“Vice President JD Vance ripped Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed as a ‘psychopath’ during a trip to Michigan Tuesday — claiming that the lefty candidate was ‘ashamed’ of the state, is pushing ‘anti-white racial hatred,’ and will likely kill off the local auto industry,” the New York Post reports.
House Democrats Recruit Election Observers
Punchbowl News: “Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, sent a letter to lawmakers this morning, saying that Democrats have ‘recruited a record number of observers this year — over 300 House Democratic staff’ to monitor elections.”
“In the letter, Morelle says that he believes President Donald Trump ‘will continue to try to disrupt this election.'”
Trump Continues Red-State Campaign Push
“President Donald Trump is barnstorming deep-red states across the country to defend GOP majorities in Congress as Democrats make inroads in some unlikely places,” ABC News reports.
“The president has made 19 stops to states he handily won and six to battlegrounds since Sept. 9… Those include three in Texas, two in Ohio, two in Tennessee, and visits to states that for some observers may be surprising: Oklahoma, Kentucky and Alabama.”
Ken Paxton’s ‘October Surprises’ Are Pure Disinformation
“As polls for the Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico remain tight, right-wing influencers, media outlets, and Paxton campaign surrogates have taken their shot at ginning up an ‘October surprise‘ by spreading at least two extraordinary stories aimed to discredit Talarico,” the Texas Observer reports.
“The first was that Talarico, who was taking time off the campaign trail early this month to recover from the flu, had actually checked into a psychiatric hospital in Ohio due to a mental breakdown. The second, which unfolded as early voting kicked off, involved unsolicited text messages and mailers sent to Texan voters regarding resources for transgender youth—a topic that Paxton has said is his best line of political attack and that his campaign’s largest financial backer, Elon Musk, has hammered Talarico on in recent weeks.”
“But both stories turned out to be disinformation, spread maliciously or recklessly in many cases by amateur-ish ‘influencers’ whose shoddy work was easily exposed.”
Flavio Bolsonaro Fled Brazil for U.S.
“Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country for the United States after losing Sunday’s presidential election and refusing to comply with a Supreme Court order to hand over his passports,” NewsNation reports.
Alaska Asks Court to Halt Trump’s Effort to Block Votes
“The State of Alaska has asked a federal court to dismiss a Trump administration lawsuit that seeks to block certification of its Senate race if the Republican incumbent loses by a narrow margin,” the New York Times reports.
“The motion Monday came in response to the Justice Department’s complaint last week arguing that confusion over a candidate on the ballot with a name similar to that of the incumbent Republican, Senator Dan S. Sullivan, could taint the election result.”
Democrats Expand the House Map in Final Week
“The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is committing $15 million to TV ads in 49 House districts in the final week before Election Day, seeking to expand the map in new districts and using its dollars to project confidence about making big gains next Tuesday,” NBC News reports.
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Bernie Sanders Is Suddenly Everywhere
The Atlantic: “Mid-October in an election year is not usually Sanders’s busy season. The Vermont senator last had a tough race in his home state during President Bill Clinton’s first term. And although Sanders can draw a crowd like few other progressive politicians, Democratic candidates typically embrace him during primaries and then stick him on the sideline for the stretch run, when they’re rediscovering their love of capitalism and bipartisanship.”
“This fall, however, Sanders is in far more demand than usual. He’s campaigning for Democrats in some of the most competitive battlegrounds, entrusted not only with juicing turnout on college campuses—his assigned role in earlier years—but with persuading voters in Republican-leaning areas as well. From Maine, Sanders headed to Florida and then on to Texas and Michigan.”
“That Sanders finds himself, a decade after his first run for the presidency, arguably at the peak of his influence is all the more remarkable given that he recently turned 85 and that Democrats have spent the past two years wringing their hands over their party’s gerontocracy.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I got Ilhan Omar, whatever her name is, who’s been talking negative about this country for years. You know, this country probably saved her life. You want to live on the streets of Somalia? Well, she’s going to find out, maybe. She’s going to be living there soon.”
— House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), quoted by Punchbowl News.
Follow the Money
Punchbowl News: “With one week until Election Day, the best way to tell which House races remain super tight is to follow the money.”
“The top six races for ad spending in the final week are in states with very expensive media markets (New York and Florida) or states with Senate and gubernatorial races driving up ad prices (Michigan and North Carolina).”
“But the ad dollars and the party breakdown still tell us a lot about where both parties view the core of the map as Nov. 3 approaches.”
The districts to watch: MI-7, MI-10, NC-1, FL-22, FL-25 and NY-17.
A 28-Year-Old DOGE Operative Gutted USAID
Wired: “Despite the agency’s human resources department saying he hadn’t even been onboarded, Jeremy Lewin oversaw the destruction of USAID. It’s not clear he had the legal authority to do so.”
Katie Hobbs Leads by Double-Digits in Arizona
A new HighGround Public Affairs poll in Arizona finds Katie Hobbs (D) leading Andy Biggs (R) in the governor’s race, 52% to 39%.
Arizona Governor’s Race
Katie Hobbs (D) 52%
Andy Biggs (R) 39%
FBI Raids Mansion as Part of Eric Swalwell Probe
“Federal agents raided a mansion in Beverly Hills Tuesday morning as part of an investigation into former California Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell,” NewsNation reports.
“The search of the mansion comes a few months after the FBI searched Swalwell’s Washington, D.C., home and seized his electronic devices at an airport in San Francisco. In August, video footage captured federal agents surrounding Swalwell at San Francisco’s airport.”
New York Post: Feds raid billionaire’s Beverly Hills mansion as Eric Swalwell probe takes another dramatic twist.
Democrats Call for Independent Epstein Probe
“A group of House Democrats on Monday called for an independent special counsel to investigate President Trump’s ties with the disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, thrusting the issue back into the news in the final week of their party’s push to win control of Congress,” the New York Times reports.
The New Republic: Democrats release 50-page report on Trump’s Epstein files cover-up.
Maine Senate Race Turns Very Personal
“Maine’s battleground Senate race is being roiled by a late burst of Republican ads mocking Democratic nominee Troy Jackson over his relationship with his longtime partner, whom Sen. Susan Collins and GOP allies have said is his second cousin,” CNN reports.
How Ramaswamy Could Sabotage the Ohio GOP
The Downballot: “Vivek Ramaswamy’s disastrous campaign for governor, along with Republican Sen. Jon Husted’s own struggles in his bid for a full term, have given Ohio Democrats reason to hope that they can break the GOP’s 16-year grip on other powerful offices and rebuild their bench in this former swing state.”
“Republicans are defending open seats in four statewide races—attorney general, secretary of state, state auditor, and state treasurer—amid a challenging political climate. These posts, along with the governor and lieutenant governor, are known as the state’s executive offices, and Republicans have controlled all six without interruption since the 2010 GOP wave.”
Democrats Appear to Hold Narrow Senate Edge
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “With a week until Election Day, Democrats seem to have a slight advantage in the battle for the Senate, with Maine and Texas emerging as the likeliest majority-making contests.”
“In the Carolinas, we are making former Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) more of a favorite to win his state’s open-seat Senate race while making Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) less of one. Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) also moves on to the board as Likely Republican, but she is still clearly favored.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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