Former Vice President Kamala Harris broke with some on the left flank of the Democratic Party on Wednesday over whether Democrats should pursue impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump if they regain control of Congress in November.
"The Parnas Perspective" host Aaron Parnas asked Harris what she would recommend Congress do if Democrats regain control following the midterm elections.
"Would it be to go the investigations route and potentially an impeachment one day," he asked, "or would it be go past policy and force the president to veto it?"
"I think that going on in the direction of impeachment is not a good idea. OK, just to be honest with you. Because we have limited resources and I think the energy and the resources need to be put into accountability, need to be put into investigations and that's where the time should be spent. Remember I was in the Senate for the last go-round and the votes aren't there, right? So that's how I feel," Harris said.
She argued Democrats need to focus on getting things done and that they should be "ruthless."
"When I say we should be ruthless, I don't mean cruel, but we should be uncompromising and not sit around, you know, being genteel about the relationships and instead actually get stuff done, whether it be about accountability or restoring, for example, what they took in terms of the Medicaid cuts, restoring what we need to do around some check and balance around this war nobody wants," the former VP said.
Some Democrats in Congress have pushed again to impeach Trump, who was impeached twice during his first term in office but acquitted in the Senate on both occasions. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, forced a vote on a resolution to impeach Trump over his administration's immigration enforcement policies, including the deaths of people during federal immigration operations earlier this year. The move divided House Democrats, whose leaders have largely avoided emphasizing impeachment as they work to regain control of Congress in the November midterms.
Florida Democratic Senate candidate and state Rep. Angie Nixon said in an interview with Politico that she would not oppose impeachment hearings and would vote to remove Trump if elected.
"The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart expressed a similar sentiment during a question-and-answer segment at the end of his "The Weekly Show" podcast. He was asked whether Democrats should seek to impeach Trump if they regain control of Congress in the midterm elections.
He said he wanted Democrats to make a full-scale effort to rebalance the economy rather than hold performative hearings.
"I don't want to see a f---ing five-act performative play of House hearings," Stewart said. "I just don't want to see it. I don't want to see everybody having the opportunity to pantomime accountability because you know they're actually not going to bring it."
"There will be enormous pressure to seek accountability if Democrats win control in either or both chambers next week, but the push to make things better for the American people may be even more intense. If successful, Democrats would be wise to try to strike some balance and to work on parallel tracks to deliver results. Voters want justice and accountability, but they want affordable gas and groceries more," Costas Panagopoulos, a professor of political science at Northeastern University, told Fox News Digital of Harris' remarks.
Republican strategist Liz Mair, head of Mair strategies, said Harris was "right," in a statement to Fox News Digital. She added, "Democrats will win these midterms not because swing voters who deliver those victories want them to spend the next two years impeaching the president, but because they want them to focus on bringing costs down or at least limiting ongoing price hikes."
"Every second Democrats spend trying to impeach President Trump again is a minute they're not spending addressing affordability challenges, and appeasing their base at the expense of doing what they will literally have been elected to accomplish," Mair said.
Harris has endorsed several big institutional changes, such as Supreme Court expansion, possibly getting rid of the Electoral College, and Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico statehood.
A woman was shot directly outside the Republican Party of Virginia's headquarters in Richmond on Thursday afternoon, just days before Election Day, according to the state GOP.
The shooting occurred around 1:45 p.m. in front of the Obenshain Center, located in the 100 block of East Grace Street in downtown Richmond, according to local outlet WTVR.
In a post on X, the Virginia GOP said Richmond first responders arrived within minutes and confirmed that all party staff members were safe.
"Around 1:45 p.m. today, a woman was shot immediately in front of The Obenshain Center, the offices of the Republican Party of Virginia. City of Richmond first responders were at the scene within minutes. All Republican Party of Virginia staff are safe," the post read.
The party also said it had no indication that the shooting was connected to its operations.
"The proximity of this event notwithstanding, we have no indication that the shooting was related to the operations of the Republican Party of Virginia," the X post continued.
A New York Times investigation revealed an alleged effort by operatives liked to Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to recruit a second Dan Sullivan for Alaska’s ballot, but the report came as nearly 1 in 10 registered Alaska voters had already cast ballots.
The timing means roughly 58,000 voters may have made their choices before learning of the reported effort that critics say was intended to create confusion with a same-name candidate.
Peltola’s campaign and the DSCC have denied involvement.
Dan J. Sullivan made it to the four-candidate general election earlier this year after winning 2.5% of the vote in the primary. His campaign announcement did not list a party affiliation. His website does not state his position on any political issues.
"Dan Sullivan challenges Dan Sullivan for U.S. Senate Seat, urges Alaskans to defeat incumbent, elect a Sullivan who stands up for Alaska," it read.
The New York Times reported that the effort to recruit potential Republican spoiler candidates included Dan J. Sullivan. The effort spanned coordination between the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) to Peltola staffers, according to text messages, interviews and internal documents.
According to a source interviewed by the New York Times, Peltola was aware of the efforts.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit last week, seeking to delay certification if Sen. Dan Sullivan is defeated, citing the possible confusion. It’s unclear if the DOJ is likely to succeed on those grounds.
Under this system, voters rank their preferred candidates. If their top choice is eliminated, their support passes to their next-ranked option. While supporters of the process argue it expands voters' power and greatly increases the influence of candidates that may not otherwise be a top choice, critics believe it also introduces confusion.
Alaska state Sen. James Kaufman, a Republican, is one of those critics.
Kaufman fears that some voters won’t bother to fill out both the "Sullivans" on the ballot to cover their bases.
He believes there are still some voters in Alaska, especially Republicans, who refuse to use the system, citing disagreements with its implementation.
"Some people have a pretty strong traditionalist perspective: one person, one man, one vote," Kaufman said in an interview with Fox News Digital earlier this year.
"And, so, the ballot fatigue where people just don’t rank because maybe they disagree with it; there’s a pretty strong segment of the population here that just patently disagrees with the rank-choice voting system we ended up with. And they don’t necessarily believe in utilizing it," he added.
TEXAS — Gas prices are soaring ahead of the midterm elections, but President Donald Trump's supporters at campaign rallies in Texas say the rising costs aren't shaking their loyalty to the president, with some warning that the country's future is at stake.
"I do experience that costs are high, but I'm in for the long haul and I support everything that he's been doing," one supporter told Fox News Digital at Trump's rally in Lubbock, Texas.
Fox News Digital spoke with Trump supporters at rallies in Lubbock and Corpus Christi, two cities in a state deeply tied to America's oil and gas industry where voters acknowledged the economic squeeze but remained firmly behind the president. For some, concerns about the country's future and the rise of socialism are adding urgency to the approaching election.
The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline stood at approximately $4.25 on Wednesday, up nearly 40% from roughly $3.05 a year earlier, according to AAA.
Trump acknowledged the higher costs during his Lubbock rally while pointing to increased American oil production and his administration's recent energy deal with Venezuela as steps toward bringing prices down.
"Our country is making a fortune while people have to pay more at the pump," Trump said, adding that gas prices are "going to come down really fast."
"The ones we care about are our people at the pump," Trump told the crowd. "And those numbers are going to start coming down very, very rapidly."
During his earlier stop in Corpus Christi, Trump announced the arrival of the first million barrels of Venezuelan oil secured through an agreement with the South American country, which the White House says is being provided at no cost to American taxpayers and will be refined in Texas.
The administration has touted the agreement as a major step toward expanding America's energy supply and supporting domestic jobs, arguing that the additional oil will eventually help lower costs for consumers.
The White House said the broader agreement would give the U.S. majority control over approximately 65 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan oil reserves, expanding American access to energy resources as Trump pushes to boost supply and bring down prices.
Stephen Elsher of Corpus Christi said the economy remains his top concern heading into the midterms, but he believes Republicans are the ones who can turn things around.
"I'd like to see it turn around and do better for this next year," Elsher told Fox News Digital. "Without the Republicans in charge, we won't go that direction."
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has faced growing pressure from its progressive wing, with democratic socialist candidates gaining prominence and sparking debate over the party's direction.
Trump repeatedly warned voters against what he described as the "radical left Democrat communist" agenda during his Lubbock rally, arguing that Democratic policies would raise taxes, threaten Texas oil and gas jobs, and weaken border security.
"The choice in this election is very simple," Trump told supporters, contrasting his economic agenda with what he described as the consequences of Democratic control.
For some Trump supporters at the Texas rallies, concerns go beyond affordability, with attendees warning that the rise of socialism poses a threat to the country's future.
"We can't lose our republic," Susie, a Corpus Christi supporter, told Fox News Digital, warning that the country is under siege by Democrats, socialists and communists.
Elizabeth Trigo, who attended Trump's Lubbock rally with her daughters, said the midterms are about more than just the next election, pointing to the country's future and preserving opportunities for the next generation.
"I think the main reason this election, the midterms, is a lot of it has to do with the future," Trigo told Fox News Digital. "The most important thing is opportunity again. Trump is on the side of opportunity."
Trigo said she wants Trump to continue fighting the war on drugs and pushing back against socialism during his remaining two years in office.
A little-known congressional maneuver could block members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) from being sworn in as members of the House of Representatives next year, even if they win their elections on Tuesday.
Members-elect must swear an oath to uphold the Constitution before they can become full members of the House. At the beginning of a new Congress, that oath is typically taken en masse by all 435 members, led by the House speaker.
But an argument circulating in conservative circles posits that any member-elect can challenge another member-elect's right to be sworn in, provided they have compiled evidence that that person would not uphold their oath. That would then lead to House-wide deliberations followed by a vote on whether that member-elect has a right to be sworn in.
In the case of DSA members, one potential argument could be the group's platform calling to scrap the current U.S. Constitution and draft a new one. Several DSA members and self-proclaimed democratic socialists have already won primaries across the country.
Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, suggested to Fox News Digital that he could invoke the maneuver.
"You cannot swear an oath to support and defend the Constitution while actively working to destroy it. The oath of office is not just words you say at a ceremony. It is a belief. It is an oath to our country and our fellow countrymen," Self told Fox News Digital.
"The House has both the authority and the duty to ensure that anyone who takes that oath does so in good faith, without mental reservation or purpose of evasion. As DSA candidates and the Red-Green Alliance gain ground, we must enforce the Constitution as written or risk allowing people committed to replacing it to take seats of power under false pretenses."
The "Red-Green Alliance" is a term used on the right to describe cooperation between far-left groups and radical Islamic organizations or operators.
"Anyone who has personally embraced the destruction of the Constitution has no business being sworn in to uphold it," Self said.
According to an analysis by the Center for Renewing America, a challenge to a member-elect's fitness to take the oath of office can be followed by the House speaker asking them to step aside while the debate begins.
"The objecting member should place the documentary record before the House, and the House should debate whether that evidence establishes that the member-elect remains committed to destroying the constitutional order," the group's analysis said.
The House would then vote on a resolution that "establishes the member-elect’s commitment to destroying the constitutional order," which, if passed, could stop them from being sworn in.
The theory relies on a number of variables. For example, if House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is elected speaker, he could decide to dismiss the challenge altogether. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., could do the same if he so chooses if Republicans keep their majority.
Johnson told reporters as much during an event this month in Iowa, calling the idea of him refusing to seat elected Democrats a "nonsense narrative" and vowing, "We are going to follow the law."
It would also raise questions about challenging the will of the people who elected that person to represent them.
Such a move would also be in direct conflict with Supreme Court precedent, meaning it is virtually guaranteed to be relitigated.
The 1969 case of Powell v. McCormack ruled that the House cannot exclude an elected candidate from being sworn in if they otherwise meet the constitutional requirements of age, residency, and U.S. citizenship.
It comes after Adam Clayton Powell Jr., then a senior lawmaker representing New York as a Democrat, was refused his oath of office by the House speaker after winning again in 1966. Powell Jr. had been embroiled in multiple financial scandals at the time.
The House then adopted a resolution barring him from taking his seat, a decision that was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court.
But that has not stopped Republicans from considering the idea of revisiting the move.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told the New York Post earlier this month that he would use the maneuver to try to block Darializa Avila Chevalier from joining Congress next year.
Chevalier, whose upset victory unseated a senior House Democrat, is from a deep-blue district and is almost certainly going to win her general election next week.
Burchett told the Post that he intended to declare her ineligible to take the oath over a now-deleted X post from 2019 in which she boasted about wiping her hands on the American flag because she did not have a napkin.
Whether the efforts succeed, the threats underscore the partisan rancor that's taking shape even before the new Congress is formally selected in next week's midterms.
The reported recruitment by Democrats of a second "Dan Sullivan" to allegedly confuse voters in Alaska’s Senate race drew a rare public rebuke from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who appeared to break four years of silence on her personal X account.
The New York Times reported that members of Mary Peltola’s team helped recruit a candidate who shares the name of incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, potentially confusing voters in a closely watched race that also features Republican Gerald Heikes.
In a statement on her personal account @LisaForSenate, Murkowski said the report "revealed… a pattern of lies and coverups" on the part of Peltola.
"While some may try to write this off as just how politics works now, ballot-stacking should have no place in our electoral process," Murkowski said.
"Run and win on your merits: your views, your policy ideas, and your accomplishments. By contrast, recruiting candidates to manipulate the field and influence voting outcomes is simply wrong."
"Alaskans deserve the honest truth from Mary and her campaign," she said, adding that such a "culture of deception" does not belong in elections or with lawmakers.
Her previous post on the account was dated November 2022 and featured a video message wishing Alaskans a happy Thanksgiving.
Murkowski's official Senate account posts regularly, with its two most recent posts criticizing the Trump Justice Department for launching a lawsuit in the "Decoy Dan" situation prior to the Times' report and highlighting her visit to the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention.
The Times reported this week that the effort extended beyond recruiting the second Sullivan, with Democratic operatives also seeking other candidates who could siphon votes from the Republican incumbent.
The second "decoy" Sullivan, reportedly a longtime registered nonpartisan, lives in the remote community of Petersburg.
Sullivan told Fox News that the scheme is what arises when a "far left" candidate "has got nothing to run on."
Fox News Digital reached out to Murkowski for further comment.
While the post marked Murkowski’s first intervention on X in Alaska’s election contests, the Republican recently drew attention by endorsing Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins over three Republicans: Bernadette Wilson, Treg Taylor and Dave Bronson.
Murkowski’s father, former Sen. Frank Murkowski, joined his daughter in that announcement.
The split Republican field positions Kreiss-Tomkins as the mathematical favorite, according to the Alaska Beacon.
Murkowski's pointed criticism of Peltola puts fresh scrutiny on the reported recruitment effort and what the Democrat's campaign knew as voters prepare to cast their ballots.
U.S. District Judge David O. Carter on Wednesday rejected the Justice Department's emergency request to force California to set aside mail-in ballots associated with more than 20,000 registered voters whose citizenship the Trump administration has questioned, ruling that the last-minute intervention would disrupt an election already underway.
The over 20,000 voters identified by Department of Justice officials as "likely aliens" were designated as such after Homeland Security Investigations and federal partners "used multiple data-enrichment and verification methods" to flag potential noncitizens on California’s voter rolls. California officials, however, disputed the list's accuracy, citing a preliminary review that identified U.S.-born individuals and voters with no voting history among those flagged.
Carter, a Clinton appointee, ruled that the Justice Department's last-minute effort to intervene in California's election violated constitutional and federal-law constraints, while questioning the reliability of the government's evidence that the flagged voters were noncitizens.
"The district court denied our emergency request to sequester ballots from 20,000 suspected noncitizens," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. "This ongoing emergency disenfranchises American citizens through dilution. The Solicitor General authorized an immediate appeal. We filed our Notice of Appeal and will immediately seek an emergency order from the Ninth Circuit."
The Trump administration has suffered a string of defeats in election-related cases in the lead-up to the midterm elections, raising questions whether the administration will be able to deliver on its promises of improved election integrity ahead of the 2028 presidential election. President Donald Trump and other administration officials have repeatedly raised concerns about widespread voter fraud in U.S. elections, though those claims have not been supported by evidence demonstrating fraud on such a broad scale.
California election officials argued that complying with the Justice Department's request would be virtually impossible because county election offices had already processed more than 500,000 ballots, separating them from identifying information and preventing officials from reliably linking those votes to individual voters.
Carter warned that the requested intervention would "wreak havoc and disrupt the election that is already underway," though he noted that federal authorities were free to pursue individual voting fraud cases.
Experts were divided along ideological lines in the case.
"It tells you something very revealing and unfortunately badly revealing about California officials that they don’t even want to check," von Spakovsky told The Center Square. "In California, for example, they have automatic voter registration. When you go in to get a driver’s license, they don’t ask you, ‘Would you also like to register to vote?’ The state of California just automatically registers you, and when you ask them, they say, ‘Well, it’s up to the individuals to tell us they’re not eligible to vote.’"
Rick Hasen, a University of California, Los Angeles, election-law professor, meanwhile, called the Justice Department’s request a "total overreach of federal power," arguing that "the Constitution’s clear that states have the authority to run Congressional elections unless Congress passes a statute otherwise — and Congress didn’t do so here."
FOX One unveiled a new interactive election experience on Thursday that will give users unprecedented access to results, polling, and analysis.
FOX One, Fox Corporation's wholly owned direct-to-consumer streaming service, announced the new election experience developed in partnership with FOX News Media. The experience is designed to give viewers more context and more local relevance as results come in for the upcoming midterm elections.
"Election night is expected to be among the most demanding live events we cover. The results don't arrive in order, and no two viewers are following the same set of races," Amit Dudakia, SVP & Head of Product at FOX Direct to Consumer, said in a statement.
"With FOX One, we're keeping coverage from Fox News and FOX Stations at the center and building the context around it, so viewers aren't toggling between a stream and a second screen to understand what just happened," Dudakia added. "The reporting stays front and center and the answers come to you."
The features will roll out on FOX One in the lead-up to Election Day, and the full experience will be available as election coverage begins.
Hundreds of House, Senate, gubernatorial and local races will be called across every time zone on Nov. 3, and the story of the night is rarely told by any single one of them.
FOX One's tool is built for exactly this kind of live event. As results break in parallel, a race in one state could reframe the math in another and what matters most to viewers may be a ballot measure in their own county.
Fox News Channel and FOX Local Stations’ election coverage will anchor the experience.
FOX One will add a layer of real-time context drawn from Fox News’ industry-leading election coverage and data capabilities, aggregating results, polling and race analysis into the viewing experience itself, so viewers can follow the night at the national level and the local level at the same time.
Feature highlights debuting on the platform for the 2026 midterm elections include a command center, an election hub offering a curated destination for the full breadth of FOX's election coverage, and an in-house built data platform.
Ask FOX, the in-app companion for the questions a live event raises in the moment, will feature an Elections Mode that lets viewers ask election-specific questions and get clear, sourced answers in real time.
When election coverage begins, the command center is the first thing living room viewers will see when opening FOX One. The live stream holds the center of the screen while a surrounding set of widgets carries the context, including voter polling, race-by-race results and Fox News insights on the night's key contests, all updating in real time.
The election hub will include video on battleground races, key ballot measures and the contests shaping control in Washington, editorially programmed by Fox News and Fox News Digital. The hub also surfaces coverage from FOX's local stations based on viewers' markets, so viewers in Los Angeles see what is on the ballot only in Los Angeles.
Elections Mode is being powered by "ElectionAI" – a new AI technology platform deployed for this election cycle that was developed in-house by FOX News Media, allowing for real-time answers to election-related questions.
The results, polling and insights across all FOX One experiences are powered by a single, unified data layer that FOX built alongside FOX News Media, unifying multiple election data sources into a single real-time feed for the app experiences. It is the same underlying infrastructure that also powers live context across FOX One's sports and news programming.
High-profile races that will determine which party controls the Senate for the next two years are extremely tight, according to a new CNN poll, as Maine and Kansas remain close and Democrats extended their leads in Texas and Michigan.
Democrats, who are widely projected to win a majority in the House of Representatives, need to flip four Senate seats from red to blue in order to gain a 51-seat majority, protecting their majority from the vice presidential tiebreaker.
Maine
In Maine, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is the only Republican incumbent running in a state that went for Kamala Harris in 2024.
Collins' Democratic challenger is Troy Jackson, the former president of the state Senate who jumped into the race as a replacement for the previous nominee, scandal-plagued Graham Platner.
The race has no clear frontrunner, according to the CNN poll, though Jackson holds a marginal lead.
Forty-nine percent of respondents told the outlet's pollsters they favored Jackson, compared to 45% for Collins. While Jackson is slightly ahead, at least 12.5% of voters say they could still change their minds.
Respondents tied Collins to her party less than any other Republican running for Senate in the nation, with 46% of respondents saying they believe she would choose her constituents over the Republican Party.
With Collins managing to distance herself from Trump, her race has largely become a referendum on her own career. Three-quarters of respondents from either party told CNN pollsters that their choice was motivated more by Collins than Jackson.
In Michigan, despite warnings from some mainstream Democrats and the state's Jewish community, Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed is building a lead over former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.
Respondents favored El-Sayed at 49% compared to the 42% who favored Rogers, according to the poll. CNN's previous poll, released in early September, showed El-Sayed with a 47% share compared to Rogers' 44%, showing the former public health director El-Sayed building on his lead.
The Democrat has consolidated his party's support after a contentious primary with Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich. Ninty-five percent of likely Democrat voters say they'll punch the ticket for El-Sayed, up from 90% in the September poll.
Rogers voters, meanwhile, are motivated more by dislike for the Democratic candidate than faith in the Republican. 57% told CNN pollsters they were voting against El-Sayed, up from 41% in a previous poll.
Rogers' favorability has also taken a hit, moving from 58% in September to 50% in October.
Texas
Texas State Rep. James Talarico also built upon a narrow lead over Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, despite Talarico's extended absence from the campaign trail in early October.
Forty-nine percent of likely voters told pollsters they'd vote for Talarico, while 43% said they would vote for Paxton, according to the poll.
Texas, a state that has voted for exactly one new Democratic Senate candidate into office since Lyndon B. Johnson vacated his seat to become vice president, also voted more strongly for Trump in 2024 than in either of his previous elections.
Despite the typically steadfast support for the GOP in the Lone Star State, Talarico is riding a wave of favorability and minority support to remain in pole position five days before polls close.
CNN's poll says 64% of likely voters of color support Talarico, including 22% of the cohort that voted for Trump in 2024.
Talarico is also leading Paxton in favorability within their own parties. 24% of Republicans have an unfavorable view of Paxton, according to the poll. Just 2% of Democrats, meanwhile, view Talarico unfavorably.
Kansas
In Kansas, a state which Trump won by 16 percentage points in 2024, incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., is falling behind Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton.
Forty-nine percent of likely voters say they support Hamilton, 45% say they support Marshall.
Hamilton, a relatively unknown candidate, is far outperforming his own party in a state where Democrats are broadly unfavorable. 57% of voters view the Democratic Party as unfavorable while only 38% of them feel the same about Hamilton.
Like Republicans in Michigan, likely voters in Kansas appear to be more highly motivated by a dislike for one candidate than strong positive feelings for another. 59% of Hamilton backers say they're motivated by opposition to Marshall.
Hamilton, a Christian pastor, is even drawing support from across the aisle. Roughly 12% of Republicans and Republican-leaning likely voters say they support Hamilton, according to the poll.
CNN conducted its polling via telephone between Oct. 20 and Oct. 27. Registered voters were randomly sampled, according to the outlet. 838 likely voters were considered in Kansas, 783 in Maine, 768 in Michigan and 923 in Texas. CNN tabulated its margins of sampling error at plus or minus 4.5% for Kansas and Maine, 4.7% in Michigan and 4.2% in Texas.
Fox News Digital contacted all eight campaigns for further comment.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., rejected a question from CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju about seating newly elected Democrats as a "nonsense narrative."
While campaigning in Iowa for Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, whose seat is among those that Democrats are targeting ahead of next week's midterm elections, Johnson fielded questions from Raju about President Donald Trump and the GOP's political strategy during the elections and beyond.
"Will you vow to seat every Democrat who wins on Jan. 3?" Raju asked, referring to the day elected members will be sworn in.
"Of course, this is a nonsense narrative," Johnson replied. "We are going to follow the law."
"What if Trump says ‘it's a rigged election’?" Raju asked.
"Look, I'm a constitutional attorney. I've always been steady and consistent about this. This is going to be a no-drama swearing-in ceremony, but we're going to hold the majority, and I'm going to be the speaker of the House," Johnson said. "And when I administer the oath, there will be one on Jan. 3. We'll administer the oath to everybody."
"I'll do my job as the speaker of the House," Johnson replied. "The president has vowed, of course, he wants to follow the law as well. That's what's going to happen."
Johnson also defended Trump’s involvement in midterm races, saying he is having "no drag at all" on Republicans’ chances.
"I’ve seen the voters on the ground, and I’m telling you the polls are wrong, they are inaccurate, they’re underrepresenting Republicans and many of the pollsters have admitted that," he said. "The polling isn’t accurate, the Republicans aren’t responding anymore."
Raju challenged that assessment, questioning why Republicans were spending heavily in traditionally Republican districts.
"You're spending millions in deep Republican districts," Raju said.
Johnson responded that Iowa is a state where Republicans "always win, but it's close" and said battleground districts exist across the country, particularly following recent redistricting efforts.
"We have to win in the districts that are presented, and we’re leaving everything on the field to get it done," he said.
Mary Marslender, a GOP consultant and former senior advisor to the U.S. Senate, criticized Raju's questioning in comments to Fox News Digital.
"CNN is once again pushing a fake narrative — color me shocked. Instead of chasing a nonexistent 'Trump won’t seat Democrats' story, Manu Raju should focus on reporting the news that matters," Marslender said. "Americans are concerned about costs, wages, the border, and crime. If reporters covered those real issues, perhaps their audiences wouldn’t keep shrinking. Speaker Johnson’s answers were consistent with both the law and standard House procedure. Raju’s repeated hypotheticals reveal more about the story CNN wants to tell than any actual plan to block lawmakers."
Fox News Digital reached out to Johnson's office and CNN for additional comment but did not immediately receive responses.
The fiance of Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich. has come out and said he cannot vote for Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, believing he is an antisemite.
Stevens, though, remains undaunted, backing the candidate for Senate. Jason Turkish, a Jewish registered Democrat, told The Detroit News he will be voting for Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers, appearing at a Rogers event sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition on Wednesday night at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham, Michigan.
"I waited, and I watched and I listened for Abdul to moderate – but he didn't moderate, he escalated," Turkish, a Michigan lawyer himself, told reporters on the sidelines of that event in a video published by The Detroit News.
"He's gotten worse, and worse and worse as this general election campaign has gone on. Rather than bringing people together, he's just driven them further and further apart."
Despite Turkish's concerns, Stevens has not backed down from her support for the Democrat who defeated her in a closely fought primary this summer.
Turkish says El-Sayed's anti-Israel rhetoric makes his community "less safe," fearing his party will bend to radicals claiming that there is a "genocide" in Gaza.
"When he says genocide over and over again, when he refuses to condemn an ad that says Jews are to blame for the price of bananas, he makes my community less safe," Turkish said. "He makes a lot of communities less safe."
El-Sayed is a longtime critic of Israel, calling the war in Gaza a "genocide." Israel argues that it is fighting terrorists that are using Gaza civilians as human shields, taking efforts to avoid civilian casualties, such as notifying people and telling them to evacuate buildings before conducting strikes.
"Every time he talks about genocide, Jews get death threats," Turkish added. "We have never seen a candidate for U.S. Senate act so recklessly toward the safety of Jews in the community as we have seen from Abdul."
Turkish rebuked the candidate's ties to California streamer Hasan Piker, and El-Sayed's refusal to distance himself from someone he had said America deserved 9/11.
"I watch him in recent weeks as he has become verbally combative with any reporter who has the gall, as he sees it, the gall to ask him about Hasan," Turkish said.
"Everything we hear from Abdul El-Sayed includes equivocation, and it includes equivocations to try to explain away hate, and there is no explaining away hate. And I predict to you that Michigan will reject this."
Turkish, a Democratic donor who has also given to some Republicans, described his decision as "putting country before party."
"This is not someone we can let into the United States Senate," Rogers said of El-Sayed at his Wednesday night campaign event, making no mention of Turkish's vote in his stump remarks. "If you don't know Iran is our enemy and you can't condemn a Hezbollah-inspired attack, you have no business being in the United States Senate."
Turkish is the second major figure from Stevens’ orbit to back Rogers in recent days. Her former campaign chair, attorney David Kramer, said Tuesday he also plans to vote for Rogers. Stevens endorsed El-Sayed after the primary but has not campaigned or appeared with him publicly since a unity breakfast shortly afterward.
We’re updating this forecast to move South Carolina from Lean R to Toss-up.
As this week’s Power Rankings reported, Republicans already viewed this as an uncomfortably close race. That belief is now widely shared.
Tonight, the president is headed back there to help Sen. Darline Graham in the Upstate, where she underperformed in her primary runoff against Rep. Ralph Norman.
New polling has Democratic challenger Annie Andrews and Graham tied at 48%-48%.
The Senate is still a toss-up with six states to decide the majority. On a good night for the Democrats, their ceiling rises to 54 seats. A good night for the Republicans could see them retain control with up to 52 seats.
It seems like there are two electorates in these midterms.
The first is frustrated with President Trump and ready to reject Republicans. It includes growing numbers of independent, rural and Hispanic voters who say they’ll vote for a Democrat.
That’s what the latest round of House polling shows, including a survey last week that had Democrats up 11 points on the generic ballot and Fox’s most recent national poll.
The second electorate is wavering on Republicans but won’t necessarily hand Democrats the Senate. These are the voters in the Midwest and a few other places. They say they prefer the Democrat or Republican in their states by a point or two at most.
That’s the right conclusion from most of the battleground Senate polling.
How could both things be true? In other words, if Democrats have such a wide lead in the House, won’t the Senate fall too?
Both are true, and a big lead in the House doesn’t necessarily translate to the Senate. These voters are all in the same electorate, and they only seem divorced from each other because the House and Senate maps are so far apart this year.
The president’s declining approval rating and Democratic advantages on the issues will likely deliver them the House and possibly by many seats.
Those advantages have also allowed the blue team to play in a lot of Senate races that Republicans thought were unreachable, but only to the point of making them battlegrounds.
The road to a Senate majority goes through several states that Trump won by 11 points or more. Democrats can win any of these races. If Republicans turn out and stay loyal to their party, the climb for the left will be steep.
That’s why the Senate is a toss-up. Voters could give Democrats a majority and maybe with several seats to spare. They could also let the Republicans keep control.
We’ll find out in seven days.
Democrats have strong advantages on most key issues
In his 11-year political career, President Trump has triumphed over almost all of the threats to his power. The exception was the coronavirus pandemic, which was the top issue for voters in the 2020 election and ushered in the Biden presidency.
It was also one of the few threats that Trump has faced from abroad.
This time, Trump and the Republicans face a new foreign opponent: Iran. The administration’s decision to start joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes against the nation in February has cast a shadow over the GOP.
First, it has impacted Trump’s approval rating, which will decide the fate of many congressional Republicans and has fallen since the war began. It was 44% in the last pre-war survey and sits at 36% now.
The war has also given Democrats advantages on the top issues. In Fox’s October survey, Iran played a role in four issues that more than two-thirds of voters said they were concerned about: inflation (85%), gas prices (83%), government leadership (79%) and the war in Iran itself (75%).
Most voters said they preferred the Democrats to handle those issues: 16 points on inflation, 12 points on gas prices, 11 points on leadership and 9 points on foreign policy.
Republicans are competitive on home turf
Still, voters are not convinced that the Senate should change hands.
That comes down to the territory. Trump won seven of these 10 battleground states in 2024 and six of them by double digits. That includes Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.
Democrats don’t need to win all of those states to take the Senate, but it’s hard to see how they get to 51 seats without at least two of them.
While former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown leads in Ohio, the other states are close. Turnout, a polling error in either direction, or both could decide them.
There are also a lot of undecided voters. In Alaska, Iowa and Kansas, three states with recent high-quality polling, an average of 10% of voters say they haven’t decided who they will support or won’t support the major candidates.
Any guess on how those voters will break at the ballot box is only a guess. All we know from prior results is that the overall electorate leans conservative, so the Democrats have the tougher assignment to bring them over to their side (or keep them at home).
There are far fewer undecided voters in Texas, where last week’s Fox News Poll showed a tied race at 49%-49%.
If Democrats only win two Trump-won battlegrounds, they’ll need to win three other races where former Vice President Harris delivered single-digit victories in 2024: Maine, Minnesota and New Hampshire.
Democrats are ahead in the latter two. Maine could go either way. While Democrats win its presidential races, it could just as easily be considered a Republican state when Susan Collins is on the ballot.
The final Fox News Power Rankings for 2026 feature three shifts in the Senate and 19 in the House. A tight gubernatorial race is also on the move.
Senate: Democrats are favored in 48 seats; Ohio moves to Lean D and South Carolina moves to Toss-up
Both parties are short of a majority in this forecast. Democrats are favored in 48 seats, and Republicans are ahead in 46 (they would control the Senate with 50 seats because the vice president breaks ties).
On a good night for Democrats, the party would win most or all the toss-ups, taking the majority with up to 54 seats. In that scenario, other competitive states would also come into focus, including one rated Lean R, and on a great Democratic night, two more rated Likely R.
A good night for the Republicans would see them simply hold on to most of the states they already have, up to a ceiling of 52 seats. The party also has opportunities to flip a couple of states, including Minnesota and New Hampshire.
Three states are moving in this forecast.
Ohio
In Ohio, Brown has enjoyed a lead in three Fox News polls this year, including last week’s survey, which had him five points ahead of Republican incumbent Sen. Jon Husted at 52%-47%.
Ohio voters are very familiar with Brown, having sent him to the Senate three times. That has made it hard for Husted to campaign on socialism and woke politics, themes that Republicans elsewhere see as their strongest cards to play.
Ohio moves from Toss-up to Lean D.
("Lean D" means the Democrat has an edge, but it’s still a highly competitive race. We define every ranking and the process for setting them on FoxNews.com.)
South Carolina
As this week’s Power Rankings previously reported, Republicans already viewed this as an uncomfortably close race. That belief is now widely shared.
Tonight, the president is headed back there to help Senator Graham in the Upstate, where she underperformed in her primary runoff against Rep. Ralph Norman.
South Carolina moves from Lean R to Toss-up.
Mississippi
Mississippi is a Republican stronghold, but Trump’s decision to rally there over other deep red states is a sign that the party thinks it’s competitive.
GOP Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith faces Democratic District Attorney Scott Colom in a race where protein choice has become a breakout issue.
Mississippi moves from Solid R to Likely R.
House: The floor for Democrats ticks up four seats to 223
Democrats are still likely to flip the House this November, and in this forecast, they’re predicted to take at least 223 seats.
Since a good night for the Democrats would see them take most of the toss-up races, they could end up with as many as 240 seats.
(On a great Democratic night, the party would pick up most of the Lean R districts as well, taking them as high as 252 seats.)
Republicans have 195 seats in their columns. A good night for them would take that total up to around 212. That’s six short of a majority, but enough to make life difficult for the next Democratic House Speaker, who would have to balance the demands of the moderate and far-left wings of the party.
Nineteen more races have shifted in the Democrats’ direction this week, all on the same themes outlined in the last House update: national and district polling, top-of-the-ticket strength and rural voter erosion.
The earliest-closing districts on election night will give some sense of the House’s future. Keep an eye on Kentucky’s 6th district, which covers Lexington and a large central area of the state. Trump won here by 15 points in the last presidential election. Thanks to a combination of left-leaning college voters and farmers grappling with higher costs, it looks close this cycle. The district moves from Lean R to Toss-up.
Governor: Ad or no ad, the Ohio governor’s race moves to Lean D
Finally, Ohio’s gubernatorial race is also on the move. The campaign between Democrat Amy Acton and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy was the top story in politics last week after Ramaswamy ran an ad featuring Acton’s mother, who called her daughter a liar.
Acton has been estranged from her mother since age 12, when she says she and her brother left her family home because her mother’s husband was sexually abusing her. Acton’s brother now appears in a response ad discussing their family history.
This ratings change is less about the response to the ad (Ramaswamy and President Trump are supportive of the commercial; most others, including Husted and Governor Mike DeWine, are against it) than it is about the fact that the Ramaswamy campaign felt the need to run it.
While Ramaswamy sat only two points behind Acton in last week’s Fox poll, he’s an average of seven points behind in other high-quality polls since September.
The businessman and onetime presidential hopeful has struggled in favorability ratings throughout his political career. This ad is unlikely to help.
The Ohio governor’s race moves from Toss-up to Lean D.
Fox News’ special coverage of the 2026 midterm elections begins at 6 p.m. ET next Tuesday, November 3, anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. Tune in for the latest race calls and projections for control of the House and Senate from the Fox News Decision Desk.
With less than a week until Election Day, both parties are making a final push to shape the fight for control of Congress.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance are rallying Republicans across the country, while former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris are campaigning for Democrats.
The map traces their campaign stops so far this month, with states visited by both sides shaded gray.
Trump has been on the campaign trail nearly every day this month, visiting states from Oklahoma to Florida.
He said in early October he planned to hold five to seven rallies a week, a pace he maintained last week with stops in Corinth, Mississippi; Corpus Christi and Lubbock, Texas; and Chillicothe, Ohio.
His schedule continues this week, with rallies planned in South Carolina, Florida, Kansas and Iowa.
The map tracks campaign travel, not a ranking of the most competitive races. Still, the stops show both parties deploying high-profile surrogates in states where control of Congress could be decided.
Ohio, Texas and Iowa have competitive Senate contests. Recent Cook Political Report polling showed Democratic candidates narrowly ahead in all three, while Michigan is also a key Senate battleground.
Obama and Harris have campaigned in several states with closely watched contests. Obama stumped in Ohio and Michigan, while Harris made recent stops in Nevada, Mississippi and New Hampshire to support Democratic candidates.
Their visits show Democrats leaning on familiar national figures to boost candidates ahead of Election Day.
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