A top Democratic operative warned that poor campaigns and candidate choice from Republicans are opening the door for Democrats to seize control of the Senate during an interview with Fox News Digital.
Dan Turrentine, who served as chief of staff to current Colorado Gov. Jared Polis when he was a member of Congress, said several close Senate races seem to be trending Democrat in the leadup to Tuesday's election.
"Five days out, Democrats have a pretty good chance to retake the Senate," Turrentine said.
He cited several races, including North Carolina, where incumbent Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is retiring. That seat, which has long been red, seems poised to flip as polls show former Gov. Roy Cooper holds a commanding lead over former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley.
Republicans, who are widely projected to lose their slim House majority, currently hold a 53-47 lead in the Senate. In addition to North Carolina, a number of surprisingly close Senate races in both swing states like Ohio and Michigan, and in typically deep red states such as Texas, Kansas and Missouri, have Democrats like Turrentine hopeful they can gain full control of Congress on Tuesday.
While crediting smart campaigning from Democrats, Turrentine also pinned Republican shortcomings on what he called poor candidate quality. He cited Ken Paxton in Texas, Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi, Roger Marshall in Kansas and Darlene Graham Nordone, who is running to take the seat of her late brother, former Sen. Lindsey Graham.
"If Republicans lose the Senate, it’s likely one of those four loses," said Turrentine, who hosts "The Huddle" podcast with former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. "While the president's standing is part of the problem, that last mile comes down to weak candidate quality."
But while Democrats are performing well in polls, Turrentine acknowledged that previous surveys have overstated support for his party.
"Campaigns are terrified about polling," he said, adding that "reaching voters is harder than ever; people don't have landlines and routinely ignore unknown numbers."
"We’ve had consecutive change elections — 2016, 2022, 2024 — where polling struggled to capture late-breaking dynamics. Will frustrated Trump voters stay home, or will early Democratic surges in Texas just reflect high-propensity voters banking votes early rather than expanding the electorate? Nobody knows, and people have a knot in their stomach about Tuesday," he said.
Turrentine was a even more confident in a Democratic takeover of the Senate before this week's bombshell New York Times report alleging that Alaska Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola helped recruit a man named Daniel J. Sullivan to run against incumbent Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan, R-Alaska, to ostensibly confuse voters into accidentally choosing Daniel J. Sullivan over the incumbent senator.
Peltola has denied any involvement in the former Sullivan's campaign.
"Peltola has led almost every single poll until yesterday. Like so many of these states, Democrats win on disgruntled Republicans. It wouldn't take much for those voters to say they can't stomach the Democrat," said Turrentine, adding that the Frontier State may now be a tossup.
If Alaska's Senate seat slips from the Democrats' grip, a majority could come down to the Democrats winning Ohio, Texas and one of Michigan, Maine, Kansas or Mississippi, Turrentine said.
"In Maine, we've spent entire careers thinking we’re going to defeat [GOP incumbent] Susan Collins. It feels slightly different this time, but it also doesn't; she’s within a point or two. No Democrat wants the majority coming down to Maine or Alaska," he added.
Collins trails Graham Platner replacement Troy Jackson 49-45, according to a recent CNN poll.
If the Democrats do take the Senate, Turrentine suggested, they will have to contend with the rising tide of socialism and an increasingly popular far-left wing within the party.
"This tension between who will be what I'll call the majority makers and the base that feels like... both feel like, 'You need me,' right? A moderate can't win if the base doesn't turn out," Turrentine added.
He relayed party criticisms of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is poised to become speaker should the Democrats wrest control of the lower chamber from the GOP.
"Nobody knows where Hakeem Jeffries comes down. And no one knows who Hakeem Jeffries is," Turrentine said.
"Pelosi had the trust of both wings; Hakeem Jeffries still faces questions from both sides about where he stands, all while [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer watches for a primary challenge from his left," he added.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — CodePink D.C. Coordinator Olivia DiNucci last month posted a TikTok video of herself in a home supporting an issue far afield from her usual battles supporting the Communist Party of Cuba and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
This time, she was backing a local ballot measure, "Initiative 86," introduced in early February in the D.C. City Council to ban foie gras, a fine-dining delicacy made from duck liver, and other products made from birds. D.C. residents will vote on the measure on election day with early voting already started.
The campaign presents itself as a grassroots effort to advance animal welfare, but public financial filings reveal a far more heavily funded operation. A national animal-rights network has supplied hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial support, underwriting paid petition circulators, political consultants, staff salaries and advertising in a campaign that could reshape Washington’s restaurant industry. Far from a shoestring local initiative, the effort has reported nearly half a million dollars in contributions and expenditures, much of it backed by an organization that openly describes local ballot measures as stepping stones toward a broader "pro-animal future."
A Fox News Digital investigation of campaign-finance records, nonprofit filings and the groups’ own organizing documents traces the people, money and long-term strategy behind Initiative 86 and raises questions about how a fight over one luxury menu item became part of a much larger political campaign over what Americans eat.
Pro-Animal Future, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit based in Portland, Ore., launched the campaign, nicknamed I-86, in D.C. and says its local ballot efforts are part of a broader push to change public attitudes toward common animal agricultural practices. Its IRS filing also lists its name as Pro-Animal DC.
In seven financial reports filed with the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, Pro-Animal DC provides a window into a local political campaign’s operational, financial and logistical infrastructure.
According to its latest filings, Pro-Animal DC collected a whopping $474,190.62 between Sept. 23, 2025, and Oct. 26, 2026, for the local campaign, with Pro-Animal Future as its major backer, providing it $386,435.77.
Its largest expense is stipends totaling $126,780.36, or about one-quarter of the campaign’s expenses, to a paid professional protest organizer: Cady Witt, whose LinkedIn profile lists her as "community impact coordinator" at "DC Voters for Animals." Witt is also listed as the treasurer of Pro-Animal DC in its campaign reports.
Pro-Animal DC reported another $89,224.00, or about 20% of its expenses, for 293 payments to 64 people described as "consultant - circulator" from September 2025 through October 26, 2026. They got an average payment of $1,394.13 per person.
Also a professional organizer, CodePink’s DiNucci is typically a fixture at anti-Israel demonstrations and foreign affairs hearings. CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans is married to an American-born, China-based tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, whose funding of activist groups has drawn scrutiny from congressional lawmakers and is the subject of a federal investigation. Pro Animal Future said CodePink doesn’t have a role in its campaign beyond DiNucci’s appearance in her TikTok video.
Pro-Animal Future alleges that birds are "force fed" to gain the weight needed to produce foie gras, and it says its campaigns seek to end "force-feeding" birds and shift public views on animal agriculture. According to its latest available IRS 990 tax filing, Pax Fauna, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Denver, says it’s related to Pro-Animal Future, which it described as doing "lobbying" work.
In 2024, Pax Fauna outlined a 10-year roadmap to build local ballot campaigns and eventually pursue statewide "factory-farming" bans and establish "animal freedom."
The roadmap called such measures a way to "provoke a sort of identity crisis for the voting public" and "storm the nation". The group sought to launch as many as 10 local chapters during the 2025-2026 election cycle.
An anonymous purchaser bought the web domain ProAnimalDC.org in April 2025, according to online records. Today, Pro-Animal Future lists its current campaigns as running in D.C. and Denver and says it worked with Portland’s City Council to ban foie gras sales this past June.
Pax Fauna’s founders said they have spent years organizing with Direct Action Everywhere, an animal-rights 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Berkeley, Ca.
Last year, according to its filings, Pro-Animal Future spent $7,703.70 for Airbnb accommodations. This year, on July 31, it spent $22,418.69 for Airbnb accommodations. Pro-Animal DC has stated that the lodging was for about 60 out-of-town "volunteers" who came to Washington, D.C., in July for a signature-gathering effort called "Goosapalooza." On its website, it promoted the "free housing."
The measure’s language has raised questions about how far the ban could reach. Its definition of a "fattened bird liver product" covers food or byproducts made from birds’ livers when the birds were fattened "through any method or practice," and specifically lists pâtés, spreads and processed meat products as products to be banned. The initiative separately defines "force-feeding" as causing a bird to eat more than it would voluntarily consume.
Former D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine told City Cast DC, a local media outlet, that the text "includes le poulet," which means chicken in French.
Jon Mandel, an attorney and former D.C. Council legislative staffer, told the same outlet, that the sales provision could reach poultry-liver products made without force-feeding.
Pro-Animal Future spokeswoman Natalie Fulton told City Cast DC the campaign isn’t trying to ban chicken and "is about foie gras." She added that the D.C. Council could clarify the language if voters approve the measure.
However, restaurants in the district who serve the delicacy aren't buying what activists are selling. Bart Hutchins, chef and co-owner of Butterworth’s, a Capitol Hill restaurant popular with Trump administration members, raised a similar concern in an interview with Fox News Digital. "Realistically that could ban at least 20 products that I can think of right off the top of my head that aren’t foie gras," he said. Hutchins said his restaurant would consider legal challenges if the measure passes.
Hutchins sees the initiative as part of a broader effort to restrict what Americans can eat. "If they ban foie gras here, they’ll eventually ban meat here, and they’ll bring that to the rest of the country," he said.
Pro-Animal Future’s 10-year roadmap calls for statewide factory-farming bans but doesn’t define "factory farming." Hutchins said he worries the term could be interpreted broadly.
This week, the dispute followed Hutchins to the 17th Street NW "High Heel Race," a Halloween drag event in the District. Witt, D.C. campaign director for Pro-Animal Future, appeared dressed as Hutchins, wearing a chef’s hat, glasses, a drawn-on mustache and a white corseted outfit.
Nearby, a person in a duck costume crouched with a feeding tube in its mouth. Washingtonian food editor Jessica Sidman shared photos on X, describing Witt simply as "Pro-Animal campaign coordinator." By late Thursday, the photos had 42,200 views, amplifying the campaign even further. Hutchins didn't appear phased by the mimicking, he took to X and said, "Bart derangement syndrome enters the lexicon."
The measure has also drawn opposition from celebrity chef José Andrés, whose D.C. restaurant serves foie gras. He questioned the ban’s broader implications on X, asking, "If duck goes, all goes next?"
The D.C. chief financial officer, Glen Lee, estimates implementing the measure would cost $314,000 from fiscal 2026 through 2029, including $274,000 for an additional inspector and $40,000 for public education. The fiscal impact statement says the District’s Department of Energy and Environment doesn’t inspect restaurant kitchens or other back-of-house operations and isn’t likely to do so. It says the inspector would investigate complaints, inspect establishments and coordinate with other agencies, but doesn’t detail how regulators would verify a product’s origin during routine inspections.
Hutchins said he would continue serving foie gras until the city resolves how to enforce the measure. He disputes the animal-welfare case for a ban, saying he doesn’t believe the feeding process that farms use to create foie gras hurts ducks. Pro-Animal DC’s findings say the practice causes pain and illness. Hutchins also said losing D.C. as a major market could threaten the country’s two commercial foie gras producers, Hudson Valley Foie Gras and La Belle Farm in New York state’s Catskills region.
The measure would regulate sales in D.C. The D.C. chief financial officer’s fiscal impact statement says, "The Office of Revenue Analysis is not aware of any bird farms or bird feeding operations in the District."
The Catskill Foie Gras Collective, a producer group, says its member farms raise ducks cage-free and use small, flexible plastic tubes to deliver feed to a pouch in their throats. It argues the process causes no pain, citing ducks’ anatomy, and says feeding is skipped if a bird hasn't finished digesting its previous meal. The collective also says Catskills foie gras farms employ about 400 people.
Fox News Digital reached out to Pro-Animal DC, which disputed critics’ claim that Initiative 86’s wording could extend to poultry-liver products beyond foie gras. The campaign said the measure is intended only to prohibit force-feeding and foie gras sales. It said "fattened" refers to the extreme enlargement of birds’ livers associated with foie gras production, not ordinary poultry farming. The campaign pointed to the measure’s findings, which describe covered products as luxury foods made from diseased, enlarged livers, and said the broad definition of "bird" is meant to prevent producers from switching species.
Pro-Animal DC said D.C. agencies and courts look to a law’s stated purpose when its wording allows more than one interpretation, and said it would welcome Council clarification if voters approve the measure. Asked what language could clarify the measure, spokeswoman Natalie Fulton didn’t elaborate.
The dispute leaves D.C. voters weighing a ballot measure presented as a foie gras ban while others raise broader questions about its wording, enforcement and the campaign’s long-term goals. For Hutchins, the stakes extend beyond one item on a restaurant menu; for Pro-Animal Future, Initiative 86 is one step in a larger effort to change farming practices at a national scale.
Fox News will deliver live results, race calls and around-the-clock coverage as voters decide control of Congress in the 2026 midterm elections.
Here's how to watch the biggest House, Senate and governor's races unfold across Fox News Channel, Fox News Digital and streaming platforms.
Election Day 2026 is just days away, and Fox News Media will deliver live, multiplatform coverage Tuesday, Nov. 3, as Americans head to the polls to decide control of Congress and key governor's offices across the country.
From closely watched Senate showdowns to competitive House races that could determine the balance of power in Washington, Fox News Channel and Fox News Digital will provide live results, breaking developments and analysis throughout Election Night.
Viewers can watch live coverage on Fox News Go with a participating television provider or stream Fox News Channel through FOX One.
Fox News Channel's special "FOX News Democracy 26" coverage begins at 6 p.m. ET Tuesday, co-anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
Dana Perino, Brit Hume, Harold Ford Jr., Bill Hemmer, Sandra Smith, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Watters, Sean Hannity and other Fox News personalities will contribute throughout the evening.
The Fox News Decision Desk will provide race calls for House, Senate and gubernatorial contests, along with projections of which party will control each chamber of Congress.
For this year’s election coverage, FNC will expand its use of augmented reality and data-driven graphics to provide viewers with a deeper understanding of election results as they unfold. Enhanced visualizations will illustrate county-level voting shifts compared to previous elections, track the balance of power in Congress and provide additional context around key races.
The network will also showcase versatile graphics packages, templates and automated production processes, allowing teams to respond quickly to breaking developments while building technology that can be used across future election cycles.
FOX Business will simulcast Fox News Channel's Election Night coverage from 6 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday. Trace Gallagher will lead overnight coverage until a special early edition of "FOX & Friends First" begins at 4 a.m.
On Fox News Digital, readers can follow a live Election Night blog featuring breaking developments, Fox News Power Rankings and Fox News Voter Analysis as polls close across the country.
The Fox News Elections Center will provide a central destination for tracking key races, election results and the battle for control of Congress.
The Fox News app will also debut a new "Midterms 2026" tab featuring interactive county-level election maps and an AI-powered "Election HQ" chatbot that answers questions about races and results using Fox News reporting.
Signed-in users can participate in "The Room," an interactive Election Night discussion experience featuring real-time commentary.
For additional Election Night analysis, "Ruthless Live! Midterm Election Show" will stream from 8 to 11 p.m. ET on Fox News Digital and FOX Nation.
Listeners can tune in to Fox News Radio or use the Fox News app's "Listen" feature beginning at 7 p.m. ET, when Jared Halpern and Jessica Rosenthal kick off live radio coverage.
More than 20 Fox News Channel and FOX Business correspondents will report from battleground states nationwide, while chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram will provide updates from Capitol Hill.
With control of the House and Senate on the line, make Fox News Channel and Fox News Digital your destination for Election Night 2026 results, live coverage and the latest developments from across the country.
With less than one week until the midterms, many have projected that Democrats could win in a 2018-style "blue wave," when they won 41 House seats, due to their almost 9-point lead in the generic congressional ballot and a national environment that has tilted drastically in their favor.
That is the wrong term for what is occurring.
Indeed, what we are looking at now is a red retreat, a red collapse, and a potential red defeat, not an overwhelming victory for Democrats or their policies.
Make no mistake, to the extent that we can determine the eventual outcome, Democrats are almost certain to take the House and have nearly a two-thirds chance to take the Senate.
At the same time, early voting numbers favor Democrats, as does the enthusiasm gap, which shows Democrats are more motivated to vote than Republicans.
This has shown up in primaries as well. In the twenty-two states that held competitive primaries this year, seventeen saw increases in Democratic voter turnout. In Texas alone, whereas in 2022, Republicans cast 900,000 more votes than Democrats, this year, Democrats cast 150,000 more – a 1.5 million vote swing.
Likewise, President Trump’s approval, averaging just 38%, is contributing to growing pessimism. When asked whether the country is on the right track or headed in the wrong direction, 32% now say the country is headed in the right direction, versus 63% who say it is on the wrong track, a net-negative 31 points.
In March 2025, that was just under a net-negative 9 points, underscoring the decline that has occurred and just how much Americans have soured on this administration.
To be sure, if a red retreat turns into a red collapse, Democrats will win the Senate.
However, the data also make clear that the shift in national sentiment can, in no way, be read as an endorsement of Democrats’ policies, to the extent that they have offered an agenda.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries came closest in the New York Times last weekend, outlining priorities on costs, health care, and checking the administration. But that was more a case against Republican rule than a governing blueprint with broad public support.
Indeed, if Democrats win the Senate, it will primarily be a product of frustration with the administration, inflation, and the war in Iran – not because voters endorse a sweeping Democratic agenda.
Currently, just under 40% of Americans have a favorable view of the Democratic Party. That is statistically tied with President Trump as well as the Republican Party.
Democrats should therefore resist treating victory as a license to move sharply left. Troy Jackson (Maine), Abdul El-Sayed (Michigan), and James Talarico (Texas) are running in different states and may win for different reasons, but no faction can claim ownership of the national result.
The test will be whether Democrats turn public anger into a disciplined agenda: lowering costs, restoring stability, checking executive overreach, and attracting support beyond their base. If, instead, they spend two years relitigating ideological fights, their majority will be short-lived.
In fact, in a recent ABC survey, democratic socialism was deeply unpopular, with ratings bordering on Trump’s. Less than 4 in 10 (37%) of Americans had a favorable view, while 59% did not.
In that same vein, even Democratic voters are not sold. When asked whether they prefer the Democratic Party to move further to the political center or the political left, 48% of Democrats preferred the center, versus 27% who preferred moving to the left, according to New York Times polling.
Among independents, arguably the most critical bloc, the findings are even more stark. More than 7 in 10 (72 percent) of independents want Democrats to move to the center, whereas just 11% want the party to go further left.
Even if Democrats do sweep both chambers of Congress, they will have won on a rejection of Trump and Republican governance – not a blank check to govern from the left. Victory would create an opportunity to provide competent, practical leadership, not a mandate.
All of this will matter for Democrats because the 2028 elections will unofficially start next Wednesday.
Democrats still lack a single recognized leader and remain divided between the far left and establishment wings, and the midterms will not resolve that fight. Their immediate task is proving they can govern competently, appeal to independents, and improve Americans' daily lives.
Ultimately, these midterms will be a referendum on President Trump and Republicans. Voters will cast their ballots with gas prices, mortgage rates, and other costs foremost in their minds, not with what it means for 2028.
A red retreat may deliver Democrats power. But if they mistake backlash for ideological conversion, they will squander the opening. Governing from the pragmatic center-left – focused on affordability, stability, and results – is how they rebuild trust.
Carly Cooperman is CEO of Schoen Cooperman Research.
A conservative legal group filed an election complaint in Maine Tuesday, alleging that more than 3,000 potentially dead people and hundreds of duplicate registrations were discovered on the state’s voter rolls just days before the pivotal midterm elections.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) identified 3,181 potentially dead voters and 693 duplicate registrations, urging the state to take action as Mainers prepare to cast their ballots Tuesday.
"Now we know why they were hiding them because there were problems on them," Adams told Fox News Digital. "They have dead people, they have lots of duplicates and they have general problems. It's something that should have been fixed a long time ago."
The complaint, which was filed with Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, argues election officials have not made a "reasonable effort" to remove ineligible voters from the official list.
Adams said the state should have discovered the information, not his group.
"Why does it take a third-party group like the Public Interest Legal Foundation to find these duplicates?" Adams said.
The group is asking the state to take "additional corrective action," warning it "may have no other recourse" but to appeal through the complaint process under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), a 2002 election reform law, if nothing is done.
The group compared those findings with its previous investigation in 2025, which found 18,453 potentially dead voters and 1,498 duplicate or triplicate registration records in Maine. The state addressed many of the records identified that year, but PILF said some errors remain while "new problems have arisen."
Several searches were used in the analysis to identify records that shared the same address, first and last names and birth year, as well as typos, punctuation errors, common nicknames and birth-year discrepancies.
The complaint requests that Maine review the group’s analysis, immediately remove ineligible voters and implement a plan to ensure the state complies with HAVA "now and in the future."
"I hope she gets the job done and removes all these duplicates," Adams said.
Adams said his group has been embroiled in an ongoing legal battle and Bellows has a history of trying to "criminalize" PILF for revealing what they found. PILF sued Maine roughly six years ago over access to the state’s voter rolls and won a federal appeals court case in 2024 that required the state to make the records public.
"There's a history here of Secretary Bellows not wanting the public to know what kind of job she's doing," Adams said.
Adams accused Bellows of focusing on "defending sort of blue theories" rather than keeping Maine's voter lists accurate and up to date.
"Unfortunately, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows is not getting the job done," he said.
One of Adams' biggest concerns is that someone could use a dead person's registration to illegally vote. He said progressive state officials are reluctant to immediately remove dead voters out of fear they could mistakenly remove eligible voters, potentially leaving the door open for fraud.
"The problem is that sometimes people vote for the dead people," he said.
But Adams said he believes Maine has been trying to keep its problems out of the public eye for a long time.
"Maine has a longstanding problem trying to hide public information about whether or not they're doing a good job," he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Bellows’ office for comment.
The legal filing comes just days before Mainers vote in a critical and tight U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Susan Collins and her Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson. The winner could determine the balance of power in the Senate.
While prominent Democrats have spent years warning about threats to democracy, dozens of lawmakers and governors who endorsed Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola have declined to respond to Fox News Digital's questions about a reported effort to confuse voters and potentially cost Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan his seat.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that aides to Democratic Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola helped recruit a man named Dan Sullivan to run in an alleged effort to draw votes from Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan – though Peltola's campaign has denied involvement.
Fox News Digital reached out to 42 Democratic lawmakers and governors who endorsed Peltola to ask whether they would denounce the alleged effort to mislead Alaska voters.
As of publication, not a single one has responded.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, for instance, stated that "voter suppression is poisonous, it is toxic to our democracy," in 2022. His colleague, Sen. Chris Murphy, meanwhile, argued in April 2025 that "those of us who believe that the threat to democracy is urgent" need to "act like it."
And Sen. Cory Booker said in December 2016 that "protecting American democracy is a calling far higher than party politics."
Despite their outspoken defenses of democracy and insistence that protecting it should transcend party politics, none of these lawmakers responded to Fox News Digital's questions about the alleged effort to mislead Alaska voters.
Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat who has made a name for himself by publicly breaking with his party on some issues, has also remained mum on the controversy.
Peltola has asserted that her campaign "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign." The Times, for its investigation, relied on text messages it obtained as well as interviews with former campaign staffers.
The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Alaska on Oct. 22 seeking to delay certification of the state's Senate election if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses and votes cast for the other Sullivan could have changed the outcome, pending an investigation into whether voter confusion played a role in the result.
Legal experts from across the political spectrum who previously spoke to Fox News Digital said that the case faces significant challenges, particularly as it relates to trying to infer voter intent from anonymous ballots and overcoming the sovereignty of states over their elections.
Among the other Democratic Senators reached by Fox News Digital were Sens. Adam Schiff, Alex Padilla, Maggie Hassan, Chuck Schumer, Catherine Cortez Masto, Angela Alsobrooks, Andy Kim, Brian Schatz, Ed Markey, Elissa Slotkin, John Hickenlooper, Jon Ossoff, Kirsten Gillibrand, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Mark Kelly, Michael Bennet, Ruben Gallego, Sheldon Whitehouse and Tammy Duckworth.
The U.S. House members reached by Fox News Digital included Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chris Pappas, Brittany Pettersen, Eric Sorensen, Mike Levin, Hillary Scholten, Jared Huffman, Josh Harder, Pramila Jayapal, Sarah McBride, George Whitesides, Jonathan Nez and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who does not currently hold office but is running to retake his Senate seat, and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, were also asked for their reactions on the reporting.
Democratic Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland, Gavin Newsom of California, as well as former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper – who is in the midst of a Senate campaign – were also reached for comment.
Peltola's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
At least one Democrat has publicly criticized the alleged tactic. Iowa Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rob Sand told Fox News on Sunday that "both parties are doing it and neither party should be doing it," calling such efforts "manipulating the political system."
A federal judge on Friday temporarily barred the Trump administration from threatening election workers with criminal prosecution over ballots tied to suspected noncitizens.
U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson found that the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security likely violated the Voting Rights Act's prohibition against voter intimidation by threatening election workers with prosecution for processing ballots from voters the administration claims are ineligible, just days before the midterm elections.
"One of the hallmarks of a fair election is the freedom to exercise the right to vote free from threat, fear, or intimidation," Thompson, a Biden-appointed judge, wrote in the eight-page order.
The ruling comes as the Trump administration has sought voter registration information from states ahead of the Nov. 3 elections, arguing that its efforts are aimed at preventing noncitizen voting and protecting election integrity.
The temporary restraining order prohibits federal officials from threatening, intimidating or coercing state and local election workers into halting ballot processing solely because the administration alleges certain registered voters are ineligible.
The order also bars the administration from demanding that election officials remove registered voters from voter rolls, refuse to issue them ballots or segregate or decline to count their ballots based solely on those allegations.
The lawsuit was brought by labor unions and civil rights organizations, including the Service Employees International Union and the NAACP.
"Because the public has a paramount interest in ensuring that election officials and workers are able to carry out their work in accordance with federal law and election procedure, and the official day of the Elections is only a couple of days away, the balance of the equities and public interest weigh in Plaintiffs' favor," Thompson wrote.
"Ballots have already been issued," Thompson also noted. "Americans have already begun voting."
Thompson also ordered the administration to notify state and local governments that received the disputed letters that the demands and threats of prosecution contained in them have been blocked.
Earlier Friday, a federal appeals court separately ruled against the Trump administration's emergency request to require California to set aside mail-in ballots associated with roughly 20,000 voters federal officials identified as likely noncitizens while their citizenship status was verified.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Justice Department's request to set aside the disputed mail-in ballots while officials reviewed the voters' citizenship status, handing the administration another setback just four days before Election Day.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
"The View" co-hosts agreed with former Vice President Kamala Harris Friday that impeachment would not be a good use of the Democratic Party’s time and resources if the party wins back control of Congress in the midterm elections.
"I think that going on in the direction of impeachment is not a good idea," Harris warned Tuesday on "The Parnas Perspective" podcast. "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."
After playing a clip of Harris' comments, "The View" co-hosts agreed with her assessment.
"In terms of Trump, no, I don't think that's what should be on the agenda," co-host Sunny Hostin said. "Hakeem Jeffries — who I believe will be the next speaker of the House, after November — he has a plan for 100 days which includes tax credits, taking care of the tax credits, limiting ICE and also stock trades.
"And then he's got a plan for the first 100 hours, which would include, you know, just undoing a lot of unpopular Trump policies. So, I think there is a plan in place that Democrats have, and it may not include impeaching Trump."
"I think that Democrats have to be realistic of what's achievable," co-host Ana Navarro said. "We are four days away from the election. So, before we start talking about what Democrats are going to do once they win, they've got to make sure they win.
"People have to focus not on all of the conversation about impeachment and what is going to happen but rather on getting out the vote and getting people to the polls so that the American people decide who they want in power in the House and in the Senate.
"There's a limit to what Democrats are going to be able to do even if they win the House, even if they win the House and the Senate, because Donald Trump is still president," she continued. "Legislation in this country needs to be signed by the president. If not, it needs to have a veto-proof majority. And I think that's going to be very difficult to achieve. I'm completely against impeachment.
"There's 100 other ways to hold Donald Trump and his administration accountable," Navarro added. "Impeachment is an exercise that's moot if you don't have the 67 votes in the Senate required to indict."
Joy Behar pointed to former President Richard Nixon's resignation from office after Republican lawmakers warned him that he lacked sufficient Senate support to avoid conviction if impeached and said of Trump, "If we don't have the votes to convict, there's no point in impeaching."
Sara Haines also agreed, arguing that many of Trump’s supporters are now angry with him for breaking campaign promises and that Democrats could capitalize on their dissatisfaction by delivering on their own promises.
"It's important to recognize the moment," she said. "Donald Trump was elected and promised things he never touched. He's been remodeling, redecorating, working to revenge, all the things. The voters were left high and dry, which is why we're seeing some red states flip full to blue," she said. "That's why we are watching this campaigning.
"They need to see someone get in there, hold them accountable, do the investigations, fine," Haines continued. "But really show the American people that what they promised, to fix all these things, that immediately there's action taken. Even if it can't get past the president. Spin the wheels. Show the people that you are putting up policy, that you are taking things to vote, that you are actually acting for the people that put you there."
"Impeachment is not where the focus should be," Alyssa Farah Griffin said. "It costs actually a lot of money to do a trial, do the investigation.
"What I think is important is there are day one things that would be beneficial for all Americans and a lot of Republicans would be on board with that a Democratic Congress could do," she continued.
"Repealing Trump's tariffs, that is the power of the purse controlled by Congress and trying to wind down or pause the war in Iran. Those are things you should get Republican votes to do. That will bring down people's fuel prices. Those are where the focus should be."
Earlier this month, veteran Democratic strategist James Carville also warned Democrats against impeaching Trump if the party wins control of Congress in the midterms.
Democratic strategist and co-host of "The Huddle" podcast Dan Turrentine told Fox News Digital, "Neither the Senate arithmetic nor the American people are there. Folks are angry with the president about the economy, tariffs, healthcare, the war with Iran, corruption. They feel he is focused on everything but them.
"Our job is to fight for the real lives of real people, solving their problems, while providing appropriate oversight of the executive branch and trusting the electorate provides accountability," he added.
"The quickest path back to the minority or continuing to be on the outside, looking into the White House, is to focus on revenge and score settling."
McKinney, Texas, is ground zero for the migration of voters from California to Texas over the past several years. On Election Day, it is these newcomers who may well tip the balance not just in the Senate and governor's races.
They may also decide whether the once ruby red Lone Star State will continue to grow bluer.
I met Oren at The Celt on the picture-postcard town square, where we played a friendly game of pool. He moved from California about a year ago "because it’s a lot cheaper to live" but is voting for Democrats because he believes that Texas needs "more social services and public transit" and more support for transgender kids.
When I gently tried to press Oren on the apparent illogic of moving away from a high-tax, big-government blue state for reasons of cost only to vote to make his new home a high-tax, big-government state, he was unmoved, almost arguing that real California progressivism has never been tried.
It turns out that Oren was not as much of an outlier as I had expected because, not long after, I met Daniel, who works at a local restaurant and moved to McKinney a few years ago with his best friend and girlfriend to start a business. He has also proudly brought his politics with him.
"It’s in the Constitution," Daniel told Fox News Digital. "We can go anywhere we want. It's meant to be that way."
When I asked him if he could understand why so many people born and raised in Texas are worried about transplants changing its politics, he shrugged and said, "Things change."
In the space of about five hours, I met two more refugees from California prepared to keep voting for Democrats. Like Oren and Daniel, they really did not see any irony in the fact that they may be recreating in Texas exactly the conditions they escaped in California.
The natives, however, do see the problem with the Californication of Texas. Terry, a longtime local in her 60s, told me, "I love to see the growth, and there’s a lot of it, but if they bring Democratic politics with them, then we stand to lose the whole thing bringing people here."
Clint, who was in town from his home just on the other side of the Oklahoma border, is worried not just about Texas turning blue through domestic migration, but even about the Sooner State eventually turning blue.
"I cannot comprehend why someone would move from a state because there’s high taxes and then come down here and vote for high taxes. I just can’t comprehend it," Clint told Fox News Digital. "And I’ve asked them to explain it to me, but they just cuss me out."
Thankfully, nobody cussed out this columnist for asking, but Clint is correct that the liberal transplants see no problem with transforming the red states they arrive in into blue states, and it's not just Texas.
Arizona and even Montana have seen influxes of liberal California voters. West Virginians have similar fears regarding their neighbors to the south in Northern Virginia, who are also attracted by the low taxes and cost of living.
In Texas, there is a kind of double-pincer political invasion because, along with the Cali converts, unchecked immigration — illegal and otherwise — over decades has also pushed the needle left in the state. This is, in a nutshell, the new Democratic Party coalition: wealthy, college-educated Whites and immigrants.
The bottom line for Republicans — not just in Texas but in many red states — is that Americans are moving at stunning rates to cheaper states, which almost always means Republican states. The good news is that red states stand to gain in the Electoral College and in Congress after the next census, but that won’t matter if Democrats take them over.
Between now and then, and especially on Tuesday, "Don’t you turn my red state blue" has to be the mantra of the GOP. If Texas falls this time, then anywhere can, and that is exactly what the Democrats moving to red states are hoping for and creating.
Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., is responding to questions about missed congressional votes after a monthslong hospitalization for depression, saying he is "stronger than ever" as he seeks re-election in New Jersey's competitive 7th District.
Speaking on "The Fox News Rundown" podcast, Kean discussed his hospital stay earlier this year, explaining that his absence from Congress was due to a medical emergency.
"Nobody can schedule a medical emergency, and we were able to discuss and tell people while I was in the hospital that we [had] a medical situation in the family with me," he told Fox News’ Mike Emanuel.
"I also spoke on the House floor when I returned that I'd been in the hospital for depression because I want to get rid of the stigma associated with any mental health condition."
In June, Kean returned to the House and disclosed that he had been diagnosed with depression after spending months in the hospital receiving treatment.
Kean had been absent from Congress since early March, missing more than 100 votes before publicly disclosing his diagnosis.
The extended absence drew calls for transparency from lawmakers in both parties and became a focal point for his Democratic challenger, former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett, in the competitive district.
Emanuel asked Kean whether his absence had affected his standing with voters.
"As I said, I'm feeling stronger than ever. And I tell them the same issue that I just talked to you about. The fact that I had to treat my own mental health, I had to take that seriously," Kean said.
"I was in the hospital for those months that I was away. I spoke on the House floor that I had depression, and now we need to get rid of any stigma associated with mental health treatment."
Kean also pointed to his legislative record, highlighting his work on bipartisan legislation in New Jersey that sought to require health insurers to provide equal coverage for mental and physical health treatment. He said he continues to pursue similar efforts in Washington.
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