Obama campaigns in Georgia as Trump stumps in Ohio in dueling midterms rallies – live

During tonight’s rally in Georgia, Raphael Warnock, the state’s Democratic senator, described the upcoming election as a “moral moment in America”.

“There are demagogues at the highest levels of our government who are trying to divide us and distract us in order to dominate us, but we come here tonight to say the jig is up.”

Warnock criticized Republicans in Congress for supporting legislation that will take away healthcare from millions of Americans, and cause 1.2 million children to lose access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits. He referenced a photo of Republicans praying before voting on Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

“Our nations leaders, led by the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, gathered together, put their arms around each other and they knelt down to pray, donning the garments of virtue while literally taking food out of the mouths of hungry children,” Warnock said.

With midterm elections less than a week away, Donald Trump and Barack Obama were set to appear at rallies on Wednesday night as Republicans and Democrats make some of their final appeals to voters in key states.

Obama, who was recently in Michigan to support Abdul El-Sayed, is in Georgia, where he will campaign for Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor seeking the governor’s office, and the senator Jon Ossoff.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump, who has appeared at more than 20 rallies in October, was returning to the battleground state of Ohio to support Republican candidates, including Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for governor, and Jon Husted for Senate.

JD Vance was in North Carolina stumping for Michael Whatley, the former RNC chair, who faces a tough race for Senate against Democrat and former governor Roy Cooper.

Donald Trump continued to rail against Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola, accusing her of “Voter Fraud at the Highest Level” following a report from the New York Times that her campaign recruited a man with the same name as her Republican opponent.

In his fourth social media post on the subject in two hours, the president said on Wednesday that Peltola should be removed from the ballot and prosecuted: “Nothing else will do! This behavior in our Elections cannot be allowed to continue.”

Peltola’s campaign recruited the candidate in order to peel away votes, the New York Times reported.

JD Vance echoed Trump’s criticism. “Even the New York Times admits that Mary Peltola is a total crook who tried to rig the Alaska senate race in her favor,” he said.

JD Vance has reportedly contacted Iran’s security chief in an effort to resume peace negotiations.

The Wall Street Journal, citing US officials and others familiar with the matter, reported on Wednesday that the vice-president sent a letter to ⁠Mohsen ​Rezaei, the hardline leader of Iran’s supreme national security council, at Trump’s urging.

Vance is seeking to determine whether the countries can “find enough common ground” to deter the president from ordering an attack in the near future, according to the outlet.

The development comes just ahead of the midterm elections, and Trump’s deeply unpopular war threatens to hurt Republicans. The US military has already spent over $47bn on the conflict, more than 25% higher than the defense department’s estimate in the summer, according to Pentagon data first obtained by Reuters.

Trump is bound for Ohio to campaign for Republican candidates in the state. Republicans are defending a seat there in a Senate race that has turned out much closer than might’ve been expected in reliably red Ohio. JD Vance, meanwhile, is campaigning in North Carolina, where Republicans face even longer odds.

Obama will campaign in Georgia alongside local Democrats. Obama will join Jon Ossoff, the Democratic senator, and Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor seeking to flip the Georgia governor’s office, on the campaign stage.

Alaska Democrats intentionally recruited a candidate with the same name as their opponent, according to a new report. The New York Times found that Mary Peltola’s campaign had, despite its public denials, recruited a man named Dan Sullivan to run against the Republican incumbent, also named Dan Sullivan. The revelation prompted Trump to call for Peltola’s removal from the ticket.

Flavio Bolsonaro, the defeated rightwing candidate for Brazil’s presidency, landed in Miami. Bolsonaro had been ordered to turn over his passports in connection with a criminal investigation following his defeat by leftwing incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Instead, he fled across Brazil’s border with Argentina and flew to the US, where he’s been granted apparent safe harbor by Trump’s state department.

The US Federal Reserve opted to keep interest rates steady. Despite inflation remaining above the central bank’s target of 2%, its leaders chose to maintain interest rates at their current level.

Trump shared another post to social media railing against Mary Peltola and calling for her disqualification over recruiting a second Dan Sullivan into the Senate race:

“In Alaska, I don’t think Mary Peltola, after perpetrating such a terrible scheme, should be allowed to run, because this is ELECTION FRAUD,” Trump wrote. “The Democrats cheated! They found a man named Dan Sullivan, put him on the Ballot, then lied to the Court, and said they didn’t know anything about it. That’s perjury. She shouldn’t be allowed to run, and neither should the FAKE Dan Sullivan!”

Donald Trump responded on Wednesday afternoon to a new investigation from the New York Times, which found that Mary Peltola’s Alaska Senate campaign actively recruited a man with the exact same name as Peltola’s Republican opponent in order to peel away votes.

In a social media post, Trump insisted that Peltola’s actions were illegal (it’s not clear that they were) and that she should be disqualified from the race.

“It has just been determined that the Democrats in Alaska illegally searched for, and recruited, a man named Dan Sullivan to run against our distinguished Republican Senator, Dan Sullivan, in order to defraud, confuse, and obfuscate the Election, thereby taking votes away from the REAL Senator, Dan Sullivan,” Trump wrote on his personal social media account.

The Peltola campaign had, up until now, denied any connection to the campaign launched by the second Dan Sullivan, who just so happened to share the name of Dan Sullivan, the Republican incumbent whose Senate seat Peltola is trying to win.

The Department of Justice has moved to try to block the certification of the Alaska Senate race, should the second, non-Republican Mr Sullivan pull enough votes to shift the outcome.

Trump continued: “The Democrats’ false statements were made under oath in Federal Court. Therefore, they perjured themselves, and should be liable for very serious consequences. Mary Peltola should suffer the Legal and Political consequences for what she has done, A FRAUD ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC, and Dan Sullivan should be allowed to run without either Mary Peltola or FAKE Dan Sullivan on the Ballot.”

It was a fairly standard quip from former president Barack Obama, delivered to an Ohio crowd as he stumped for the state’s Democratic midterm ticket.

“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory,” Obama said, mocking Trump’s redecorating of the White House. “Just gold everywhere.”

Little did the ex-president know, that remark would catapult the humble Cheesecake Factory, and its interior decorating choices, into the public consciousness, ahead of a decisive vote for control of Congress.

Republicans quickly hit back at the remark, accusing Obama of being elitist and out-of-touch (a well-worn talking point) for speaking ill of the interior decorating of a beloved restaurant enjoyed by vast swaths of everyday Americans.

My colleague Matthew Cantor has the full story here:

Vice President JD Vance just took the stage at a campaign event in Kinston, North Carolina.

Vance’s stop in the state comes as the Republican Senate nominee, Michael Whatley, is trailing in the polls to Democratic former governor Roy Cooper.

The vice president has been barnstorming across the country in recent weeks to stump for Republican candidates, serving as one of Trump’s top surrogates on the campaign trail. In the last several days, he’s made stops in Montana, Kansas, and Michigan, among other states.

The Federal Reserve has opted to maintain interest rates at their current level, though inflation remains higher than the central bank’s target.

In a statement, the Fed characterized inflation as “elevated,” remaining above the bank’s target of two percent. Two members of the central bank’s board of governors voted against the decision to keep rates steady, preferring a quarter-point increase. One of them was Lisa Cook, the member who President Trump has tried and so far failed to remove over unsubstantiated claims of mortgage fraud.

President Trump has leaned on the Federal Reserve, as well as Kevin Warsh, his newly appointed chair of the body, to lower interest rates, hoping it would juice the economy. But lower rates can also worsen inflation, which the central bank has been dedicated to reining in.

My colleague Gaya Gupta has more on the Fed’s most recent decision here:

Dolores Huerta, an influential leader in both the organized labor and civil rights movements who won organized major labor protests and won better conditions for agricultural workers, has died at 96.

Her namesake foundation said in a statement that she died at her home in Bakersfield, California, surrounded by family members.

“We are sad to announce that our beloved mother, Dolores Huerta, has passed away today at the age of 96,” Huerta’s family said in a statement. “As you can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult time for us, and we ask for privacy as we grieve this incredible loss to our family. We know that many of you around the world share in our mourning, and we will be following up on plans to recognize and celebrate her incredible life and legacy.”

Several prominent Democrats, including former president Bill Clinton and his wife, former first lady and secretary of state Hillary Clinton, as well as former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, publicly mourned Huerta’s death.

“With the passing of Dolores Huerta, Hillary and I have lost a dear friend, and we’ve all lost a stalwart champion of working Americans,” Bill Clinton said in a statement.

“Dolores was a dear friend, and we all responded to her rallying cry, ‘Sí se puede,’ which inspired generations of Americans to believe in the power of collective action,” Pelosi said in a statement.

The legacy of the labor movement Huerta helped lead was shaken earlier this year when Huerta, along with several other women, accused Cesar Chavez, another UFW co-founder and towering figure in the labor movement, of sexual abuse in an investigation published by the New York Times.

The race for a Senate seat in South Carolina, a state normally as deep red as they come, could break for either the Republicans or Democrats in the midterm election, a new poll from the New York Times and Siena University has found.

Darline Graham, the sister of the deceased senator Lindsey Graham who was appointed to finish his term, leads her Democratic challenger, Annie Andrews, by a single percentage point, the poll found. If Andrews were to win, it would be the first time in nearly three decades South Carolina has voted a Democrat into the Senate.

The poll comes amid growing Republican unease about the security of House and Senate seats that are normally reliable GOP strongholds. Polls show races in places such as Kansas, Ohio and Texas with margins much closer than anticipated, or even Democrats leading.

In recent weeks, top Republicans, including Donald Trump and JD Vance, have campaigned in those deep red states in addition to more expected battlegrounds, like Michigan.

Mary Jo Pitzl

in Scottsdale, Arizona

Donald Trump has repeatedly asked voters to pretend that he is on the ballot in November’s crucial midterm elections. And in the comfortable confines of Arizona’s most affluent and fiercely contested congressional district, Trump is definitely on voters’ minds.

But whether that helps or hurts the warring congressional candidates in this sun-drenched swath of suburbia, where Teslas and walled-in luxury homes dominate, depends on who you ask.

“Any politician on the face of the Earth who’s a Republican is not getting my vote,” Tom Wolfe, a lifelong Republican, said while sitting down to a lunch of a burger and fries. Trump’s endorsement is a “death knell”, the 82-year-old said. He plans to vote for Democrats in next week’s elections.

For David McGahan, a retired accountant reveling in his retirement life in Rio Verde, a desert enclave outside Scottsdale, the economy and the country are working well under Trump.

“I like the course the country is on,” McGahan said while pumping gas at a local Costco. “Mostly,” he conceded, when a reporter noted the $101 charge for his fill-up.

Cushioned between blue cities and red counties, America’s suburbs have emerged nationally as political battlegrounds. That is especially true of Arizona’s first congressional district, which includes north Scottsdale and Paradise Valley.

Here, among the high-end golf courses and desert estates with breathtaking mountain views, the competition between Democrat Amish Shah – an emergency room doctor who narrowly lost the seat in 2024 – and Republican Jay Feely – a former NFL kicker backed by Trump – could help determine control of the House in November.

Since Trump’s election a decade ago, Republicans’ hold on the district has slipped, though the party still maintains a voter registration advantage. The seat is open, after Republican congressman David Schweikert opted to not seek a ninth term.

“These are your McCain-type voters,” said Matt Grodsky, a Democratic political strategist referring to the late Arizona senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain. They’re business owners, hold college degrees and relatively tuned in to politics.

Given the current dissatisfaction with the Trump agenda and no incumbent with built-in name ID, Grodsky said circumstances are ripe for a change in this one-time Republican stronghold.

If there’s going to be a swing, it should be this cycle.

You can read Mary Jo Pitzl’s dispatch here:

Adam Hamilton in Kansas, Dan Osborn in Nebraska, Joshua Turek in Iowa. They’re all hoping to flip ruby-red states in the midterm elections next Tuesday.

In this episode of our Politics Weekly America podcast, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Rachel Leingang about her reporting across the midwest, where she has charted the renaissance of progressive populism.

The US military has spent over $47bn so far on Donald Trump’s war against Iran, more than 25% higher than the defense department’s estimate in July, according to Pentagon data first obtained by Reuters.

The figure includes $29bn in munitions fired by US forces, while the destruction of other weapons platforms, such as fighter jets, has cost $6bn. The figures does not account for damage sustained by US military bases in the region during the last eight months.

The disclosure ​comes as Republicans scramble to mitigate the ⁠political fallout of the deeply unpopular conflict, launched by the US and Israel in February, ahead of next week’s midterm elections that will determine control of ​Congress for the next two years.

The war’s impact on global energy costs and the cost-of-living crisis in the US has weighed on support for Republican candidates, even in previously reliably red states, ​and has tanked Trump’s approval ratings.

Trump is reportedly considering further strikes against Iran after the midterms.

From redrawing electoral maps to installing a sense of uncertainty around the electoral process ahead of the midterms on 3 November, Republicans have deployed several tactics to try to skew the vote in their favor.

As Donald Trump’s popularity continues to drop, it is crucial for him and his administration to retain a majority in Congress or they could face investigations and even impeachment.

In this video explainer, Guardian political reporter Shrai Popat looks at the ways the Republicans have tried and are still trying to influence the election.

in Brunswick, Maine

While stumping on behalf of Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Maine, Senator Mark Kelly teased a possible run for president in 2028.

“I’m considering it,” the Democratic lawmaker for Arizona said at a campaign event for Maine veterans in Brunswick. “I’ll make a decision after this election sometime.”

Kelly noted the weight of the decision. “You know, I’ve always served this country … usually in the cockpit, strapped into the rocket ship,” he said. “By far, the most important job I’ve ever had is the one I have now,” he said referring to his first full-term as US senator.

“If I screw it up in the rocket ship, it just gets blown up. People get over it in a week. This is different. I mean, this is 350 million people, and people around the world. It’s important that the United States maintains its position of leadership in the world,” Kelly added.