by Allison Detzel | Nov 2, 2026 | elections, News
Ali Vitali, MS NOW’s senior Capitol Hill reporter and host of “Way Too Early,” joined “Morning Joe” at the big board on Monday to break down the fight for control of the U.S. Senate, mapping out what a “dream night” for Democrats could look, like as well as the possibility of a 50-50 split.
Vitali began by sharing MS NOW’s Senate race ratings, which put Michigan, Maine, Ohio, Alaska and Texas in the toss-up column. She also pointed to the “elasticity” of races in usually ruby-red states such as South Carolina, Kansas and Iowa, which are rated only “lean Republican.”
“The idea that these are only lean Republican tells the story of testing just how much this rubber band can actually stretch or not,” she said.
Vitali said the increasingly competitive playing field ahead of Tuesday’s midterms reflects a “mood shift” for Democrats, “who, back in January of 2025, really did not love the look of this map.” She gamed out how the party could take back the Senate with a “watershed” performance in the toss-up states.
She also described a “dream night” for Democrats, explaining how a string of wins in states where Republican leads have narrowed in recent weeks could give the party a 56-seat majority. “Truly Democrats’ wildest dreams,” she said.
But the “Way Too Early” host pointed to potential hurdles for Democrats, including in Maine, where Republican Sen. Susan Collins has shown what Vitali described as “resilience over the course of the last several election cycles.”
“This is one where Democrats I talked to think that the atmospherics might be enough, but she’s someone who outperformed Trump at the top of the
by Hannah Holland | Nov 2, 2026 | elections, Events & Experiences
This midterm election has the potential to be one of the most consequential political events of the past decade, and the MS NOW newsroom is ready. Producers are finishing rundowns, reporters are talking to voters from Alaska to Maine to Texas, and our Membership team is primed to debut innovative methods that will enable interested Americans to participate in our coverage.
Read on to learn how you can join us to watch MS NOW’s live “We the People 2026” elections coverage, both on television and online, and participate in our exclusive, interactive Membership experiences.
How do I watch MS NOW?
Our wall-to-wall midterms coverage begins Monday, Nov. 2. Viewers can watch MS NOW across all major cable providers, including Verizon Fios, Xfinity/Comcast, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice, DIRECTV, DISH, Contour TV/Cox and others. Cable users can also log in through connected TV devices as well.
No cable subscription? You’re still covered. With the MS NOW Membership, you can stream live TV on the MS NOW app and on the website at ms.now/live. New for the first time this midterm election, MS NOW Members can also watch our 24/7 live linear feed on a TV across major platforms, including Roku, Apple TV, Samsung, Google TV and Amazon Fire TV.
What time does MS NOW’s elections special begin?
On Tuesday, Nov. 3, you can expect special “We the People” editions of MS NOW’s regular programming from “Morning Joe” through “Deadline: White House,” with primetime election coverage kicking off at 6 p.m. ET.
Our very own Rachel Maddow will lead primetime coverage alongside Chris Hayes, Jen Psaki, Lawrence O’Donnell, Michael Steele, Symone Sanders Townsend, Ari Melber, Peter Alexander and Stephanie Ruhle,
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 Alecia Taylor | Nov 2, 2026 | elections, Gerrymandering, Kansas City, Missouri, News, Voting Rights
On the weekends, Terri Craddock-Moore religiously reads her local newspaper, trying to keep up with what’s happening in her district. She has spent the past few months watching the back-and-forth over Missouri’s new Republican-drawn congressional map and the fallout in U.S. Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver II’s 5th District. While she felt clear about her choices after studying voting guides…
Source
by Theia Chatelle | Nov 2, 2026 | Article, elections, Israel, Palestine, Politics and Movements: International, Reprint
This article was originally published by Truthout on Oct. 28, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
Jaffa, Israel — Outside of Ahva Elementary School in Ajami, a historic Palestinian neighborhood just south of central Tel Aviv, the mood was defiant on October 27, the day of Israel’s national elections. “We fear that if we do not get this government out of power, we will lose everything,” one Palestinian voter told me after casting her ballot.
It came as no surprise that she, like most of the Palestinian citizens of Israel I interviewed on Election Day, asked not to be named. Since October 7, 2023, more than 400 Palestinian citizens of Israel have been investigated by police for “incitement,” often over social media posts, according to the legal rights group Adalah.
During the 1948 war, which Palestinians call the Nakba, most of Jaffa’s nearly 100,000 Palestinian residents fled or were expelled. The fewer than 4,000 who remained were concentrated in Ajami, fenced in with barbed wire, where they lived under Israeli military rule until 1949.
Just weeks ago, it was not clear that the parties most Palestinian citizens of Israel vote for would even appear on the ballot. In September, Israel’s Central Elections Committee, a body of party representatives, voted to disqualify both Arab parties — which are led by and draw most of their votes from Palestinian citizens of Israel — from running in the election. The Joint List is an alliance of three parties running together to clear the 3.25 percent threshold needed to enter the Knesset.
Hadash, a left-wing party with roots in Israel’s Communist Party,
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
