Susan Collins’s husband held disclosed stock in two aerospace companies with Pentagon contracts. Democratic challenger Troy Jackson accused the Maine senator and her husband of making money from the Iran war. Both companies’ stock prices had fallen since the war began, and Collins said she had voted to end the war since April. She called Jackson’s accusation “absolutely outrageous.” He replied, “No, you owe me an apology.”
Contracts, wages and the cost of policy
Jackson said Maine’s economy was one “Donald Trump and Susan Collins have created.” Collins said she’d voted against Trump’s signature domestic policy bill and the war, and described herself as outspoken against Canadian tariffs. Jackson said she was “not being truthful” about her record. Polls showed the candidates running neck-and-neck in a race that could affect control of the Senate.
In Georgia, Democratic incumbent Senator Jon Ossoff asked Republican challenger Representative Mike Collins at least eight times how Trump’s tariffs had helped Georgians. Ossoff criticized Collins’s support for the Iran war and his vote for Trump’s domestic policy bill, which included cuts to Medicaid and health insurance premiums. “Whatever Donald Trump says,” Ossoff said, “Mike Collins does.”
Collins called Ossoff a “trust fund kid who’s never had a job in his life.” Ossoff’s primary holding was a blind trust worth between $1 million and $5 million, according to financial disclosures. Ossoff said Collins presented himself as an everyday trucker while owning a trucking company worth as much as $25 million, according to Collins’s financial disclosure report.
In Michigan, Democratic nominee Dr. Abdul El-Sayed argued that the public should hold a stake in artificial intelligence companies if they replace jobs. He proposed that more than half the board members at leading AI companies be publicly appointed or democratically elected rather than selected by shareholders. “If the corporations and their C.E.O.s are right that this is going to take nearly 50 percent of our white-collar jobs, I think it’s important for the public to have a real stake,” he said.
Republican former Representative Mike Rogers said local governments should decide whether to allow data centers and expressed hesitation about federal rules. He’s backed a temporary pause on construction. El-Sayed hasn’t backed a moratorium but supports strong federal guardrails.
Campaigns and public resources
In Maine, Jackson said his campaign belonged to people across the state, not to him or Graham Platner, the initial Democratic nominee who withdrew after a rape allegation that Platner denied. Jackson also attacked Collins over her 2018 vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who later helped overturn Roe v. Wade. Collins said Kavanaugh had convinced her he wouldn’t vote to overturn Roe, and said she had been pro-choice throughout her Senate service. She noted that Jackson, a former Republican, had opposed abortion protections in earlier years.
In Georgia, Ossoff criticized Collins over his history of hiring aides who had expressed white nationalist and antisemitic views. A Collins spokesman said two people who worked with the campaign were unpaid volunteers and that the campaign didn’t know about their past associations. Collins said he had “condemned racism, antisemitism, hate.”
In Syracuse, progressive groups Indivisible Onondaga County and CNY Solidarity Coalition were planning protests against Trump’s rally for Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor. Trump’s visit was his third rally for New York Republicans that year. Blakeman said his relationship with Trump meant that “when I call, he answers my phone,” which he said would be good for the state.
The report said the Iran war was driving up gas prices and tariffs were causing economic pain, particularly for farmers and people along the Canadian border. Blakeman’s campaign had $178,000 in the bank, while Gov. Kathy Hochul had $19 million cash on hand after a $10 million contribution from the New York State Democratic Party the previous month.
The fight for seats and party power
Democrats needed to retain all their Senate seats and flip at least four Republican-held seats, including three in states Trump had won three times. In the House, Democrats held 215 seats and needed to flip three for a majority; redistricting had reduced the number of competitive districts. Former President Obama warned at a Senate Democrats fundraiser that races showing a two- or three-point lead could still be lost by two points.
Potential candidates for the 2028 presidential race traveled, raised money and helped party candidates during the midterms. California Gov. Gavin Newsom campaigned in Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina, and backed Proposition 50, a California map that could help Democrats gain as many as five additional House seats in the state this fall.
The Associated Press reported that Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker had donated $38 million to the party’s midterm efforts, including roughly $20 million through his Ready for the Fight PAC. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s Truth and Courage PAC spent more than $2.4 million that year on ads supporting midterm candidates, mostly for Senate candidate Ken Paxton in Texas.
The New York Times reported that Trump’s approval rating was near 37 percent. The Wall Street Journal reported that Republican strategists and advisers described the midterm environment as one of the most difficult for an incumbent party in recent memory, with higher prices, the Iran war and low approval weighing on Republican prospects.