• GOP majority on the brink: Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans are pleading with the White House for more resources in competitive House races . GOP campaign operatives have been forced to abandon places where they usually go on offense and are focused on protecting incumbents in traditionally red turf.
• Closer-in-chief: Former President Barack Obama is reprising his role as a closer on the campaign trail with stops for Democratic candidates in Ohio and Michigan today. His Detroit event comes one day before President Donald Trump’s own Michigan appearance, setting up a dueling presidential moment.
• Trump on the trail: The president is expected to vote in Florida this morning before continuing his campaign blitz with a midterms rally in Georgia. At a rally yesterday, he pledged more gifts to voters and attacked rivals .
President Donald Trump said yesterday that he plans to vote early in Florida on Saturday.
“I think we’re voting tomorrow,” he told reporters as he left the White House for a rally in the Sunshine State.
A White House official confirmed Trump and first lady Melania Trump cast early ballots in Palm Beach County today.
The president, who has widely criticized mail-in voting, recently encouraged voters to cast their ballots using “every appropriate tool.”
“If your state has early voting, do not wait. Go out and vote,” Trump said in a video posted to Truth Social earlier this month. “Vote early, vote by mail, or vote in person on Election Day.”
Election Day is November 3, but more than 21 million ballots have already been cast across the country, as of Friday, according to data compiled by CNN, the Associated Press and the data firm Catalist.
Former President Barack Obama is expected to “lay out the stakes of the race” when he campaigns for Democratic candidates today in Ohio and Michigan, according to an Obama spokesperson.
The former president is reprising his role as a closer on the campaign trail, making his top-billed appearances less than two weeks before Election Day.
He’ll kick off his campaigning in Cleveland, Ohio, this afternoon with Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown and gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton , who was thrust further into the spotlight after her GOP opponent Vivek Ramaswamy released a controversial ad featuring her estranged mother.
In Detroit later in the day, Obama will campaign with Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson.
Obama’s appearance in Michigan comes one day before President Donald Trump visits the state to campaign for Republicans, setting up a dueling presidential moment.
On both stops, the former president will be “making clear that voters have the opportunity to elect public servants who are dedicated to finding solutions, showing real leadership, and bringing a level of accountability back to Washington,” the spokesperson said.
Top Republicans are most anxious about the huge number of open seats , a result of this cycle’s exodus of more than 40 GOP lawmakers from the House.
Ad bookings for the final weeks reflect that anxiety. CLF is spending $9 million on ads in Michigan’s 10th District, which US President Donald Trump won by 6.5 points. Multiple GOP groups are moving millions to South Carolina’s 1st District, which Trump won by 13 points. And one of the president’s super PACs is spending more than $3 million in Montana’s 1st District, which he won by 10 points.
The same Trump-aligned group steered more funds into open seats like Texas’ 23rd District and Kentucky’s 6th, both of which Trump won by roughly 15 points.
Open seats in previously more competitive territory, like Arizona’s 1st and Nebraska’s 2nd Districts, are likely already gone for Republicans, as well as North Carolina’s 11th District, where party leaders had to pressure their incumbent to resign after an ethics scandal, according to multiple GOP operatives. No Going Back PAC, one of the Trump groups, exited that North Carolina race this week, cutting more than $1 million in planned ads after spending more than $4 million on the contest.
In Florida, top Republicans believe their jittery incumbents will ultimately survive. But some are nervous about one race in particular — an open seat in the Orlando area where scandal-plagued Rep. Cory Mills was ousted in a late summer primary.
Welcome to our Saturday coverage of the 2026 midterm elections.
Just two weekends remain in this campaign cycle, and the next two days will bring a flurry of activity across the country as candidates seize the opportunity to get in front of voters.
Here’s just a sampling of what’s in store:
We’ll bring you notable moments from events along the campaign trail throughout the weekend.
