Stories

Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Tag: 2026 Midterms ✕

Sep 29, 2026

Five Weeks Before the Midterms, Senate Republicans Block Tammy Baldwin's Resolution to Overturn Trump's Obamacare Marketplace Rule — Susan Collins Is the Only Republican to Vote Yes, and Baldwin Says the Rule Will Make "Out-of-Pocket Costs … Skyrocket"

On Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, the Senate rejected a motion to proceed to S.J.Res. 197, Sen. Tammy Baldwin's (D-Wis.) Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn a Trump administration rule governing the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. The vote was 48-51 on the Senate floor record (some outlets reported 48-50); Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the only Republican to vote with Democrats. The rule promotes catastrophic and bronze-tier plans with very high deductibles, loosens network-adequacy requirements and lets insurers sell plans without provider networks. Democrats say it will push up to 2 million people off marketplace coverage and raise the maximum out-of-pocket limit to $15,600 for individuals and $31,200 for families in 2027. The vote was one of the Senate's last before members leave to campaign.

“We know that everything this administration is trying to do is to gut people's opportunity to get quality, affordable healthcare.”
Ron Wyden (D-OR) · Sep 29, 2026

Sep 13, 2026· Updated

Trump Closes the Republican Midterm Convention by Having Thousands Raise Their Right Hands and Swear an Oath to Him — "I Pledge to the Greatest President in the History of the United States … I Don't Care if I'm Registered or Not, I'm Going to Try and Cheat Like Hell Like They Do"

Closing the first Republican midterm convention in modern history at the American Airlines Center in Dallas on the night of Sept. 10, 2026, President Trump asked the crowd to raise their right hands and repeat after him. What they repeated was not the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag but a pledge to Trump personally — "I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States. That loves us so much he can't even breathe" — followed by a vow to vote on Nov. 3 "any way — I don't care if I'm registered or not," and the line "I'm going to try to cheat like hell like they do." The crowd laughed, repeated it, and finished with "So help me God." Trump framed the cheating line as a jab at Democrats, whom he baselessly called the biggest cheaters in American elections. Earlier in the same passage he told the room, "You know what happens if you don't vote? You go to hell, you know that." Voting when not registered is a federal crime, and the pledge came a night after Trump promised every adult citizen a $5,000 "dividend" if Republicans hold the House and Senate — a promise Democrats had already called a bribe. California Gov. Gavin Newsom answered that Trump "just replaced the Pledge of Allegiance with a pledge of allegiance to himself." Congress was out of session for the 9/11 anniversary weekend, and as of Sept. 12 no Republican member of Congress had publicly defended or criticized the pledge on the record.

“I pledge my allegiance to my constituents, which I always have. … The truth is that the president and I don't always agree. And that's OK.”
Michael Lawler (R-NY) · Sep 13, 2026

Republican Midterm Convention

2026 Midterms

Election Integrity

4 statements

Sep 12, 2026· Updated

Jimmy Kimmel Keeps His Interview With Texas Senate Nominee James Talarico Off ABC and Puts It on YouTube Instead, Saying Trump's FCC "Has Threatened Me, Threatened Our Show, Threatened Our Network" — the FCC's Lone Democrat Calls It Proof the "Campaign of Censorship and Control" Is Working, and the White House Says Kimmel Is "Play-Acting"

On Wednesday night, Sept. 9, 2026, Jimmy Kimmel told his ABC audience that his interview with James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, would not air on television. "For the whole 20-plus years of our show, in fact, I've been interviewing Americans who are running for office with no problem at all," Kimmel said. "Now that he's president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations." The conversation was posted to the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" YouTube channel on Thursday, Sept. 10, and drew more than two million views within half a day. The pressure Kimmel described is the equal-time rule. In January, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr issued guidance saying daytime and late-night talk shows may not be exempt from the requirement that broadcasters offer comparable airtime to every qualified candidate for an office — in this case Talarico's Republican opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. YouTube does not use the public airwaves and is not covered by the rule. The Kimmel episode repeats what happened in February, when CBS kept Talarico's interview with Stephen Colbert off the air over the same concern, and comes three weeks after ABC and Disney sued the FCC alleging First Amendment retaliation. Talarico called the pressure "the most dangerous form of cancel culture" and told Kimmel his opponents are "worried that we're going to win this race in Texas." Anna Gomez, the only Democrat on the FCC, said the decision "shows just how far this Administration's campaign of censorship and control has gone." The White House answered through assistant press secretary Davis Ingle that "Chairman Carr has not threatened him regarding interviewing James Talarico, or any other candidate." Carr himself had not commented. Kimmel used the episode to invite Paxton on the show; Paxton's campaign said "no Texan wants to watch James Talarico and two of his fellow far-left activists posing as moderators."

“He's just running the same hoax he did a few months ago on Colbert for the purpose of getting clicks and donations. … He's banking on people not understanding the statute or operating as partisan lemmings.”
Brendan Carr (R) · Sep 12, 2026

The Justice Department Orders 29 States and D.C. to Keep Their 2024 Election Records — and Tells Two Chief Election Officers, One Republican and One Democrat, That They Are "Under Investigation" — Utah's Lieutenant Governor Says "I'm Not Going to Be Intimidated Into Compliance"

In letters dated Sept. 4, 2026, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division directed election officials in 29 states and the District of Columbia to impose a litigation hold and preserve their 2024 election records past the 22-month federal retention window, warning that a "failure to preserve relevant data may constitute spoliation of evidence" that could bring "civil and criminal sanctions." The recipients are the jurisdictions the administration has sued for unredacted statewide voter registration lists containing dates of birth, driver's license numbers and partial Social Security numbers — suits in which, the New York Times reported, the department has lost 23 cases and won none. The letters, signed by Eric Neff, acting chief of the Voting Section, also told at least two chief election officers that they were personally "under investigation": Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican, and Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, a Democrat, whose office had already received seven voter-related subpoenas over three months. Both said the letters were the first they had heard of any investigation. Henderson's office has said a review of Utah's 2.1 million registered voters found 27 noncitizens, none of whom had ever voted. Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon answered that the letters are "standard litigation practice, not a 'threat.'" The Arizona and Minnesota secretaries of state said through spokespeople that they would comply, with Arizona's office calling any implication that it was not following the law "disrespectful." The letters arrived eight weeks before the Nov. 3 midterms.

“I'm not going to be intimidated into compliance with something I don't believe is right.”
Deidre Henderson (R-UT) · Sep 11, 2026

Ted Cruz Tells the Republican Midterm Convention America Faces a "Red-Green Alliance" and That Islam "Produces Murder and Oppression" — and as He Names Mamdani, El-Sayed and Talarico From the Stage, Someone in the Dallas Crowd Shouts "He Should Be Shot"

On the final night of the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Sept. 10, 2026, Sen. Ted Cruz built a speech around what he called "a new and dangerous red-green alliance. Communists and Islamists coming together." He said "Sharia law has no place in America. Sharia law is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution, and we need to stand together and stop it now," and said Islam "produces murder and oppression." He named three Democratic candidates from the stage: New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and Texas Senate nominee James Talarico. As he did, a voice in the American Airlines Center crowd shouted "He should be shot." Cruz's charge against El-Sayed traces to a 2009 New York Times interview in which El-Sayed, then a medical student, described an "obligation" to comply with Sharia in financing his first home — a reference to an Islamic prohibition on interest, not to civil law. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott followed with a pledge to "fully ban Sharia law" in Texas, a law that has no legal force in the United States. Vice President JD Vance, delivering the keynote, said the Democratic Party would attack him for so much as questioning Sharia. El-Sayed responded the next night on CNN that the shout was now unremarkable: "This is what has become the norm in our politics." Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan said threats of political violence "have no place in our democracy," and the Council on American-Islamic Relations said leaders have "a responsibility to forcefully reject incitement to violence, racism, and bigotry."

“Political violence is a big problem. Rather than egging on, real leaders call it out.”
Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-MI) · Sep 11, 2026

Republican Midterm Convention

2026 Midterms

Political Violence

8 statements