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King County, Washington, election workers dump out a bin full of ballots from a local drop box to sort ahead of the midterm election on Oct. 29, 2026, in Renton, Washington. (Photo by Jake Goldstein-Street/Washington State Standard) WASHINGTON — When the polls close Tuesday night, the 2026 U.S. election will go down as one of history’s most expensive and extraordinarily ugly midterms — galvanizing record-breaking early voter turnout among a deeply divided electorate. Voters on Saturday crossed the high-water mark of 52.7 million early votes cast,  surpassing the midterm record set in 2022, though analysts were reluctant to translate it into a Democratic wave on the way. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice continued to run  into a firewall of federal judges, losing its previous cases to take over mail-in balloting and obtain state voter rolls in advance of the midterms. The Trump DOJ actions nonetheless  rattled state officials who hold the const...

Rebecca Crozier, 27, of Meridian, Idaho, poses in October 2026 with mementos from her baby, Haven. At 11 weeks, she received a fatal fetal diagnosis of anencephaly, and had to travel out of state to terminate the pregnancy because of her state’s near-total abortion ban. (Photo by Otto Kitsinger for Stateline) MERIDIAN, Idaho — It didn’t take long for doctors to see that something was amiss with Rebecca Crozier’s pregnancy. At her eight-week ultrasound in 2025, they mentioned a possible neural tube defect, she said, but after some research, she thought it was something that could be managed or treated.  “If it was a fixable problem, I was ready to quit my job and full-time care for a disabled child,” said Crozier, who is now 27. “That was something that we were prepared to do.” In the time between the two ultrasounds, she had a dream that she was carrying a baby girl, and she and her husband named her Haven. The couple lived in eastern Idaho at the time, and drove two hours to the B...

President Donald Trump waved to supporters gathered at the Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City Oct. 22, 2026, for a rally supporting Iowa Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch) WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is rounding out his midterm travel blitz in the final sprint leading up to Election Day on Nov. 3.  With just four days to go, the Republican Party is aiming to keep its narrow majority in the U.S. House and control of the Senate.  But elections forecasters see a bleak outlook for the GOP, saying Democrats remain heavily favored to  win the U.S. House , while Senate races continue to move in Democrats’ direction.  Heading into Election Day, Trump faces  anemic approval ratings amid the war in Iran and its impact on gas and diesel prices.  The  Cook Political Report with Amy Walter on Friday shifted a dozen House races in Democrats’ favor. The elections forecaster has identified 18 to...

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, speaks at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., in December. A federal judge on Thursday struck down the Trump administration’s new guidance on who can qualify for a “medically frail” exception to new Medicaid work requirements. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) Medicaid recipients who are disabled or have a chronic illness will not have to prove they are unable to work to be exempted from new work requirements that take effect next year, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston grants a partial victory to the 25 Democratic-led states that sued the Trump administration in June, arguing that its new “medically frail” designation was too narrow and would make it too difficult for ill and disabled people to remain on Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for people with low incomes. However, the dec...

People vote in the Halifax Volunteer Fire Department in Allen County, Kentucky, on Election. Day, Nov. 5, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony) As the Trump administration waged a public legal fight with California over the ballots of suspected noncitizen voters in mid-October, behind the scenes a federal grand jury in Santa Ana issued a series of subpoenas to election officials in Los Angeles County at federal prosecutors’ urging. The subpoenas demanded a host of information, from how officials responded to warnings that the Trump administration had identified 20,000 suspected noncitizen voters to how they screen for unlawful voting. Among the demands: any records suggesting “someone has aided and/or abetted an alien voting in a federal election.” As President Donald Trump’s administration  loses round after  round in federal court in his quest for authority over state-run elections, the U.S. Department of Justice is turning to criminal investigations as a way ...

The “ballot drop” box at the Polk County Election Office in Des Moines, Iowa, on the first day of early voting, Oct. 14, 2026. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch) The Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to combat noncitizen voting and assert authority over elections came under intense scrutiny in courtrooms across the country on Thursday, as Democrats and voting rights groups alleged federal election interference. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to either reveal by midday Friday all states where it has demanded election officials pull aside or not count ballots — or else promise it won’t direct election officials to refuse ballots from some voters. On the West Coast, an appeals court  appeared skeptical of a Trump administration request to allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to resume election-related field operations that could sweep up U.S. citizens. In California, the Justice Department vowed to keep fighti...