telerallies on the eve of the midterm elections — President Donald Trump mostly stuck to the message he’s delivered at dozens of in-person rallies around the country: “Pretend that I’m on the ballot.”

Trump started the day campaigning by phone for candidates in North Carolina. Then calling into virtual rallies in New York, South Carolina, Alaska, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana and twice in Texas.

The calls mostly played out as a much shorter version of the familiar in-person rally script. Trump insisted Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, said he is on the ballot and declared that “we’re in the golden age of America, and we’re not going to let” Democrats “rip it down.”

Even as he stumped for other Republicans, much of the focus stayed on Trump himself.

“At least you like me, but I think you love me,” Trump told GOP Senate candidate Darline Graham in South Carolina.

In Alaska, he went after Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola after a report alleged her campaign helped recruit a second Dan Sullivan to run against GOP Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.

His choice to pivot to telerallies on the eve of the election came after hosting nearly 30 in-person rallies in mostly red states across the country is one that has confounded some. Plans for in-person rallies in Iowa and Kansas this past weekend were originally scrapped in favor of telerallies last week, although coverage of the cancellations apparently irked Trump enough to reinstate them.

The president insisted last week that the telerally format is successful for him, saying they “only seem to work” for him because people tune in to hear him speak.

Read more

20 hr ago

False claims swirl after power outage briefly shuts down two voting sites near Phoenix

By Marshall Cohen

Severe flooding and power outages briefly knocked out a couple of early voting sites near Phoenix on Monday – and quickly led to false claims of Democratic election shenanigans.

Central Arizona saw major rainfall over the weekend, and two of the more than 50 early voting locations throughout Maricopa County lost power for a few hours on Monday.

They were in a rural and conservative-leaning part of the county that includes Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, a competitive battleground in the fight for the US House.

“It did take us a couple hours for the power company to get the power back on, and then for us to feel confident that we could advertise that the voting location would be open,” Maricopa County elections director Scott Jarrett said at a press conference Monday.

The county declared an emergency over the floods. So did Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat running for re-election this year. That seemed to trigger the disinformation.

Right-wing figures with millions of followers on social media claimed, without evidence, that this was part of a “stolen election” by Hobbs and unidentified Democrats who were trying to “pull games” with the results. Some even compared it to the 2020 election.

A county official told CNN their office received hardly any calls from voters experiencing difficulties Monday. They also said the county uses “vote centers” where people can vote at any polling place, instead of their local precinct, alleviating issues from the outages.

“A random Twitter account, just because it has a lot of followers, is not a reliable source of information,” the official said. “All measures are being taken to make sure our voters can vote.”

20 hr 4 min ago

Republicans tout $50 billion rural health fund, though their 2025 package slashes Medicaid

By Tami Luhby

Republicans have been pointing to the billions of dollars their “big beautiful bill” will funnel into rural healthcare in an effort to counter the Democrats’ messaging that the bill’s sweeping Medicaid cuts will hurt rural hospitals and residents.

In an op-ed in The Hill on Monday, GOP Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming touted the $205 million that her state will receive from the Rural Health Transformation Program, which was added to the 2025 package at the last-minute to secure the votes of several holdout GOP senators. The program will “help address long-standing challenges specific to rural residents,” she wrote.

Her colleague, Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, praised the Trump administration for sending $35 million to the commonwealth for rural health needs.

“Rural providers and hospitals are the backbone of our local health care communities,” Kelly said in an August statement. “This funding is a game changer for patients throughout the Commonwealth.”

But the lawmakers don’t mention that the “big beautiful bill” also contains more than $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts, which are expected to hit rural hospitals and providers. Many of their patients depend on Medicaid for coverage. Plus, the rural funding cannot be used to make up funding losses from the bill’s other provisions.

“If the Medicaid budget cuts go through, it’s going to be a disaster for access to healthcare for so many people across this country, particularly people who live in rural parts of the country,” Dr. Annie Andrews, who is running against GOP Sen. Darlene Graham of South Carolina, said on MS NOW on Saturday.

Read more

20 hr 25 min ago

By Logan Schiciano

El-Sayed rehashes economic message, public health background in final stump speechsays life 'shouldn't be this hard' for Michiganders

1:38

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, stumping one last time before Election Day, leaned heavily into his economic message while taking shots at his Republican opponent and the Trump administration.

El-Sayed took the stage after his wife, Sarah Jukaku, who described him as “principled, kind-hearted, and earnest.”

“No one tells him what to do or what to say — except maybe me sometimes,” Jukaku quipped. “But really, he carries himself with a sincerity and an earnestness that our politics so desperately lack and so desperately need right now.”

During his remarks, the Democratic candidate referenced his public health background as he criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has attacked El-Sayed’s Muslim faith.

“If you, like me, are irked by the idea that somebody works out in jeans, and that that man runs public health for the entire country, and you’re sick and tired of dodging lettuce and also blueberries and also meat in the United States of America, I think we all could agree we probably need a public health senator right about now,” El-Sayed told a crowd in Detroit.

'What you see is what you get': Abdul El-Sayed's ...

0:55

He also acknowledged the high gas prices Americans are facing, joking, “The last time I filled up my gas, my car was like, ‘Are you sure you can afford this?’”

El-Sayed did not bring up his Democratic primary opponent Rep. Haley Stevens’ last-minute endorsement of Mike Rogers — instead he urged voters to unite behind his policies.

“If we are willing to reach across the divides, they assume we cannot breach… we can build together what we deserve to have together,” he said. “That is the bet we took in this campaign. That is the bet of a politics of, by and for the people.”

Read more

20 hr 34 min ago

In his final rally, Mike Rogers says he and Haley Stevens one common thread

By Taylor Romine

While Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers and Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens might not have much in common politically, by the end of their brief conversation yesterday, Rogers was sure of one thing: They both “loved America.”

Stevens has received blowback from Democrats for endorsing Rogers in the controversial Michigan Senate race after having a rocky relationship with Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed. But at Monday’s rally in Detroit, every mention of Stevens led to a burst of applause.

“As soon as that church service was over, she leaned over and said, ‘I’m withdrawing my endorsement, and I’m endorsing you,’” Rogers said, recounting the moment from Sunday. “Listen, she probably didn’t agree with me on much on policy, but … we both knew that we both loved America, and we loved America more than we loved our parties.”

Rogers spent most of the rally emphasizing that this race was about “the heart and soul of the country,” characterizing El-Sayed as a hateful person.

“This election was never about how someone prayed, never. It was always about how you think and what your philosophy and what your ideology is,” Rogers said. “What it was about is that angry divisiveness that decided a certain segment of our society is the cause of all the ills in our community.”

In some of his final words to the crowd, he said: “We’re going to be the Michigan that we grew up (in), and the Michigan that is great as it’s ever been.”

Read more

ATTACHMENT TWENTY FIVE – FROM SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

US MIDTERM ELECTIONS: TRUMP ENDS CAMPAIGN, CALLS DEMOCRATS ‘MOST DANGEROUS EVER’

US president uses event at newly renovated Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to make final pitch to voters on the eve of November 3 elections

Will a US midterm rout see Trump double down or acknowledge his clout is ebbing?

US Democrats prepare to counter any Trump claim of foreign meddling in midterms

Can Connie Chan become San Francisco’s first Asian-American in Congress?

Netanyahu is pressing Trump to attack Iran after US midterm elections: officials

US midterms: is ‘strategic stability’ with China about to go out the window?

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to set aside 20,000 California ballots

By Teresa Elena Frontado Published: 5:29am, 3 Nov 2026 Updated: 5:56am, 3 Nov 2026

US President Donald Trump ended the midterm campaign season on Monday by calling the Democratic Party’s candidates the “most extreme and dangerous” in American history, the day before voters decide which party controls Congress.

Speaking at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, which reopened after a renovation by his administration, Trump called the elections “the most important midterm, I believe, in our lifetime”.

“These are the most dangerous candidates ever put up,” he said.

Rather than travel to a battleground state, the president was also scheduled to take part in at least seven tele-rallies for Republican candidates on Monday, while Vice-President J.D. Vance campaigned in New York and Ohio.

In his speech on Monday, Trump accused Democrats of supporting open borders, higher taxes, gun restrictions and gender transition treatment for children.

The global impact of the coming US midterm elections under Donald Trump

He singled out Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for the Senate in Michigan, describing him as a “jihadist”. The president cited a recent report that El-Sayed had campaigned at a mosque where a speaker called the United States the “House of Satan”.

El-Sayed has denied that he or his family have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

El-Sayed is also contending with a split in his own party after Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens, whom he defeated in the primary, endorsed his Republican opponent Mike Rogers on Sunday.

“If we’re nervous about where we’re going to go from here, go vote,” El-Sayed told supporters on Monday, according to the Associated Press.

“Remember, a party that hates America cannot be allowed to rule over the people who built our country,” Trump said.

The president also accused Democrats in Alaska of “corrupt” conduct over a second candidate named Dan Sullivan appearing on the ballot against the Republican incumbent of the same name.

The New York Times reported last week that the campaign of Democratic candidate Mary Peltola had been involved in recruiting the second Sullivan. Peltola has denied any involvement.

Trump acknowledged that the sitting president’s party usually loses seats in midterm elections. He said Republicans would “win in a landslide” if his supporters from the 2024 election turned out.

He also promised that every adult would receive US $5,000 if Republicans won, on condition that the money was spent in the United States. He did not say how he would fund the payments.

Democrats have sought to focus their campaigns on the high cost of living, an issue voters have consistently ranked among their top concerns, according to opinion polls.

Much of the 50-minute event focused on the reflecting pool. The president joked about renaming it the “Trump Reflecting Pool” and said his administration had fixed long-standing leaks and resurfaced the basin.

Trump again blamed vandals for damage to the new surface, which began peeling after the pool was refilled in the summer. The US Justice Department charged former Olympian David Hearn with damaging the pool but later dropped the case.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY SIX – FROM IUK

A DRUBBING IN THE MIDTERMS WILL MAKE TRUMP EVEN MORE DANGEROUS TO THE ENTIRE WORLD

Trump has often seemed unhinged in the run up to these midterms – and after Tuesday he will be unbound in his support for Putin and worse, warns world affairs editor Sam Kiley

Tuesday 03 November 2026 08:26 GMT

No matter whether the outcome of the US midterms leaves Donald Trump peevish or preening, he will be – finally – unbound by electoral concerns of any kind.

The clues to how he will behave towards the rest of the world can be found in the Oval Office and in his relationship with the Kremlin.

He will swerve from being a menace to America’s allies to an outright enemy. From Cuba to Taiwan, from Iran to the Democratic Republic of Congo, he will prioritise only the enrichment of his own country (and family) and the interests of Vladimir Putin.

We know this because that is how Trump has behaved since he returned to the White House only last year.

So Ukraine will face a truly terrible time. Taiwan needs to prepare for the moment when China looks set to invade with a nod from Trump, who will abandon the island in favour of Xi Jinping’s authoritarian control over global mineral resources.

MAGA plot to keep Democrats who win Tuesday from holding office is revealed

Cubans need to prepare for a Venezuelan-style American assault, the removal of their president and the rapid colonisation of their present and future economy. That is what has happened in Caracas, and that is what is likely to happen in Havana.

Iran’s neighbours across the Arabian (or Persian) Gulf have already been warned that Trump plans to launch a major attack against the country. He promised not to do so before the midterms. That was an easy pledge to keep – his decision to join Israel in targeting Iran has played badly and lost his party support even among Republicans.

AP-NORC’s 15 October polling found that 85 per cent of voters considered the economy an important electoral issue, 84 per cent the cost of living, and 64 per cent the Iran war. Before Trump’s attacks on Iran and the disruption to the global flows of fossil fuels through the Gulf, petrol was at around $2.98 a US gallon at the pumps. It is now at $4.29.

Trump approval ratings among Republicans, the same organisation at the University of Chicago found, have gone from 79 per cent at inauguration, 63 per cent when he attacked Tehran, and now languish at 26 per cent.

Trump’s will has been thwarted and his administration has been humiliated by Iran’s defiant resilience. A regime that has sponsored terrorist organisations around the world, caused widespread instability, has appeared to want to get a nuclear weapon and is run by men who believe that the Islamic mahdi will soon reveal himself in the End of Times, has humbled America and is even seen with sympathy now as a plucky underdog. Trump will want to shoot that animal.

Taiwan produces about 90 per cent of the world’s semiconductor chips that drive all of its high technology. Trump has maintained “strategic ambiguity” that other presidents have adopted on whether they would order the US to defend Taiwan against (an ever more aggressive) China, which lays claim to the island nation.

He has encouraged US producers to try to catch up on chip manufacturing and said that Taiwan should contribute more to the costs of defence.

He told Bloomberg: “I think Taiwan should pay us for defence. You know, we’re no different than an insurance company.” Taiwan has been waiting for Trump to approve an arms sale package that it will pay for, of $14bn.

But it is Ukraine and Europe, among America’s Nato allies, where Trump’s agenda will be most keenly felt now that he is a “lame duck”, constitutionally barred from another term.

In every aspect of his foreign policy – and many aspects of his domestic approach too – Trump has acted as if he works directly for the Kremlin. It is certain that he will continue on that path. Even when this is against the interests of his own country.

He has ignored Russia’s intelligence and technical weapons support of Iran, which has led to American deaths in the Gulf. That is a sign of where his interests lie.

Ukraine has survived the cuts in America’s funding of its defence. Joe Biden spent about $130bn on weapons for Kyiv. Trump stopped that; he has allowed Europe to buy arms from the US for Ukraine – but threatened to cut that off too.

His close associate Elon Musk has publicly admitted that he has interfered with the Ukrainian weapons systems that rely on his Starlink terminals. This has meant Ukrainians have been killed because the terminals are used to control defensive missiles. It also means that long-range and front-line offensive operations have been hamstrung. Musk and Trump have therefore sabotaged the defence of Ukraine.

Trump has demanded that Ukraine cease attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure. He has done so because Kyiv has been effective in undermining Putin’s war effort and imposing fuel shortages on Russians at home – a real cost of the war to them.

Trump has lifted some sanctions on Russia to allow Putin to export diesel.

Earlier this month, he waived a sanctions package that imposed 100 per cent tariffs on purchasers of Russian oil and gas, 500 per cent tariffs on Russian goods, and his negotiating teams are reported to be in discussions to allow American companies to ignore global sanctions against Moscow and get back into business in Russia.

Britain, the EU, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Baltic States, Poland and all the Scandinavian states plus Canada have said that Russia is already prosecuting a hybrid war against the West. There are serious concerns that this will escalate further and come close to outright war.

Trump doesn't believe or accept this. He has, however, undermined Nato by threatening to invade Canada and Denmark (via Greenland).

There is every reason to suppose that he may make good on these threats. Even more so if midterm results go against his party and he loses control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

If that happens, he is likely, along with many of his senior cabinet members, to face impeachment on a wide range of charges that will involve his attacks on domestic democracy and the enrichment of his family, and himself, through foreign contacts and contracts where the lines between diplomacy and business probity have been torn away.

Ohio couple files $30M lawsuit saying they were injured when booted from a Trump midterm rally

What better distractions can there be than helping to cause more chaos in the ranks of America’s former allies who have always been Putin’s enemies?

That, after all, is Russian strategic doctrine in a nutshell. Trump has often appeared to be unhinged. After 3 November, he will be unbound.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY SEVEN – FROM IUK

ELECTION DENIER TINA PETERS IS PUSHING NEAR-MARTIAL LAW MOVE TO TRUMP AHEAD OF MIDTERMS: REPORT

Tina Peters, a former Colorado elections clerk, was convicted for her role in a breach of election equipment and imprisoned before her sentence was commuted this summer

By Rhian Lubin in New York & Brendan Rascius Tuesday 03 November 2026 12:34 GMT

What did Tina Peters urge Trump to do regarding elections?

Who urged Trump to consider martial law for elections?

Former Colorado elections clerk Tina Peters and her attorney, Peter Ticktin, reportedly met with President Donald Trump at the White House in October 2026 to advocate for an emergency order described as 'tantamount to martial law' ahead of midterm elections. Peters argued that the president has the authority to deploy federal law enforcement to investigate election processes if criminal activity is suspected.

Peters told Trump at an October meeting that he has the authority to send in federal law enforcement to investigate how votes are counted “if there’s something that is criminal in nature,” she revealed to MSNOW.

“He already has the authority to do all this — he doesn’t have to go to Congress to ask,” said Peters, a former Colorado elections clerk who was convicted for her role in a breach of election equipment and imprisoned. Her sentence was commuted this summer.

“If there’s something that is criminal in nature, he has every right to have the administration, the attorney general’s office or, you know, law enforcement go in and investigate,” she told the outlet.

Her attorney, Peter Ticktin, separately told MSNOW that Trump should be ready to “enter an emergency order that basically would be tantamount to martial law.”

ATTACHMENT TWENTY EIGHT – FROM CNBC

WHAT THE 2026 MIDTERM ELECTIONS COULD MEAN FOR TRUMP’S FINAL TWO YEARS

By Garrett Downs Published Tue, Nov 3 2026 10:00 AM ESTUpdated 4 Hours Ago

Key Points

· Tuesday’s midterm elections will decide who controls Congress for the remainder of Donald Trump’s presidency.

· If Republicans win, Trump could spend another two years facing little congressional resistance and pushing through major policy packages.

· If Democrats win one or both chambers, the president’s remaining legislative priorities would be severely kneecapped, and even the basic functions of government could become gridlocked. Tuesday’s midterm elections will at their heart determine control of Congress for the remainder of Donald Trump’s presidency. U.S. voters will decide whether Trump will maintain his Republican iron grip on Washington or recede into lame-duck status after a Democratic triumph.

Follow CNBC’s live coverage of the 2026 midterm elections

If Republicans win, Trump could spend another two years facing little congressional resistance and pushing through major policy packages. If Democrats win one or both chambers, the president’s remaining legislative priorities would be severely kneecapped, and even the basic functions of government could become gridlocked.

Oddsmakers and public polls placed Democrats in a favorable position ahead of Election Day, especially for flipping control of the Republican-held House. Still, the balance of power will not be decided until ballots are counted — a process that could take days or, in some cases, weeks to complete. The Senate is expected to be particularly close, and if the balance of power comes down to Alaska, the nation may have to wait while the state counts.

“The election results could trigger an immediate market reaction, particularly as the Senate outcome becomes clearer,” the Washington Policy Strategy Group of Stifel wrote Sunday in an analyst report, where it predicted Democrats will win the House while the Senate remains too close to call. “However, the market’s knee-jerk trade could reverse as investors recognize that gridlock remains the most likely policy outcome in either case.”

Read more CNBC elections coverage

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Republicans also control the Senate and with a larger majority than in the House.

If Democrats capture one chamber of Congress, Washington policymaking would become significantly more gridlocked. Single-party budget reconciliation bills, the procedural vehicle for most major spending and policy changes in the current status quo of tight congressional margins, would become impossible. Bipartisanship would be required to advance legislation, making must-pass bills such as government funding packages, defense spending and the looming debt ceiling hike more important — and more contentious.

In a divided Congress, the party that doesn’t control the White House typically uses moments including government funding and debt-ceiling hikes to extract concessions from the majority party, a practice that can lead to brinksmanship.

“If Republicans defy the conventional wisdom and maintain their Senate majority, then we would expect a relief rally in the sectors that might react negatively to a Democratic victory,” Stifel wrote. “Democrats would still govern the House and gridlock would prevail. In this scenario, Senate Republicans would act as a check on both the Democrats and many of Trump’s populist impulses.”

Democrats are also widely expected to use any majority in Congress to launch investigations into the White House and businesses that have worked with the Trump administration. The majority party gains subpoena power in congressional committees.

Polling indicates a Democratic sweep of the House and Senate is possible. In that case, Democrats may more aggressively pursue party-line reconciliation measures that wouldn’t become law but would give the party a megaphone ahead of the 2028 presidential election. Trump would still have the ability to veto legislation that Congress passed, severely limiting Democratic bills’ prospects of becoming law.

Must-pass legislation would be slightly easier to get through Congress if Democrats controlled both chambers. But deals would still need to be brokered with the White House, and the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold could still prove a hurdle that requires bipartisanship. Whichever party gains Senate control is highly unlikely to have at least 60 seats.

Democratic lawmakers in both the House and Senate would jump at the chance to lead investigations of the White House and business if given the opportunity.

In either a divided Congress or unified Democratic Congress, analysts expect Trump’s use of executive orders will increase due to congressional gridlock.

There is a possibility Republicans maintain control of both chambers of Congress. In that case, Trump’s remaining legislative agenda could continue to be enacted, and the status quo would be maintained.

Democrats would still hold some leverage, largely due to the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold, but would be limited in investigating the White House and business.

ATTACHMENT TWENTY NINE – FROM REUTERS

The numbers, as of today. Democrats led 54-44 in the Senate and 252-161 in the House. (update here)

ATTACHMENT THIRTY – FROM ABC

By ELENA BECATOROS and JOHN SEEWER

Wednesday, November 4, 2026 9:27AM

Iranians on Wednesday struck a defiant tone, celebrating U.S. voters’ rebuke of President Donald Trump in the midterm elections while many in the Middle East waited to see how the results could affect the Iran war.

Concerns about the war, particularly frustration over rising prices for fuel and other goods in the U.S., helped Democrats win control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s vote, a sharp setback for Trump and his Republican Party.

Iran’s supreme leader said those who think partisan changes in the United States can change its hostility toward the Islamic Republic are “gravely mistaken.”

In a letter shared on his social media account, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who hasn’t been seen publicly since the war began in late February, said: “If there are still those who harbor even a slight hope for a change in behavior or partisan and factional shifts within the system of domination, or who imagine that by giving concessions to America they can dissuade it from hostility toward the Iranian nation, they are gravely mistaken.”

The broader region has been on edge for weeks over the prospect of the U.S. resuming full-scale military operations against Iran for the first time in almost two months. Talks aimed at preventing renewed fighting are continuing, while other U.S. allies in the region urge Washington against resuming a war that began more than eight ago and has rattled the global economy and devastated Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly pushed for more strikes, while Trump has alternated between threatening major strikes and pushing for a deal.

Iran’s chief negotiator and parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, wrote Wednesday on X that "Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message.”

“If the U.S. govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare.”

Despite ceasefire agreements and repeated diplomatic efforts, military confrontations have continued in southern Iran and around the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a social media post that Americans had sent a clear message and warned Washington against ignoring it. If the U.S. continues to ignore reality, the spokesperson said, “the consequences of this grave miscalculation will extend far beyond what you have already witnessed.”

IRAN MARKS ANNIVERSARY OF 1979 SEIZURE OF US EMBASSY

Thousands marched through Tehran on Wednesday to commemorate the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy and celebrate the U.S. election results.

“Trump has gone too far in everything and that’s one reason for his defeat in the election,” said Hananeh Jahed, a demonstrator.

Zahra Nadiminejad praised Iranian resistance, saying U.S. voters “finally figured out that this is Iran, and they can’t just come in here and do whatever the hell they want.”

“They’ve seen the consequences of the war back home, from skyrocketing gas and food prices to all the devastating effects the war has had on their own country. And whether the Democrats win or the Republicans win, our hostility toward America will never come to an end.”

Nearly three decades ago, Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy on Nov. 4, 1979, taking American diplomats and other citizens hostage. Fifty-two Americans were held for 444 days before being released.

The crisis helped cement the rupture between the two countries, which have had no formal diplomatic relations for years.

The United States and Israel launched the war against Iran on Feb. 28, killing the country’s longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and triggering a conflict that has disrupted global energy markets and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Addressing the demonstrators Wednesday, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani claimed the United States and Israel has suffered a massive defeat.

“The decisive defeat of the United States and the Zionist regime in recent developments and elections is the result of the Iranian nation’s steadfastness and strength,” Zakani said. “Even political rivals in the United States have acknowledged that this failure was the result of the Iranian people’s ingenuity and perseverance.”

IRANIAN TARGETS HIT AHEAD OF THE MIDTERMS

The U.S. elections came just a day after what appeared to be a limited strike on Iranian targets in the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway, which renewed questions about what might come next.

Iranian state media reported explosions Monday on Qeshm and Hengam islands and near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas. Iranian authorities have not publicly identified the specific sites struck or disclosed the extent of the damage.

The Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supply passed before the war, has also witnessed repeated incidents involving commercial shipping. Iran has severely restricted shipping through the strait while the United States has maintained a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

BACK-CHANNEL NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE

Back-channel negotiations have continued as Israel and some Middle Eastern allies lobby Trump.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Monday, before news of the strikes in the Strait of Hormuz emerged, that he and Trump “both feel pretty good about the prospects for potentially coming to a negotiated settlement.”

Before the latest strikes, the Trump administration’s last known attacks on Iran were in early September. Thousands of U.S. troops remain in waters off Iran to maintain a naval blockade aimed at preventing tankers carrying Iranian oil from reaching the global market. Another aircraft carrier and thousands of additional troops are on their way to the Middle East.

ATTACHMENT THIRTY ONE – FROM RADAR ONLINE

'BUYER'S REMORSE': DONALD TRUMP'S ENEMY STEPHEN KING TAKES BRUTAL SWIPE AT PREZ AFTER DEMOCRATS' MIDTERM ELECTION VICTORIES

Democrats regained control of both the House and Senate in the November 2026 midterm elections.

Radar Staff

Nov. 4 2026, Published 3:03 p.m. ET

Author Stephen King has continued to criticize President Donald Trump, condemning his campaign rhetoric shortly before Democrats scored a sweeping victory in the 2026 midterm elections.

The horror novelist called Trump's warning about a potential Democratic victory and its supposed consequences for national security "garbage" in an October 30 post on X.

His criticism came as the president faced mounting opposition over his political messaging and endorsements.

Democrats subsequently took control of both the House and Senate, defeating several Republican candidates Trump had supported in traditionally conservative states, including Texas, South Carolina, and Kansas.

The results delivered a major setback to the president's political agenda with two years remaining in his second term.

STEPHEN KING CONDEMNS TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN RHETORIC

President Donald Trump urged supporters to “vote like I’m on the ballot.”

King's latest criticism focused on Trump's remarks about Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed during the Michigan campaign.

The president had warned that a Democratic victory would "open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadis to our shores," prompting the author to publicly condemn his language.

"This is the President of the United States, spewing more garbage," King wrote on X on October 30, according to a report by The Source.

The author also expressed embarrassment over the president's remarks, which targeted El-Sayed and his supporters.

King has frequently used his social media platform to criticize Trump's political positions and public statements. His latest comments added to the longstanding public disagreement between the bestselling novelist and the president.

TRUMP SAYS HE WOULD HAVE WON IN A LANDSLIDE

Stephen King responded that voters had said, “Enough.”

Trump faced questions about his political influence after Republicans suffered significant losses in the November 3 midterm elections.

The president had repeatedly encouraged supporters to vote as though he were personally running, including during campaign appearances in states he had won comfortably in 2024.

However, after Democrats secured control of Congress, Trump suggested his absence from the ballot had contributed to the Republican defeat.

"I wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!" he wrote on Truth Social.

He subsequently said he was prepared to become a "political pundit" and explain why Republicans had lost.

Trump also indicated that he would accept the election results and work with Democratic lawmakers, although he made clear that he could oppose legislation he disagreed with.

ATTACHMENT THIRTY TWO – FROM RADAR

STEVE BANNON STUNNED BY TRUMP’S MAGA DISASTER AMONG MEN

By Tom Latchem Wed, November 4, 2026 at 4:26 AM EST

Steve Bannon was left speechless as devastating election-night polling exposed the collapse of Donald Trump's once massive support among male voters.

The 72-year-old former White House chief strategist, who helped mastermind Trump's 2016 election victory, has remained one of the president's most influential MAGA supporters through his War Room podcast.

But Tuesday's midterm elections delivered a crushing setback for Republicans, with Democrats winning both chambers of Congress—aided by a major shift in voting from American males who once backed Trump.

"That can't be right," Bannon said quietly during an election-night broadcast on Real America's Voice after being told figures suggested Republicans were barely ahead among men.

The data, attributed to NBC News exit polling, suggested male voters were splitting 49 percent Republican to 48 percent Democratic, after Trump won men by 12 in 2024.

Bannon was seemingly left with no choice but to acknowledge the potential implications of those numbers. "That's a massive problem. That will roll through and have consequences," he said.

The figures, if correct, represent an extraordinary reversal from Trump's 2024 election victory over Kamala Harris. The president secured 55 percent of male voters, compared with Harris's 43 percent, according to that year's exit polling.

The warning was supported by the broader election-night picture. The GOP's advantage among men had shrunk to just 1 percentage point, according to an analysis of the exit polls by the Wall Street Journal.

"That can't be right," Bannon said quietly during an election-night broadcast on Real America's Voice after being told figures suggested Republicans were barely ahead among men.

Rep. Robert Garcia, the incoming Oversight Committee chair, has already suggested Bannon's worst fears of subpoenas and investigations are about to come true.

Tuesday's elections left Democrats in control of both the House and Senate, with the power to investigate Trump's administration during the final two years of his presidency.

The reaction from Democrats—such as incoming Oversight Committee chair Robert Garcia, who warned administration figures to "lawyer up"—will have done little to allay Bannon's fears.

The Daily Beast has contacted the Republican National Committee for comment.

ATTACHMENT THIRTY THREE – FROM SAVANNAH NOW

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE HAS STRONG WORDS FOR TRUMP REPUBLICANS AFTER LOSSES

Vanessa Johns, Savannah Morning News Updated Wed, November 4, 2026 at 2:11 PM EST

Former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, criticized President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans following Tuesday's midterm elections, calling the results a "total referendum on Trump."

In a post on social media Wednesday, Greene argued that voters had sent a message to the president after he urged Americans to treat the midterm elections as though he were on the ballot.

"He told people to vote like he was on the ballot and they did," Greene wrote.

Greene's comments came after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, according to many reports. The results marked a major setback for Republicans and Trump's party.

WHAT DID MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE SAY ABOUT TRUMP?

In her post, Greene accused Trump of abandoning campaign promises and prioritizing wealthy donors over Americans struggling with the cost of living.

She criticized the president over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, U.S. involvement in a foreign war, tariffs and rising gas and diesel prices. Those statements were Greene's accusations and characterizations of the administration.

Greene also criticized Republican lawmakers for continuing to support Trump, accusing them of remaining silent rather than challenging the president.

"And Republicans stood behind him silently clapping like trained baby seals," she wrote.

The former congresswoman also referenced her own break with Trump, saying the president had "ran me and Thomas Massie out of the Congress" while other Republican lawmakers remained silent.

GREENE SAYS REPUBLICANS NEED TO CHANGE COURSE

Greene concluded her post by saying the election results should serve as a warning to Republicans beyond Trump.

"But it's the rest of Republicans that need to learn the lesson and drastically change course," she wrote. "And I'm not sure if they're capable of that."

Greene represented Georgia's 14th Congressional District before leaving Congress earlier this year. Republican Clay Fuller won the special election to replace her and later faced Democrat Shawn Harris again in the November general election.

Greene's latest comments add to her public criticism of Trump following their political falling-out over issues including the Epstein files and the war in Iran.

More to explore

Conservative US Supreme Court justices Thomas and Alito in spotlight after Democratic landslide

Hannity: Election results would have been ‘100 percent’ different without Iran war

Susan Collins’ Maine concession could leave New England without a Republican in Congress for the first time since the 1850s

ATTACHMENT THIRTY FOUR – FROM TVP (POLAND)

DEMOCRATS' MIDTERM SWEEP LIMITS PUTIN’S ABILITY TO ‘MANIPULATE’ TRUMP

The incoming Congress could push for tougher Russia sanctions and more aid to Kyiv

Democrats’ midterm sweep ‘doesn’t help Putin’s agenda’, Ian Brzezinski told TVP World.

by Ammar Anwer Edited by Patrick Łagódka 04.11.2026, 16:03

The Democrats’ sweeping victory in the US midterm elections is a setback for Vladimir Putin because it limits his ability to “manipulate” Donald Trump and strengthens Congress’s power to challenge the US president’s Russia policy, a foreign policy expert told TVP World.

The elections, held on Tuesday, saw Democrats regain control of both chambers of Congress, securing at least 54 seats in the 100-member Senate and flipping Republican-held Senate seats in traditionally conservative states, including Texas, Kansas and South Carolina.

Several Republican lawmakers who opposed US military assistance to Ukraine also lost their seats, potentially strengthening congressional support for Kyiv.

“It’s negative because it constrains his [Putin’s] ability to manipulate President Trump. That’s kind of the bottom line on this,” Brzezinski told program host Adam Jasser.

“The president still has constitutional prerogatives. He still is the top gun when it comes down to US foreign policy. But Congress now is in a position politically to exercise its powers more robustly. That doesn’t help Putin’s agenda,” he added.

CONGRESS COULD PUSH BACK

Europe's populists saw Trump's troubles coming. Poland's right stayed loyal [ANALYSIS]

“I bet you, under this new Congress that’s coming in, you could get veto-proof margins on legislation that wouldn’t just give the president authorities to impose stricter sanctions on Russia, but would actually require him by law to execute the law of stronger sanctions,” he said.

“I could see Congress doing more to reanimate security assistance and economic assistance from the United States to Ukraine,” he added.

Brzezinski also suggested that Republicans could become more willing to challenge Trump following their electoral defeat, particularly over Russia and NATO.

“I think they’re going to be more willing to stand up and support Congress pressing the Trump administration onto a different path when it comes down to managing the war in Ukraine, Russia, our commitments to the transatlantic security relationship,” he said.

TRUMP REPRESENTS ‘MINORITY VIEW’

Brzezinski also argued that the election results should reassure European allies concerned that Trump’s approach to Russia and NATO represents a permanent shift in American foreign policy.

“There’s a lot of reasons to make the long bet on the transatlantic relationship. Make the long bet on America,” Brzezinski said.

ATTACHMENT THIRTY FIVE – FROM REUTERS

FROM IRAN TO TRADE: HOW THE US MIDTERMS IMPACT THE REST OF THE WORLD

November 4, 2026 7:40 AM EST Updated 20 hours ago

The US Democrats' "blue wave" of midterm election victories is already causing ripples across the rest of the world, where trade partners, strategic allies and enemies all see implications in the result.

IRAN AND ISRAEL

It is not immediately clear how US President Donald Trump's loss of control over Congress will shape the course of his country's eight-month-old conflict with Iran. Voters have shown they are weary of the conflict, which many blame for painfully higher fuel prices. Some Gulf governments now believe Trump has more reason than ever to seek a peace deal and that another full-scale assault on Iran is less likely after the midterms, two sources familiar with Gulf government ‌thinking told Reuters.

But Trump's electoral drubbing may also embolden Iran.

For Israel, a Democrat-controlled House and Senate may intensify congressional scrutiny of Israel's military operations in Iran as well as in Gaza and Lebanon, while threatening long-standing US support for Israel through military aid and weapons sales.

Rivals seeking to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seized on the Democrats' wins to lambaste him for a loss of bipartisan American support under his watch, as they seek to forge a coalition following an inconclusive Israeli election last week.

FUEL PUMP PRICES

The Iran war has choked supplies of crude oil and liquefied natural gas from the Gulf, driving up the cost of crude oil and prices at fuel ⁠pumps around the world.

"The market increasingly appears to be betting that President Trump wants to put the Middle East war behind him," said Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen.

UKRAINE

Trump has largely halted direct US financial and military aid to Ukraine as it fights a Russian invasion, despite broad support from Democratic and Republican lawmakers. He has angered members of Congress, including many Republicans, by lifting sanctions on Russian diesel and waiving sanctions on Russian energy only weeks after signing them into law.

Control of both chambers of Congress will allow Democrats to propose new aid to Ukraine. If they get enough backing from Republicans and secure a two-thirds majority, a new aid package would survive a Trump veto. However, any boost to US aid is unlikely to come quickly, and it will not address Ukraine’s most pressing need — a deficit of US-made Patriot air defence interceptors to protect its energy infrastructure and cities this winter.

Democrats could also target other Trump policies.

Democratic Representative Gregory Meeks of New York, a candidate to head the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has introduced bipartisan legislation to block Trump's plan to bring Russian diesel back into the global market. But the midterms are unlikely to change the Trump administration’s position in trilateral peace talks with Russia, where it has pressured Ukraine to make concessions to reach a deal ‌while it simultaneously discusses business deals with Moscow that would favour US investors.

The Kremlin said it hoped the midterm results would not impact what it called Trump's "peacemaking efforts".

CHINA

The elections could give some countries in Asia more reason to slow-walk investment pledges they made to stave off tariffs, and hand economic rival China a perceived upper hand in ongoing trade talks, analysts said.

However, broad US-China economic relations will likely maintain a state of "fragile stability", said Chim Lee, industrial policy analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit in Beijing.

Trump’s midterm losses could spell relief for India’s negotiations for a trade deal with the United States, which has faced delays as New Delhi strives to protect its farmers.

“After the US midterm losses, President Donald Trump’s capacity to impose arbitrary tariffs will certainly face a challenge. At some point he needs the Congress’s approval for trade actions and, to that extent, he’s weakened," said Anup Wadhawan, a former trade secretary to India's federal government.

Congress has the right to regulate commerce and set import duties, but Trump has taken advantage of laws to impose tariffs on grounds of national security or unfair trade practices. Democratic Party efforts to limit that power would be likely to face a presidential veto.

Another question is whether Trump will follow through on more immediate threats, such as a 100% tariff on European countries that impose a digital services tax on American tech giants, or whether a €3 billion ($3.37 billion) loan to Airbus (AIR.PA), opens new tab from the European Investment Bank will undermine what has been largely a transatlantic trade truce since 2025.

AI AND TECH

Exit polling revealed that many US voters were concerned about the aggressive buildout of AI data centres. That sent shivers through the shares of major Asian chip manufacturers.

"A Democratic sweep of Congress would put pressure on tech and potentially bring regulatory pressure on everything AI and possibly slow down the wild, wild west growth figures that we see daily and often take for granted," said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive of Longbow Asset Management in Oklahoma.

Asian chip and AI stocks such as TSMC (2330.TW), opens new tab, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), opens new tab, SK Hynix (000660.KS), opens new tab and Kioxia (285A.T), opens new tab all fell on Wednesday.

Asian investors' concerns were also reflected in pre-market trade in US markets where shares in US data centre operators fell, including Applied Digital (APLD.O), opens new tab, TeraWulf (WULF.O), opens new tab, Core Scientific (CORZ.O), opens new tab and Iren (IREN.O), opens new tab.

($1 = 0.8905 euros)

ATTACHMENT THIRTY SIX – FROM THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL

Experts react: Democrats just swept the US midterms. Here’s what it means for the world.

By Atlantic Council experts November 4, 2026 1:27 p.m. ET

The blue tsunami will reach far beyond the United States. In Tuesday’s midterm elections, Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress by wide margins, ushering in divided government over the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term in office. Below, our experts assess the global implications of the sweep on issues ranging from energy and the economy to US foreign policy.

Click to jump to an expert analysis:

William F. Wechsler: The midterm losses could delay, but not prevent, another Iran escalation

Landon Derentz: Trump may double down on energy policy

Josh Lipsky: Markets are unsure what to make of the Democratic sweep

Torrey Taussig: The power of the purse will be the route to shaping US NATO policy

John E. Herbst: The administration will face a higher cost for Putin-friendly policies

Graham Brookie: Public trust is driving politics—and perhaps now policy—on AI

Kenton Thibaut: US-China AI safety talks could be back on the agenda

Jörn Fleck: Democrats could extract some concessions on Ukraine, but don’t expect a sea-change on Europe

Tressa Guenov: Congress will double down on defense and intelligence oversight

Thomas Warrick: It’s time for bipartisan progress on immigration policy

Leslie Shedd: Expect tougher scrutiny of Israel and Iran, and potentially more support for Ukraine

Jason Marczak: Venezuela oil deals and military operations will come under scrutiny

William F. Wechsler is the senior director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East programs at the Atlantic Council. His most recent US government position was deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and combating terrorism.

THE MIDTERM LOSSES COULD DELAY, BUT NOT PREVENT, ANOTHER IRAN ESCALATION

Trump’s policies toward the Middle East undoubtedly contributed to Republicans’ midterm defeats, and he appears to recognize that. Trump has already publicly acknowledged that his war with Iran contributed to his loss. Moreover, his surprising announcement early on Election Day that he would end US financial support to Israel’s military in two months suggests that he sees that issue as a pressing political problem on the right and left. In Israel, Trump’s statement was seized upon by Gadi Eisenkot who will likely get the first chance to form a new government in the wake of last week’s elections. The growing threat to the bilateral relationship will be a top priority for the next Israeli prime minister.

The Iranian regime will undoubtedly see the results as another example of their form of “regime change” in Washington. If they make this view public, they risk encouraging a Trump decision to escalate. Before the elections, Trump had already reviewed war plans and ordered additional military forces to the region. Thus far, encouragingly, statements from Iran about the US election results have generally been de-escalatory.

That respite may prove temporary. Iran has a relatively consistent track record of miscalculation and overplaying its hand, and while a Democratic Congress has the power to stymie Trump’s domestic legislative agenda, it doesn’t have much ability to stop a president from exercising his powers as commander in chief.

Trump may eventually surmise that a diplomatic agreement along the lines of the previous Memorandum of Understanding would only reinforce perceptions that his war was an unmitigated disaster that damaged US national security, the Republican Party’s electoral prospects, and his personal legacy. The only way out, Trump may therefore conclude, is to win the war. That could lead to a decision to restart major combat operations, if not immediately, then in the months to come.

LANDON DERENTZ is the Atlantic Council vice president for energy and infrastructure and senior director of the Global Energy Center.

He previously served as director for energy on the National Security Council.

TRUMP MAY DOUBLE DOWN ON ENERGY POLICY

With Democrats having gained control of Congress, Trump is likely to lean more heavily on his substantial executive and foreign policy authority. Despite mounting legislative headwinds, the president faces a narrowing window to translate his priorities into durable policy and investment decisions before the 2028 presidential race takes hold.

Affordability dominated the run-up to yesterday’s elections, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll finding that 48 percent of registered voters identified the cost of living as their top voting issue. Retail gasoline and diesel prices have also risen sharply this year, reinforcing the political pressure on the administration. But with the midterms behind him, Trump may increasingly weigh near-term consumer-price concerns against longer-term strategic objectives. The tension will be particularly apparent in energy policy, where foreign policy ambitions, domestic industrial priorities, and consumer affordability do not always align.

That starts with Iran, where Trump may place greater weight on his long-term objective of preventing a nuclear-armed Iran than on short-term electoral considerations. His behavior before the 2025 and 2026 strikes demonstrates that diplomatic rhetoric and military escalation can coexist. Sustained economic pressure remains a likely course, with renewed military escalation a viable alternative, even at the expense of regional stability and energy prices.

Presidential power has its limits, however. Trump may seek an energy-centered resolution to the war in Ukraine in negotiations with Moscow, but achieving one is another matter. Bipartisan congressional resistance to sanctions relief on this side of the Atlantic and Europe’s determination to eliminate its dependence on Russian gas—backed by a legally mandated phaseout through 2027—present formidable obstacles. And this doesn’t even account for the fact that restoring Russian energy flows to Europe would undercut US liquefied natural gas export interests and Trump’s broader energy dominance agenda.

Beyond foreign policy and diplomatic ambitions, the president has considerably more latitude to advance his domestic energy agenda without the cooperation of foreign governments or Congress. Expect a renewed push to expand conventional energy production, export capacity, and the infrastructure needed to power the United States’ artificial intelligence (AI) and manufacturing ambitions. These priorities may offer limited near-term consumer-price relief, but they present the administration with an opportunity to translate executive authority into long-term infrastructure investment and commercial commitments that will be harder for future administrations to unwind.

Josh Lipsky is vice president and chair of international economics at the Atlantic Council. He previously served as an advisor at the International Monetary Fund.

MARKETS ARE UNSURE WHAT TO MAKE OF THE DEMOCRATIC SWEEP

Two years ago, as Trump was reelected to the presidency, bond yields shot up—as markets expected higher tariffs and more deficit spending. They were right. Two years later, as Democrats swept Congress, bond markets initially reacted in the opposite direction—on the belief that AI-related infrastructure spending would have to slow down and gridlock would mean fewer spending deals. This time, the markets may be mistaken.

The Democrats are planning a hundred-hour legislative blitz in January on a range of their priorities, including rolling back tariffs—which, based on exit polls, were among the least popular policies of Trump’s second term—and restoring cuts from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. All of that would increase the deficit.

The markets assume Trump will veto the full package. But it’s not so simple.

The strength of the Democrats’ majorities in both the House and Senate means they will enter two major fiscal fights in a strong negotiating position. First up will be federal government appropriations, as current funding only runs through December 11. The lame-duck Congress may pass a continuing resolution, but in 2027 a budget fight will almost certainly take place. It could happen at the same time that the US hits the debt ceiling—the $41 trillion limit is projected to be breached sometime in the first half of the year. The Democrats will insist on their spending priorities as a condition of reaching an agreement. Don’t be surprised to see some deals in the coming year—ones where both sides get their spending priorities met and the debt continues to pile up.

Tariffs, meanwhile, are not likely to change. Voters delivered a clear message about how they felt about Trump’s trade policies and the impact they have on prices. But Trump will reject any attempt to limit the use of his favorite tool. The Democrats’ legislation will be important because it will show where the party wants to head on trade in 2028 and beyond. But for those countries looking for a break on tariff rates after the midterms, the wait will be at least a little longer.

The one exception may be China. Trump’s trade détente with Beijing was driven in part by the series of summits the two leaders had this year (with two more expected before year-end). Once those pass, Trump may refocus in his final two years on what has been the core animating economic idea since he first ran for president—China’s unfair trading practices. On that issue, he may find a rare area of bipartisan consensus.

Torrey Taussig is the director of and a senior fellow at the Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Previously, Taussig was a director for European affairs on the National Security Council.

THE POWER OF THE PURSE WILL BE THE ROUTE TO SHAPING US NATO POLICY

As long as Trump is in office, questions and concerns about US engagement in NATO will remain. It was not Congress, but rather the president, who created a transatlantic crisis by repeatedly threatening to annex Greenland, make Canada the fifty-first state, and withhold protection from NATO allies that do not spend enough on defense. It was also the administration, not Congress, that bypassed all efforts to build European support for (or even awareness of) its war with Iran. The administration took not only Europeans but also Congress by surprise when it canceled troop deployments to Europe earlier this year. Now that Democrats control the legislative branch, many on both sides of the Atlantic will be looking to see if the party can wrestle some degree of control away from the executive branch in foreign and security policy.

Democrats who favor a robust US presence in Europe and a strong commitment to NATO are starting from a solid foundation. Despite the administration’s unwieldy approach toward allies, support for NATO in Congress already crosses party lines—and to meaningful effect. In the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Republican majorities passed multiyear security assistance for Ukraine, as well as limits on the administration’s ability to enact troop cuts in Europe, and required the US military commander of European Command to retain the supreme allied commander Europe role in NATO.

Despite this already strong bipartisan support for NATO, Democratic control of Congress will still have a recalibrating effect on transatlantic security. Come January 2027, Democrats will chair every committee and subcommittee in the House and Senate, including the appropriations committees and those important for European security and foreign policy (the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, House Armed Services Committee, and House Foreign Affairs Committee). Democrats will decide which bills get hearings, control investigations, and oversee about two-thirds of committee staff and budgets. We will see the effects of this shift in the 2027 NDAA negotiations and hearings regarding US force posture in Europe. While Trump maintains broad executive privileges in the foreign policy arena, Democrats will start paving the way for a new approach to working with US allies.

John Herbst is the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a former US ambassador to Ukraine.

THE ADMINISTRATION WILL FACE A HIGHER COST FOR PUTIN-FRIENDLY POLICIES

The strong Democratic Party win in the midterms poses new impediments to Trump’s latest moves regarding Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. For nearly a month, the administration’s policy has moved substantially in favor of the Kremlin, despite major US interests to the contrary.

The list of favors to Russian President Vladimir Putin include the deal on the sale of Russian diesel fuel to the US, a violation of US sanctions policy; the neutering of the Lindsay Graham sanctions bill, passed by large majorities in both the House and the Senate and signed by Trump just a few weeks earlier; the shutting off of vital intel to Ukraine coming from the Starlink and Starshield satellite systems; and favorable consideration of Putin’s proposal for a Xi-Trump-Putin trilateral on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit later this month.

Even before the midterms, these gifts to a Kremlin uninterested in a compromise peace sparked major criticism across the political spectrum, including from Republicans in Congress and major media generally supportive of Trump, such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. Several Republicans in the House and Senate even said publicly that if the Kremlin coddling did not cease, they would block Trump’s agenda for the lame-duck congressional session after the midterms. That criticism surprised the administration and may have had something to do, first, with the refusal of any official to accept responsibility for the intel shutdown and, second and more importantly, the restoration of the service a few days ago.

The midterm results only add to the problems Trump will face if his deference to Putin—a figure more than 80 percent of Americans view negatively—continue. Before the Tuesday vote, the Democrats were expected to take the House, but they did better by also taking the Senate. This means that Team Trump may face investigations of its turn toward Moscow from both houses. These inquiries will likely take up such problematic questions as to why the White House chose to ignore its own intelligence community and downplay the military intelligence Moscow gave Iran in order for Iranian forces to effectively target US bases and soldiers in the Middle East.

All of this means that the administration will face a much higher cost for a Kremlin-friendly policy than it had before. That is no assurance that it will revert to an actual “peace through strength” policy when dealing with Moscow. But Russian war bloggers have been mourning the election results because they believe Trump will no longer be able to help Putin.

Graham Brookie is the Atlantic Council’s vice president for technology programs and strategy, as well as the senior director of the Digital Forensic Research Lab. He previously served in various positions at the White House and National Security Council.

PUBLIC TRUST IS DRIVING POLITICS—AND PERHAPS NOW POLICY—ON AI

For the United States to compete effectively in the age of AI, the country must address the significant trust deficit the American public has toward the technology. This was a key finding of the Atlantic Council’s Commission on AI earlier this year, which brought together bipartisan members of Congress, industry leaders, and civil society experts.

The deep anxiety Americans feel about the technology and skepticism of the titans building it were on full display throughout the midterm elections and in the results. For example, an NBC News exit poll found 56 percent of voters said AI and associated infrastructure were a “crucial or major factor” in their vote for Congress. There is little reason to believe these concerns won’t remain on full display in the next Congress and at the state level in California, Texas, Ohio, and elsewhere.

Despite the significant Democratic gains in the election, AI skepticism transcended partisan lines, with many Republican candidates—from Michigan to Texas—advocating for slowing down the AI infrastructure buildout or increasing the regulation of the tech sector. Likewise, there are an increasing number of bipartisan policy proposals on AI safety in the current Congress—such as the FRONTIER ACT or the AI Kill Switch Act—which will likely reemerge in some form in the next Congress.

The bottom line is that, despite the increasing use and integration of AI in daily life around the country, polling as recent as last month shows that 75 percent of Americans view AI with fear or concern rather than excitement, especially when it comes to affordability, employment, education, the environment, safety and security, and many other issues. These concerns are especially prevalent among young people.

The election comes one week after one of the largest tech-driven sell-offs wiped out nearly one trillion dollars in market value due to subpar earnings reports across the AI industry. Much of that sell-off was driven by shaky confidence in whether the record borrowing and spending fueling the AI industry will translate into sustainable revenue, even as the infrastructure buildout takes time and has become a political flashpoint. Either way, the US economy is extremely dependent on whether the huge bets being placed on AI will pan out. Taken together, we’re likely in for continued market and policy adjustments related to AI.

AI is here to stay as a general-purpose technology, but it is also increasingly a determinant of geopolitical competition. As AI development outpaces institutions’ ability to manage it, we’re past due for a coherent national dialogue on AI’s impact and what US leadership in AI should look like. That debate will be on full display in the coming Congress.

Kenton Thibaut is senior resident China fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab within the Atlantic Council Technology Programs.

US-CHINA AI SAFETY TALKS COULD BE BACK ON THE AGENDA

Democratic control of Congress could strengthen political support for US-China coordination on AI safety, particularly around frontier-model risks, incident reporting, and crisis communications. The election comes at a consequential moment: During their September 2026 summit, Trump and Xi agreed to establish a bilateral AI dialogue and a communication channel for AI-related incidents, with follow-up talks scheduled for November.

Congressional Democrats have already articulated a more ambitious agenda for bilateral engagement: In September, representatives Gregory Meeks, Ami Bera, and Sara Jacobs, along with twenty-six of their colleagues, urged the administration to pursue shared AI safety standards, establish crisis communications mechanisms, address the proliferation of advanced capabilities, and facilitate exchanges between American and Chinese AI researchers. A separate initiative led by Senator Chris Van Hollen and sixteen Democratic colleagues went further, calling for a formal agreement on frontier AI testing, oversight, human control, and verification. The senators also proposed considering a mutual pause in frontier AI development, highlighting growing congressional interest in managing the risks of an accelerating technological competition.

With control of both chambers, Democrats could use committee hearings, appropriations, and legislation to press the administration to operationalize the new dialogue. Potential priorities could include defining which AI incidents trigger bilateral notifications, establishing protocols for information sharing, and supporting technical exchanges on model evaluations and catastrophic risks.

There is some bipartisan support for this approach. In September, members of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus also called for US-China coordination on AI testing and incident reporting. Growing public backlash against current AI policy—including data center buildouts, permissive AI self-regulation, and growing concerns about the impacts of AI on employment—could also add momentum to renewed engagement on AI.

However, significant constraints remain. The executive branch controls diplomatic negotiations, while disagreements over semiconductor restrictions, technology access, and verification complicate cooperation. Democratic lawmakers also differ significantly on how far bilateral commitments should extend, with more national-security-oriented Democrats expressing greater skepticism about such a process.

The election’s most immediate effect may be to make implementation of the existing AI safety dialogue a more prominent congressional priority. Whether this develops into formal agreements will depend on the administration’s willingness to negotiate and Beijing’s readiness to accept reciprocal safeguards—a tall order, considering that Beijing has previously rejected Washington’s efforts to frame AI safety talks around US-defined priorities.

Jörn Fleck is the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center.

DEMOCRATS COULD EXTRACT SOME CONCESSIONS ON UKRAINE, BUT DON’T EXPECT A SEA-CHANGE ON EUROPE

Europe can expect the Democrats in the next Congress to signal a more constructive US reengagement in transatlantic relations, on Ukraine, and even on trade issues. But European decisionmakers are right to have tempered expectations about how much a Democratic Congress will translate into substantial US policy changes on what matters most to the continent: support for Ukraine, US commitments to European security, and greater stability in trade and tariff policies.

Even with a strong majority in both chambers of Congress, Democrats will struggle to impose meaningful limits on Trump’s conduct of foreign policy, given his constitutional powers and willingness to push the envelope. Democrats may put him and Republicans on the record with messaging bills on items such as the Russian diesel deal and waived Russia sanctions. They can put supplemental funding for Ukraine on the agenda and leverage must-pass legislation such as the NDAA to try to extract concessions on Ukraine support or US security and troop commitments in Europe related to the administration’s ongoing force posture review. The new majority will also try to claw back trade and tariff powers that Congress has ceded to the executive branch in Trump’s second term. But Trump has stated a willingness to use his veto, and hard limits on the president’s power are unlikely.

Much will also depend on where congressional Republicans go politically in response to the midterm rout. The remaining Reaganite hawks in the Senate may not continue to mute their opposition to the president’s dealings with Moscow and Beijing or his pressure on Kyiv and allied European capitals. Large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress may make it easier to assemble the two-thirds majorities needed to override a presidential veto. Republican hawks will have more leverage to confront the White House, even if they will have to pick their battles.

Complicating matters, Europe will have to navigate two poles of power in Washington. Europe will, on the one hand, confront a Democratic Congress that wants to drive a reengagement agenda with European allies but will not be able to deliver significant policy changes on key areas of concern, at least not on its own. And on the other hand, Brussels and national capitals must be prepared to counter continued disruption from the president on trade and Ukraine, while avoiding antagonizing him with overly partisan approaches.

NATO and EU countries will continue to confront a mercurial US president who may double down on foreign policy as he is likely to come under significant pressure at home from congressional investigations, budget fights, and political gridlock under divided government. Unshackled from having to face voters at the ballot box again, Trump may shift into deal-making overdrive to cement his legacy. In doing so, he will lean into the instincts that have defined his foreign policy Weltanschauung—one of sphere-of-influence arrangements among supposedly great powers, personalized leader-to-leader dealings, and hard power realism. Trump’s deal-making mode carries both risks and opportunities for Europe and its adversaries.

Moscow and Beijing will now have to contend with a more boxed-in Trump administration. Trump’s instincts may still be to look for deals with Putin and Xi. So Europeans should assess which opportunities and deals they can shape, from Ukraine to European security and trade, even if these may turn out to be more tactical than strategic, as broader initiatives with this White House may remain elusive. But Europe simply cannot afford to fatalistically write off the next two years given the president’s powers and what is at stake for the continent in US foreign and defense policy.

Tressa Guenov is the senior director for programs and operations and a senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council. She previously served as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

CONGRESS WILL DOUBLE DOWN ON DEFENSE AND INTELLIGENCE OVERSIGHT

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate will need to focus immediately on essential foreign policy issues such as Iran and Ukraine, but equally important will be the possibility of renewed oversight of core defense and intelligence issues. Expect Democrats to press on issues such as the Pentagon’s force posture plans around the globe and getting numbers on critical munitions stockpiles and associated defense production issues. Democrats are also likely to look into reports of inappropriate business practices within the department and seek out accountability on recent military actions against targets in the Caribbean and Iran. Trump’s programmatic priorities such as Golden Dome, and broader issues of personnel readiness, promotions, and recruitment, are also likely to be on the agenda.

On intelligence issues, we may see a revived bipartisan core of members who will want baseline information on how layoffs and retirements have affected US collection capacity, where AI offers expanded risks and opportunities, and how adversaries may be working together in new ways against US interests and those of the international community.

These fundamental issues won’t be easy to address. They will require urgent bipartisan attention and rapid coordination across several committees before the new Congress is even sworn in this January. Much more work lies ahead.

Thomas S. Warrick is a nonresident senior fellow with the Adrienne Arsht National Security Resilience Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He previously served as deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy in the Department of Homeland Security.

IT’S TIME FOR BIPARTISAN PROGRESS ON IMMIGRATION POLICY

Opinion polls have consistently made clear that the American people want an immigration system that is both just and fair, and they are prepared to vote against those who fail to deliver on that objective. Concerns about the US immigration system helped elect Trump president in 2016. Trump’s child-separation policy helped elect Joe Biden president in 2020. Chaos at the border helped elect Trump president in 2024. Cruelty in Trump’s immigration enforcement over the past two years helped create last night’s electoral triumph for Democrats.

Trump’s border adviser Tom Homan had it right two years ago: If Trump had focused on deporting only those unauthorized migrants with criminal records, he might have kept the support of the majority of Americans on this issue. Instead, Trump’s immigration policy appears to have lost the trust of the American people. As of early Wednesday morning, Democrats are expected to win in every single congressional district along the US-Mexico border, including in formerly deep-red (now looking purple) Texas.

With their new power, expect congressional Democrats to start investigations into the Trump administration’s immigration detention system.

The lesson Republicans and Democrats should learn is that only a bipartisan approach on border security and immigration will get the lasting support of the American people. The United States needs a solution along the lines of the 2023–2024 bipartisan Senate compromise or the bipartisan Dignity Act. The 120^th Congress should update the 2024 compromise legislation, reallocate existing appropriations from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to other priorities, mandate a major shift in detention and asylum policy, and send it to the White House attached to whatever Trump considers must-pass legislation. Even if bipartisan immigration reform does not pass in 2027, it will help set the agenda for 2028.

Leslie Shedd is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and former senior adviser to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee.

EXPECT TOUGHER SCRUTINY OF ISRAEL AND IRAN, AND POTENTIALLY MORE SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE

Last night’s resounding loss for the Republican Party will have some immediate impacts on foreign policy. First, the new Congress will be without a slew of experienced Republican national security voices, who either lost last night, retired, or passed away. Senators Susan Collins (ME), Thom Tillis (NC), John Cornyn (TX), Lindsey Graham (SC), and Mitch McConnell (KY), and representatives Mike Lawler (NY), Michael McCaul (TX), Ann Wagner (MO), Don Bacon (NE), and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) have been advocates for American strength and strong alliances, including with Ukraine. That is a significant loss of expertise and experience for the Republican conferences in both chambers that will take years to rebuild.

Israel is also facing a brand-new world this morning—one with a Congress far less supportive of its causes and far more likely to cut military aid. The Israeli government and its supporters in the United States would be wise to begin immediate outreach to Democrats open to mending fences and attempt to rebuild support. Trump himself announced Tuesday that he would cut off four billion dollars in annual aid to Israel, but he will need Congress to agree, since it is actually responsible for appropriating that money. He now likely has a Congress that will.

On the war in Iran, which drove many voters to turn on Republicans, the next Congress is likely to prioritize legislation to halt, or at least significantly curtail, US military action. Still, it is unclear what that would look like beyond a resolution of disapproval, because Iran has been unwilling to have any reasonable discussions to end the conflict.

The new Congress also injects a measure of uncertainty into Ukraine policy. While Democrats have been generally solid in supporting Ukraine militarily and financially during the conflict, voters sent a resounding message in this election to focus on domestic policy and affordability. It’s unclear whether this new crop of Democrats will be interested in sending money and weapons overseas—regardless of the destination. In good news for Ukraine, the likely chairs of national security committees—particularly Representative Adam Smith (D-WA) at House Armed Services and Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) at Senate Foreign Relations—have a strong record of support. They will be powerful allies for Ukraine in the new Congress, as Kyiv fights for access to much-needed weapons.

Jason Marczak is vice president and senior director at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center.

VENEZUELA OIL DEALS AND MILITARY OPERATIONS WILL COME UNDER SCRUTINY

Latin America policy wasn’t on the ballot yesterday, and Democrats are expected to focus on affordability and other pocketbook issues. But the Democratic-controlled House and Senate, especially with more seats flipped than expected, are likely to bring hearings, oversight, and investigations into some of Trump’s marquee policies in Latin America in at least three priority areas.

Top of that list will be Venezuela. There, investigations could stretch from looking at who benefits from oil agreements to how revenues are managed and the legal authority for those arrangements, as well as greater scrutiny of the extent to which a pathway to a democratic transition is taking shape. Senator Tim Kaine, a potential new chair of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, may push the administration on the exact timing and plan for an election.

Expect possible involvement from the House Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees, and the Senate Foreign Relations, Banking, and Finance committees. Democrats have long been asking for more information on these issues, including in a September letter from Representative Gregory Meeks and Representative Robert Garcia to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting more information on the management of Venezuelan oil revenue and the September oil deal announced by Trump.

But it won’t only be about Venezuela. Representative Adam Smith, in line to chair the House Armed Services Committee, has stated that, with enough backing, he would push to investigate the boat strikes and the overall military campaigns that the United States has deployed across the region since the Trump administration took office. Hearings could include the legal basis for US actions, the costs, and the casualties. Global tariffs will also be on the congressional agenda, with the implications for countries like Mexico, Washington’s largest trading partner, likely to receive greater attention.

Hearings and investigations are not the only tools available to Congress. Ahead of elections in 2028, both parties will be pressed to show concrete results through legislation—and hopefully through bipartisan alignment—on the issues that will define the continued expansion of the US presence in the hemisphere.

ATTACHMENT THIRTY SEVEN – FROM THE CONVERSATION

DONALD TRUMP’S REPUBLICANS SUFFER LANDSLIDE DEFEAT – WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE WORLD

Published: November 4, 2026 1:36am EST

Donald Trump’s Republican Party has received a stunning rebuke in the US midterm elections. Republicans went into the evening hoping that the polls might be wrong and that they could at least cling on to control of the Senate. But by midnight in Washington, the GOP was staring down what looked like its worst defeat in 50 years.

Republican losses were not just confined to the type of swing districts that parties usually worry about on election night. The scale of the losses was staggering. They lost Senate seats in deep red states such as Texas and South Carolina. They lost districts they had gerrymandered and in which they were supposed to be unbeatable. They lost seats that even the sharpest analysts thought were safe.

Why? For months, surveys have shown that voters are fed up with high prices, with the war in Iran, and with what is increasingly being talked about as the Trump administration’s corruption. A president who was narrowly elected on the promise of a steady economic hand instead spent two years pursuing an extreme ideological agenda favoured only by a minority of Americans. He ignored what voters were saying, and now they have delivered a harsh verdict.

What recent polling suggests will happen in the US midterm elections

But these results have implications beyond just the remainder of Trump’s presidency. They break some of the patterns that have defined American politics for decades. Democrats are suddenly winning in places where they have been counted out for a generation. Suddenly, the American political map looks different.

Take Texas. The last time a Democrat won election as a senator there was 1988. Democrats have not won a presidential election in Texas since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Yet last night, Democrat James Talarico powered to a convincing victory. If elections in Texas become politically competitive on a permanent basis, it will become much harder for Republicans to take the presidency in the future.

The Republican Party will now be looking nervously towards the 2028 election. For the first time since 2016, there is likely to be a serious debate within the party about whether to move on from the aggressive nationalism and bigotry of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. Democrats, meanwhile, face their own questions about how to capitalise on their victories.

FOREIGN POLICY FUTURES

But for the rest of the world, change might not come so quickly. Despite the fact that his party has suffered this electoral setback, Trump remains president until 2028. And because despite its constitutional role in declaring war and ratifying treaties, Congress tends to be less involved in foreign policy, there is still a lot that he can do with that power.

Indeed, US presidents whose parties perform badly in midterm elections often become more active in foreign policy than they had previously. With the chance of passing a significant domestic agenda mostly beyond their reach, they have a more time on their hands to think about America’s relations with the rest of the world. The same is likely to be true of Trump.

The fact that the midterms are over also means that Trump no longer has to be so careful about the political consequences of his actions. As the midterm elections got closer, the president has backed down from major military confrontation with Iran and sought a truce in his tariff wars. Now, with political constraints lifted, he could become more erratic and unpredictable.

Congress would not be completely powerless to stop him, at least in theory. But most actions it can take – such as cutting off funding for the war with Iran or seizing tariff power back from the president – require margins of control in both chambers that Democrats are unlikely to have, despite their formidable victories.

They would need to have a two-thirds majority to override an almost certain presidential veto on any attempt to pass laws to achieve these outcomes. So a key question is whether this midterm drubbing was serious enough to make some Republican members of Congress get serious about joining Democrats in restraining Trump.

Something that Democrats will definitely be able to do is launch all manner of investigations into the conduct of the Trump administration and some of its officials. Their efforts are likely to focus on the war with Iran, Trump’s personal financial dealings with foreign leaders, and the management of the Pentagon by secretary of defence Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth, indeed, could be an early casualty of these efforts – there is speculation that he will resign or be fired rather than face possible impeachment.

But ultimately a change of direction in US foreign policy depends on the decisions of Trump himself. A changing of the guard among his advisers, or in Congress, can only do so much to influence a president who has never willingly submitted to constraint.

The world should prepare itself for the possibility that a politically wounded and angry Trump could now decide to vent his frustrations abroad.

ATTACHMENT THIRTY EIGHT – FROM REUTERS

CONSERVATIVE US SUPREME COURT JUSTICES THOMAS AND ALITO IN SPOTLIGHT AFTER DEMOCRATIC LANDSLIDE

By John Kruzel

November 4, 2026 2:53 PM EST Updated 15 hours ago

SENATE DEMOCRATS WILL BE ABLE TO BLOCK TRUMP COURT PICKS

· Democrats formally take control of Senate on January 3

· Thomas, 78, and Alito, 76, are court's oldest justices

· Republicans may not retake Senate for years, analysts say

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - The US midterm election landslide that gives Democrats control of Congress starting in January is fueling questions about the longevity of the Supreme Court's two eldest justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, and the durability of its conservative majority.

As Republicans prepare to cede control of the Senate to Democrats for the next two years or more, some conservative commentators already are expressing concerns about the health prospects ‌of Thomas, 78, and Alito, 76, placing renewed focus on their continued service on the top US judicial body.

US Midterms

· Democrats' win explained

· 2028 contenders

· Midterm of firsts

The US Constitution assigns the Senate the power to confirm a president's judicial nominations. With a Senate majority, Democrats can block any nominations that Republican President Donald Trump would make to fill potential Supreme Court vacancies, just as Republicans blocked Democratic President Barack Obama from filling one in 2016.

Thomas and Alito are the court's two most conservative justices and have reliably backed Trump policies in major rulings during his second term in office. The court's 6-3 conservative ⁠majority, which has steered American law in a sharply rightward direction on issues from abortion to gun rights to presidential powers, includes three justices Trump appointed during his first term as president.

Alito's comment about remaining through the current term followed speculation that he might quickly retire in the event Democrats captured the Senate in order to ensure that Trump could get a successor confirmed with Republicans still in control.

Until Democrats formally take over Congress on January 3, the current Republican majority retains control during what is called a lame-duck session.

While some conservatives might want Thomas or Alito to retire right away so Trump can nominate a replacement and a Republican-led Senate could quickly provide confirmation, the tight timeline and other legislative priorities could make that difficult even if the justices had any interest in doing so.

'NAKEDLY POLITICAL'

To some legal analysts, the notion of an imminent Supreme Court departure seemed far-fetched.

Item 1 of 2 U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas attends a swearing-in ceremony for a new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 22, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

The size of the new Democratic majority in the Senate could make it difficult for Republicans to reclaim the chamber in the 2028 elections, according to some analysts, meaning Republicans may not control both the presidency and Senate for quite some time.

"Given the deep hole, that might not happen until 2033," Whelan said.

Thomas would be 84 and Alito 82 in 2033 when a new Congress is sworn in. That would place ⁠them over the average retirement age of around 80 for Supreme Court justices since 2000.

'ON THEIR TREADMILLS'

A Republican-led Senate refused to consider Obama's nominee to replace Scalia, allowing Trump the following year to fill the vacancy.

The Senate confirmed Trump's nominee Amy Coney Barrett swiftly in the weeks after Ginsburg's death to build the court's current 6-3 conservative edge. Ginsburg's decision not to retire during Obama's presidency to clear the way for a like-minded successor was seen by many liberals as a serious miscalculation that led to a dramatically more conservative court.

Some conservative legal commentators addressed the possible political and actuarial implications if Democrats keep the Senate for years.

ATTACHMENT THIRTY EIGHT – FROM POLITICO

‘USE YOUR MAJORITY’: IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT OF A SUPREME COURT VACANCY, REPUBLICANS ARE READY TO ACT

A Senate flip to Democrats could essentially shut down confirmations of President Donald Trump’s court nominees — but not until January.

Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley and Majority Leader John Thune both said they'd race to confirm a late nominee.

By Jordain Carney and Calen Razor 10/07/2026 4:45 AM EDT

Senate Republicans are unlikely to get a Supreme Court vacancy this year. They’re privately prepared for one, just in case.

A Democratic midterm triumph would carry massive implications for the final years of President Donald Trump’s presidency, including the prospect that the Senate could essentially shut down confirmations of his favored nominees. That’s a nightmare scenario for Republicans, who have viewed their reshaping of the federal judiciary as a crown jewel of Trump’s legacy.

The two oldest Supreme Court justices — 78-year-old Clarence Thomas and 76-year-old Samuel Alito — are both Republican appointees and reliable Trump allies, and key Senate Republicans said in recent interviews with POLITICO they would support filling a high-court slot this year if one opens up.

“We would proceed quickly with such a vacancy,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

Signs that Republicans will need to spring into action are scarce. Alito told Bloomberg News in an interview published Tuesday that he would “stick around” at least until the court’s current term ends early next summer. Thomas, meanwhile, hasn’t publicly addressed his retirement plans in years and has otherwise given no signs of imminent plans to quit.

But if the GOP loses control of the Senate in the midterms, both men would face a mountain of pressure to consider stepping down, given the stakes. Democrats remain bitter over the Republican blockade of President Barack Obama’s final Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, and could block a fourth Trump justice.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in an interview over the summer that part of his pitch to recruit candidates was “two words that make a huge difference: Supreme Court.” Speaking to reporters last week, Schumer indicated that Democrats would use their majority to block judicial nominees they view as too extreme.

A post-Nov. 3 announcement would be the first time since the 1922 retirement of Mahlon Pitney that a Supreme Court justice announced his or her departure in the lame-duck period after a midterm election, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Such an announcement would kick off a chaotic sprint on Capitol Hill, giving Republicans just five scheduled session weeks to cobble together 50 votes for a Trump nominee.

Those in a position to act said recently they would certainly try — and there is recent precedent for doing it quickly: Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed just 38 days after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s September 2020 death.

Like Thune, Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said “of course” Senate Republicans would try to fill a post-election vacancy.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a frequent Trump critic who could single-handedly bottle up a nominee in the Judiciary Committee, said he would “absolutely” support filling an end-of-year vacancy.

“You’ve got to use your majority position to take that vote,” he said.

But Tillis was among many in the GOP who doubt senators will have a slot to fill. “I can’t think of anything other than health,” he said, that would cause a justice to quickly step down.

Thune said that if a justice had plans to retire, “They would have done it already.”

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, another potentially pivotal vote, also left the door open to a post-election confirmation. The only Senate Republican running this year in a state won by Kamala Harris, Collins pointed to her longstanding position that “as long as it’s not close to a presidential election that we should proceed to consider nominees.”

“I don’t know why you assume there will be one,” she added. “I haven’t heard that will happen.”

WHY THE MIDTERMS ARE A WARNING SIGN FOR BOTH PARTIES

Collins knows as well as anyone the perils of taking up high-court nominations in an election year. She cited the too-close-to–Election Day rule in voting against Barrett’s nomination as she stood for reelection in 2020.

But Democrats are still hammering her decision to vote for Brett Kavanaugh a month before the 2018 midterms — even after his nomination was thrown into turmoil by allegations of sexual misconduct and assault which he denied.

Troy Jackson, Collins’ Democratic opponent, posted on X this week that Collins “cannot be trusted with voting on our next Supreme Court Justice.”

The campaign-trail sparring reflects just how partisan and contentious high-court nomination battles have grown, and plenty of senators are hoping to avoid a knock-down-drag-out fight on the heels of a similarly nasty midterm campaign.

In a sign of the battle scars left from the fights over Kavanaugh, Barrett and the most recent Supreme Court confirmee — Ketanji Brown Jackson — some lawmakers said they weren’t ready to even entertain the thought of a lame-duck confirmation sprint.

“Not a hypothetical I’m ready to talk about,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who is expected to lead Democrats on the Judiciary Committee next year.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who would be a closely watched vote, made a quick escape when she was asked about the scenario.

“Oh, gosh,” she said. “You’re giving me the chills.”

ATTACHMENT THIRTY NINE – FROM REUTERS

CONSERVATIVE US SUPREME COURT JUSTICES THOMAS AND ALITO IN SPOTLIGHT AFTER DEMOCRATIC LANDSLIDE

By John Kruzel

November 4, 2026 2:53 PM EST Updated 15 hours ago

SENATE DEMOCRATS WILL BE ABLE TO BLOCK TRUMP COURT PICKS

· Democrats formally take control of Senate on January 3

· Thomas, 78, and Alito, 76, are court's oldest justices

· Republicans may not retake Senate for years, analysts say

US Midterms

· Democrats' win explained

· 2028 contenders

· Midterm of firsts

Until Democrats formally take over Congress on January 3, the current Republican majority retains control during what is called a lame-duck session.

'NAKEDLY POLITICAL'

To some legal analysts, the notion of an imminent Supreme Court departure seemed far-fetched.

"Given the deep hole, that might not happen until 2033," Whelan said.

Thomas would be 84 and Alito 82 in 2033 when a new Congress is sworn in. That would place ⁠them over the average retirement age of around 80 for Supreme Court justices since 2000.

'ON THEIR TREADMILLS'

A Republican-led Senate refused to consider Obama's nominee to replace Scalia, allowing Trump the following year to fill the vacancy.

Some conservative legal commentators addressed the possible political and actuarial implications if Democrats keep the Senate for years.

ATTACHMENT FORTY – FROM MS NOW

By Jordan Rubin

Nov. 4, 2026, 12:36 PM EST

The Supreme Court wasn’t literally on the midterm elections ballot. But Democrats winning control of the Senate, which decides whether to confirm a president’s judicial nominees, ensures they will have a say in filling (or not filling) any vacancies once the new majority is seated in January.

Democrats are projected to control a solid Senate majority, with at least 54 seats out of 100. The Alaska and Mississippi races have not been called as of Wednesday morning, so that margin could grow.

That puts the brightest spotlight on the court’s two senior-most members, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who have also been the most likely to side with the current administration. President Donald Trump called them “legends” in September, when they were the only two dissenters from the court’s refusal to approve his desired mail ballot restrictions for the midterms.

“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,” the president said of his own three appointees in the same social media post in which he lauded Thomas and Alito.

Trump named Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the bench in his first term. That gave Republican appointees a 6-3 majority on the court, which has backed the president and his party in a series of landmark cases, while also rejecting some of their most extreme appeals. Chief Justice John Roberts is the sixth GOP appointee, having been nominated by President George W. Bush, as was Alito. Thomas was appointed by Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush.

To be sure, Thomas, Alito or both could retire now and give Trump and the outgoing Republican Senate majority a chance to confirm their successors. Yet, at least before Tuesday night, both justices had signaled they will not step down, with Alito telling Bloomberg that he plans to stay on at least through the current court term, which doesn’t end until after the new Senate majority is seated. If Thomas stays on through the following court term, he will become the longest-serving justice ever.

Even if one or both of those justices agree to step down to rush their replacements before Democrats take control, it is uncertain whether the outgoing GOP Senate majority would be able to confirm suitable successors in their eyes.

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Given all of that, lame-duck Supreme Court confirmations might be unlikely this year. But they would not be shocking, in light of Republicans’ historical prioritization of the court and the uncertain future that otherwise lies ahead for the Trump-anointed legendary duo. They are in their late 70s, which is not terribly old by the court’s standards. But especially if a Democrat wins the White House in 2028, the pair would be into their 80s by the next potential time that a Republican president and Senate could replace them.

The court’s newest justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, was appointed by President Joe Biden after Justice Stephen Breyer, a Clinton appointee, retired at 83 amid pressure from the left to avoid the scenario that let Trump appoint Barrett: the death of Clinton-appointed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at 87 in September 2020.

Ginsburg had brushed off pressure to retire when President Barack Obama was still in office and could name her replacement. Her death allowed Trump and Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell to push through Barrett’s election year confirmation (after Republicans had refused to consider Obama nominee Merrick Garland for the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat in 2016 on the grounds that it was an election year).

As far as we know, Thomas and Alito are not battling serious health issues like Ginsburg did. Still, whether they will similarly be replaced by a president and Senate intent on undoing their legacies could now be an open question for years to come.

ATTACHMENT FORTY ONE – FROM THE NATIONAL REVIEW

‘WHAT THE 2026 SENATE MIDTERMS MEAN FOR JUDICIAL CONFIRMATIONS’

By Ed Whelan

November 4, 2026 10:07 AM

In my new Confirmation Tales post by that title, I make ten quick points. Here are my first five:

1. No Supreme Court justice is going to decide to retire during the last two years of Donald Trump’s presidency. If a vacancy somehow arises, Trump will not be able to get a nominee confirmed.

2. If a Republican candidate wins the presidency in 2028, he will very likely still face a Democratic majority in the Senate, perhaps for the entirety of his presidential term. If he does, no Supreme Court justice is going to decide to retire while that majority persists. If a vacancy somehow arises, the president will not be able to get a nominee confirmed. Such a president will also have zero or few lower-court appointments.

3. A Democratic candidate who wins the presidency in 2028 will likely have a substantial Democratic majority in the Senate and will have an easy time getting a Supreme Court nominee confirmed. Sonia Sotomayor turns 75 in 2029. Look for her to retire no later than 2031. Don’t discount the possibility of involuntary vacancies that could significantly alter the ideological composition of the Court.

4. If Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito want to avoid being replaced by someone with a very different judicial ideology, they might not be able to retire before 2033. Justice Thomas will turn 85 in 2033. Justice Alito will turn 83 that year.

(I wrote right after Trump won election in November 2024: “I expect Alito to announce in the spring of 2025 that he will retire from the Court. I think it very likely that Thomas will do the same in the spring of 2026.”)

5. There will not be a Supreme Court confirmation in the lame-duck period between now and January 3, 2027. No justice is going to announce in the next few days that he will be stepping down at the end of the Court’s term. Justices don’t make snap decisions about retiring.

Another reason (on top of many others) why a justice won’t announce a retirement: Anyone contemplating the decision would recognize that there is a very high risk that the Senate would not be able to confirm a nominee in the lame duck. The Republican majority will fall to 52 seats when Sherrod Brown of Ohio is sworn into the Senate in ~~early~~ would be a strong bet to be confirmed? Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski can be counted as no votes. John Cornyn, Thom Tillis, and Bill Cassidy aren’t going to be eager to support a MAGA nominee. And there are other senators—e.g., John Curtis of Utah—who would be leery of anyone Trump would be eager to push through.

ATTACHMENT FORTY TWO – FROM CHATHAM HOUSE (THINK TANK)

WHAT WILL HISTORIC US MIDTERM RESULTS MEAN FOR THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS?

After a huge win for Democrats, both parties now face a reckoning as they prepare for the 2028 presidential race – and the post-Trump era.

By Laurel Rapp Published 5 November 2026

Director, US & North America Programme

American voters delivered a resounding victory for Democrats in the 2026 midterms, the scale of their win surpassing all expectations. With control of both chambers of Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate – Democrats will now preside over powerful tools of investigation and oversight, federal spending constraints and the ability to block Trump’s nominees, including for Supreme Court vacancies.

President Trump will remain an enduring presence into the 2028 election cycle, especially on matters of foreign policy. But attention will increasingly move to his potential successors and the parties’ respective visions for the future. How – and whether – Democrats and Republicans use the two years ahead to constrain Trump’s widely unpopular foreign policy and define a clear alternative will determine both their success in claiming the White House and in shaping the global landscape its next resident will inherit.

Both parties now face a reckoning, with consequential choices ahead on the key issues to prioritise, the ideological purity tests they may seek to impose and the presidential candidate they nominate for 2028.

Democrats face a competitive primary season for the first time in eight years. This offers an opportunity for genuine debate but also risks stoking significant infighting.

Moderates and conservative Democrats gained significant ground in traditionally Republican bastions. Progressives also notched key victories – from Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) re-election in New York City. But the incoming Democratic caucus will hold very diverse views on issues like the US relationship with Israel, use of military force, defence spending and immigration.

Republicans, meanwhile, face the massive task of revitalizing a party defined by Trump for the last decade – while also managing his likely moves to compel loyalty and cement a MAGA succession plan. The midterm results offer the clearest evidence yet that proximity to Trump will be increasingly untenable. This could open the door for greater independence – and some resistance – among the Republican Congress, particularly on the Iran war and Trump’s entreaties to Vladimir Putin.

As the Republican party looks ahead to 2028, Trump himself may be one of their biggest obstacles to forging a new platform that retires some of the more unpopular elements of Trump’s legacy – expensive wars, tariff-related economic disruption and allegations of corruption – while retaining winning elements for their base.

The midterms showcased the strength of the Democratic coalition built ahead of the elections, reaching into deep red states and districts like Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and South Carolina. Progressive and moderate wins showed that an inclusive, ‘big tent’ strategy can succeed. Economic populism, labour rights and affordable housing featured across progressive campaigns, while centrist candidates emphasized pragmatic governance, national security and economic competitiveness. Most candidates spoke about lowering the cost of living, ending the Iran war, expanding access to healthcare, and managing AI risks and data centre buildouts. Democrats will now seek to coalesce around an agenda in the House and Senate, stressing party unity.

But the foreign policy fissures that emerged in the midterm primary races have not gone away. After conceding the Congressional losses, President Trump told Fox News he could imagine working with Democrats on immigration – one of the Democratic party’s most persistent fault lines. Reductions in US military spending will also divide the caucus, with many progressives in favour of redirecting overseas funds to domestic revitalization. The US relationship with Israel will be one of the most contested discussions, with a growing number of centrist Democrats pushing for huge foreign assistance cuts for Israel and greater conditionality – if not outright suspension – of arms sales. The rancour in the Michigan Senate race – where Israel featured prominently – offered a preview of fights to come.

The left will continue to be unified in their opposition to Trump. But he will soon be gone. Shaping an affirmative governance agenda in the face of deep intra-party divisions will be the big test into 2028.

A competitive primary season that fosters open debate among the Democratic presidential candidates will expose these divisions. But the anointing of Biden/Harris in 2024 denied the party the chance to grapple with genuine differences and work to shape an inclusive, representative platform. This process will be painful but necessary. The final presidential nominee among the dozen plus anticipated to enter the field – from Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff to New York’s AOC – will offer the clearest signal of the party’s direction of travel.

REPUBLICANS MUST FORGE A POST-TRUMP FUTURE

The Republican party has suffered one of its worst defeats in years, if not decades. It now turns to the sobering reality of navigating both the future of the party and the end of the Trump era. Their vision for the future will need to resonate not only with MAGA voters, but also centrist Republicans and Independents whose absence in the midterms cost the party dearly. Although candidates’ messaging around illegal immigration and violent crime align with Republican voter concerns, they failed to break through.

Trump’s record disapproval ratings was a further drag on Republican and Independent turnout. Loyalty tests meant candidates had to run on Trump’s record, a tricky proposition as voters connected the war in Iran with affordability. Republicans were also saddled with several troubled, scandal-marred candidates like Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton and Ohio House incumbent Max Miller. Trump himself is unlikely to do much soul searching, exclaiming on Truth Social ‘I wasn’t on the ballot, and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!’. But the Republican party will be forced to reckon with these results as they forge their post-Trump future.

Trump’s relationship with the party will be biggest fissure on the right. As 2028 approaches, Republican candidates may see greater peril in sticking with Trump than beginning to distance themselves. Republicans may also struggle to hold the caucus together and avoid backstabbing and defections, particularly if Democrats’ investigations succeed in unseating senior officials.

On substance, Republicans may be increasingly divided on whether to change course on some of Trump’s unpopular foreign policy moves. Some Republican officials have publicly criticized Trump on Greenland and the Iran war, but more may see political value in critiquing wider swaths of his foreign policy – beginning with Trump’s interest in a trade deal with China or an accommodation with Putin. This will be particularly challenging for the anticipated Republican nominees, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will remain closely associated with Trump’s unpopular policies. Vance has publicly blamed the Iran war for the midterms defeat and also cited Republican voters’ desire for a different relationship with Israel, likely a factor in Trump’s surprise election day announcement that he would suspend $4 billion in annual assistance to Israel.

Trump will soon be departing after a decade as darling of the right and foil for the left. This leaves both parties facing difficult choices. Whether Democrats can unite around a broad coalition or Republicans can wrest their political fate from Trump remains to be seen. Two years from now, a new president may still inherit many of problems created or exacerbated by Trump, including a global tariff regime, a protracted war in Iran and fractured alliances. The central challenge for both Republicans and Democrats will be not simply to reconstitute what has been broken, drawing on what worked in the past. Each will need a new vision.

ATTACHMENT FORTY THREE – FROM NEWSWEEK

PRESIDENTIAL POWER RANKING FOR 2028: FRONTRUNNERS ASSESSED AFTER MIDTERMS

By Sam Stevenson. Associate News Editor Nov 04, 2026 at 06:16 AM EST

A Republican defeat in the midterms may have reshaped Congress and elevated a new group of potential presidential contenders. However, it doesn't mean the party is destined to lose the White House in 2028.

"It would be premature to conclude that a Republican wipeout in 2026 would spell disaster for Republicans in 2028," Costas Panagopoulos, a distinguished professor of political science at Northeastern University, told Newsweek in a phone call before the election.

"The evidence for that is inconclusive, and sometimes when a party loses big in the midterm election cycle, they could still come around and remain in power or win the presidency in the following presidential year."

Biggest Polling Misses of the 2026 Midterm Elections

Petition To Replace Hakeem Jeffries Hits 500k As Mark Ruffalo Wades In

Barack Obama won reelection after Democrats lost a net 63 House seats in 2010, while Ronald Reagan secured a landslide second term after Republicans lost 26 House seats in 1982.

The 2026 result has nevertheless changed the arguments available to the politicians most likely to contest the next election.

Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress. By early Wednesday, they had secured the 218 House seats needed for a majority and held 54 Senate seats, a net gain of seven, with several races still unresolved.

Senate victories included contests in Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio and South Carolina, all states that normally favor Republicans.

Senator Jon Ossoff was reelected in Georgia, a state President Donald Trump carried in 2024.

Governors Josh Shapiro and JB Pritzker won new terms in Pennsylvania and Illinois, while Democrats who were not on the ballot used the campaign to test their influence across competitive states.

For Republicans, the result raised a different question: whether anyone can inherit Trump’s coalition without also inheriting responsibility for his administration’s defeats.

Newsweek reached out to every potential 2028 contender mentioned in this article for comment on Wednesday morning via email and website contact form.

What the Midterms Revealed

Panagopoulos said a national wave would require "a significant number of competitive races moving in a similar direction across a diversity of states and districts."

That definition also includes movement in seats that do not change hands.

"Just because Republicans manage to hold on to a seat, for example, does not mean that the vote shares in those districts will not still move in a Democratic direction vis-à-vis 2024 or some previous midterm cycle," Panagopoulos said.

The early results met significant parts of that test. Seven Senate seats moved from Republicans to Democrats, with no Democratic seats changing in the other direction at that stage.

Ballotpedia’s historical measure also identifies a seven-seat loss by the president’s party as the threshold for a Senate wave.

The initial AP Voter Poll, based on approximately 80,000 voters, found that the economy and democracy dominated voters’ concerns, with the cost of living and government corruption weighing heavily.

About seven in 10 voters under 30 backed the Democratic candidate in their local House race, although that group represented only around one in 10 voters.

The survey was conducted by SSRS among registered voters in all 50 states, combining online, telephone and in-person interviews. The national margin of sampling error was plus or minus 0.6 percentage points.

"Larger national issues, perhaps because of their visibility or their impact on voters, appear to have greater influence on their voting decisions than local considerations," Panagopoulos said.

The result therefore gives prospective candidates a test: did they merely benefit from an adverse national environment for Republicans, or did they outperform it in a way that could be reproduced in 2028?

THE DEMOCRATIC SHADOW PRIMARY

The midterms strengthened several possible contenders, but not all victories carried the same weight.

JON OSSOFF

No Democrat gained a more immediate electability argument than Ossoff in Georgia.

He won 59 percent of the vote against 41 percent for GOP Representative Mike Collins, an 18-point margin in a state Trump won by 2.2 points in 2024, according to the latest Associated Press (AP) results.

Ossoff ran on affordability, health care and government accountability.

After winning, he said voters had delivered "sweeping and decisive victories" and rebuked the administration’s "depravity, corruption and incompetence."

The result gives Ossoff evidence of appeal in a Southern presidential battleground.

The Democrat also moved to the top of the early 2028 prediction markets, at 17 percent on Kalshi and 18 percent on Polymarket, at the time of writing. However, market prices are volatile and do not measure voter support.

For now, Ossoff has dismissed talk of a presidential run, saying he has "zero interest."

JOSH SHAPIRO

Shapiro won a second term in Pennsylvania with 60.3 percent against 38.4 percent for Republican Stacy Garrity, with 98 percent of the expected vote counted, according to AP.

The result represented a 23.57-point shift toward Democrats compared with the 2024 presidential contest, according to an NBC News calculation reviewed at the time of writing.

"This is a good night for our commonwealth," Shapiro said. "And it’s looking like it could be a pretty good night for our country, too."

Shapiro can point to executive experience and broad appeal in a presidential battleground.

The reopening of a collapsed section of Interstate 95 in 12 days has become a symbol of his competence-focused message.

His new federal political action committee also represents a concrete step into national politics.

Shapiro entered Election Day with double-digit polling leads and a sizable fundraising advantage, so the margin reflected both his strength and the limits of Garrity’s campaign.

JB PRITZKER

Pritzker won a third Illinois term with 59.8 percent, compared with 36.8 percent for Republican Darren Bailey, according to AP, with 91 percent of the votes counted.

His 23-point margin was substantially larger than his roughly 13-point victory over Bailey in 2022.

The result strengthens Pritzker’s argument that he can build and finance a durable political organization.

But a dominant victory in Democratic Illinois does not carry the same electoral meaning as winning Georgia or Pennsylvania.

His national case will depend on his performance among downstate and working-class voters, and on whether his money and campaigning helped candidates elsewhere.

THE OFF-BALLOT DEMOCRATS

Former Vice President Kamala Harris remains the early polling leader.

The RealClearPolling average through November 1 placed her at 24.2 percent. She was followed by Gavin Newsom at 14.2 percent, Pete Buttigieg at 13.1 percent and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at 11.8 percent.

Ossoff stood at 9.6 percent, Shapiro at 5.5 percent, Andy Beshear at 4 percent and Pritzker at 3 percent.

Those figures measure name recognition and present preferences, not the likely outcome of a primary that is still years away.

Harris campaigned in Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire and Wisconsin, and has not ruled out running again. "I go back and forth. I honestly go back and forth," she said when asked about 2028.

Newsom campaigned in New Hampshire and toured Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Buttigieg undertook a seven-state closing tour, including appearances in Georgia and Michigan.

Ocasio-Cortez campaigned for Democratic candidates in Maine, Michigan, Nevada and California. The strong Democratic performance among younger voters supports part of her generational-change argument.

Beshear campaigned in states including Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin.

His prospective candidacy rests on a different proposition: that a Democrat repeatedly elected in strongly Republican Kentucky could reach voters the national party has struggled to retain.

All five now have to show that their midterm activity generated money, turnout or organization rather than attention alone.

THE REPUBLICAN SUCCESSION CONTEST

"Republicans will need to do some soul-searching after the 2026 midterms about what the party looks like post-Trump and who is best positioned to reflect those shifts, if any," Panagopoulos said.

That question became more urgent after Democratic Senate victories in Texas, Kansas and Iowa. These are results Panagopoulos had said would "spell big trouble for Trump and congressional Republicans."

The implications are greatest for Vice President JD Vance.

The RealClearPolling average placed Vance at 38.6 percent, ahead of Secretary of State Marco Rubio at 26.4 percent, Donald Trump Jr. at 9.8 percent, and Ron DeSantis at 7.5 percent.

At September’s Republican convention in Dallas, supporters chanted "JD 48." Vance responded: "We gotta take care of business this November, and then we’ll worry about what comes next."

Taking care of business proved difficult.

Vance has also acknowledged that he may not run, citing his four children and his wife’s dislike of politics. "Of course, there’s a chance," he said when asked whether he might sit out the race.

Rubio may be somewhat insulated by a foreign-policy role but must show that international prominence can translate into primary support.

Trump Jr. possesses the family name but no government record, while DeSantis must persuade Republican voters to reconsider a candidate they rejected in 2024.

The result does not remove Vance from the leading position. It changes the question facing the entire party: whether Republicans want continuity with Trump, a modified version of his politics or a more significant break.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Midterm and presidential electorates are different, and many occasional voters will return in 2028.

But the first post-2024 evidence is now available.

Ossoff, Shapiro and Pritzker gained stronger records to sell, while Republicans must find a successor who can preserve Trump’s supporters and recover voters who rejected his administration in 2026.

Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.

ATTACHMENT FORTY FOUR – FROM FOX

2028 PRESIDENTIAL CONTENDERS: WHO WILL DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS PICK AFTER MIDTERM ELECTION RESULTS?

By Stephanie Weaver Published November 4, 2026 4:20 PM EST

Democrats have won control of Congress in a widespread repudiation of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, a drubbing that reached deep into reliable GOP territory. Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats in ruby-red states and battlegrounds alike.

The Brief

· Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections, bringing renewed attention to potential 2028 presidential candidates.

· Potential Democratic contenders include Jon Ossoff, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Gavin Newsom, Abdul El-Sayed, Kamala Harris and Josh Shapiro.

· Possible Republican candidates include Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The 2026 midterm elections have altered the balance of power in Washington, with Democrats regaining control of both chambers of Congress and potential 2028 presidential contenders receiving renewed attention.

While the 2028 presidential race is still in its early stages and no major candidates have officially launched campaigns yet, here are several potential contenders who are already attracting attention.

DEMOCRATS

JON OSSOFF

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff is emerging as one of the Democratic Party's most closely watched potential presidential contenders after securing a victory in his Senate re-election bid.

The 39-year-old reportedly won 59% of the vote, further strengthening his standing within the party. His electoral success also fueled speculation about a potential 2028 campaign, with prediction market platform Polymarket placing his chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination at 24%.

Ossoff has gained national attention for his criticism of Trump, whom he described as a "lame duck president" following the midterm results, according to the Washington Post.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., also strengthened her position following a re-election victory.)

The 37-year-old progressive, widely known as AOC, won more than 78% of the vote in New York's 14th Congressional District, with 96% of ballots counted, according to the provided election results. Her success reportedly helped increase her odds of securing the Democratic presidential nomination to 15% on Polymarket.

GAVIN NEWSOM

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has long been considered a potential Democratic presidential contender, with his frequent criticism of Trump and national media presence helping raise his profile.

The 59-year-old governor previously dominated prediction markets, with his odds of becoming the Democratic nominee reportedly reaching 40% in November 2025.

His political future could become clearer following the end of his tenure as California governor. Newsom is term-limited and cannot seek another term in 2026. In September, he said his children would have the final say on whether he pursues a presidential campaign in 2028, according to Politico.

ABDUL EL-SAYED

Abdul El-Sayed is projected to become one of the new voices in the Democratic Party following his victory in Michigan's Senate race. His election will make him the first Muslim senator in U.S. history, marking a historic milestone for the chamber.

n with a progressive platform. His ability to build support beyond the progressive base could influence his prospects in a potential 2028 campaign.

KAMALA HARRIS

Former Vice President Kamala Harris could also seek another opportunity to become president after losing the 2024 election to Trump.

Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee in Aug. 2024 after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race amid mounting concerns about his age and ability to serve another term.

Her campaign was unusual in that she became the party's nominee without competing in the traditional presidential primary process. She had just 107 days to campaign before Election Day.

A potential second campaign would give Harris another opportunity to make her case to voters, although questions about her 2024 loss and the party's future direction could complicate a bid.

JOSH SHAPIRO

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is another Democrat whose name has surfaced in conversations about the next presidential race.

The governor, who won reelection Tuesday, has built a reputation as a pragmatic Democrat in a key battleground state. Shapiro was also considered a potential running mate for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, further raising his national profile.

REPUBLICANS

The Republican Party will also face a major succession question in 2028, as Trump will be constitutionally barred from seeking another term. Several prominent Republicans are already being discussed as potential successors, although none has formally announced a presidential campaign.

JD VANCE

Vice President JD Vance is widely viewed as one of the leading potential Republican candidates for 2028 and a possible heir to Trump's political movement.

A former U.S. senator from Ohio, Vance has become one of the administration's most visible figures since taking office in January 2025. His close alignment with Trump could help him secure support from the president's political base, particularly if Trump ultimately endorses him.

MARCO RUBIO

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is another prominent name being discussed as a possible Republican presidential contender.

The former Florida senator and 2016 presidential candidate has experience in national politics and foreign policy, potentially making him a potential option for Republicans seeking a more traditional conservative candidate.

RON DESANTIS

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could also emerge as a contender for the Republican nomination.

DeSantis previously challenged Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 before suspending his campaign and endorsing the former president.

His experience governing Florida could provide a foundation for another presidential campaign. His second and final term as governor ends in January 2027, giving him time to consider a potential 2028 bid.

What else will be on the ballot in 2028?

Dig deeper:

The 2028 presidential election will also determine the balance of power in Congress.

A total of 34 U.S. Senate seats and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives will be up for election in Nov. 2028. The Senate races will include 19 seats currently held by Republicans and 15 held by Democrats.

ATTACHMENT “A”

AI OVERVIEWS – TAKEAWAYS FROM AUTHORITIES (Persons, Nations, Orgs)

AI Overview - China

Following the 2026 U.S. midterm election results, Chinese President Xi Jinping's administration responded by stating that the elections are an "internal affair of the United States" and that Beijing is "willing to continue working" with Washington. [1, 2]

While President Xi did not issue a highly personalized public statement regarding the Democratic Party winning control of both chambers of Congress, the official stance was delivered on behalf of his government by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning. [1, 2, 3]

AI Overview - Russia

Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, responded to the U.S. midterm elections by stating that Russia "sincerely hopes" President Donald Trump will continue his efforts to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, despite the Democratic sweep in Congress. [1]

Key Remarks and Reactions from Moscow

· Dmitry Peskov (Kremlin Spokesperson): Peskov noted that Trump still exercises his executive powers as president, expressing hope that the political shift in Congress will not disrupt ongoing peace efforts. [1, 2]

· Sergei Ryabkov (Russian Deputy Foreign Minister): Ryabkov minimized expectations of a sudden positive shift, stating that the Democratic leadership's approach to Russia is "sharply negative" and that Moscow harbors "no illusions" that the election results will fundamentally improve bilateral relations. [1]

· Russian State Media and Analysts: State TV channels and pro-war analysts characterized the outcome as a setback for Trump's domestic agenda, while observing that direct negotiations regarding the Ukraine war will ultimately depend on realities on the ground rather than congressional power struggles. [1, 2]

Broader Political Context

· Democratic Congress Control: Democrats won majorities in both chambers of Congress in the November 2026 midterms, giving them greater leverage to challenge Trump's foreign policy, push for stricter sanctions on Moscow, and reanimate security assistance to Ukraine. [1]

· Expert Analysis: Observers like Ian Brzezinski of the Atlantic Council noted that a stronger Democratic Congress constrains Putin's ability to easily maneuver or influence Trump's administration regarding the war in Ukraine. [1]

AI Overview - Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the U.S. midterm elections and the ongoing war, stating that "the world is watching America" and that the election results will heavily impact global security and the future of Ukraine. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Key Remarks and Context

· Uncertainty of U.S. Commitments: Speaking at the Berlin Security Conference alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on November 3, 2026, Zelenskyy remarked that traditional American predictability is "no longer there" and that U.S. commitments have become "deeply uncertain". [1]

· Warning of Russian Attacks: Ahead of the November 4, 2026, elections, Zelenskyy warned on social media that Moscow was preparing a "massive attack" targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure and logistics, assuming the world's attention would be diverted by the U.S. midterms. [1, 2]

· Call for Economic Pressure: Zelenskyy urged the U.S. and its international allies to increase economic pressure on Russia—particularly regarding oil and gas revenues—so that Moscow feels tangible consequences for the war. [1, 2]

· On Trump and Peace: When asked if Donald Trump could still bring an end to the war, Zelenskyy responded that "President Trump is still president," noting that both Putin and Trump "speak the same language," while expressing hope that Trump would focus on achieving a ceasefire after the elections. [1]

For more details on his warnings regarding Russian strikes, see the report by Fox News or The Hill. [1, 2]

AI Overview - Iran

Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei stated in a written statement published on his website that anyone expecting a shift in United States policy following the US midterm elections is "seriously mistaken". [1, 2]

Key Points from Khamenei's Remarks:

· No Policy Shift: Khamenei warned that hoping the behavior of the U.S. "hegemonic system" will change through partisan or factional shifts—or that making concessions to Washington will end its hostility toward Iran—is a grave miscalculation. [1, 2]

· Warning of Wider Retaliation: He cautioned that if the United States resumes attacks against Iran, the scope of the Middle East conflict will become "much wider," adding that Iran's response to renewed aggression would be on a much greater scale. [1, 2]

· Dismissal of Concessions: He maintained that U.S. politics and changes in congressional control do not alter Washington's fundamental stance or the necessity of Iranian resistance. [1, 2]

Full coverage and updates can be followed via Al Jazeera and the Times of Israel Liveblog. [1, 2]

AI Overview - Israel

Following the Democratic sweep in the November 2026 U.S. midterm elections—which delivered major losses to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party—Israeli opposition leaders strongly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arguing that his alignment with Trump has badly damaged Israel's international standing and ties with Washington. [1, 2, 3]

Key Reactions from Israeli Opposition Figures

· Yair Golan (The Democrats): Warned that Netanyahu's alliance with the far-right isolates Israel, alienates U.S. political parties, and risks triggering international sanctions, calling for the immediate formation of a new government. [1, 2]

· Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid): Asserted that the U.S. results and domestic controversies make a Netanyahu-led unity government impossible and endanger national security and democracy. [1]

· Gilad Kariv (The Democrats): Urged Netanyahu to resign, accusing him of wrecking bipartisan support in the United States. [1]

Context Surrounding the Remarks

· U.S. Midterm & Aid Shift: The Democratic takeover of Congress followed President Trump's announcement on Fox News that the U.S. would end its $4 billion annual aid to Israel by late 2026, causing severe anxiety in Israel. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

· Deadlocked Israeli Politics: The backlash compounds fallout from Israel's inconclusive October 27, 2026, general election, where Netanyahu's bloc secured 53 Knesset seats, leaving coalition efforts deadlocked. [1, 2]

AI Overview - France

Following the U.S. midterm elections on November 3, 2026, French President Emmanuel Macron has not issued a direct personal statement, but the French government has strongly welcomed the results.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot praised the projected Democratic victory, calling it "excellent news for American democracy".

The backdrop to France's reaction is deeply tied to tense exchanges between Macron and Donald Trump during the final weeks of the campaign.

Key Remarks and Reactions from France

· The Government's Response: Foreign Minister Barrot addressed the National Assembly, stating, "This is further proof that in a democracy, the people write their own history and that no one, neither algorithms nor private interests, can do it for them." He noted that the results—which effectively place the Trump administration into a period of domestic "cohabitation"—were undeniable.

· Pre-Election Clash Over "Stupid Comments": In late October 2026, Macron publicly slammed Donald Trump and other foreign leaders for "campaigning behind France's back". Trump and JD Vance had used unrelated social unrest and high school protests in France to claim the country was being "invaded", turning it into an immigration talking point to warn American voters. Macron fiercely rejected this, labeling the assertions "as unacceptable as they are stupid" and accusing them of falling for information manipulation.

Domestic Political Impact in France

The outcome of the U.S. midterms has reverberated directly into France's domestic sphere, which is gearing up for its own presidential election. Analysts note that the sharp Republican defeat has unsettled the French far right (led by Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen) while offering a psychological boost to left-wing and centrist coalitions hoping to thwart a nationalist surge in France.

AI Overview - Germany

Following the November 3, 2026, U.S. midterm elections—which resulted in a resounding victory for the Democratic Party—German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed skepticism that the outcome would fundamentally alter U.S. foreign or domestic policy. Speaking on November 4 at an economic forum in Berlin, Merz remarked that he does not expect a major shift in President Donald Trump’s policies because Trump has largely governed by bypassing Congress using executive orders over the past two years, and will likely continue to do so. [1, 2, 3, 4]

Key Remarks and Key Takeaways

· Rule by Decree to Continue: Merz pointed out that the U.S. Constitution grants the presidency immense executive authority. He noted, "Even over the last two years, Trump has largely governed by bypassing Congress. Why should that be any different now?" [1]

· Foreseeable Outcome: The Chancellor stated that the Democratic sweep of both the House of Representatives and the Senate came as no surprise and was largely foreseeable. [1]

· Areas of Likely Impact: While overall executive strategies may hold steady, Merz conceded that the new Democratic majorities are bound to bring changes to budgetary allocations and military planning, given the Congressional "power of the purse". [1]

· Continued Diplomatic Ties: Despite previous friction between Merz and the Trump administration regarding European defense and security, German government spokespersons reiterated that the U.S. remains an indispensable ally and that Berlin will continue close cooperation despite the new constellation in Congress. [1, 2]

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz responded directly to the shift in U.S. legislative power, noting the structural independence of the American executive branch:

AI Overview – U.K.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham stated that the U.S. midterm election results—in which Democrats won control of the House and Senate—present a global opportunity to unite around the cost-of-living crisis and end ongoing conflicts. [1, 2]

Key Points from Burnham's Remarks:

· Cost of Living: Burnham said voters are sending a message that leaders must focus "in a laser-like way" on affordability and the cost-of-living pressures affecting people globally. [1, 2]

· Middle East and Ukraine Conflicts: He noted that domestic cost pressures cannot be fully solved until international crises are addressed, specifically calling for a resolution to the war involving Iran, keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, and working toward de-escalation in Ukraine. [1, 2]

· Trump’s Reaction: Burnham acknowledged that U.S. President Donald Trump accepted the election results and urged international leaders to refocus cooperation on shared economic concerns. [1, 2, 3]

Read more coverage of the reaction on The Hill or follow updates via The Guardian. [1, 2]

AI Overview – France, Le Pen

Following the massive defeat of Donald Trump’s Republican Party in the 2026 US midterm elections, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party has swiftly moved to distance itself from the American president. [1]

While Le Pen herself has kept a lower profile regarding immediate direct comments, the official strategy of her camp—led by RN President and close ally Jordan Bardella—reflects a calculated pivot away from the MAGA movement to protect her frontrunner status in the upcoming 2027 French presidential election. [1, 2]

Key Remarks and Strategy from the Le Pen Camp

· "None of My Business": Jordan Bardella explicitly brushed off the Trump defeat on RTL radio, stating, "What happens in other countries is none of my business," firmly adding, "I am not American". [1]

· Blaming Trump's Foreign Policy: Rather than linking the midterm results to a rejection of populist ideology, the RN leadership blamed the defeat on Donald Trump's external actions. Bardella pointed to the "very serious consequences for the US economy of the American intervention in Iran". RN Vice President Louis Aliot reiterated this on France 2, stating Trump "paid the full price for the Iranian adventure". [1]

· Separation of Agendas: The Le Pen camp is strictly emphasizing that there is "no comparison" between the domestic political atmosphere in France and the political landscape in the United States. They are working to distinguish their platform from Trump’s increasingly aggressive and belligerent foreign policy stance. [1]

Domestic Political Context

The distancing strategy is critical for Marine Le Pen, who is currently leading French presidential polls. While French centrist and left-wing politicians have openly celebrated the US midterm results as a "victory for democracy" that could halt the global populist wave, Le Pen’s campaign remains highly focused on French cost-of-living crises, anti-immigration policies, and recent domestic civil unrest to maintain her momentum. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

AI Overview - Canada

Following the U.S. midterm elections, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government publicly maintained a cautious posture while privately expressing relief over the Republican losses in the House and Senate. [1]

Key Remarks and Reactions

· Trade Talks & Stance: Prime Minister Mark Carney stated that the U.S. administration had already shifted some of its red lines in ongoing trade discussions—asking for less and offering more—though important issues remain. Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc emphasized that the election results do not change Canada's approach to immediate trade negotiations with the White House, noting that the current Congress and Trump administration remain in place until January. [1]

· Private Relief: Behind the scenes, senior government sources indicated that Carney's team felt hopeful and relieved that they did not rush into a trade deal with U.S. President Donald Trump prior to the midterms. [1]

· Pre-Election Context: In the weeks leading up to the vote, Carney firmly rejected U.S. allegations from Ambassador Pete Hoekstra regarding Canadian interference in the midterms, calling the accusations baseless and expressing disappointment in the envoy's comments. [1, 2]

Related Perspectives

· Opposition & Premier Reactions: Ontario Premier Doug Ford welcomed the midterm outcome, while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre urged Carney to leverage the shift in Congress to push for a tariff-free trade deal. Meanwhile, political analysts noted that the Democratic sweep challenged Carney's broader thesis regarding a permanent shift in American politics. [1, 2, 3]

AI Overview - Mexico

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stated that the results of the U.S. midterm elections reflect "a feeling of the American people". [1]

Key Remarks from President Sheinbaum:

· Public Sentiment: She remarked during her morning press conference that the outcome shows the sentiment of U.S. voters, noting that Mexico respects the democratic process and the choices made by the electorate. [1, 2]

· Celebration of Mexican-American Representation: She highlighted the victories of political figures with Mexican roots, specifically pointing to governor-elects Xavier Becerra in California and Gina Hinojosa in Texas, expressing pride in the political participation of Mexican-Americans. [1]

· Bilateral Relations & USMCA: She adopted a diplomatically cautious stance regarding how a Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress will impact trade and negotiations like the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), stating that it is not her place to speculate and that Mexico will continue working with the U.S. government regardless of the shift in power. [1, 2]

AI Overview - Venezuela

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado did not issue direct public remarks analyzing specific congressional seat tallies for the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, as her core focus remains on Venezuela's own democratic transition. [1, 2]

However, in the days leading up to the U.S. midterms—following her dramatic return from exile to Caracas—she made several prominent statements linking the political path of the region to U.S. leadership actions: [1, 2, 3]

· Warning Against Socialism: In a widely circulated pre-midterm message to American voters, Machado urged the public to defend free speech and look closely at Venezuela's history as a cautionary tale against socialist policies. [1]

· Praise for the U.S. Stance: During a high-profile press conference in Caracas, Machado thanked the Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for actions taken on January 3rd to depose Nicolás Maduro, stating it opened a "floodgate to freedom". [1, 2]

· Pushing for 2027 Elections: Machado noted that U.S. foreign policy has laid out a phased sequence aimed at an orderly democratic transition, which she believes will ultimately culminate in free Venezuelan presidential elections in 2027.

AI Overview - Cuba

Cuba-related rhetoric and tensions have become a focal point ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, driven by high-profile clashes at the United Nations and shifting dynamics among Cuban-American voters in Florida:

U.N. Embargo Vote and Diplomatic Clashes

· UN Resolution: On October 28, 2026, the U.N. General Assembly voted 130–17 (with 25 abstentions) to condemn the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba for the 34th year. Support dropped compared to previous years as the Trump administration applied pressure on member states, leading several Western nations (including Germany, Italy, and Latvia) to abstain for the first time. [1, 2]

· Shouting Match at the U.N.: U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla engaged in a heated exchange and shouting match during the session. Ambassador Waltz accused the Cuban regime of forced labor and stripping citizens of property, shouting at the Cuban delegation, "This is America, this is the United Nations, this isn't your communist dictatorship. You cannot silence me". Rodríguez Parrilla called the U.S. stance a "blockade" and a threat to peace, labeling U.S. remarks "uncivilized". [1, 2, 3, 4]

· Trump Administration Statements: President Donald Trump raised the prospect of military pressure or a naval stopover regarding Cuba, drawing sharp regional and domestic focus. [1, 2]

Florida Midterm Politics and Voter Shifts

· Cuban-American Votings Trends: In Florida, where Cuban Americans have historically formed a reliable Republican constituency, recent polling indicates a shifting political landscape. A Florida International University (FIU) poll cited by CEDAW / Cuba News Brief found that only 28% of Cubans in South Florida supported the Republican candidate for Senate, while 44% remained undecided as the midterms approached. [1]

· Backlash Over Immigration & Policy: Reports highlighted by the BBC show that some Cuban-Americans who heavily backed Donald Trump in prior elections feel blindsided or disillusioned by broader mass deportation policies and the administration's hardline economic approach. [1]

· Local Campaign Flashpoints: Domestic campaign debates have also amplified Cuba rhetoric—such as attacks by Rep. Carlos Gimenez and critics targeting Florida Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon over interview remarks regarding Cuba's government and U.S. embargo policies

AI Overview - Greenland

Following Republican losses and setbacks in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections (including notable Democratic gains in Texas), U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the results while deflecting attention toward foreign policy and territorial ambitions. [1, 2]

· Trump's Remark: Amid reports of Republican setbacks, Trump remarked: “Greenland is three times the size of Texas, and we got it,” using the claim to downplay domestic election losses. [1, 2]

· Context & Reality: Trump has previously pushed for the U.S. to acquire or annex Greenland (a semiautonomous territory of Denmark), though Greenland and Danish officials have repeatedly rejected the idea. [1, 2]

· Political Reaction: Critics and political analysts characterized the comment as an attempt to pivot away from a difficult election night for the GOP, which saw Democrats make significant sweeps in Congress. [1, 2]

CELEBRITY CHATTER, U.S.

AI Overview – George Clooney

George Clooney framed the 2026 U.S. midterm elections as a critical opportunity for "checks and balances" to correct what he termed a political "kakistocracy" under the Trump administration. His remarks, delivered primarily during a high-profile press conference at the Venice Film Festival, tied the future of the country to electoral outcomes and expressed optimism that American voters would ultimately steer the country toward political restoration. [1, 2]

Political Commentary and the 2026 Midterms

According to transcripts and media coverage from the festival, Clooney spoke extensively about his views on the state of American governance:

· The "Kakistocracy" Warning: Clooney openly criticized the Trump administration, introducing the term kakistocracy—defined as a government run by the least qualified or least suitable individuals. He stated, "I think maybe we have a kakistocracy right now, but we'll get through it."

· Midterms as a Check: He explicitly pointed to the November 2026 midterm elections as the democratic mechanism needed to provide a critical "check and balance" against the administration's policies and conduct.

· Historical Optimism: Drawing a parallel to the deep domestic turmoil of 1968—which saw widespread urban unrest and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy—Clooney emphasized that the United States has navigated dark chapters before and would "come out better on the other side."

· Looking to 2028: He voiced hope that the post-midterm political environment would lay the groundwork for a full "restoration into some normalcy" by the 2028 presidential cycle. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

On Artificial Intelligence and Media Ownership

In tandem with his election remarks, Clooney participated in panels addressing the intersection of technology, media, and democracy:

· Government Incompetence on AI Regulation: Clooney expressed deep skepticism about allowing Congress to regulate AI, pointing to televised Capitol Hill tech hearings as proof that lawmakers lack the technical literacy to manage it. Citing interactions where elderly senators struggled with basic computer functions, he argued, "These are not the people that you want to entrust the holy grail with."

· The Poisoning of Truth: He warned that AI-generated deepfakes and hallucinations are actively eroding public trust. His core concern was that widespread fake content makes the public eventually dismiss real, verifiable historical events as fake.

· Information Ecosystems: Clooney raised alarms regarding information access, highlighting that the world's wealthiest individuals control major communication channels and platforms like the Washington Post and X (formerly Twitter)

AI Overview – Barack Obama

Former President Barack Obama stated that the 2026 midterm results sent a "clear message" that Americans want a politics of unity and concrete solutions, while also having previously pushed Democrats to prioritize A.I. Oversight and Safety in their policy agenda. [1, 2]

Midterm Election Remarks

· The Message: Obama shared in a statement on X that voters want "a politics that brings people together rather than divides them, and leaders who offer concrete solutions to the challenges they face". [1]

· Democratic Gains: He praised Democratic candidates who won across various regions—including long-shot races like James Talarico in Texas and Troy Jackson in Maine—as Democrats swept control of Congress. [1]

· Next Steps: Obama urged Democrats to use their position over the final two years of the Trump administration to "roll up our sleeves, make changes wherever we have the power to do so, prevent further damage, and lay the groundwork for the future". [1]

A.I. Policy Recommendations

· Prioritizing A.I. Safety: Ahead of the midterms (in September 2026), Obama advised House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to establish a public A.I. framework and urged 2028 presidential candidates to incorporate A.I. safety and economic displacement