Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton sparred over President Donald Trump, immigration, Iran, transgender athletes, artificial intelligence and personal controversies during a contentious Kansas Senate debate Wednesday night.

The hour-long showdown came less than two weeks before Election Day as Marshall seeks a second term and Hamilton, a longtime pastor, tries to become the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from Kansas since 1932.

The race has drawn increased national attention as Republicans and Democrats battle for control of the Senate, with Trump traveling to Kansas earlier this week to campaign for Marshall – a topic touched on during the debate.

Here are five moments that stood out from Wednesday night's debate.

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Debate opens with candidates confronted over personal controversies

The debate wasted little time getting contentious, opening with questions about controversies that have fueled attacks against both candidates.

Marshall was confronted with a New York Times review that found his former medical practice sued more than 700 patients over unpaid bills.

"Every year we gave away $3 to $4 million of charity, but we also had a business," Marshall responded. "We had 300 employees, we had a mortgage payment, we had electric."

Hamilton, meanwhile, was questioned about his handling of allegations involving a volunteer at his church's summer camp who was accused of sexual abuse.

Hamilton acknowledged that he should have ensured the individual did not return to the camp following an initial investigation.

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"I should have checked to make sure that he wasn't going back," Hamilton said. "That was a mistake on my part."

Marshall says 'President Trump is not always right'

Trump became part of the debate after moderators played footage from the president's campaign appearance for Marshall in Kansas earlier in the week.

"And at this election, I'm asking you to pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot. Just pretend," Trump told the crowd.

Marshall was then asked whether Trump's support meant Kansans should expect him to back every part of the president's agenda.

"No," Marshall responded, saying there had been "multiple times" when he objected to Trump.

Pressed to identify a specific disagreement, Marshall pointed to recent immigration enforcement in southwest Kansas and Trump's approach to beef imports.

"Just like with my wife, I can disagree with her. My wife is always right," Marshall joked. "And President Trump is not always right."

Marshall nevertheless urged Trump voters to turn out for him, arguing that electing Hamilton could help Democrats capture the Senate.

Both candidates say there are 'two genders'

The two rivals found themselves in agreement when the moderator asked each candidate how many genders there are.

"There's two. There's a boy and there's a girl," Marshall said. "I delivered 5,000 of them and almost half were boys and half were girls."

"There are two genders, male and female," Hamilton responded.

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The candidates then turned to the debate over transgender participation in women's sports.

Hamilton said decisions over athletic eligibility should generally be made locally but was unequivocal about whether biological males should compete against females.

"I have a 12-year-old granddaughter. I don't want biological men or boys competing against her that could harm her," Hamilton said. "It's not a fair, fair fight."

Marshall argued that by high school, "boys need to be in boys sports, girls in girls sports," while accusing national Democrats of pushing "transgender ideology."

Hamilton later accused Marshall of using the issue to "pick on" and "bully" people.

Hamilton calls AI an 'existential threat' — but can't name regulations he'd support

Hamilton called for greater federal oversight of artificial intelligence and compared the emerging technology to the development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

"We developed a Nuclear Regulatory Commission. We need to do the same thing with AI," Hamilton said.

But when the moderator pressed him to identify specific federal regulations he would support, Hamilton acknowledged he did not yet have an answer.

"You know what? I'm not sure, to be honest," Hamilton said, arguing that even experts are struggling to understand the technology's potential dangers.

Marshall advocated a "light touch" approach focused on national security, transparency, protecting children and privacy, while slamming a one-size-fits-all global order for artificial intelligence advancement.

Hamilton pushed back sharply.

"This is an existential – potential existential threat to the human race," Hamilton said. "We can't just go with a light touch and hope everybody does their best."

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Hamilton calls Biden's border policies a 'disaster'

Hamilton sought to put distance between himself and former President Joe Biden when moderators challenged the Democrat over his claim that he would "lead from the middle."

The moderator pointed to Hamilton's past donations to Democrats, including Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris and Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., before asking him to identify a progressive policy he opposed.

"The Biden policies when it came to the border were a disaster," Hamilton responded. "I believe in strong and secure borders."

"I'm not somebody who favors the Socialist Party," Hamilton added. "I'm somebody who stands in the middle."

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Hamilton also reiterated during the debate that he would not support Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for majority leader if Democrats capture control of the chamber.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton repeatedly sought to distance themselves from the most unpopular elements of their respective parties Wednesday night during a contentious Kansas Senate debate.

Both candidates battled over President Donald Trump, immigration, the war in Iran and more in a race that could help determine control of the Senate.

The debate opened on a personal note, with both candidates pressed over controversies that have fueled attack ads in the closing weeks of the campaign.

Marshall was questioned about a New York Times review that found his former medical practice sued more than 700 patients over unpaid bills. The Republican defended the practice while emphasizing the millions of dollars in free care his practice provided.

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"Every year we gave away $3 to $4 million of charity, but we also had a business," Marshall said. "We had 300 employees, we had a mortgage payment, we had electric."

Hamilton, meanwhile, was questioned about his handling of allegations involving a volunteer at his church's summer camp alleged to have been a sexual predator. Hamilton acknowledged that he should have ensured the individual did not return to the camp after an initial investigation.

"I should have checked to make sure that he wasn't going back," Hamilton said. "That was a mistake on my part."

The candidates spent much of the rest of the debate trying to define each other by their respective national parties.

Marshall repeatedly warned that electing Hamilton would help hand control of the Senate to Democrats and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, while Hamilton sought to portray himself as an independent-minded Democrat willing to break with his party.

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That divide came into focus when the moderator played footage of Trump campaigning for Marshall in Kansas earlier this week and telling voters to "pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot."

Asked whether that meant he would support every part of Trump's agenda, Marshall said no and pointed to recent disagreements involving immigration enforcement in southwest Kansas and beef imports.

"Just like with my wife, I can disagree with her. My wife is always right," Marshall joked. "And President Trump is not always right."

Nevertheless, Marshall emphasized his support for much of Trump's agenda and urged the president's supporters to turn out for him.

"We need the Trump voters to come out," Marshall said. "If you want the Trump agenda to continue, if you want secure borders, if you want a strong military, if you want lower taxes, then you — and you voted for President Trump — you need to come out."

Hamilton faced a similar challenge when moderators pressed him over his past support for Democrats and his campaign message of "leading from the middle."

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The Democratic nominee explicitly broke with former President Joe Biden over immigration.

"The Biden policies when it came to the border were a disaster," Hamilton said. "I believe in strong and secure borders."

Hamilton also said he would not support Schumer for majority leader if Democrats win control of the Senate.

The debate did produce an unusual moment of agreement when both candidates were asked how many genders there are.

"There's two. There's a boy and there's a girl," Marshall said.

"There are two genders, male and female," Hamilton responded.

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Hamilton later said he did not want biological males competing against his 12-year-old granddaughter in sports, calling it "not a fair fight," while arguing that decisions over athletic participation should generally be handled locally rather than by the federal government.

The Kansas contest has emerged as an unexpectedly competitive Senate race in the closing weeks of the midterms. Marshall is seeking a second term in a state that has not elected a Democratic U.S. senator since 1932, while Hamilton, a longtime pastor, has campaigned as a moderate Democrat.

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Trump traveled to Kansas Monday to campaign for Marshall as Republicans work to defend the seat with control of the Senate at stake.

Powered by a clear favorability advantage, a large gender gap and voter discontent with both household finances and President Donald Trump, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has the edge over appointed Republican Sen. Jon Husted in the Ohio Senate race.

A Fox News survey of likely Ohio voters finds Brown leads Husted, 52% to 47%.

Brown’s advantage is anchored by his stronger personal standing, with his favorability rating 2 points above water (50% favorable, 48% unfavorable), while Husted’s rating sits 13 points underwater (42% favorable, 55% unfavorable).

FOX NEWS POLL: COST-OF-LIVING CONCERNS WEIGH ON GOP IN MIDTERMS

More Brown supporters (88%) than Husted backers (83%) say they’re certain of their vote.

FOX NEWS POLL: IT’S A LONE STAR SENATE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN TALARICO AND PAXTON

Economic unease creates another headwind for Husted, as about two and a half times as many voters say their financial situation is worse than two years ago rather than better (46% vs. 19%). Those who say things are worse favor Brown by 49 points, while those who say their finances are better or the same favor Husted by 51 and 24 points, respectively.

The president’s standing in Ohio adds to Husted’s difficulties. Trump won the Buckeye State with 55% of the vote in 2024, but just 43% now approve of his job performance. A 57% majority disapproves, with 46% saying they "strongly" disapprove.

Meanwhile, 52% express concern that Husted is too close to Trump, including 38% who are extremely concerned. Brown faces similar concerns about being too liberal, as 50% are worried, though fewer, 30%, are extremely concerned.

In the matchup, women favor Brown by 14 points, while men support Husted by 4, an 18-point gender gap. Brown also has advantages among voters under 35, voters with a college degree, union voters, and those living in urban and suburban areas. Husted relies on rural communities, non-college White men, married voters, and has a narrow edge among those ages 65 and up.

Partisan crossovers further tilt the field toward the challenger. While Husted receives 90% of Republicans, 9% cross over to back Brown. Some 97% of Democrats support Brown, while just 2% choose Husted — and Brown carries independents by nearly two to one.

Voters who view both Senate candidates unfavorably prefer Husted by nearly 20 points.

Brown is up by 9 points among those who are extremely interested in the election and leads by 29 points among the 15% of Ohioans who say they have already voted.

Legislative preference tilts toward the Democrats, with Ohioans dividing 50% for Democratic control of the U.S. Senate and 48% for Republican control.

In the governor's contest, likely voters favor Democrat Amy Acton over Republican Vivek Ramaswamy by 50% to 48%. Women favor Acton by 10 points, while men back Ramaswamy by 7, a nearly identical gender gap to the Senate race.

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Ticket splitting goes in both directions: 8% of Brown supporters cross over to Ramaswamy, while 6% of Husted supporters back Acton.

The survey was completed before a negative television ad from Ramaswamy’s campaign, featuring Acton’s estranged mother, became public.

Conducted October 15-19, 2026, under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with a sample of 2,005 Ohio registered voters randomly selected from a statewide voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (219) and cellphones (1,306) or completed the survey online after receiving a text message (480). Results based on the registered voter sample have a margin of sampling error of ±2 percentage points and for the subsample of 1,592 likely voters it is ±2 percentage points. Sampling error for results among subgroups is higher. In addition to sampling error, question wording and order can influence results. Sources for developing weight targets include the most recent American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis, and voter file data. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education, and area variables to ensure the demographics of respondents are representative of the registered voter population. Likely voters are based on a probabilistic statistical model that relies on past vote history, interest in the current election, intention to vote, age, education, race, ethnicity, and marital status. Results among subgroups are only shown when the sample size is at least N=100. 

Fox News’ Victoria Balara contributed to this report.

Texas hasn’t gone blue in a statewide race in more than 30 years, but that streak could face a serious test this year. A new Fox News poll finds that while Texas likely voters favor Republicans retaining control of the U.S. Senate and give incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott an edge in his re-election bid, the Senate race remains deadlocked.

The survey, released Wednesday, finds Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton tied at 49% each among Texas likely voters in the race to replace Sen. John Cornyn, who lost the GOP primary to President Trump-backed Paxton.

Last month, Talarico was up by 2 points among likely voters (51%-49%). The shift to a tie reflects Paxton consolidating support among conservatives, rural voters, suburban women and voters who backed Cornyn in the primary.

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Although Paxton is falling short of Trump’s 2024 margins, he has strengthened his support a tad among both men (+1) and women (+1) since September, while Talarico slightly lost support (-1 and -2, respectively).

Talarico leads by wide margins among Black voters (+65 points), urban voters (+29), those under age 30 (+28), and women with a college degree (+23). Paxton’s strongest groups include White evangelical Christians (+52), White men without a college degree (+32), rural voters (+21) and those age 65 and up (+18).

The survey finds Hispanic voters swinging back toward the Democrats. After backing former President Joe Biden by 25 points in 2020, they favored Trump by 1 point in 2024, according to the Texas Fox News Voter Analysis. This key voting bloc now favors Talarico by 30 points (64%-34%) and prefers Democratic control of the U.S. Senate by 29 points.

Overall, when it comes to Senate control, Texans choose Republicans by 4 points (51% to 47%), up from +1 point in September.

Talarico’s stronger party loyalty is another reason the race is close: 98% of Democrats support him, compared with 90% of Republicans supporting Paxton. Nearly 3 in 10 non-MAGA Republicans cross party lines to back Talarico.

FOX NEWS POLL: COST-OF-LIVING CONCERNS WEIGH ON GOP IN MIDTERMS

Democrats also retain an enthusiasm edge: 69% are extremely interested in this year’s election, compared with 61% of Republicans. Extremely interested voters back Talarico by 7 points.

"The race is going to come down to two basic questions," says Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who helps conduct the Fox News Poll with Democrat Chris Anderson. "Do disaffected Republicans show up and, if so, do they grit their teeth and vote for a candidate who they have serious reservations about?"

Views of Talarico are net positive, albeit by just 1 point (49% favorable, 48% unfavorable), while Paxton’s ratings are underwater by 17 (41% favorable, 58% unfavorable). Among "double haters," voters who view both candidates negatively, Paxton leads by 50 points.

Voters express similar levels of concern about both candidates: 53% worry Talarico’s positions are too liberal, while 50% are concerned Paxton is too close to Trump. The intensity of these concerns is nearly identical, with 36% extremely concerned about Talarico and 37% about Paxton.

In 2024, Trump won the Lone Star State by nearly 14 points, but his job rating is currently underwater by 9 points (45% approve, 54% disapprove). Still, Paxton draws support from 13% of voters who disapprove of Trump, while 6% of Trump approvers back Talarico.

When it comes to their personal finances, more than twice as many voters say they are worse off (43%) than better off (20%) compared with two years ago; 36% say they are about the same.

Voters who are worse off back Talarico by 45 points, while those who are better off (+49) or about the same (+26) favor Paxton.

The governor’s race gives Republicans more breathing room: Abbott edges his Democratic challenger, Gina Hinojosa, by 5 points (52% to 47%), unchanged since September.

Abbott has a positive job rating (50% approve, 48% disapprove), and nearly all who approve support him in the race, as do 9% of those who disapprove.

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Abbott also benefits from slightly stronger party loyalty and more ticket-splitting among Talarico supporters: 7% support Abbott, compared with 2% of Paxton supporters who back Hinojosa.

Conducted October 15-19, 2026, under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with a sample of 2,011 Texas registered voters randomly selected from a statewide voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (205) and cellphones (1,303) or completed the survey online after receiving a text message (503). Results based on the registered voter sample have a margin of sampling error of ±2 percentage points, and for the subsample of 1,398 likely voters it is ±2.5 percentage points. Sampling error for results among subgroups is higher. In addition to sampling errors, question wording and order can influence results. Sources for developing weight targets include the most recent American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis and voter file data. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education and area variables to ensure the demographics of respondents are representative of the registered voter population. Likely voters are based on a probabilistic statistical model that relies on past vote history, interest in the current election, intention to vote, age, education, race, ethnicity and marital status. Results among subgroups are only shown when the sample size is at least N=100.

Abdul El-Sayed’s past support for Muslim Brotherhood protesters in Egypt is raising eyebrows in Congress after a former staffer for the left-wing Michigan Senate candidate says he's angling for a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if elected in November.

Two Republican panel members said there is no place on the committee for "radical views" held by El-Sayed, who has associated with controversial streamer Hasan Piker but has attempted during his bid for office to distance himself from the socialist arm of the Democratic Party.

"A man with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, who cheered their takeover of Egypt 15 years ago, and who campaigns with people saying America deserved 9/11, should not come anywhere near the U.S. Senate — and especially not the Foreign Relations Committee," Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who serves on the power panel, told Fox News Digital.

Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa., another member of the committee, responded to the controversy on X over the weekend.

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"El-Sayed says he’s running on affordability, so why does he want a seat on @SenateForeign?" McCormick wrote. "I sit on that committee, and someone with El-Sayed's radical views has no business on it."

McCormick’s post came in response to a report by The Midwesterner that featured comments from Jordan Domingue, who worked as El-Sayed’s security chief during his 2018 campaign for Michigan governor.

"It is extremely difficult to comprehend how dangerous this can be if he is elected," Domingue wrote on X. "It’s especially troubling knowing that despite no foreign policy experience, he REALLY wants a seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."

In 2011, while working as an assistant professor at Columbia University, El-Sayed wrote an op-ed for The Huffington Post urging the Obama administration to support protesters associated with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.

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El-Sayed argued that supporting the protesters was in the U.S. interest and wrote that even if the Muslim Brotherhood overthrew Egypt’s government, the resulting state would not necessarily resemble Iran.

"It is in America’s interest to support Egyptian protesters’ efforts to achieve the ability to speak their mind and have a say in how they are governed," El-Sayed wrote . "If the U.S. truly wants to be the beacon of justice and liberty that it claims it does, it would behoove the Obama administration to fall decisively behind the protesters in Egypt."

In a recent town hall, however, El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrant parents, said he does disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. His campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request about his 2011 op-ed about protesters.

The Muslim Brotherhood-backed government took power in Egypt in 2012 but was ousted by the military in 2013.

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El-Sayed has throughout his campaign emphasized healthcare, lowering gas and grocery prices and addressing the cost-of-living crisis, as noted by McCormick in his post about the candidate's reported interest in the Foreign Relations Committee.

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"It shouldn’t be this hard to get by in the richest, most powerful country in the world," El-Sayed said during his primary campaign against Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow.

McCormick wonders why, given that context, El-Sayed would be gunning for a spot on a committee that deals solely with issues related to U.S. foreign relations.

Last week, Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin came to the University of Chicago to send a message to young conservatives: stay out of government, or else.

The visit came with little attention initially. Senator Slotkin chose her words carefully. She talked about fighting for the middle class, criticized President Trump’s economic policies and kept her name in the running for president in 2028.

But, buried between her typical politician-speak, she made a clear threat towards young conservatives. Asked whether she wanted to impeach the president, she pivoted and spoke of effectiveness. She thought the 67-vote threshold for conviction in the Senate was too hard to meet, so instead the best course of action would be to go after the people around the president. That way, young people who may be interested in working in the Trump administration would say, "Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems that I don’t want, so let me avoid participating in that."

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That threat felt personal to me. When I was in high school, I served as a United States Senate page. For those unfamiliar with the program, it selects 30 juniors from across the country to spend a semester going to school and working in the Senate. I did my math homework on the Senate floor when Congress was out of session and ran around delivering messages and papers during session. I made many of my closest friends during that program, few of whom share my viewpoints on politics. And I gained a deep respect for the body I worked for.

When I completed the program, my friends and family asked me whether I felt more optimistic or pessimistic about our government. The news coming out of Washington was so bad, they just assumed it would be pessimistic; they were interested in stories about senators yelling at one another and fighting to the death in meaningless partisan battles.

But I came out of that program more optimistic than ever. Top of the list of reasons was that no matter their political allegiance, senators encouraged us — a group of impressionable high schoolers — to go into politics and make our voices heard. I was excited about the prospect that I could really make a difference in the future of our country.

Hearing Senator Slotkin’s comments, I am left wondering whether that impression was incorrect.

But I choose to believe that the United States Senate can still be the world’s greatest deliberative body and that young people can, in fact, have a say in our shared future. Senator Slotkin’s remarks should be an exception to how the Senate operates, not the rule.

Thankfully, her threat could not have come at a more prescient time. The midterms are only two weeks away. Senator Slotkin’s words are not empty; they are a game plan for what Democrats will do if they retake power in Congress this November. Unfortunately, running that game plan will come at the expense of young men and women interested in serving their country. More still, in that very same discussion, Senator Slotkin left the door open to running for president in 2028. It is far from inconceivable that two years from now, we’ll be welcoming President-elect Slotkin into the Oval Office.

That is why it is more important than ever that young conservatives speak out and show up. It doesn’t matter whether you have a Ph.D. from Harvard or dropped out of high school — your voice matters in this country. If you love our country and have the capacity to serve in government, I encourage you to do so.

I recognize that that is not an easy ask. If Senator Slotkin is serious — and there is little reason to think she is not — serving your country will come at a great personal cost. Some very powerful people will seek to make you a pariah, as the host remarked to Senator Slotkin during her interview. And during the Biden administration, Democrats in the White House and Congress did so to many young conservatives. And one cannot forget Charlie Kirk’s assassination last September at the hands of a radical gunman.

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But the hardest fights are also the most important ones to win. Should our government fall into the hands of those who seek power for revenge and target the weak, our fates will be at the will of tyrants.

Preventing such a future requires the involvement of young people. John Adams once remarked to a crowd of young patriots in Philadelphia, "America and the world will look to our youth as one of our firmest bulwarks." 250 years after our nation’s founding, Adams’s words ring more true than ever before.

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So, do not cower in the face of Senator Slotkin’s threats. In fact, take her threats as a reason to serve our country. I sincerely believe that the fate of our Republic depends on it.

"This historic fraud happened under her watch, and suddenly, she’s looking out for Medicaid and SNAP? Sell it to someone else, Peggy."

With this debate response to Minnesota Democratic Senate nominee Peggy Flanagan’s protestations of concern over access to benefits for the very poor, Republican nominee for Senate Michele Tafoya sealed her status as "rookie of the year" in American politics.

A longtime NFL broadcast professional, Tafoya demonstrated decades of quick on-camera thinking in her debate last week with Flanagan and combined it with a deft slash at Flanagan’s greatest vulnerability: Flanagan’s apprenticeship as lieutenant governor to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during the tidal wave of fraud that swept across Minnesota after Covid-era "look-the-other-way" policies became a feature, not a bug, in Minnesota’s vast system of "safety net" programs.

‘BUCK’ STOPS AT WALZ: FLANAGAN DUCKS MINNESOTA FRAUD BLAME AS GOP RIVAL EXPOSES GLARING CONTRADICTION

A federal prosecutor estimated the amount of fraud in Minnesota’s spending at as much as $9 billion — that’s a "b" as in "billion." That is a remarkable sum given the Gopher State’s population of fewer than 6 million souls and an annual budget of about $67 billion. To squander an amount equal to close to 15% of a state’s budget on thieves and con artists is staggering.

That level of corruption forced Walz to drop his planned campaign for re-election and now dogs Flanagan in her head-to-head campaign with Tafoya for the Senate.

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As does the rising fear of gangs of Somali-American youths and the sort of violence that recently stunned suburban Twin Cities voters when a shootout occurred at an Eden Prairie high school homecoming game.

Eden Prairie is a standard-issue affluent suburban town of about 65,000 people. Fewer than 3,000 Somali-Americans live in Eden Prairie, but the gang shootout on October 2 at Aerie Stadium, during Eden Prairie High School’s game against Minnetonka High School, shocked voters across the entire state.

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Tafoya was quick to note that everyone arrested in the incident — which left two youths wounded and crowds quickly evacuated from the canceled game — was out on bail within days. That shootout plus the fraud have dominated Gopher State media coverage of the Senate race this month.

Tafoya’s knockout line — "Sell it to someone else, Peggy" — was a wake-up call for the electorate. Even longtime Democrats in Minnesota are looking around their beloved state and cannot fathom why it has been engulfed in corruption and crime.

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Tafoya would have been a good candidate in any cycle. She’s a terrific one for a midterm statewide campaign when her matchup is among the most watched in the country.

Polls in the race are within the "margin of error," which, to remind readers, means the pollsters conducting the surveys acknowledge it’s a toss-up. There may also be a silent and thus hidden-from-pollsters anti-establishment vote lurking beyond downtown Minneapolis, and the very liberal Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party ("DFL"), Flanagan’s brand, is the establishment in Minnesota.

THE NINE KEY RACES THAT WILL DECIDE WHO CONTROLS THE SENATE, AND WHERE THEY STAND

The DFL is not the DSA, but Flanagan is most definitely "DSA-adjacent." She is as "woke" as "woke" gets. One obvious "tell": Flanagan has repeatedly branded Israel’s battle against Hamas in Gaza — which was triggered by the terrorist invasion and massacre of Oct. 7 — as a "genocide," which is not only a slander but an exceptionally stupid slander.

The "genocide" slogan is popular among the radicals chanting "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," but it’s an "idiot wind," to borrow from Minnesota’s Nobel laureate bard Bob Dylan. To level that charge against the Jewish state should earn whoever utters it an immediate exit from American politics, not a six-year seat in the most powerful legislative chamber on the planet.

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Flanagan isn’t the most radical Democratic nominee of the 2026 election cycle. That is clearly Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

But Flanagan is tied with Maine’s Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson for the "never going to win the spelling bee" title and with Texas’s Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico for the gold in the "weird" Olympics this fall. (That’s very fitting since Walz popularized calling then-Senator and now Vice President J.D. Vance "weird" in the 2024 campaign.)

Meanwhile, the very smart, very telegenic and very professional and prepared Tafoya has worked and worked every crowd, large and small, across Minnesota with the simple and direct appeal that Minnesota voters deserve better than the hot mess that Walz and Flanagan have left the state in after eight years of hapless indifference to the biggest fraud story in the nation, marching right alongside spiraling violence.

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Minnesota elects Republicans, just not often. Tafoya isn’t in the lead, but she’s certainly very close to scoring the biggest upset of 2026. Why? Because sometimes even liberals get sick of the left when the left imposes enormous costs on their lives and on the safety of their children and grandchildren.

Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show" heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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A top Senate Republican warned that the same voting bloc that has propelled the GOP to power over the last decade is at risk of turning its back on the party during this election cycle.

For decades, White, working-class voters often aligned themselves with the Democratic Party, giving Democrats a stranglehold on Congress until the 1990s and often favoring the Democratic candidate atop the presidential ticket.

President Donald Trump’s entrance onto the political scene and victory in 2016 solidified a shift that was years in the making, giving Republicans a strong base of working-class support. But with the state of the economy, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, a top ally of Trump’s on Capitol Hill, warned that the GOP’s steady base could head for the exits.

FOX NEWS POLL: SQUEEZED BY COSTS, FRUSTRATED VOTERS TURN TO THE DEMOCRATS

"This is the whole deal," Moreno told Fox News Digital. "It's the whole deal. If we don't hang on to those working-class voters, we're dead as a party. That's why I say with no hyperbole, if President Trump hadn’t won in 2016, the Republican Party would be dead. Because the Republican Party had abandoned working-class Americans."

"Ironically, the Democrats abandoned working Americans, and there was a void — President Trump filled it," he continued. "That's why he won."

Trump has consistently performed highly with White, working-class voters each time he has run for office, scoring between 66% and 67% of their vote between 2016 and 2024, according to a variety of exit polls.

REDISTRICTING GIVES REPUBLICANS AN EDGE, BUT AFFORDABILITY WILL DECIDE THE MIDTERMS

Some Democrats acknowledged that after the 2024 election, their party had a problem with engaging the working class. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., circulated a memo that urged Democrats to embrace economic populism following stunning losses across the gamut of power in Washington.

"No one, including me, has all the answers right now, but what we know for certain is that Democrats must reclaim our identity as the party of the working class," Murphy wrote.

Still, Republicans are facing political headwinds heading into this midterm election cycle, in which affordability issues are dominating headlines and voters’ concerns.

FOX NEWS POLL: MOST RATE THE ECONOMY NEGATIVELY, INCLUDING HALF OF REPUBLICANS

Trump and the GOP again rose to be the dominant party in Washington, D.C., after the 2024 election by pitching a message to rectify the economy that the president charged was "destroyed" by former President Joe Biden.

But a Fox News poll published earlier this month found that nearly 60% of voters said that their top concern was the economy. A separate Fox News poll published in May found that 67% of White voters without a college degree disapproved of Trump’s handling of the economy.

Republicans have hit the trail this fall pitching their economic successes, particularly from the colossal "big, beautiful bill" and trying to instill in voters that the cost of fuel, for example, is only temporary as the war with Iran continues.

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Moreno, however, argued that working-class voters "hate" the war.

"They obviously hate gas prices because, look, they're already struggling. I mean, you talk to some of these working Americans, they're an engine failure in their vehicle away from bankruptcy, and that's a disaster."

"So, I think what we have to do is explain, this is a very, very necessary thing that had to happen," he continued. "Iran was attacking us for 47 years, and we didn't take him out. They would have used a nuclear weapon. I don't know that that case is penetrated enough, and this gas price situation will be very temporary."

With everyone and his brother predicting that a blue tsunami will wash over the Senate as well as the House, I want to write something contrarian. 

This way, if the Republicans do hang on to the Senate, I’ll get credit for defying the conventional wisdom. And if they don’t, I won’t get kicked out of the punditocracy – folks will just say well, he put a lot of caveats in there.

THE NINE KEY RACES THAT WILL DECIDE WHO CONTROLS THE SENATE, AND WHERE THEY STAND

The truth is, I don’t know who is going to capture the upper chamber, and neither do you. 

And neither do all the pontificators and speculators online or on the air. 

I do know the GOP is pouring tens of millions into contests they might otherwise lose, giving their people – even scandal-scarred Ken Paxton – a huge advantage on the airwaves in the final two weeks. But money doesn’t always move voters once they’ve made up their minds in this era of early voting. 

Is Maine’s Susan Collins liked enough to hang one more time against aggressive Troy Jackson (and thankfully not weirdo Graham Platner), when Donald Trump shouts every day ‘Pretend I’m on the ballot’?" We got it, Mr. President. 

Josh Turek is an Iowa legislator and also a wheelchair basketball player who suffers from spina bifida. His GOP opponent, Rep. Ashley Hinton, says she doesn’t want "endless wars" but welcomes a Trump visit. 

She’s talked about such issues as open borders and transgender surgery. Turek has focused on the Iran war and soaring health premiums because Congress failed to amend the Affordable Care Act.

In nearby Kansas, where Trump campaigned yesterday, Democrat Adam Hamilton is the founder of a Methodist mega-church, which would seem like a big plus in that conservative state, but some Dems are turned off by the religious aspect. Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, an obstetrician who served in the Army Reserves, was hurt by a New York Times report on him suing patients who were behind on their bills.

By the way, did you ever think you’d see the day when the Republicans just gave up on North Carolina and steered their money elsewhere (conceding the win to former Gov. Roy Cooper)?

PRESIDENT TRUMP HEADS TO KANSAS TO CAMPAIGN FOR SEN ROGER MARSHALL

So I can conclude three things: 

Many of these races have 1-or-2 point "leads," which is within the margin of error, and polling is often inaccurate in an off-year election.

The GOP is playing defense in ruby-red states–Trump in Kansas?—which is why Democrats are increasingly confident this is their big year.

And, in the famous Tip O’Neill saying, all politics is local.

There may be a mega-church guy or a man in a wheelchair or ex-Alaska congresswoman Mary Peltola, a former tribal judge who’s for "Fish, Family, Freedom," but who former staffers say they heard using awful slurs.

How on earth do you handicap races with so many toss-ups?

Of course, Republicans want to make the country believe that all Dems are like Michigan socialist Abdul el-Sayed, who, when asked whether he’d provide military aid if Israel was under attack, says he would rather spend the money at home.    

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I still think the Democrats will need to have Vegas luck to win enough Senate races to take control. They also have to defend their own turf. But (escape hatch here) I’m not saying it couldn’t happen.