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Members of the New Hampshire state House meet during session this May. Both of New Hampshire’s legislative chambers are considered among the most competitive this midterm election cycle, according to a recent analysis by Sabato’s Crystal Ball. (Photo by Molly Rains/New Hampshire Bulletin) Party control is up for grabs in 15 state legislative chambers across the country as Republicans are increasingly on the defensive this midterm election cycle, a new analysis found.  2026’s most competitive legislative chambers These are the state chambers considered most competitive by Sabato’s Crystal Ball Senior Columnist Louis Jacobson: Alaska House Alaska Senate Arizona House Arizona Senate Georgia House Maine House Michigan House Michigan Senate Minnesota House Minnesota Senate New Hampshire House New Hampshire Senate Pennsylvania Senate Wisconsin Assembly  Wisconsin Senate Source: Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics The nonp...

President Donald Trump waves to the crowd after speaking at the Mitchell Center at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama on Oct. 2, 2026. (Photo by Dan Anderson/Alabama Reflector) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has a flurry of travel on deck in the final frantic weeks leading up to the end of the midterm elections, in which the GOP is vying to maintain its control of both the U.S. House and Senate. But that outlook looks increasingly less favorable for Republicans, as analysts say Democrats remain heavily favored to win back the majority in the House, and Senate races continue to shift in the Democratic Party’s favor.  Adding to the trend,  the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter , an elections forecaster, shifted 11 additional House races in the direction of Democrats on Friday — in congressional districts in Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Ohio and South Carolina. The political report also currently lists seven Senate toss-up r...

An officer is seen in the yard of Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama on Oct. 22, 2019. The Alabama Department of Corrections said Friday completion of the $1.25 billion men's prison in Elmore County would be delayed. (File) The Alabama Department of Corrections said Friday that completion of the $1.25 billion Gov. Kay Ivey Correctional Complex, a 4,000-bed men’s prison in Elmore County, will be delayed.  The department said in a statement Friday that Caddell Construction, a Montgomery-based design-build contractor for the prison, “failed to timely meet the contractual final completion deadline” but that the company remains responsible for completing the project. The Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority, which oversees financing of the new prisons, “has exercised certain of its contractual rights, including its right to withhold payments from the design-build contractor, and is withholding funds sufficient for liquidated damages now due,” the news release...

A volunteer helps a young person fill out a form on National Voter Registration Day in 2025. For some young voters, abortion remains a defining issue, but for many others it ranks behind more immediate economic concerns. (Photo courtesy of Alliance for Youth Action) Editor’s Note: This story is part of Gen Z at the Ballot Box, a collaboration between States Newsroom and The 19th . Boise State University senior Cade Syvock opposes abortion. As president of the school’s chapter of the conservative group Turning Point USA, the organization founded by the late activist Charlie Kirk, Syvock helped coordinate anti-abortion protests on campus.  But he’s not spending much time this fall campaigning against an Idaho ballot initiative that would restore abortion access. Not for lack of interest — he calls the proposed law “very, very extreme” because it allows abortions after viability in certain emergency cases — but because of pressing economic issues he’d rather be working on. “It’s not ...

Bishop William Barber, of Repairers of the Breach, spoke alongside voting rights advocates from Common Cause, the ACLU, Indivisible, State Voices and others, at a press conference outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom) WASHINGTON — The No Kings movement that has brought millions to the streets across the United States three times since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term is staging its next event at the polls. Organizers across hundreds of advocacy groups will pull together thousands of events nationwide Saturday to encourage early voting in this year’s midterm elections. Voting is already underway in dozens of states, and roughly 5.1 million ballots – both in-person and mail – have been cast, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab. Saturday’s “No Kings: Vote Early Day of Action” events include marches and walks to the polls where early voting is already underway and open o...

The main gate at Fort Hood on South Fort Hood Street in Killeen, Texas. (Photo credit: U.S. Army) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump Thursday announced that the execution of a man convicted of the Fort Hood shooting will not be livestreamed, a reversal after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week that Nidal Hasan’s death by firing squad would be public.  “I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan but, many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die, through streaming, or through any other visual device,” Trump  wrote on his social media site, Truth Social . “He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed.” Last week, Hegseth’s decision to make Hasan’s execution public  garnered bipartisan backlash, and members of Congress urged the Trump administration to recons...