by Steve Benen | Nov 3, 2026 | 2026 election, elections, Maddowblog
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.
* While Donald Trump has been willing to invest his time in the midterm elections, speaking at a series of campaign rallies, he has been unwilling to invest his money. The Washington Sun reviewed Federal Election Commission records that indicated the incumbent president “hasn’t donated to any candidate committee, national party committee or super PAC during the 2026 election cycle, through Oct. 14.”
“There’s no public indication that Trump, who’s grown significantly richer during his second presidential term, has contributed his own money since then, either.”
This runs counter to claims the Republican made in early September, when he vowed, “I’m going to be making contributions to various campaigns and people that I think are good, Republicans that I think are good, people that I think are going to win, or can win, or are close to winning.”
That said, Trump’s super PAC, called MAGA Inc., has spent heavily in support of Republicans this year, even if the president kept his personal wallet closed for reasons he hasn’t explained.
* Speaking of campaign contributions, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg invested an additional $36 million in support of Democratic candidates in the election cycle’s closing weeks, on top of a previously reported $80 million in donations.
Among the beneficiaries were Keisha Lance Bottoms’ gubernatorial campaign in Georgia, Adam Hamilton’s Senate campaign in Kansas, and, in Texas, James Talarico’s Senate campaign and Gina Hinojosa’s gubernatorial campaign.
* Speaking of Lance Bottoms’ candidacy, the former Atlanta mayor launched an 11th-hour campaign ad from former President Bill Clinton. As Politico reported, “With Clinton’s election eve endorsement, Bottoms has achieved
by Steve Benen | Nov 3, 2026 | 2026 election, elections, Maddowblog
According to Donald Trump’s own version of events, his own team recently encouraged him not to celebrate higher gas prices. The president ignored their advice.
In fact, with just 11 days remaining in the election cycle, the Republican headlined a campaign rally in Georgia, where spent quite a bit of time bragging that oil and gas companies were “making a fortune” as a result of higher prices, so consumers struggling to pay their bills should be glad they’re paying more at the pump.
As for the members of his team who encouraged him not to make such comments, the president added, “I said, ‘I don’t give a damn. I’m going to say it. We’re making a freaking fortune.’”
To a degree, that was true: American consumers are struggling, but Big Oil is not. Last week, The New York Times reported that U.S. war with Iran “has been very lucrative for American oil companies, which have earned more than $130 billion in profit as people pay much higher prices for gasoline, diesel and other fuel.”
Three days after that information reached the public, The Washington Post reported:
Gas prices are set to be the highest for any Election Day in U.S. history Tuesday, as the issue weighs heavily on voters’ minds.
The average gas price as of Monday is $4.17, according to data from AAA. That is roughly 37 cents higher than prices heading into the 2022 midterm election, which held the previous record for an Election Day.
This also applies to diesel, which now costs $6.28 per gallon, which is also the highest average ever on a U.S. Election Day.
I suppose it’s possible that Americans paying these
by Sharon Zhang | Nov 2, 2026 | 2026 election, 2026 Elections, Abdul El-Sayed, Hakeem Jeffries, Haley Stevens, Michigan, Mike Rogers, News
A growing number of House Democrats are calling for Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Michigan) to be expelled from their caucus after she seemingly broke rules in her surprise endorsement of Republican Mike Rogers in the tight Senate race in Michigan on Sunday, marked by some as a “despicable betrayal.” According to Politico, at least eight Democrats were supportive of some form of punishment by…
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by Steve Benen | Nov 2, 2026 | 2026 election, elections, Maddowblog
Politics is a vocation. Some are naturally good at it, others are not, and others still become good at it with practice and experience.
But there’s another group of political practitioners whom I’ve long found fascinating: those who pursue a career in electoral politics and never really learn the necessary skills, largely because they never have to. These are officials who, for example, are conservative Republicans in conservative Republican areas, who fail to learn the art of the job because it is rarely necessary for them to cultivate any real talent to succeed.
That is, until time catches up with them.
Take Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, for example, who has never demonstrated any notable political skills and who apparently told his campaign staff that he wanted to end his 2026 re-election campaign with a response to reporting about how he treated medical patients who couldn’t afford their medical bills.
His aides reportedly told the senator that was a bad idea, at which point the GOP lawmaker apparently ignored them. The New York Times reported:
The senator — without the knowledge of at least some top aides — arranged for his own film crew to record and package just such an ad.
Wearing a red button-down shirt in front of a bucolic background, Mr. Marshall made the case in a 60-second ad that he had often provided free care.
In the straight-to-camera message, the struggling incumbent blamed the mess on a collection agency that he said his former medical practice “occasionally” used.
Pretty strong closing argument ad from Roger Marshall blaming his collection agency for having his former OB/GYN patients arrested.I was barely involved!— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social)
by Steve Benen | Nov 2, 2026 | 2026 election, elections, Maddowblog, White House
Donald Trump’s monthslong crusade against Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed has been ugly in indefensible ways, but at a Friday night rally in Florida, the president pursued a new line of attack against the Michigan Democrat.
In a message delivered to Black voters whom Trump sees as supporters, the Republican said of El-Sayed, “I hope you’re going to vote against him and send him back to where he came from.”
Trump on El-Sayed: I hope you send him back to where he came from. pic.twitter.com/ko7q2rrUf2— Acyn (@Acyn) October 31, 2026
For many years, “go back to where you came from” was the kind of bigoted cliché one might expect to hear from the angry drunk at the end of the bar. In recent years, however, the overt racism has been embraced publicly by the sitting president of the United States.
But the problem isn’t simply the jingoistic nativism. It’s also the fact that El-Sayed isn’t an immigrant. The Democratic Senate candidate was born in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
No one can send El-Sayed “back to where he came from,” because he already lives in Michigan — which is where he came from.
What’s more, if this sounds at all familiar, it’s not your imagination. Six years ago, four progressive Democratic congresswomen — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — voted against a border bill that they deemed too conservative, despite support from Democratic leaders.
Soon after, in an act of performative racism, Trump used his social platform to call on the four progressive lawmakers to “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places
by Felicia Schwartz | Oct 6, 2026 | 2026 election, elections, News, Politics, White House
The Trump administration declined to invite election observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to witness the midterms, blocking monitors from the regional security group for the first time in more than two decades.
Their absence comes as Democrats and election integrity experts have raised concerns about potential election meddling after the Department of Justice announced plans to send its own monitors.
Washington joins only Russia and Belarus in its decision to exclude OSCE observers.
The OSCE called the U.S. decision “regrettable” and Human Rights Watch said the move “fuels fears of serious human rights concerns around the upcoming elections.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told MS NOW the administration’s decision “risks undermining public trust in America’s safe and secure election system.”
“The Trump administration’s decision not to invite international observers to the United States is deeply antithetical to the spirit of freedom, democracy and transparency that defines our elections,” she said, adding that the U.S. should hold “itself to the same standards that we would expect of any other democracy.”
Asked why the U.S. did not invite observers this year, a State Department spokesperson said OSCE “should focus its limited resources on elections where it can have the greatest impact.”
The OSCE has observed every federal election in the U.S. since 2002. OSCE monitors typically visit some polling stations and issue a report about how the elections were conducted, among other activities.
Monitors do not interfere and have no enforcement power, with their access to polling stations decided by each state.
OSCE observers were invited to observe the 2018 midterms during Trump’s first term and more recently
