14 days until midterms, Trump heads to North Carolina as GOP fights to hold Senate

Fox News Digital confirms that the Republican National Committee (RNC) is transferring more than $50 million to the party's House and Senate campaign committees, expanding its financial advantage ahead of the midterm elections.

The RNC says it transferred more than $44 million between mid-August and mid-October, roughly divided evenly between the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), with another $6 million expected to be transferred by Election Day. The news was first reported by the New York Times.

The infusion of cash comes as Republicans defend House and Senate seats in states and districts previously considered safe.

The RNC entered September with $126 million cash on hand, thanks in large part by fundraising efforts led by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who steers the national party committee’s finance operation. The RNC said it raised an additional $18.5 million in September.

The RNC has dramatically outraised the rival Democratic National Committee this election cycle.

While many Democratic House and Senate candidates have outraised their GOP counterparts, Republicans enjoy a financial advantage thanks to the RNC and aligned outside groups.

Texas Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico got a big-name boost from a surprising corner of the Republican Party as former first daughter Barbara Bush recently donated to the main PAC supporting his campaign.

Former President George W. Bush has had a strained relationship with President Donald Trump dating back to the 2016 campaign, when Trump mocked both his mother and brother. But the donation by Bush’s daughter, the twin sister of NBC host Jenna Bush Hager, comes at a crucial time for Republicans’ hopes of holding the U.S. Senate.

Fox News Digital confirmed through FEC filings that Barbara Bush — who shares the name of the late first lady, her grandmother — contributed $2,500 to Lone Star Rising PAC this quarter. The PAC accounts for almost all the outside spending supporting Talarico, according to Houston Public Media.

While the amount is smaller than contributions from some other big-name donors, including The Eagles’ Don Henley, who gave $150,000 to the PAC, analysts said it is notable that Bush did not make an effort to conceal her politically famous identity.

"She didn’t give it to a 501(c)(4), in which her contribution would’ve been completely anonymous. She gave it to a PAC that reports all the money in and out," Texas campaign finance expert Andrew Cates told Houston Public Media.

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Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico skipped a Monday night rally headlined by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in El Paso, instead holding campaign events hundreds of miles away in North Texas as his closely watched race against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton enters its final weeks.

Sanders appeared at the Abraham Chavez Theatre alongside former Rep. Beto O'Rourke and Democratic Reps. Greg Casar and Veronica Escobar as early voting began ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

Talarico, meanwhile, held a rally at North Crowley High School in Fort Worth as part of his "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts" campaign tour, following an earlier campaign stop in Denton.

Fox News Digital reached out to Talarico's campaign for comment on why the candidate held a separate event instead of campaigning with the other Democrats, who used the El Paso event to promote his Senate bid and criticize Republican campaign spending.

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In this week’s Power Rankings, two gubernatorial races get more competitive as the final two weeks of campaigning begin.

In Florida, Hispanic voters will play an outsized role, and polls suggest that a large chunk of them have shifted away from the GOP. In last week’s national Fox survey, 31% of Hispanic voters said they preferred the Republican candidate over the Democrat. That’s down 12 points from their support for Trump in 2024.

The Republican candidate, Rep. Byron Donalds, will be pleased to have the endorsement of DeSantis. He remains popular in the state. Donalds still has the edge against Democrat and former Rep. David Jolly, who is hoping former President Bill Clinton can shore up his support when they appear together for the first time today.

Still, this race is no sure thing for the GOP. Florida moves from Likely R to Lean R.

In Nebraska, Republican Gov. Jim Pillen is looking for a second term in office. He cruised to victory the first time with a 23-point win, but with both suburban and rural voters wavering on Trump this cycle, this could be a tougher battle.

Three other factors are playing a role.

First, the presence of Dan Osborn, one of the four notable independents on the ballot in Senate races this year, could boost Democratic turnout for challenger Lynne Walz in a governor’s race that would otherwise attract less attention.

There’s Pillen himself, who has faced some local pushback over a 5% budget cut and hiring freeze within state government.

Finally, the ballot, which will feature third-party challenger Brett Lindstrom, a former state lawmaker who lost to Pillen in a Republican primary four years prior. He’ll appear on the ballot as an "America First" candidate. The party was founded in July.

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Republicans have had their share of good and bad election nights this century, but they’ve usually been able to count on the heartland.

Once evenly divided, rural voters have become substantially more Republican over the last two decades. Nearly two-thirds of these voters backed President Trump in the 2024 election.

Today, just under half of rural voters say they’ll support the GOP again in November.

Like other groups, rural Americans are concerned about paying the bills. Nineteen percent said the rising cost of living is their biggest economic problem in a recent survey, with gas and energy costs not far behind.

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Matthew McConaughey's call to rethink America's two-party political system has sparked a heated debate on social media, with some critics accusing the Oscar-winning actor of promoting a "privileged perspective" ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

On Sunday, McConaughey took to social media and challenged the long-held notion that voting for an independent candidate is a wasted vote, arguing that just a handful of independent lawmakers could dramatically shift the balance of power in Washington.

"They've been telling us for years that an independent vote is a wasted vote," McConaughey said in a video shared on Instagram. "Well, a great question for our times is, has that unwasted vote been working out for you?"

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Republican New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman slammed Democratic opponent Gov. Kathy Hochul and Big Apple Mayor Zohran Mamdani over subway crime.

Blakeman, who is Nassau County executive, said that "crime in the subways has gone up tremendously under" the governor and mayor. "They are not committed to public safety."

The GOP candidate rode the New York City subway on Monday.

"I will make sure that our public transportation is safer and cleaner for the traveling public," Blakeman pledged.

He advocated for adding additional police on the subway, improving lighting, and adding additional conductors.

Hochul campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital, "Bruce Blakeman inherited the safest county in America from his predecessor, then let violent crime hit a 10-year high, propped up an armed, untrained MAGA militia, and cut cops while lying about hiring them. Governor Hochul took office with crime spiking and the subways deserted, invested a record $4 billion in policing, put boots on the ground in our subways, and brought subway crime to its lowest level in 16 years. Governor Hochul’s work keeping New Yorkers safe is never finished, but the results are impossible to ignore – unless you’re Donald Trump’s puppet, Bruce Blakeman."

The mayor's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's comment request on Tuesday.

DES MOINES, Iowa — House Republicans are pinning hopes of keeping their majority on a state that President Donald Trump won by roughly 13 points in November 2024.

And while Iowa has leaned red in recent years, Republicans are now finding themselves defending three of its four congressional districts as polls give Democrats more hope by the day that the key to a blue wave runs through the Midwest.

But Republicans are dismissing public perception surveys as a political cudgel used by the media and the left to discourage GOP voters, while insisting the results will come down to one thing.

"Nobody knows what's going to happen on November 3rd. But I'm here to tell you, if our people show up, we win. If our people don't show up … then we're going to be scratching and clawing to hang on to every inch that we've got," House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told a room of GOP supporters in Dubuque, Iowa, on Thursday.

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Michigan Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed described himself as a "man of faith" who prays on a daily basis.

The candidate, whose full name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, is Muslim.

"My name is Abdul. It means servant. I pray every day," he said in a campaign video. "I reflect on my role in this life, on this earth, how we leave it better than we found it, to serve God, to serve our neighbors. All across Michigan families pray. They feel hopeless."

"Faith is a thing there's just too little of in Washington. We don't have faith in our future. We don't have faith that we can actually fix things. So yeah, we need a few more people of faith in Washington. I'm Abdul El-Sayed, man of faith, that's a good thing, and I approve this message."

He is facing President Donald Trump-backed Republican, former Rep. Mike Rogers, in the Michigan U.S. Senate contest.

In a June post on X, El-Sayed wrote, "Most people don't ask me how I pray. They want to know what I pray FOR. I pray for peace, dignity, and basic goodness for all of our kids — whether they're my neighbor kids who are Jewish or my kids who are Muslim. The sooner we realize we are praying for the same things, the better our country will be."

While Americans prepare to cast their ballots for who should control Congress and their local governments, the cost of filling a gas tank, paying rent and buying a home is becoming a defining test of the economy leading up to the 2026 midterms.

The latest inflation report underscores the challenge facing President Donald Trump and Republicans as they campaign on the economy and the vow to improve conditions for American consumers. Trump returned to the White House promising to lower costs and is now campaigning for GOP candidates in key races — but the reality is something quite different.

With Election Day two weeks away, rising prices are testing whether voters feel like Republicans have done enough to improve the economy and their financial well-being.

And that pressure showed up in the latest inflation report, which found consumer prices rose 3.7% over the past year and 0.6% in September alone. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) tracks the prices households pay for a broad range of goods and services, from food and gasoline to housing and medical care.

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A top Senate Republican warned that the same voting bloc that has propelled the GOP to power over the last decade is at risk of turning its back on the party during this election cycle.

For decades, White, working-class voters often aligned themselves with the Democratic Party, giving Democrats a stranglehold on Congress until the 1990s and often favoring the Democratic candidate atop the presidential ticket.

President Donald Trump’s entrance onto the political scene and victory in 2016 solidified a shift that was years in the making, giving Republicans a strong base of working-class support. But with the state of the economy, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, a top ally of Trump’s on Capitol Hill, warned that the GOP’s steady base could head for the exits.

"This is the whole deal," Moreno told Fox News Digital. "It's the whole deal. If we don't hang on to those working-class voters, we're dead as a party. That's why I say with no hyperbole, if President Trump hadn’t won in 2016, the Republican Party would be dead. Because the Republican Party had abandoned working-class Americans."

"Ironically, the Democrats abandoned working Americans, and there was a void — President Trump filled it," he continued. "That's why he won."

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Republican Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers took aim at Democratic opponent Abdul El-Sayed during a town hall with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday, warning voters that his rival's policies would hurt the state.

Rogers accused El-Sayed of having a "pattern of deception" and called him a "manufactured candidate," claiming the Democrat has misrepresented his political positions.

"He is the most extreme candidate. He has called for defunding the police. He has called for letting criminals out of prison," Rogers said. 

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Republicans made their pitch to Michigan voters at a Fox News town hall Monday night, with GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers arguing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is vulnerable among Black and Jewish voters as one of the nation's most closely watched Senate races enters its final two weeks.

Fox News host Sean Hannity also spoke with Republican gubernatorial nominee Rep. John James and House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain, R-Mich., as the candidates sought to tie Michigan Democrats to government spending, socialism and the party's progressive wing ahead of Nov. 3.

Early on in the night, Rogers argued that his opponent, El-Sayed, could underperform among a handful of key demographics that traditionally support Democratic candidates, presenting political opportunities for Republicans.

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President Donald Trump is giving New Mexico another branding pitch, urging the state to swap "Mexico" for "America" and suggesting the change could boost everything from home values to state pride.

"New Mexico should immediately change its name to New America. We are not Mexico, we are the United States of America!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.

"The name would add great value and prestige to the State! Home Values and Incomes would rise, and you would be even prouder while saluting our beautiful American Flag!"

The president also worked in a swipe at the state’s elections.

"Maybe even the Crooked Elections, that New Mexico is known for, would become honest again!" he wrote.

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President of Argentina Javier Milei endorsed U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., for re-election.

“We need leaders in Washington who understand Latin America, stand up to the socialist left, and fearlessly denounce the horrors and deaths that socialism has left in its wake. That leader is María Elvira Salazar. That is why I firmly support her reelection to the United States Congress. Thank you, María Elvira. Long live freedom, damn it!” Milei said in part of a Spanish-language video that Salazar posted on X.

The congresswoman, who has served in the chamber since early 2021, thanked the foreign leader for his support.

“Freedom brings us together,” Salazar wrote, adding the American and Argentinian flag emojis. 

“I’m honored to have President Javier Milei’s endorsement for my reelection to the United States Congress," she continued. "He understands what is at stake in our hemisphere: defending freedom, democracy, free markets, and the right of every person to build a better future through hard work. That has been my fight from day one in Washington, standing up for the values of the families I represent in Miami and for freedom across the Americas. Thank you, @JMilei , for your friendship, your words, and your support. We will keep standing strong for freedom.” 

Last week the American lawmaker touted backing from Colombia's president.

Early voting is expanding across the country Tuesday as Republicans and Democrats compete to maximize turnout with just 14 days remaining until Election Day.

In-person early voting begins Tuesday in additional states, including Hawaii, Louisiana, Utah and Wisconsin, after voting opened Monday in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, South Carolina and Texas, as well as parts of Florida.

The expanding voting calendar comes as campaigns intensify their efforts in several closely watched contests, including the Texas Senate race between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico, Florida's gubernatorial election and South Carolina's Senate race.

With control of Congress and numerous state offices on the ballot, both parties are focused on mobilizing supporters and encouraging voters to cast their ballots ahead of the Nov. 3 elections.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to campaign in Greenville, North Carolina, on Tuesday for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley.

Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman, is facing former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in a closely watched race that could help determine control of the Senate.

Trump’s appearance comes as early voting expands across the country and both parties focus on turning out supporters before Election Day.

Republicans are emphasizing immigration, affordability and disaster recovery, while Democrats are seeking to make the race a referendum on Trump’s second-term record.