The Atlantic: “Trump’s war in Iran has appeared to throttle Republicans’ chances in the midterms; the unending conflict, and the resulting surge in oil and gas prices, has eroded the GOP’s poll numbers and fueled Democrats’ hopes of taking both chambers of Congress.” “Stymied in his efforts to bring that war to a close, Trump […]

“Troy Jackson knows he wasn’t Maine Democrats’ first choice to challenge incumbent Sen. Susan Collins. And he knows he isn’t the most charismatic candidate to grace a Senate ballot,” the Washington Post reports. “But the Democratic nominee in one of the country’s highest-profile races also knows that may not matter.” “As Jackson’s contentious contest with […]

David Frum: “The budget deficit for the fiscal year that ended on September 30 is about $2 trillion, or about $160 billion more than in Joe Biden’s last complete year as president. Next year’s deficit is likely to be even bigger. When Trump spoke of eliminating the national debt, total debt stood at nearly $35 […]

“I think there are a lot of races right now just looking at the polling that are up for grabs. I mean you could call them jump balls, however you want to say it. They’re margin of error races, and there are some that are maybe a little out of the margin. But I do […]

Mother Jones: “The guy who tried and failed to catch Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed with a gotcha question about his supposed loyalty to the Muslim Brotherhood is reportedly the son of a Republican strategist who received $250,000 last month to campaign against El-Sayed.”

“Peggy Flanagan said she ‘graduated Phi Beta Kappa’ while arguing a decade ago for legislation to encourage greater teacher diversity in Minnesota’s public schools,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Now the state’s lieutenant governor and Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, Flanagan was a Minnesota House member when she said college teaching diversity transformed her from a […]

A new American Research Group poll finds Donald Trump’s approval at 29%, while 67% disapprove. Trump Approval Approve 29%   Disapprove 67%   American Research Group poll · adults · ±3%

Bloomberg: “Men between 18 and 30 years of age who are determined to vote now say they prefer a generic Democratic congressional candidate to a GOP alternative by a 57%-40% margin, according to a Cygnal poll released late last month. And only a third of respondents said they were extremely determined to vote in the […]

A new Emerson College Polling poll in California finds Xavier Becerra (D) leading Steve Hilton (R) in the governor’s race, 60% to 33%. California Governor’s Race Xavier Becerra (D) 60%   Steve Hilton (R) 33%   Emerson College Polling poll · likely voters · ±3%

“The Trump administration is spending at least $343,100 on video cameras to monitor several of President Donald Trump’s construction projects, federal records show, after the president falsely accused ‘vandals’ of causing the widespread damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool,” the Washington Post reports.

“Brad Lander, an ally of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani who is a Democratic candidate for the ​U.S. Congress, was among 90 volunteers detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank ‌on Wednesday,” Reuters reports.

“The Pentagon has given the Department of Homeland Security permission to test a military-grade heat ray and develop tactics to potentially use it in operations at the southern U.S. border,” CNN reports. “The heat ray, officially known as the Active Denial System, is a nonlethal weapon that shoots an invisible beam of electromagnetic waves that […]

“For Democrat Scott Colom, his quest to win a U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi is a long shot but not a lost cause,” CNN reports. “The 43-year-old local district attorney is hoping to topple Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in a deep-red state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the chamber in nearly four decades or […]

Doug Sosnik: “President Trump is calling on Americans to cast their vote as if he were ‘on the ballot.’ With less than two weeks before the election, it appears that voters will do exactly that.” “The political environment continues to deteriorate for the GOP. Over the past month, Republicans have abandoned congressional races once considered […]

“President Trump boasted this weekend of his growing power in his second term – and all the things he’s doing now that he wouldn’t dare in his first term, such as changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” NPR reports. Said Trump: “I don’t think I could have done […]

“This may prove to be the most memorable ad of the entire election cycle. It is devastating. But I would’ve held it until the final weekend of the campaign. With this much time before the election, I fully expect the Democrats to have an equally devastating response.” — Republican pollster Frank Luntz, quoted by Politico, […]

“Praising President Vladimir Putin as a ‘humanitarian,’ the Trump administration envoy Steve Witkoff on Wednesday thanked the Russian leader in St. Petersburg for releasing an American man held for over four years on what the State Department called fabricated charges,” the New York Times reports.

The gusher of polling this time of year can be overwhelming — so don’t forget to check the Polling Dashboard for the latest in all the key races.

“One of the biggest political shifts in the last presidential election is now swinging back against Donald Trump and the GOP — and it could cost them in some of the country’s most critical races,” Bloomberg reports. “Latino voters have recoiled against the president this year after giving him surprising levels of support two years […]

Paul Krugman: “Rising prices are the obvious explanation for this stress. And while presidents usually have much less influence on the economy than is generally recognized, the current outbreak of high inflation is all on Donald Trump. He began this with two wars of choice: one, a trade war with his destructive tariffs, and then […]

“President Trump called for companies that build large data centers in the U.S. to make their own electricity and suggested they pay communities a dividend when constructing new facilities to blunt local opposition,” the Wall Street Journal reports. Said Trump: “New and large, in some cases gigantic, data centers are mandated by me to make […]

“Ohio’s bitter governor’s race got even uglier Tuesday when an attack ad surfaced featuring Democratic nominee Amy Acton’s long-estranged mother calling her daughter ‘a liar,’ prompting Acton’s brother to accuse Acton’s Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, of turning childhood rape ‘into a political talking point,'” the Washington Post reports. “The 60-second video by Acton’s mother, Donna […]

“French President Emmanuel Macron said recent riots are being used abroad for political purposes, accusing foreign leaders of disliking France,” Bloomberg reports. Said Macron: “There is no visible foreign interference in the events that took place, but there has been foreign manipulation of information in the aftermath.” “Without naming them, Macron suggested that President Donald […]

A new Marist poll in Michigan finds Abdul El-Sayed (D) leading Mike Rogers (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 50% to 48%. Michigan Senate Race Abdul El-Sayed (D) 50%   Mike Rogers (R) 48%   Marist poll · likely voters · ±4.3% The same poll in Michigan finds Jocelyn Benson (D) leading John James (R) […]

“If we don’t win, there’s no money. If we do win, you’re getting it.” — President Trump, quoted by the Raleigh News & Observer, making promises of cash payouts of supporters in North Carolina.

A new Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll finds Democrats leading Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, 54% to 42%. Generic Congressional Ballot Democrats 54%   Republicans 42%   Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll · likely voters

Playbook: “Two weeks from Election Day, Republicans are looking — and sounding — increasingly desperate.” “JD Vance is making jokes insinuating Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico is gay. President Donald Trump and Michigan Republican Mike Rogers are labeling Democrat Abdul El-Sayed as a ‘jihadist.’ And GOP groups are pouring millions into misleading ads accusing Sherrod […]

A new University of North Florida poll in Florida finds Byron Donalds (R) leading David Jolly (D) in the governor’s race, 49% to 47%. Florida Governor’s Race Byron Donalds (R) 49%   David Jolly (D) 47%   University of North Florida poll · likely voters · ±2.81% The same poll in Florida finds Ashley Moody […]

“A majority of Americans say artificial intelligence is a bad thing for society and about two-thirds oppose the construction of new data centers in the U.S., with opposition even higher to building data centers in people’s own communities,” according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll. “The poll finds that a 57% majority of Americans say […]

A new The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/University of Georgia poll in Georgia finds Jon Ossoff (D) leading Mike Collins (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 48% to 40%. Georgia Senate Race Jon Ossoff (D) 48%   Mike Collins (R) 40%   The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/University of Georgia poll · likely voters · ±3.1%