• Haley Stevens talks to CNN : The Michigan Democrat struggled at times to defend flipping her endorsement from the state’s Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed to Mike Rogers, telling Anderson Cooper her backing of the Republican is “rock solid,” but refusing to explain her switch .
• Democratic hopes on midterm eve : A series of New York Times/Siena polls show Democrats leading in five of seven key battleground states that could decide Senate control. El-Sayed leads Rogers by 11 points and Texas Democrat James Talarico leads Ken Paxton by seven.
• Trump’s final event : The president closes the midterm campaign with telerallies and a speech at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool today. He campaigned yesterday in Iowa and Kansas , two red states that Democrats believe they can flip.
As President Donald Trump took the stage in Kansas for his 30th rally, he wanted to be clear: No one could say he didn’t do everything possible to salvage the midterms for Republicans.
In an hour-plus speech that was by turns dark, wistful, agitated and celebratory, Trump boasted about his administration’s various political victories — and warned that Democrats would take it all away if they got control of Congress on Tuesday.
He repeatedly pleaded with his supporters to turn out to vote for Marshall and down-ballot Republicans, urging them to “pretend I’m on the ballot” and do this last favor for him.
But for as much as he praised Marshall and touted his candidacy, it was clear the crowd was here — as always — for Trump.
And, as always, the president obliged.
“I’m very good at teleprompters, but when I read every single word on the teleprompter, you would be so bored,” he said at one point, as he embarked on another signature off-the-cuff riff.
Still, as Trump stretched well beyond the hour mark, even his devotees began to get restless. After he joked about wrapping up abruptly, big portions of the crowd took it as their cue. As Trump launched into the next part of his speech, rallygoers began streaming out the back of the venue.
President Donald Trump kicked off his final midterms rally in Kansas tonight after a day that in which attention was largely monopolized by Democrat Haley Stevens’ shock endorsement of Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers.
You can catch up on Stevens’ flip and the fallout here . Here’s what else you may have missed today:
The Department of Justice sought to delay the Senate race in Alaska over alleged "spoiler candidate" Daniel J. Sullivan, who shares a name with the incumbent, Republican Daniel S. Sullivan. CNN's Gabe Cohen reports.
CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Logan Schiciano, Jennifer Agiesta, Matt Meyer, Maureen Chowdhury, Danya Gainor and Molly English contributed reporting.
Democrats hold leads in five of the seven critical Senate races polled by The New York Times and Siena University as the 2026 midterm campaign comes to a close, with no clear leader in the other two races.
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed leads Republican Mike Rogers by a wide 53% to 42% among likely voters in Michigan . Democrat James Talarico tops Republican Ken Paxton by 50% to 43% among likely voters in Texas . Democrat Troy Jackson runs ahead of incumbent Republican Susan Collins by 51% to 45% among likely voters in Maine .
Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown tops Republican Sen. Jon Husted among likely voters in Ohio 49% to 44%. And in Kansas , Democrat Adam Hamilton leads incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall among likely voters by 49% to 44%.
The surveys find no clear leader races in Alaska , where Democrat Mary Peltola holds 48% support to Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan’s 46%, and in Iowa , where Democrat Josh Turek holds 48% to Republican Ashley Hinson’s 47%.
The polls, which largely fielded through the last few days, align with other recent public polling in several of these states, but the Michigan results suggest a far wider race than other polling. A CNN poll conducted by SSRS and released last week found El-Sayed topping Rogers by 7 points, and the CNN Poll of Polls on the race suggests a 5-point margin in El-Sayed’s favor.
Should the results of these polls match the results in Tuesday’s election, Democratic victories in the four Republican-held states where they lead outside the margin of sampling error would be enough to flip control of the Senate, if Democrats were also to hold all of their currently held seats.
Even in these late-fielding polls, though, there is still room for movement. With the exception of Michigan, each of these surveys finds the Democratic candidate holding roughly 50% support, suggesting there is room for the roughly 5% of likely voters who haven’t committed to one of the two major candidates to shift or tighten the margins.
The New York Times/Siena University polls were conducted between October 23 and November 1 among likely voters in each states. Margins of sampling error for results from the full sample stand at +/-4.8 percentage points in Alaska, +/-4.4% points in Iowa, +/-4.1% points in Kansas, +/-4.3% points in Maine, +/-3.6% points in Michigan, +/-4.2% points in Ohio and +/-3.3% points in Texas.
As recently as Saturday night, the prospect of Democrat Haley Stevens endorsing Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s Senate race had seemed implausible.
When staffers reached out last week to urge her not to endorse Rogers, Stevens replied in a text message, according to a person who saw the message:
As recently as midnight Saturday, she told a key ally that she was sticking with El-Sayed. Then on Sunday morning, things changed.
She appeared at a Black church in Detroit with Rogers and then announced her change of heart to reporters gathered outside and on social media.
Her move stunned the political world — including Stevens’ friends, colleagues and even her own congressional staffers, most of whom found out about her decision on social media and promptly quit, according to a statement from her chief of staff and people familiar with the matter.
The question that could decide Michigan’s Senate race — and potentially, with it, which party will have majority control of the chamber for the last two years of Donald Trump’s presidency — is whether Stevens’ endorsement of Rogers will change votes or amount to more than political melodrama.
Read more about what happened here.
Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell expressed concern for Rep. Haley Stevens after a tense interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Sunday in which he questioned Stevens on her shocking reversal to endorse the Republican Senate nominee over Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.
Dingell, who said “it has been a very difficult day,” said she thought Stevens’ reversal to back Mike Rogers is “backfiring.”
“Abdul has raised more money today, more than $1 million, talking to different people that have been at different polls,” she said, adding, “The people in the Black community are really angry about who speaks for them, that they’re not going to have other people speak for them by the end of the day.”
Dingell previously advised Stevens to stay away from El-Sayed’s events amid their deepening rift.
When asked by CNN earlier how surprised she was by Stevens’ move, Dingell said, “I was stunned since she had told me she wasn’t doing that last night at midnight.”
Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens spoke to CNN’s Anderson Cooper last night about her last-minute choice to revoke her support from Democratic Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed and back GOP candidate Mike Rogers in the consequential race.
Stevens said she was endorsing Rogers after appearing with the GOP candidate at a church in Detroit on Sunday morning, following recent tensions between her and El-Sayed, her former opponent in the Democratic primary.
Here are the top lines from her interview with Cooper:
Speaking to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) said her team is free to share their views after her endorsement of GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers. Her chief of staff said in an earlier statement that many members of her team have resigned.
CNN’s Danya Gainor and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.
