by Adam Hudacek | Sep 29, 2026 | elections, News
Abdul El-Sayed on Tuesday unveiled a plan to help Michigan’s struggling small farms, making him the latest Democratic Senate hopeful to court farmers as rising costs weaken Republicans’ grip on rural America.
Farmers are under serious financial strain. Diesel prices, pushed up by the war in Iran, hit a record national average of about $6.52 a gallon last week, according to AAA. Fertilizer prices spiked this spring, just as farmers were buying for planting season, as the war bottlenecked the global supply. But even before the war, many farms were on precarious financial footing: Farm bankruptcies surged nearly 46% in 2025 according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, with the heaviest concentration of filings in the Midwest and South, including Georgia, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota.
With the midterms weeks away, Democrats in several Senate races see an opening in farm country, where their party has long struggled. Trump won 69% of rural voters in 2024, according to data from the Pew Research Center. But a recent KFF/Associated Press survey showed that 57% of rural voters — including 27% of rural Republicans — disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy.
El-Sayed, who faces Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers, rolled out the plan as part of a broader platform that also covers food and water safety. The campaign pieced it together with input from family farmers and members of the Michigan Farmers Union, a source familiar with the campaign told MS NOW, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.
“Family farmers are feeling the pinch from Trump’s price hikes as much as anyone, and they are a key part of the coalition that will
by Dion Nissenbaum | Sep 28, 2026 | 2026 election, 2026 Elections, 2026 midterms, Department of Homeland Security, DHS, Disenfranchisement, elections, midterms, News, SAVE database, Supreme Court, Texas, Trump Administration, Voting Rights
The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for election officials to resume using a federal immigration status verification system to check voter rolls for potential noncitizens — a significant victory for President Donald Trump’s administration, but one that’s likely to have little impact on the November midterm elections. The unsigned opinion hit pause on a lower court’s ruling from June…
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by Jake Johnson | Sep 28, 2026 | Article, elections, midterms, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint, Trump, Voting Rights
by Steve Benen | Sep 28, 2026 | 2026 election, elections, Maddowblog, White House
Plenty of Republican officials and candidates have recently overhauled their websites to remove references and images of Donald Trump, but when Rep. Byron Donalds did the same thing, it was a harsh reminder of how just how far the president had fallen.
The Florida congressman, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, has been a sycophantic, election-denying Trump loyalist and surrogate in recent years, tying his fortunes directly to his unapologetic embrace of the president. But as Donalds’ gubernatorial campaign in the Sunshine State reaches the homestretch, he and his team nevertheless thought it would be a good idea to start scrubbing his website.
The changes were hardly subtle. The campaign website used to be filled with references to the incumbent president. The Miami Herald reported, “A button to ‘Chip in to Support Trump Endorsed Byron Donalds’ was at the top of the homepage. ‘TRUMP-ENDORSED Proven Conservative Fighter. BYRON DONALDS’ was the page’s main text. A yellow banner reading ‘ENDORSED BY PRESIDENT TRUMP!’ marked the middle of the homepage and a prominent section quoting Trump’s 2025 endorsement said ‘RUN, BYRON, RUN!’”
Recently, all of these Trump references have been removed, as was a photo of Donalds and his wife, Erika Donalds, posing with Trump.
The president doesn’t appear to be taking it well. On Saturday, Trump responded to the edits to Donalds’ campaign site with a lengthy, 459-word tirade on his social media platform. It read in part:
Another Fake Story is that a very close friend of mine, a man I endorsed very early, Byron Donalds, is taking me off his website and Campaign materials. … The story started with the Woke and
by Steve Benen | Sep 28, 2026 | 2026 election, elections, Maddowblog, White House
Federal laws related to taxpayer-funded electioneering does not offer much in the way of wiggle room. As The Washington Post reported, it is illegal under federal law to use public funds for “propaganda purposes,” and the Government Accountability Office has said the prohibition applies to communications that are “purely partisan” and/or “designed to aid a political party or candidates.”
With this in mind, Donald Trump and his team launched an unusually brazen gambit last week, using taxpayer money to air a 30-second ad, which looked like a campaign commercial because it was: The spot, launched as the early voting window starts to open in earnest, was filled with images and video clips of Trump and his campaign slogans. It concluded with a Trump ally praising the president’s “toughness.”
The ad served no purpose other than to celebrate and glorify the president, who’s eager to run election-season ads intended to generate enthusiasm among core Republican voters.
The White House characterized the commercial as a “public service announcement,” which was every bit as ridiculous as it sounded.
What we didn’t know at the time was that the taxpayer-funded propaganda would be part of a series. As last week neared its end, the Republican administration released a second ad, also financed by the public, touting recent Trump speeches in which he heralded the national status quo as “the golden age of America.”
The third such ad, however, abandons all pretenses.
absolutely demented. like a scene from a horror movie— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-09-27T15:21:23.979Z
As part of his 2024 presidential election campaign, Trump and his team aired an odd black-and-white ad, featuring the candidate walking down a hallway in slow motion.
by Amy Fried | Sep 28, 2026 | Congress, elections, Opinion
Three months ago, Troy Jackson’s hopes of political success seemed dashed, as the former state senator finished third in the Maine Democratic gubernatorial primary. But then came a reversal of fortune so rapid that, if it were a script, Hollywood would reject it as too fanciful. After Graham Platner’s sudden fall, Jackson became the party’s standard-bearer for the U.S. Senate, facing the difficult task of beating Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Now a new poll has provided a reality check. The latest New York Times/Siena survey shows Collins ahead (though within the margin of error), 49%-46%. With control of the Senate in the balance, the poll set off alarm bells among Democrats hoping the upper chamber will be a check on President Donald Trump. But the president’s opponents shouldn’t panic. Other surveys, including two released the same day, show Jackson leading or tied. And regardless of what the polls say on any given day, any race involving Collins was always going to be a true toss-up right till the end.
Collins’ attacks have come fast and furious, and her side has a considerable cash advantage.
In each of her five previous Senate races, Collins has won with ticket-splitting voters who like and respect her. Six years ago, as Joe Biden was beating Trump 53%-44%, Collins prevailed over Democrat Sara Gideon, 51%-42%.
The Times survey shows a similar dynamic: Trump’s approval rating is just 32%, and 55% of the respondents want Democrats to control the Senate. Yet Collins is leading.
Collins’ campaigns include four elements: relentlessly attacking her opponents; responding to criticism with outrage and protestations about its unfairness; insisting that she’s bipartisan and centrist; and touting
