Campaigns

Trump Shrugs Off the Rape Charges Central to Amy Acton Ad Controversy

Andrea Padilla — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 17:05:30 GMT

Trump’s interaction with an NBC News reporter who asked about the ad on Friday turned hostile, with the president telling her to be “quiet” and calling her a “horrible little reporter.” (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

President Donald Trump continued to defend Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad that featured the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, telling reporters he didn’t know “anything” about the stepfather who was accused of sexually abusing Acton when she was a child.

“I know that recently a mother got on television and said that her daughter should not be governor of Ohio,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Friday. “And she said, 'I love my daughter, but my daughter lies all the time.’ … This has nothing to do with the stepfather or anything else.”

Ramaswamy’s campaign released a divisive ad on Tuesday featuring Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, who called her daughter a liar and urged Ohioans not to vote for her.

Acton said the pair has been estranged for more than 40 years: She was removed from her mother’s custody at 12 after her stepfather was arrested and charged with raping Acton. Donna Arthur stayed with the stepfather even after the allegations.

The president told a rally crowd in Iowa on Thursday that Ramawamy had come to him for advice, and that he told the gubernatorial candidate to stand by his message.

“I told him, ‘Leave it up,’” Trump said Thursday. “And look upstairs and say, ‘Thank you, God, very much — I appreciate it!’”

Trump’s interaction with an NBC News reporter who asked about the ad on Friday turned hostile, with the president telling her to be “quiet” and calling her a “horrible little reporter.”

Ramaswamy also defended the ad, repeating Trump’s claims that it had nothing to do with sexual abuse.

“We ran an ad about lying. Amy Acton is lying,” Ramaswamy told NBC News on Friday. “It had nothing to do with childhood abuse, which I will be the No. 1 governor to prosecute when I am the governor of this state because it is wrong.”

Trump Administration Lays Out a Path to Challenge Alaska’s Senate Results

Manuela Silva — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:02:28 GMT

Sen. Dan Sullivan speaks at a campaign rally in Wasilla, Alaska. (Lindsey Wasson/AP)

The federal government sued Alaska elections officials this week as part of an attempt to preemptively line up a challenge to the results should Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan lose his race.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, centers around the claim that a second candidate who shares a name with incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan is only running “for the purpose of confusing or misleading voters and compromising the fairness of the ballot,” according to the filing.

The race is currently one of the most competitive in the country and has the potential to swing the balance of power in Congress’ upper chamber.

The case, filed less than two weeks before Election Day, is before Judge Sharon L. Gleason, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.

The second Dan Sullivan — who will appear as Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. on the ballot — filed to run three days before the filing deadline. The Trump administration’s lawsuit makes the case that if the incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, an investigation should be carried out determining whether voters were confused about which Sullivan they were voting for before certifying any election results.

“It is vital that Defendants not certify any election result that may be impacted by voter confusion,” lawyers for the Department of Justice wrote in the filing. “An election may be impacted by voter confusion if: (1) Senator Sullivan does not win the election; and (2) had all votes cast for Daniel J. Sullivan been cast instead for Senator Sulivan and Alaska’s ranked-choice process played out accordingly, Senator Sullivan would have won the election.”

Previous efforts by the Alaska Division of Elections and the state Republican Party to prevent the new Sullivan from running against the incumbent senator failed earlier this year when the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that both Sullivans could remain on the ballot.

On Thursday, Attorney General Todd Blanche refused to rule out the possibility that his department would intervene in states’ independent processes for certifying their midterm elections, saying extreme scenarios could prompt federal intervention.

In a Truth Social post earlier this week, President Donald Trump said his administration was looking at “powerful legal options to remove the fraudulent Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. from the ballot.”

“I am very concerned about the Dan S. Sullivan Race for the U.S. Senate in Alaska in that it is totally confusing,” Trump wrote in the post.

Democrats Warn the Economy — Not Impeachment — Should Drive Agenda

Igor Bobic, Stephen Neukam — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 14:56:06 GMT

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are developing an agenda in the event that Democrats win majorities in the Senate and House. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP)

Democrats are preparing a broad oversight agenda if the party sweeps control of one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, signaling investigations of President Donald Trump, his family, his aides and top Republican donors amid a string of reports of corruption in Washington.

But Democratic operatives are warning lawmakers not to lose sight of what polls show the November election is really about: inflation and the high costs of consumer goods, fuel and health care. Americans are deeply dissatisfied with Trump’s economy — nearly 70% of likely voters disapprove of the president’s handling of the cost of living, according to a New York Times/Siena poll released on Wednesday. This economic discontent has positioned Democrats to flip seats, even in traditionally red areas, in November.

While voters also rank corruption near the top of their list of concerns, it is the bread and butter issues that should be the Democrats’ driving force as they plot an agenda for the next Congress, these operatives told The Washington Sun.

“Costs are number one, two, three, four and five,” said Lanae Erickson, senior vice president at the center-left think tank Third Way. “I would hope that House Democrats keep their eye on that ball.”

“If you’re just going to try to impeach Trump again, or make a big to-do about the fact that Don [Trump] Jr. is making a bunch of money off of defense contracts, which he is, how does that connect back to people's real lives?” Erickson asked. “Corruption alone is not going to do it for voters.”

Democratic strategists noted that voters harbor doubts that their party will actually follow through on their promises to lower costs instead of spending their time on other priorities, like impeaching Trump. The party previously sought to use the partisan and time consuming impeachment process to oust Trump from power in 2019 and 2021, but fell short both times due to Republican opposition in the Senate.

Democratic lawmakers argue this time should be different.

“It might be emotionally satisfying for 10 seconds to impeach the president a third time and then have him be not convicted in the Senate, but I'm not sure what that would get us,” Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz recently told The Sun.

“Voters want accountability on Trump, but they do worry Democrats will be so focused on Trump that they won’t get anything done that matters in their lives,” added a Democratic strategist who requested anonymity to speak freely. “You can still focus on corruption, but every corruption story has to end with a number on a bill.”

On the campaign trail over the last two weeks, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has talked up addressing both high costs and corruption, telling voters in Pennsylvania that “we recognize that in addition to fighting for an affordable America, we’ve got to bring accountability to this out of control Trump cartel.”

Rep. Debbie Dingell signaled some things on the Democratic wishlist may take time to accomplish, but they aim to address both priorities. The Michigan Democrat said the party is planning “a 100-hour agenda,” as well as “a 100-day agenda.”

“I think part of the first 100-hour agenda is we’ll need to reverse some of the cuts that have cost people their health care, reverse how we now have hungry children and seniors because of the cuts to Medicaid,” Dingell told The Sun this week. “But at the same time, we’re going to hold corrupt officials accountable, because what they’ve been doing is significantly contributing to increased costs.”

Leaders in both chambers have sketched out in broad strokes their policy agenda next year if voters return them to power. They want to end the war in Iran, roll back Republican cuts to Medicaid and federal food assistance, repeal the president’s global tariffs and extend Obamacare health insurance subsidies that lapsed in 2025.

Whether they can accomplish all that will depend on the size of the Democratic majorities and if they flip control of both the House and Senate. And actually putting these policies into place will be difficult, given that Trump and his veto pen will occupy the White House for the next two years.

The Democratic desire for an ambitious, go-fast agenda might also conflict with Jeffries' support for returning the House to regular order, a legislative process that gives more influence to congressional committees. But those committees would need to be constituted with new members for that process to begin. And priorities like repealing Republican cuts to Medicaid may require more extended negotiations if Democrats plan to find a way to pay for reversing those cuts.

House Democrats have more than one plan to satiate the party’s base’s desires to confront what they argue is the historic corruption of the Trump administration. Rep. Robert Garcia, the California Democrat set to lead the investigative House Oversight Committee if his party wins a majority, has outlined sprawling plans to probe the president, his family and close circle of allies. That includes an expanded panel investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his network of connections, including the president.

Other Democratic targets will likely include the donors funding Trump’s ballroom construction at the White House, the Trump family’s vast crypto holdings and foreign business deals, alleged self-dealing by top Trump officials, high-value foreign gifts given to the president, and Elon Musk’s reported slowdown of Starshield’s satellite network in Ukraine.

“Trump’s foreign policy is focused on turning our government infrastructure into a shakedown operation for the Trump family and his cronies. So we will be relentless in going after that corruption and getting that money back,” Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado told reporters on Wednesday.

Americans’ perceptions of corruption are at their highest level in 20 years, with 89% of U.S. adults saying it is widespread in the government, according to a Gallup survey released last month. Meanwhile, nearly 70% of Americans believe Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself, including one-third of Republican and Republican-leaning independents, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.

Corruption has been a big theme on the campaign trail this election cycle, with both Democratic and Republican candidates running on transparency, ethics reform and anti-corruption measures. A push to ban lawmakers and their families from trading individual stocks stalled in the Senate this year, but Democrats are likely to try again next year.

“Corruption is an issue that has flipped plenty of seats in the past with unlikely candidates winning,” Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said this week in an interview with MS NOW. “You’ve got a Republican Party that doesn’t seem to know what to say. Trump is offering them no cover. … That’s a real toxic message for Republicans that’s likely going to result in the Senate flipping to Democratic control.”

Erickson cautioned Democrats to avoid votes on a laundry-list of items designed to appease their various constituency groups, such as on abortion, campaign spending and LGBTQ issues, and keep their focus squarely on lowering costs.

“Trump created this opportunity for us, but we absolutely have not yet made the case to voters that we are a credible alternative on a lot of these issues,” Erickson said. “If Democrats win this election based on costs and corruption related to driving up costs, and then start with a quick list of interest group priorities, that is not going to be particularly satisfying.”

Democrats Are Losing Trust in Mail-In Ballots

Natalie Fertig — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 09:55:00 GMT

Early data in some states is already showing a shift away from mail-in voting. (Haven Daley/AP)

Brian Bronzynski doesn’t usually vote early, but he was the first person in line to do so in his rural Iowa precinct on the day early voting began.

Bronzynski, a registered Democrat and retired special education teacher, said he typically votes by mail or in person closer to Election Day. But this year, he is one of the many Democrats rushing to the ballot box early as trust in the U.S. Postal Service is in steep decline.

“I'm not gonna even give them the chance to screw up my ballot and not get it to me in time that I can get it taken care of and get it sent back in. I'm just going to go up there and do it,” he said. “I was also afraid that if I showed up on Election Day, I was going to walk in there and [they’d] say, ‘Oh, we don't have you registered.’”

Trust in the USPS to deliver mail-in ballots on time, which has been steadily growing less reliable over recent years, dropped precipitously this year after President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March prohibiting the agency from delivering mail-in ballots to voters who were not on preapproved voter lists.

The Supreme Court eventually blocked the order. But the administration has continued to raise alarm over mail-in ballots. In September, a whistleblower said USPS was rushing “untested” technology ahead of the midterms that could “derail” the election.

“It further raised concerns, especially from Democrats, that the Postal Service was no longer a trusted authority, that it didn't have the resources to do what it used to do in terms of delivering mail and that it was increasingly under the control of the Trump administration and might intentionally not deliver ballots in some cases,” said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who studies voting.

Democrats have staunchly defended broad mail-in ballot use over the last few years as the practice became more politicized. Republicans were once strong supporters of mail-in ballots. But during the pandemic, as mail-in voting increased, Trump and other conservative figures claimed that mail-in ballots were rife with fraud, decreasing trust in the practice among Republican voters.

Concerned Democrats say their worries over mail-in ballots differ sharply from those of Republicans.

“There's no fraud” in mail-in voting, Ohio state Rep. Tristan Rader (D) argued. “It's more that [Republicans are] moving the goalposts. They're making it harder for people to count their votes.”

Burden says the behavior shifts may be seen the most in states where mail-in ballots are growing in use but not yet universal, and states that have a hard Election Day delivery deadline.

Early voting data in some states is already showing that shift. In Ohio, for example, the total number of ballots as of Tuesday was about 30,000 higher than at the same point in the 2022 election, according to the Ohio Secretary of State.

But when and how Ohioans are voting has shifted dramatically: Absentee ballot requests this year have decreased by about 28%, while early in-person voting has increased by about 196% compared to 2022.

Nearly 2,000 people voted on the first day of early voting in Cuyahoga County, one of Ohio’s most populous counties and the home of Cleveland. That’s a 250% increase from previous years.

Ohio’s mail-in ballot law now requires that ballots arrive by Election Day. Previously, they just needed to be postmarked by Election Day.

“The national discourse has had an absolutely huge impact on how people feel about [this], and it's showing up in the numbers,” said Rader, who joined the crowds to vote on opening day.

Rader said the crowd was excited and highly motivated to vote, but he has also heard a lot of fears from Ohioans that USPS may not get their ballot in on time.

“People understand that if you show up, your vote will still be fully counted,” Rader said. “Whereas they're not sure anymore that if they vote by mail, their vote's going to 100% be counted.”

In Michigan, 30% more absentee ballots were returned in 2026 a month out from election day than in 2022, per Secretary of State data.

And in Iowa, Democrats have requested fewer absentee ballots than in 2022 and are currently returning them in much higher numbers to county offices or opting to vote in person at the county office or at satellite polling locations, reported Bleeding Heartland, an independent blog focused on Iowa politics.

“People might not be able to tell you all of the details with Trump's executive order and whatever was going on with the courts, but they know that the Trump administration is trying to do something funny with mail ballots,” said Laura Belin, the primary author of Bleeding Heartland. “Whether that's warranted or not, that is definitely a fear I've heard anecdotally from a lot of Democrats.”

The Democratic ground game in Iowa is not pushing vote-by-mail to the extent they have in the past, Belin said, but voters are still being urged to get their ballot in early.

Whether this is a permanent shift in Democratic voting behavior remains to be seen.

“The real super excellent analysis of this will have to be sort of after the election,” said John Forteir, an expert in voting at the American Enterprise Institute. “I doubt it's a very substantive change.”

Bronzynski said that once Trump is out of office, he plans to return to his normal practice of voting by mail or showing up in person closer to Election Day.

“As soon as this hellish period passes,” he said. “I think it will go back to normal as it should.”

Pete Buttigieg Is Staging an Aggressive Final Midterms Sprint

Alex Roarty — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 09:54:00 GMT

The former presidential candidate plans stops in Mississippi, Michigan, Colorado, Georgia, Florida, Minnesota and Wisconsin. (Mike Kropf/AP)

Pete Buttigieg will embark on an aggressive seven-state campaign tour in the final 10 days of the midterm election, according to a copy of his schedule shared with The Washington Sun, as the potential future presidential candidate attempts to boost Democrats in battleground states and districts.

His tour will see him make three stops in his adopted home state of Michigan, while also rallying in states with competitive Senate races like Georgia, Mississippi and Minnesota. He’ll make his final appearance in Detroit on Election Day, trying to rally voters ahead of Michigan’s key Senate race.

The final sprint of events caps a busy year of campaigning, which has seen the former presidential candidate hold more than 50 events with Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.

If he chooses to run, Buttigieg is one of the early leaders for his party’s presidential nomination in 2028, according to polls. He’s widely viewed as all-but-certain to enter the race, although he has publicly demurred when asked about it.

Buttigieg advisers this year have touted the former mayor’s ability to campaign in even red states and districts, saying it’s proof of his popularity with moderate voters. He’ll continue that battleground push on Saturday, campaigning with Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia before campaigning with the Democratic candidate Pia Dandiya in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District on Monday.

According to his schedule, he’ll be in Mississippi on Tuesday with Scott Colom, the Democratic nominee for Senate; Colorado on Wednesday; and Michigan on Thursday and Friday. He will end his trip with visits to Minnesota next Sunday — campaigning with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Klobuchar and Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan — and Wisconsin on Monday, before making his final stop in Detroit.

How Independent Are This Year’s Independent Candidates?

Alex Roarty, Ellie Fivas — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 09:51:00 GMT

Independent candidates Dan Osborn, Brian Bengs and Bill Hill are part of a wave this year. (Tom Williams/AP)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Bill Hill says he’s a natural-born political independent. His parents? Nonpartisan. He’s spent his party-free career as a fisherman, business owner and educator. He’s now running as an independent for Alaska’s at-large House seat, pledging to work with either party — and defy any ideology — to do what’s best for the state.

He also has been endorsed by the Alaska Democratic Party, is formally backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington and has the support of nearly every rank-and-file liberal voter in the state. Republicans are relentlessly attacking his credibility as a true independent, labeling him as nothing more than a Democrat in disguise.

Democrats endorsed Hill after the leading Democratic candidate in the race, Matt Schultz, suspended his campaign and backed the independent, citing his own poor fundraising. But an adviser to Schultz in Alaska, independent political consultant Jim Lottsfeldt, told The Washington Sun in an interview that DCCC officials in Washington had been pressuring Schultz to leave the race for months.

They hoped to clear a path for Hill, Lottsfeldt said, even if he wasn’t running as a Democrat.

A spokesperson for the DCCC did not respond to a request for comment.

“When you see a candidate that is endorsed by the Democrats, funded by the Democrats, funded by Democrat super PACs, endorsed by Democrats in Congress, it's obvious which side of the aisle he's aligned himself with,” Republican Rep. Nick Begich, Hill’s opponent, told The Sun in an interview.

This dispute over what makes a true independent is simmering across the country this election cycle.

A host of independents are in a battle to prove they are not merely off-label Democrats. They argue that they represent a genuinely different political viewpoint, even if many of them do have some ties to the Democratic Party.

In Senate races alone, there’s Seth Bodnar in Montana, Brian Bengs in South Dakota, Todd Achilles in Idaho and Dan Osborn in Nebraska, all trying to beat Republicans through independent campaigns.

Osborn, who ran unsuccessfully against Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024, may have the best shot of any independent Senate candidate this year. He told The Sun that voters are really just looking for permission to break away from the two-party system.

"They will have spent $75 million by the end of this, at least, just calling me a Democrat,” Osborn said of Republicans. “Trying to emerge outside of that message certainly is difficult.”

The fight over these independent candidates could have a significant effect on the outcome of next month’s midterm elections in a political environment that polls indicate is sharply hostile to the GOP. Independents are running mostly in red states, where the Democratic Party is deeply unpopular, and proving to voters that they have a truly independent mindset is probably necessary for them to have any chance of winning.

In Alaska, Hill is running competitively against Begich, according to polls, threatening to win a seat GOP political operatives considered safely Republican when the election cycle began.

Hill defended his independent credentials in his interview with The Sun, saying he holds both progressive and conservative beliefs rooted in a lifetime of experience living and working with all kinds of different people in Alaska.

“I've lived a life in a coastal fishing community that's very conservative in nature. And I've lived a life within education — and it's very progressive,” he said. “I've got great friends across the political map. I've done things in my life, built things in my life, by building coalitions of people from across a political spectrum.”
to polls. (Becky Bohrer/AP Photo)","webImage.disableDefaultCaption":false,"webImage.disableDefaultCredit":true,"image":{"_ref":"000001a1-660d-de9d-afaf-6eadf1d90001","_type":"dcf917e9-e63e-3e6c-8255-38386454f78b"},"theme.bundle-default.:image:ImageEnhancement.hbs.enhancementAlignmentImage":null,"theme.bundle-default.:figure:Figure.hbs._template":null,"theme.bundle-default.:figure:Figure.hbs._preset":null,"theme.bundle-default.:figure:Figure.hbs.creditParenthesisRemove":false,"theme.bundle-default.:image:ImageEnhancement.hbs._preset":null,"_id":"000001a1-660e-dac8-a9a1-f6ff578f0000","_type":"db9c5fe4-94f6-378f-bd08-51a74126a170"}">AP26288108146340 (5184x3888, AR: 1.33)Hill said he supports both abortion and gun rights and has voted for Republicans and Democrats in the past, singling out Republican former Alaska Gov. Jay Hammond for praise. And he dismissed criticism about his record — Begich and allies have focused attacks on prior donations Hill made to Sen. Bernie Sanders and his stand on transgender issues — as disconnected from what most Alaska voters care about.

“They don't want to step up and talk about the things that Alaskans want to hear about,” he said of his critics. “I've traveled all over the state, and Alaskans want a response that talks about the way that the decisions being made in Washington, D.C., is impacting their lives every day.”

Hill has become the Democrats’ de-facto candidate in the race, even receiving formal backing from the Alaska Democratic Party in August. He is part of the DCCC’s “Red to Blue” program, which encourages donors to support candidates who it believes have a chance to flip a Republican-held seat.

“He's been pretty clear that he wants endorsements from a wide range of Alaskans, so he wanted our endorsement,” Eric Croft, chair of the Alaska Democratic Party, said in an interview.

Lottsfeldt, the independent political strategist, said he was ambivalent about the wisdom of Hill running as an independent. He pointed to the Democratic candidate for Senate in the state, Mary Peltola, as proof that Democrats can run successfully in Alaska as long as they differentiate themselves from the national party.

“Why are you trying to hide it?” he said. “Don't be disingenuous with me. Just tell me who you are. I'll accept it.”

Lottsfeldt said he received calls from DCCC officials over the first six months of the year asking if he could persuade Schultz to drop out of the race, with the operatives continually making the point that Hill was raising more money. But he said things came to a head in July, just weeks before the state’s nonpartisan primary, when Democrats were facing the prospect of a split between candidates who appeal to progressive voters. (In Alaska's primaries, the top four candidates regardless of party advance to the general election.)

“They were like, ‘OK, this is the horse we need to ride,’” Lottsfeldt said. “It wasn't unreasonable, particularly if you're thinking, ‘Well, they're both the same.’”

Lottsfeldt said he eventually sat down with Schultz to lay out his options, and the candidate dropped out shortly thereafter.

Democratic candidates have pulled out of their races in other states as well. After the Democratic candidate dropped out of Nebraska’s Senate race in July, the state party voted to not fill the vacancy on the ballot, which left Osborn and Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts as the only major candidates in the race.

In South Dakota, Democrat Julian Beaudion dropped out of the Senate race after facing pressure to step aside to clear the field for Bengs.

Montana didn’t go that way. Alani Bankhead, the Democratic Senate candidate, refused to drop out to make way for Bodnar, even after party leaders urged her to do so. Montana Democratic Party Chair Shannon O’Brien stepped down last week and endorsed Bodnar.

Jane Kleeb, the Nebraska Democratic Party chair, told The Sun that Osborn gives Democrats the best opportunity to get Ricketts out of the Senate because he appeals to more people than a Democratic candidate would.

“He’s not a typical suit-and-tie guy,” she said. “Especially this election cycle, Republicans are looking for candidates who are speaking to them, because MAGA has turned their back on them.”

Unaffiliated candidates have always been a feature of U.S. politics, and Sanders remains the most prominent example. But this year’s cohort of independents is doing something different: Many, including Osborn, have said they would refuse to caucus with either party if elected.

“In fact, we'll caucus with everybody,” he said at an October press conference with other independent candidates. “To do anything else would be a slap in the face to the people of Nebraska.”

Osborn has at times struggled to walk the line between being a true independent and a Democratic-endorsed independent, especially after an audio leak where he criticized Trump voters and called the border wall “a symbol of racism.”

Republicans have jumped at the chance to discredit candidates like Osborn as “fake independents” who would run to caucus with Democrats if elected.

“When you’re recruited by Democrats, funded by Democrats, and parroting Democratic talking points, you’re a Democrat,” said Bernadette Breslin, spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, in a statement. “Voters will see through Osborn, Bengs, Achilles, and Bodnar’s fake independent circus this November and reject their radical agenda.”

That messaging has been difficult to escape, Osborn told The Sun.

“If you want to label me, label me as a Teddy Roosevelt Republican, because that's what we're trying to do,” Osborn said. “We're trying to break up the titans of industry to create an economy that favors competition, that elevates the middle class and workers.”

In Ohio, Brown and Kaptur Supporters Want ‘Fighting Blood,’ Not ‘New Blood’

Paul Kane — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 09:20:00 GMT

Rep. Marcy Kaptur is running in Ohio on the populist past she shares with Sherrod Brown, trying to win in an election where voters want change. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP)

PERRYSBURG, Ohio — When Sherrod Brown and Marcy Kaptur first shared a political ticket, in 1982, they were well ahead of their time in the Democratic Party.

Brown, who won Ohio's secretary of state office that year, and Kaptur, who won her first term in Congress, preached an aggressive economic populist message meant to appeal to the working class people who worked in steel mills and auto plants, the type of agenda that fell out of favor during the Clinton and Obama administrations.

Now, after they lost every bit of power in 2024, many Democrats are embracing the Brown-Kaptur message as the future of the party — and yet the other big political force of the moment, an anti-Washington fervor, could doom two Democrats with more than 75 years of combined service in Congress.

Brown and Kaptur used a packed carpenters hall last weekend to say that their experience walking the walk with Ohio’s working men and women is more important than their age.

“No one in Washington, with the exception of Marcy and a few of us, are standing up to the corporations that game the system. But politicians who are supposed to work for you too often work for themselves,” the soon-to-be-74-year-old Brown told a few hundred union members.

In a midterm election where the economy and cost of living is far and away the most important issue, no pair of Democrats seems better positioned to tap into an electorate that is angry at billionaires and the political class. Their mission may have found its moment.

Brown is trying to reclaim a Senate seat after his loss to Bernie Moreno two years ago. Kaptur, 80, is trying to secure her 23rd term in the House, the longest-serving woman in the history of Congress, despite repeated gerrymanders that made her Northwest Ohio district more friendly to President Donald Trump.

Yet their very calling card of legitimacy is the thing Republicans are using against them — their decades in politics, especially in Congress. Republicans are using that throughline of longevity on Capitol Hill in just about every attack ad run against the duo.

One super PAC ad starts off with the theme of “it’s time to retire Marcy Kaptur” and goes on to accuse her of voting over the years to raise taxes and allow federal benefits to go to undocumented immigrants. On Thursday the Senate Leadership Fund unveiled its latest ad against Brown that cites votes cast all the way back to the 1970s in the state legislature.

“Sherrod Brown, 50 years in politics, 50 votes to raise your taxes,” the narrator says in the ad, run by the super PAC affiliated with Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

Kaptur’s opponent, former state legislator Derek Merrin, likes to point out how he wasn’t born yet when she first took office and highlights the region’s economic decline over those decades.

“Since 1983 when Marcy Kaptur took office, America's population across the country has increased by approximately 46% — 46%. In Lucas County, the population has decreased by 9% — failure, she's a failure,” Merrin said earlier this month while campaigning alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), at a logistics company that helps the booming data center business.

Both races, which could determine the majority in each chamber of Congress, are considered pure tossups by The Cook Political Report.

Kaptur offers no apologies for her tenure and suggests that her constituents would be worse off without her fighting for them. She is poised to chair a subcommittee that spends almost $60 billion annually on energy and water projects if Democrats claim the majority, a beneficial post for constituents whose local economy is based in the Great Lakes region.

“Now I have some authority, and they try to use it against me in the ads. They try to say, you know, she served there too long. Oh no, it took me four decades to get where I am now, and I'm not giving it up because it's their seniority, not mine,” she said during an interview in Toledo.

Their most fervent supporters agree, as Ohio state Sen. Paula Hicks-Hudson, who represents Toledo, dismissed talk of needing “new blood” at the carpenters hall rally.

“We need fighting blood,” Hicks-Hudson told the hard-hat crowd.

Out in the audience Brayden McClure, 26, a carpenter from Lima, nodded along as he attended his second rally for Brown in recent weeks. “I need better wages and a better pension, and he has promises and he has ideas for our future,” McClure told The Washington Sun.
Ohio Politics 2026 (8479x5652, AR: 1.50)Two years ago he voted for Trump, after supporting Joe Biden in 2020, a prototypical voter almost always landing on the change candidate. He thinks the Iran war was a huge mistake that drains an extra $100 a week on gas costs driving to his jobs, leading him to support Brown and Kaptur this fall.

“I don't think age matters at all,” he said, preferring experience over youthful energy. “You get someone up there that's going to fight for your rights.”

Public polls give Brown a small but durable lead over Sen. Jon Husted, the former lieutenant governor who was appointed early last year by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.

The winner in November will take over the remaining two years of a Senate term that Vice President JD Vance won in 2022 — setting up the possibility that Brown would have to immediately gear up for a third straight grueling Senate campaign.

Husted is an imperfect vessel to run as the anti-politician, as he has worked his way up the power ladder in Columbus: 10 years in the legislature, eight as secretary of state and six as DeWine’s lieutenant governor.

Both Brown and Kaptur are running against the Republican machine in the state capital as much as they are running against the Trump administration.

Brown’s ads dubbed Husted as the “face of data centers” after the Republican-dominated legislature approved tax incentives to attract the now controversial projects to rural patches of Ohio. The line of attack proved so effective national Republicans leaked a memo calling the issue “an anchor” around Husted, pleading for the industry to mount its own PR campaign.

Yet over almost 90 minutes of speeches at the carpenters rally, no one blasted Husted on the issue. The reason was hanging on a “We Build Industry” banner along the side of the venue, rattling off the things the union builds.

Fourth on the list: data centers.

“We know it's controversial, but we are in favor of them because it puts a lot of our members to work,” Lee Daher, 46, senior representative of the regional union, told The Sun.

Kaptur explained later that she doesn’t support a full moratorium on the controversial projects but wants these tech companies to better negotiate with county and state officials to ensure water and power usage by the behemoths doesn’t surge costs for local residents.

Their closing message is focused on blaming the richest people in the world for the decades-long decline in the region. “No human being in America should be a trillionaire. Nobody, and I say that to Elon Musk because he's helping to put money against me,” Kaptur said.

Later, when Brown spoke, he added that no one should be a billionaire. He uses a Husted line about how the “work ethic is broken” in America to riff on how the senator should look “in the eye” of a crowd of different trade workers he mentioned and “say your work ethic is broken.”

It’s a message that’s found new relevance in a party that spent the 1990s and first 20 years of this century courting suburban professionals, only to see folks like McClure abandon the party.

Ohio swung from being the quintessential battleground in presidential campaigns, to an afterthought where Trump won by 11% in 2024. Part of this drift came from culture war issues that broke religious, gun-owning rural voters away from Democrats, something Kaptur is distancing herself from in this campaign, which is all about economics.

Everywhere Kaptur goes, an aide must have a sheet of paper showing the median household income by congressional district.

Of the 50 wealthiest, 35 are marked blue for a Democratic representative. The back piece of paper, for the poorest districts, is overwhelmingly red, for Republicans.

“The Democratic Party as a whole couldn't understand this. They couldn't,” she said of the past ethos.

Now, other Democrats are trying to catch up to this message. Brown and Kaptur hope that they will be there in Congress in January to explain to others how they rode it to victory — and they’re warning their supporters to hold these new converts to doing more than just talking the talk.

“That's kind of all they do. They don't fight. They don't come to rallies like this. They don't show up at picket lines. They don't talk to management sometimes and get them to accept that there's an organizing drive,” Brown said. “I know Marcy's done this. I've done this.”

Democrats Aim to Build Red State Momentum With an Epstein Ad Blitz

Avani Kalra — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 09:11:00 GMT

Republican Sen. Roger Marshall is facing an unexpectedly tough reelection in Kansas where Democrats are now running ads about Jeffrey Epstein. (Charlie Riedel/AP)

As the limits of where Democrats hope to win in 2026 creep further into reliably red territory, party operatives have been turning more often to a wedge issue that helped Donald Trump win in 2024 — disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

In Kansas, a state that Trump won by more than more than 16 points that is now considered a genuine pick-up opportunity for Democrats, one advertisement slams Republican Sen. Roger Marshall for his September 2025 vote to block the Epstein files release.

“I expected our leaders to hear our stories and actually hold our abusers accountable. They’ve only let us down,” Marina Lacerda, an Epstein victim, tells the camera while a video of Marshall saying Epstein is “not of much interest” to him plays on the screen.

The issue is not new, but Democratic campaign groups are shifting the focus to places like Kansas, flooding the airwaves and social media feeds with spots about Republicans who stood in the way of quickly releasing FBI files about the dead sex trafficker, hoping the issue can tilt such reach contests into the blue column.

More than 150 ads centered on Epstein have aired nationwide during the 2026 election cycle, according to a review by The Washington Sun. They began playing primarily in “toss up” districts and states across the country but increasingly are being deployed in states and districts that Trump won two years ago, often by wide margins.

And Democrats are expected to ramp up their messaging around Epstein in the final stretch before Nov. 3. The Democratic National Committee is planning a flood of Epstein-related ads in red states over the coming days, Axios first reported, targeting Trump’s base on platforms like Fox News and right-wing YouTube channels.

Epstein is a particularly salient issue for Republicans, said Dane Strother, a Democratic strategist, who described Democrats’ messaging around Epstein as “a layup.”

Throughout his 2024 election campaign, Trump campaigned on declassifying the Epstein files, and 82% of self-identified MAGA Republicans supported releasing all files related to the notorious financier, a 2025 Washington Post poll found.

“People feel deceived,” Strother said. “They fully expected these files to be released, and even the hardcore [Republicans] recognize they haven’t all been released. … We’re not talking about taxes, we’re not talking about privatizing schools, we’re talking about protecting children.”

Democrats have already moved that messaging into even deeper red territory. In Mississippi, a Republican stronghold where the Senate race shifted slightly in Democrats’ favor earlier this week, Democrats are targeting Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith for the same vote as Marshall.

“Senator Hyde-Smith, you voted to protect the sex trafficker who abused me,” Jena-Lisa Jones, another Epstein survivor, says in one spot running there. “If you vote to protect pedophiles, it’s time for Mississippi to pick a new senator.”

Most GOP senators cast the same vote to block the release of the files in September 2025, though both chambers of Congress later passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in a near-unanimous vote, following mounting public pressure.

In Colorado’s 5th District, a “lean Republican” seat, the family of the late Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre criticize Rep. Jeff Crank in an ad for “refusing to meet” with them following Giuffre’s death last year.

“Our own Congressman Jeff Crank refused to meet with us,” Giuffre’s sister-in-law Amanda Roberts, who lives in the district, says in the ad. “Then, when he had the chance to expose the truth and release the Epstein files, he repeatedly voted to cover them up.”

Recent polling has shown widespread dissatisfaction within the Republican base over the Trump administration’s handling of the files. Only 21% of Republicans said that the administration helped deliver justice in Epstein-related cases, a June Reuters poll found, a number that is at 10% across all Americans polled.

Strother added that in this year’s political cycle, Democrats may only need to flip a small portion of Republican voters to turn the tide in either chamber of Congress. That makes any issue unpopular with the Republican base important to exploit, he said.

“We need the 8% of [MAGA] voters to perhaps vote, in this case, Democratic, and this is an issue that penetrates red,” Strother added.

Republicans are pushing back. They have slammed Democrats for taking money from donors linked to Epstein. Filings released Wednesday revealed tech billionaire Reid Hoffman, who has been repeatedly connected to Epstein, was the top donor to House Majority PAC, the Democrats’ flagship House super PAC, in the last quarter.

One GOP ad that aired Wednesday in Pennsylvania in Rep. Rob Bresnahan’s “toss up” district against Democrat Paige Cognetti highlights the connection.

“Her lying ads are funded by anti-gun radicals and Epstein Associates. Paige Cognetti is basically Kamala Harris without the charisma,” one ad reads, with a picture of Epstein and dollar bills flashing across the screen.

The Democratic campaign group spent about $2.33 million on ads related to Epstein in nine districts, according to data from ad tracking service AdImpact.

"The soulless shills at House Majority PAC want voters outraged over Epstein ties while cashing checks from Reid Hoffman, who actually visited Epstein’s island,” Mike Marinella, a spokesperson for House Republicans campaign arm, said in a statement. “If these shameless Democrat candidates believed the ads HMP is running for them, they would reject its support and condemn Hoffman.”

Still, Strother said that such attacks have only benefited Democrats. His party has consistently led the narrative on the Epstein issue and spotlighting the financier’s unpopularity can only be beneficial, he added.

“Republicans are answering the attack,” Strother said. “When they have to stop and answer an attack, that means they’re not attacking, and Democrats are winning that debate. That’s exactly the debate that Democrats want to have.”

Ilhan Omar’s Campaign Raised $1.9 Million in the First Two Weeks of October

Kyle Chouinard — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 04:32:34 GMT

Rep. Omar has sent multiple fundraising emails referencing the federal raid. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Rep. Ilhan Omar raised nearly $1.9 million for her reelection campaign in the first two weeks of October, a haul that coincided with a federal raid on her Washington, D.C., home and her efforts to capitalize on what she called an “authoritarian attack.”

More than 1,300 itemized donations totaling more than $172,000 poured in Oct. 12, a Federal Election Commission filing shows, the day the Minnesota Democrat was awakened by federal agents serving a search warrant for what the Justice Department called an “ongoing federal criminal investigation.” That’s nearly 100 times the amount she raised a week before.

Omar’s campaign had brought in about $520,000 in contributions in the two months prior.

Omar’s campaign had fundraised off the raid, asking supporters for donations the night of Oct. 12 by saying the DOJ action was “a dangerous and authoritarian attack on a political opponent.”

“We have an obligation to fight back against this ludicrous, partisan investigation, and show that we will not let Trump’s abuse of power go unchecked,” the email said.

Since federal agents entered her home, Omar’s campaign has sent supporters 11 emails referencing the raid, according to PoliticalEmails.org.

Omar noted the wave of support on TikTok earlier this week, saying the donations would go “a long way as we fight Trump and his administration for trying to intimidate me and so many people right before the midterm elections.”

Following the raid, President Donald Trump said while he was not involved in the case against Omar she was a “terrible person.”

Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday night to demand Omar’s resignation for using a “fake name” while being sworn in, a reference to a court filing by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro. The president said Omar “will not be legally allowed to be a Member … from this point forth,” though he has no power to remove her from Congress.

Texas District Attorney Launches Investigation Into Potentially Fraudulent Mailers

Daniella Diaz — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 00:12:22 GMT

The investigation comes after Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach sent two letters calling for state Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate the origin of the mailers. (Nick Rohlman/AP)

A Republican district attorney in West Texas has opened a forgery investigation into pamphlets mailed to voters this month containing information for transgender students, claiming to be sent by a trans rights organization.

The pamphlets in question detail information about what children can do to receive gender-affirming care and legal emancipation, as well as steps a student can take if their parents don’t support having a trans child.

The pamphlets state they were sent out by Transgender Education Network of Texas but the organization denied it had distributed the mailers. The Texas Tribune reported this week that the pamphlets were sent out by a limited liability company in Wyoming, and that the transgender rights group had received backlash and violent threats.

Sarah Stogner, the district attorney for several West Texas counties, confirmed to The Washington Sun she was launching a probe.

“It’s worth investigating and mailers were sent in my district so I have jurisdiction to investigate potential forgery,” Stogner told The Sun in an email. “I don’t want to speculate on any other conclusions at this time.”

The investigation comes after Republican state Rep. Jeff Leach sent two letters calling for state Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate the origin of the mailers.

The Tribune first reported about the investigation. Stogner told the news outlet that she felt the mailers were an obvious bid to agitate voters ahead of the midterms, though their origin is currently unknown.