2026 Midterm Elections

It's "chaos season" on the campaign trail, and the first serious week of the fall sprint is already a mess for Republicans thanks to their own party leader.

That's the read from the political outlet NOTUS, which declared the arrival of "chaos season" in its Tuesday morning newsletter, noting that September of an election year is when campaigns lock in the message they'll ride into November. For weeks, GOP leaders and candidates had carefully built a data-center-skeptic pitch, echoing voters souring on the sprawling AI projects as roughly three-quarters of Americans now say they'd oppose one in their own community.

MS NOW's Chris Hayes flagged a suspicious episode of tomfoolery in a Democratic primary in Maine, pulled off by Republican dark money — with a deeply ironic twist.

"As Republicans head towards what is currently looking like it could be a shellacking in November ... they are returning to a time-tested playbook," said Hayes. Specifically, he said, that playbook is "unlimited dark money spending."

As the calendar turns to September, the House GOP faces a seismic problem that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has tried to avoid all summer.

On Tuesday, the House is expected to vote on a resolution to censure Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), who has been accused of sexual misconduct, an issue that has plagued Congress, according to a new report by Axios. That puts Johnson in a tough position where his colleagues may risk further damaging their chances of retaining the majority following the 2026 midterms.

A federal judge shut down the Trump administration's latest attempt to fast-track sweeping new mail-in ballot rules just two months before the midterms, accusing the Justice Department of twisting a recent Supreme Court order to suit its own timeline.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani denied motions Monday from the Trump administration and intervening defendants seeking to lift her 14-day stay blocking the U.S. Postal Service's new final rule on mail-in ballots. The rule, published August 26, would require state and local election officials to get USPS sign-off on ballot envelope designs and upload voter information through a federal portal before using the mail for election purposes — all with the November 3 midterms bearing down.

Vice President JD Vance came to Michigan to campaign against Abdul El-Sayed, the former public health official turned Democratic Senate candidate — but El-Sayed had other plans.

At a campaign event on Monday, El-Sayed seized his moment during a press conference to hit back at his rival, former Rep. Mike Rogers, for inviting Vance to campaign with him — triggering stifled laughter from behind him, and an explosive reaction on social media.

Republican campaign committees are scrambling to the Supreme Court in an emergency bid to save the financial edge they'd been counting on to bury Democrats on the airwaves this fall — after a federal appeals court ruling threatened to wipe it out entirely.

According to Politico, the National Republican Congressional Committee and National Republican Senatorial Committee filed an emergency appeal Friday with Chief Justice John Roberts, asking him to immediately block a 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that stripped party committees of the rock-bottom TV advertising rates the law guarantees individual candidates. Without a stay, broadcasters would be free starting Friday to charge national party organizations the same higher rates everyone else pays.

Vice President JD Vance has two campaign stops on his Monday schedule — one to help elect fellow Republicans, the other to smooth over a mess of his own making with "nervous" important donors.

According to Politico Playbook, Vance heads first to a MAGA-hosted event in Metro Detroit, where he's expected to appear alongside 10th District congressional hopeful Mike Bouchard, U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers and Rep. John James, the Republican nominee for Michigan governor. The Michigan trip comes as trade tensions simmer between the Trump administration and neighboring Canada.

Republican senators are increasingly convinced the battle for Senate control will be decided in the Midwest, and that agricultural voters angered by tariffs, fuel costs and beef imports could hand Democrats the majority.

Democrats need a net gain of four seats to flip the chamber, and strategists say that becomes attainable if they capture Republican-held seats in Ohio and Iowa while holding Michigan, then find a fourth seat in North Carolina or a longer-shot state, reported Politico.

Facing a tough election fight in a state battered by President Donald Trump's tariffs and the Iran war, Iowa's Republican nominee for governor is giving his own party a migraine.

According to Politico's Ellie Borst, Republican Zach Lahn has built his gubernatorial campaign around an issue once considered untouchable in GOP politics: taking on the fertilizer, pesticide and farm-chemical industries he blames for contaminating Iowa's drinking water and driving up the state's cancer rates.

President Donald Trump is doing what few politicians would attempt in a hostile midterm environment – making himself impossible to avoid.

Next week he will headline two full nights of the Republican Party's Dallas convention, even as his approval ratings sit at historic lows and Republican House candidates outpace him by six points in national polling. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that his super PAC, MAGA Inc., is preparing ads starring the 80-year-old president and highlighting his record for use in competitive congressional races.

House Republicans have returned to Capitol Hill from their summer break on Monday, and they already want to go home.

According to Politico, GOP lawmakers are gripped by extreme anxiety over November's midterms, openly admitting they need to be back home in their districts doing everything they can to hold onto their seats.

There's an "interesting sign" emerging after the U.S. conducted a new round of strikes against Iran on Sunday that risks spurring America's enemies to act, according to one analyst.

The U.S. launched a series of strikes against two sites on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz where Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps members were staging rocket launchers to attack merchant ships, according to reports. The strikes came just days after President Donald Trump called Iran a "failing nation" in a post on Truth Social.