Obama is set to visit Georgia ahead of the Senate and governor elections.

LatestHere’s the latest.Both parties are leaning into presidential power on Wednesday to drive battleground voters to the polls, as former President Barack Obama heads to Georgia and President Trump visits Ohio for the third time this month. Former Vice President Kamala Harris is also scheduled to arrive Wednesday in Georgia, where she will begin a three-day campaign swing with Senator Jon Ossoff, the Democratic incumbent.With less than a week before the midterm elections, the Senate contest in Georgia appears to have shifted to relatively safe ground for Democrats, who have scaled back their spending on the race. But the governor’s contest between Rick Jackson, a Republican billionaire, and Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat and the former mayor of Atlanta, remains far more competitive, raising the prospect that many voters may split their ticket. Georgia has a recent history of such divided victories: In 2022, Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, and Senator Raphael Warnock both won statewide.Mr. Trump is scheduled to make his second visit in less than two weeks to Georgia on Saturday, and his campaign swing comes amid sinking approval ratings, which have expanded the Senate map to the fringes and forced Republicans to play defense in deep red states. A new set of New York Times/Siena University polls released on Wednesday shows the Senate contest in South Carolina as effectively tied, with Senator Darline Graham, the Republican appointed to her late brother’s seat, leading Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee, by less than a single percentage point. Republicans are ahead in the Florida Senate race, but by six points, a relatively small margin in a state that Republicans won by double digits just two years ago.The transformation of traditionally Republican-leaning states into political battlegrounds reflects disapproval with some of Mr. Trump’s signature policies — including the Iran war and tariffs — that has stretched into his own party ranks. In recent days, a series of former Republican governors and prominent political figures have endorsed Democratic candidates in several key races.On Tuesday, Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, endorsed Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, the Democratic nominee for governor. A split ticket voter, she also has publicly backed the re-election of the Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan.Here’s what else to know.Talarico the teacher: Years before James Talarico was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, he was a sixth-grade English teacher in San Antonio. Former students and teachers at the school said in interviews that they initially feared he’d be in over his head, but he quickly ingratiated himself. Read more ›Referendum on bigotry: A race for the Texas Railroad Commission could be a bellwether for the future of the Republican Party and the contours of acceptable discourse. The G.O.P. nominee, Bo French, has a history of making racist and bigoted comments, dividing his party and turning his race into a high-profile test of how mainstream his views are. Read more ›Hard to reach: In a competitive House district in Pennsylvania, residents get their election news from under-the-radar sources — or no sources at all. Read more ›The new New York Times/Siena poll shows that Democrats lead comfortably in the Minnesota Senate race, by 14 points. When I was in Minnesota earlier this month, the consensus was that Peggy Flanagan, the Democratic nominee, was ahead by single digits. Republicans believed it was low single digits, Democrats had her lead in the high single digits. The Minnesota Star Tribune’s poll at the time showed a four-point race.The poll’s findings in Minnesota — and its showing of a tossup in South Carolina — suggests President Trump is struggling to convince voters who have backed Republicans to do so again in a moment of anger over gas prices and other cost-of-living concerns.The Senate race in the usually reliably Republican state of South Carolina is effectively tied, according to a new New York Times/Siena poll. Republicans have been worried about the South Carolina Senate race for some time. President Trump rallied in the state last week and is scheduled to return tomorrow, in an effort to shore up support from MAGA loyalists. National political headwinds are a factor in South Carolina, of course, but so is a long history of bristling against having political insiders choose their leaders for them. And Senator Darline Graham’s brother, Lindsey Graham, had a complicated relationship with some Republicans who were skeptical of his views on foreign policy and immigration. All of that has left his sister in an unusually vulnerable position.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThat Florida might have single-digit margins in the race for Senate and governor, as the new New York Times/Siena polls suggest, would be a big swing for a state that has seen Republicans make huge gains over the past few election cycles. But the high cost of living has been very pronounced in Florida. And even as Florida Republicans won major elections, voters kept showing — through ballot measures and local elections — that many of them kept supporting more liberal issues and some candidates. Democrats have been trying to get national donors who abandoned them years ago to reinvest in the state, to little avail, because it is so expensive for political advertising.The polls suggest that Senator Darline Graham may be in trouble in South Carolina, in part, because voters are worried about her lack of experience. Half of all voters, including 18 percent of Republicans, said that she did not have the “right experience to be an effective senator.” More than half of voters in the state said they thought Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democratic candidate, had the right kind of experience.Obama is set to visit Georgia ahead of the Senate and governor elections.ImageFormer President Barack Obama is returning to the campaign trail to shore up support for Democrats in Georgia.Credit...Nick Hagen for The New York TimesFormer President Barack Obama was scheduled on Wednesday to travel to Georgia to rally support for two Democrats in the state’s closely watched races: Senator Jon Ossoff, who is seeking re-election, and Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is running for governor.The event in Atlanta, less than a week before the midterm elections, will be Mr. Obama’s second day of campaigning, after his appearances on Saturday in Cleveland and Detroit. Polls suggest that Mr. Ossoff is favored to win, but Ms. Bottoms, the city’s former mayor, is locked in one of the tightest governor’s races in the nation.National figures from both parties have converged in Georgia in recent months. President Trump has been campaigning in the state, most recently last weekend in Perry, a city in the state’s central region. Former Vice President Kamala Harris is also scheduled to appear in Georgia on Thursday.Georgia turned red in 2024, when Mr. Trump won by a narrow two-point margin. This year’s Senate race, in which Mr. Ossoff is facing Representative Mike Collins, a Republican, was initially considered one of the nation’s most competitive and important races, but Mr. Ossoff — supported by Democrats’ large fund-raising advantage — has built a significant lead in the polls.Ms. Bottoms’s contest against Rick Jackson, a Republican health care executive, has remained close. Ms. Bottoms and Mr. Jackson are vying to succeed Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican who is term-limited.If Ms. Bottoms wins, she would be the first Black woman elected governor in the United States and the first Democrat to hold the office in Georgia since 2003.Georgians had already cast more than 2 million early ballots as of Wednesday morning, outpacing the turnout from the 2022 midterms, according to the secretary of state’s office.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTTexas Senate Rivals Converge on Lubbock, With Trump in the MixImagePresident Trump with Ken Paxton during a campaign visit in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesFor the second time in just over a week, Ken Paxton and James Talarico were on opposite sides of the same city at dueling rallies Tuesday evening in the western Texas city of Lubbock.The rallies struck starkly different tones but conveyed the same message: The future of Texas and perhaps the nation hinged on the outcome of their U.S. Senate race.Thousands of people packed into each event. But at Mr. Paxton’s, attendance was stoked by the headliner, President Trump. Mr. Paxton did not deliver a traditional speech, only speaking when the president called him to the stage toward the end of his address, which lasted more than 90 minutes.“On election night, Texas is going to prove that America does not belong to those who hate it,” Mr. Trump said. “America belongs to those who love it.” Across the town, Mr. Talarico was the main attraction.“We’re going to shock the nation, shock the world, when we beat the billionaires and take back Texas,” Mr. Talarico said to cheers.The two candidates have been furiously campaigning across the state in the final days of what has been one of the nation’s hardest-fought and most expensive midterm campaigns. Last week, they came within a few miles of each other in Fort Worth, an urban area controlled by Republicans and one both parties consider a battleground.On Tuesday night, with just a week to go before Election Day, they were again separated by just a short drive, this time on either side of a Lubbock city park famous for its prairie dogs.For Mr. Talarico, the appearance in a reliably conservative corner of the state was in line with his campaign’s efforts to court independent and centrist Republican voters who may have grown tired of their party. The area has not been a battleground in recent elections, as Lubbock County favored President Trump by about 70 percent to 30 percent in 2024.But the city, home to about 250,000 residents and Texas Tech University, has large pockets of Democrats. And many came out on Tuesday. Thousands lined up to enter Mr. Talarico’s rally, at the Fiesta Center, snaking through nearby neighborhoods.For Mr. Paxton, the Republican state attorney general, the visit was an attempt to shore up and turn out his base of supporters. He did so on Tuesday with the help of Mr. Trump, whose appearance with Mr. Paxton at a Lubbock civic center was his second of the day — a remarkable investment of presidential time and effort.ImageMr. Paxton made relatively short remarks at rallies in Corpus Christi and Lubbock as Mr. Trump spoke at length.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesBut amid a lot of positive talk were signs of growing Republican concern.“We’re getting beat bad by the leftists,” Don Huffines, the state’s hard-right comptroller, told the crowd Tuesday. “You need to be scared.”Toward the end of the event, Mr. Trump invited Mr. Paxton to the stage for some brief remarks that mostly focused on how great it was to spend the day with the president, starting at a rally in Corpus Christi, a humid port city more than 500 miles away along the Gulf Coast.“We of course flew on Air Force One, and now we’re here,” Mr. Paxton said. “It turns out it’s pretty fun to hang out with the president.”Mr. Trump, who has now traveled to Texas four times in the last two months, has appeared to be convinced that he can, by force of repeated rallies and speeches, help will Mr. Paxton to victory.“It’s just great — he’s the one who brought the patriotism out in all of our family,” said Deborah Steppe, 51, a security worker, who came with several family members on Tuesday in Lubbock, waiting hours in line to see Mr. Trump.During his earlier appearance in Corpus Christi, Mr. Trump also spoke for more than an hour, significantly more time than Mr. Paxton, who delivered an abridged version of his campaign speech before the president took the stage. Absent from Mr. Trump’s remarks in Corpus Christi was the not-so-gentle ribbing the president has given Mr. Paxton in some recent joint appearances, though in Lubbock, Mr. Trump did briefly mock his body.Mr. Paxton has been trailing Mr. Talarico, a state representative, in most recent polls. But he has benefited from more than $150 million in campaign spending by Elon Musk.Mr. Talarico has looked to use Mr. Musk’s and Mr. Trump’s support against Mr. Paxton. Even before Mr. Trump began holding events in Texas on Tuesday, Mr. Talarico was already trying raise money off the visit.“Toe-to-toe while Trump’s in Texas,” read the fund-raising email.In his speech, Mr. Talarico suggested that the flood of negative political attacks, which have become unavoidable across Texas, could largely be traced to a single source.ImageJames Talarico used Mr. Trump’s and Elon Musk’s support for Mr. Paxton against him.Credit...Kaylee Greenlee/Reuters“If you’ve seen an attack ad on your TV, that was Elon,” he said. “If you’ve gotten lies in your mailbox, that was Elon.”Lauren Gay, 22, a communication studies major at Texas Tech, came to see Mr. Talarico even though she had already cast her ballot last week, along with her parents.“I want people to stay hopeful,” she said.Lauren McGaughy contributed reporting from Corpus Christi, Texas.