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Trump drops longtime aversion to mail-in voting with GOP trailing in polls

President Donald Trump speaks at the Mitchell Center at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama on Oct. 2, 2026, as he campaigns in GOP-leaning states ahead of the midterms. (Photo by Dan Anderson for Alabama Reflector) President Donald Trump wants to sharply curtail mail ballots. He’s called them “inherently corrupt” and baselessly condemned them as a major source of fraud. But with Republicans falling behind in the polls, the president is now urging his supporters to vote in the midterm elections any way they can, including by mail. The White House has also sent emails through a government account promoting voter registration in recent days and Trump is continuing a string of campaign rallies in typically conservative states, including Nebraska on Monday night. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed that members of the military, who tend to support Republicans, have a day off to vote. “If your state has early voting, do not wait. Go out and vote. Vote early, vote b...

US House Dems’ campaign chief predicts they’ll gain majority control in midterms

The U.S. Capitol on May 7, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — Democrats expect they’ll gain a majority of seats in the U.S. House following November’s midterm elections, giving the party a platform to serve as a check on the president’s power. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene said during an interview Monday that curbing the war in Iran and working on legislation to address the costs of healthcare would be at the top of the party’s agenda if it is able to flip that chamber. “And of course, act as an independent branch and do our job to hold the administration accountable,” she said. The Washington state Democrat said she views Republican super PACs spending millions of dollars in safe GOP districts as a sign that voters are moving toward Democratic candidates. “We’ve seen MAGA Inc. pour millions into House races and spending deep in red territory. Of the 38 districts that MAGA Inc. is spending in s...

Alabama state representative, school board member charged with attempted human trafficking

Rep. Brett Easterbrook, R-Fruitdale, walks across the floor of the House of Representatives on Feb. 3, 2026, at the Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. Easterbrook and Kory Wesley, president of the Satsuma City Schools Board of Education, were arrested Friday afternoon on charges of attempted human trafficking, which prosecutors described as part of a sting operation. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) An Alabama state representative and the former president of the Satsuma City Schools Board of Education were arrested Friday on charges of attempted human trafficking. According to court documents filed Monday morning, Rep. Brett Easterbrook, R-Fruitdale, and Kory Wesley, the former president of the Satsuma City Schools Board of Education, were arrested by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office Friday afternoon. The documents described the arrests as part of a sting operation, but did not provide further details. Messages seeking comment were left with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Of...

Federal funds for local police enforcement accelerated Trump immigration crackdown

Officers from the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at a traffic stop in Memphis in October, 2025. (Photo by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) WASHINGTON — This summer, arrests of immigrants in the United States soared to the highest levels since President Donald Trump returned to office. An unprecedented increase in cooperation between local and state law enforcement and federal immigration officers through collaborations known as 287(g) agreements helped drive numbers up. The agreements allow state and local law enforcement agencies to enforce parts of federal immigration law and have become an arm of Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Republicans in Congress have provided billions in federal funding for local departments that accept the agreements, creating a deluge of new partners. Theresa Cardinal Brown, a senior Department of Homeland Security official during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, said the billions in new ...

After states sue, Trump administration walks away from disability rights enforcement

Disability rights advocates rally at the Missouri State Capitol to protest the state’s participation in a lawsuit that began as an effort to block protections for transgender people but ended in a rollback of protections for people with disabilities. Missouri eventually withdrew from the suit, but five Republican-led states did not. (Photo by Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent) A court battle that began when conservative-led states sued to block protections for transgender people has ended in a rollback of protections for people with disabilities — a result disability advocates have feared for months. At the end of August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services joined the handful of conservative-led states suing it, and asked a court to strike language from a federal disability-rights regulation that directed states to prioritize serving disabled people in their communities rather than in nursing homes or institutions. Last week the judge did so, ending the case, Texas v...

Here’s what’s driving the Gen Z gender gap

A new poll from The 19th and YouGov sheds light on how young men and women are shaped by certain historical moments and tend to diverge on issues of gender and reproductive rights. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) Editor’s note: This story is part of Gen Z at the Ballot Box, a collaboration between States Newsroom and The 19th . Brenna Vandergeest was a teenager when her grandmother told her about Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court case that ended the federal right to an abortion . She said it lit a fire in her, one that has shaped her politics. “I think that really flipped a switch in my head because knowing as a woman that rights that had been protected for years and years have now been overturned — it really made me upset,” Vandergeest said. “It really drove my view on reproductive rights because I do believe that only a woman should have a say over her body, and it shouldn’t be up to the government.” Now a senior at Neumann...