2026 Midterm Elections

A candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump has withdrawn from his congressional race following a texting scandal with a woman who was not his wife.

Jackson Lahmeyer, a Tulsa megachurch pastor and founder of Pastors for Trump, told people he plans to drop out of Oklahoma's 1st Congressional District Republican primary, NOTUS reporter Reese Gorman reported, citing two sources. The sources cautioned he could still change his mind.

Georgia Republicans have chosen the Trump-endorsed candidate, Congressman Mike Collins, to face off in the Senate contest against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff, rejecting Gov. Brian Kemp's pick of former coach Derek Dooley. But they may come to regret that decision soon, MS NOW's Jen Psaki said on Tuesday's edition of "The Briefing."

"As a member of Congress, Mike Collins has used his social media presence to offend just about everybody he can," said Psaki. Among other things, she noted, "He's posted in support of throwing an immigrant out of a helicopter. He posted in support of a group of counter-protesters harassing a Black protester ... one of whom taunted that Black student with monkey noises. He once endorsed a post from an antisemitic troll who was attacking a reporter for being Jewish."

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) was confronted by reporters on Tuesday about her role in confirming Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at the height of controversy over his allegations of sexual misconduct, with the hindsight of his role in overturning abortion rights for millions of women around the country — and she was unrepentant.

The reason, she explained, is that she also voted to confirm a number of justices who opposed that opinion.

A Georgia Republican voter who showed up early to cast his ballot in Tuesday’s primary admitted that Donald Trump’s endorsement caused him to skip voting in the governor’s race.

Reporting from Marietta, MS NOW’s Nnamdi Egwuonwu shared an interview with a self-identified Republican voter who gave his name as Bank W.

Noah Kai Newkirk, a prominent activist and Democratic congressional candidate from Arizona, filed an official complaint with the state’s attorney general recently alleging that the state of Israel had interfered in the Arizona Democratic primary election using artificial intelligence (AI).

“Just dropped off an official complaint with Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office about the state of Israel’s election interference in our primary election,” Newkirk said in a video he published on social media.

A new national NBC News poll published Sunday spelled trouble for Republicans as the midterm elections approach, with one GOP pollster who helped conduct the survey reacting to the news with concern.

“These are rocky numbers for Republicans,” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff with Public Opinion Strategies, speaking with NBC News, noting that while the numbers boded poorly for the GOP, they were “not catastrophic.”

Ben Domenech, the husband of Meghan McCain and opinion editor at the right-wing Daily Wire, told The New York Times' John Guida in an interview published Friday that the GOP should be a lot more concerned about losing Senate races, and particularly that they are too quick to take the Maine race for granted.

This comes after progressive oysterman and harbormaster Graham Platner sailed to an easy win for the Democratic nomination to take on longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins, overcoming a long series of stories about drama in his life and his unsavory past relationships with women, which the GOP hopes will damage him in the general election.

Florida Democrats got a surprise bit of good news on Friday: they're running unopposed in a heavily Hispanic, Orlando-area state House district currently held by the GOP — because the incumbent Republican failed to file her paperwork properly.

According to Gabrielle Russon of Florida Politics, "Rep. Paula Stark failed to qualify for re-election in House District 47, so Democrats will win back a blue seat they have long sought out."