US midterms 2026 latest: War of words in Michigan

Welcome to Al Jazeera's Midterms Latest Roundup. I'm Alex Marquardt in Washington. The knives are coming out as we edge closer to Election Day with harsh words in the final main Senate debate, as well as in Alaska. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump heads to Georgia today, even though many Republicans have written off their Senate candidate there. But let's start with Michigan, one of the most critical Senate races in this campaign cycle. Vice President J.D. Vance was just there, and here's what he said about the Democratic candidate, Abdel El-Sayed, who's running against the former Republican congressman, Mike Rogers. I don't know why he resents the things that he does. Perhaps it's because he sees them as too white or too proud or too American. But what I do know is this, that Michigan deserves better. You deserve better than a little weasel who should shut his mouth and show a little gratitude to the country that gave him everything. Let's bring in our Richard Gaisford, who has been following Michigan closely. Richard, some tough words from the vice president there. He, of course, is one of the biggest surrogates for Republicans on the campaign trail. And Michigan has one of the most critical Senate races. It certainly does. And that's why J.D. Vance went to Michigan yesterday to really shore up Republican support. The president used to be really popular there. He beat Kamala Harris, perhaps less so now in recent polling. And you can see that they have 13 seats up for grabs in the House of Representatives. But the key race is that tight Senate race that we've been talking about. And those two candidates, Abdel El-Sayed and Mike Rogers. Now, Rogers was getting the support of the president. The president had said he wanted to go to Michigan. But the two are kind of veering on different paths now in terms of trade wars and relationships with Canada. And that is why Vance was there yesterday, as the polls really are too close to call. Take a look at the latest polling. You can see El-Sayed just about one percent ahead and there's a big margin of error there. The hits from Vance were very personal, following very much in the footsteps of Donald Trump, who has been attacking El-Sayed with various names. El-Sayed out on the campaign trail yesterday in Michigan with leading Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They were talking a lot about affordability and he has been trying to turn these negative remarks about him into a positive. They've been saying all kinds of things, trying to point to my name and my faith, telling me, oh, you can't win an election. His name's Abdul. He's a Muslim. Yeah, I'm a Muslim. But I also understand that my allegiance is to a constitution and that constitution guarantees us all the right to pray how we choose to pray or not pray at all. So, Richard, less than three weeks to go before this critical vote. What are the issues that these two men are deciding to focus on in the final stretch? Well, so much of this debate is about Canada, believe it or not. Michigan and Canada's economy is very much intertwined. Take a look at this. You can see that logging, the car industry, the aluminium industry, they were really a lot of cross-border traffic that was caused by those industries. That has been severely affected by Donald Trump's trade wars. And the University of Illinois saying that actually it's costing upwards of four and a half thousand dollars per household in Michigan because of those trade wars. So that is a focus for those two candidates. Also for the two candidates running for governor there in the state of Michigan. John James, the Republican, now trying to distance himself somewhat from the president, who again had been a big backer of his, as Jocelyn Benson, who is the Democrat there going for governor, is moving ahead quite rapidly in the polls. Yeah. Donald Trump's trade wars and tariffs causing trouble for Republicans up and down the ballot. Richard Gaisford, thank you very much. In Maine's tight Senate race, voters got to see their candidates debate four times in under two weeks. The final debate between Republican Senator Susan Collins and the Democrat Troy Jackson was on Thursday night. And at one point, a protester interrupted, which led to a heated exchange between the candidates. Take a listen. I'm sorry. Somebody's interrupting. We'll have our security deal with that. So this is obviously one of Troy's supporters. Oh, shut up. I didn't. I didn't. I don't even know that kid. Not language you normally hear on a debate stage. But for a deeper look at the Maine Senate race, which could help Democrats retake the Senate, let's go to Alex Baird. So that public to and fro on the stage in Maine is now officially over. Zoom in on the state of play there because the election in Maine for that Senate seat is looking extremely tight. For the Republicans, you've got Susan Collins. She's been holding on to that seat since 1997. That's a long time. And on the blue side, you've got Troy Jackson. He's a progressive and a former logger. But we'll touch on them a bit more in a sec. But when you look at the polls, neither candidate is holding a decisive advantage, but Troy Jackson is generally leading, but only just. But how did Troy Jackson come to be the candidate? Because he wasn't always in that position. Well, originally, he had been a man called Graham Platner. He's an oyster farmer and a former Marine Corps vet, but he withdrew following allegations of sexual assault. The Dems who really want to flip that seat, there was a scramble to find another candidate. So Troy Jackson was very quickly put up as the Dems' candidate. But the Republican campaign has kept trying to tie him to all of that. The RNC recently called him in a social media post, Graham Plattner 2.0. But Susan Collins' history has also been election fodder, particularly for her role in confirming this man here, Conservative Brett Kavanaugh as a justice on the Supreme Court. especially again following allegations of sexual assault. The concern at the time was that because he's a conservative, that cases like Roe v. Wade, which enshrined abortion access, could be under threat. But pro-choice Collins said, don't worry. But at the end of the day, Roe v. Wade was overturned and the Democrats have been seizing on Collins' perceived rights. There's been shots fired on both sides, but because it is so close, the money's been pouring in. This race is now the most expensive in the country on a per capita basis. The latest reporting has Republican spending on Susan Collins' campaign at around $97 per person in Maine, and for Troy Jackson, around $70 per person. And that is a lot of money. Now, a few days after Donald Trump went all the way from Washington to Alaska to campaign for the Republican Senator Dan Sullivan in that hotly contested U.S. Senate race, Sullivan, who is the incumbent, faced off with Democrat Mary Peltola, who is mounting a surprising challenge for Republicans. But prices are too high for hardworking Alaskans, and D.C. politicians are waging forever wars that are skyrocketing our costs. I'll take on the rigged system that allows D.C. to wage forever wars while lining their own pockets. We need to open the Straits of Hormuz, make sure Iran does not get a nuclear weapon, but it needs to end soon. the energy costs from this war are too high. Now, one state which still hasn't had a debate between the two Senate candidates is Texas. So let's go there where our Phil Lavelle is in Dallas. So, Phil, a very tight race, lots of money. Ken Paxton struggling to pull ahead of James Tallarico. Yeah, you know, the Republicans, Alex, they are a million miles away from where they need to be, but also perhaps where they expect it to be at this point. Because remember, this is the Senate position currently held by John Cornyn. Now, he was seen widely by some pretty much as a shoo-in for this. You know, for some, the election was merely a formality because this is such a safe Republican area. But the grassroots wanted Ken Paxton. Donald Trump went with the grassroots. He endorsed Paxton. And now they're in this position where there is a chance that they could potentially lose this seat. And we're already seeing the pieces being put into place just in case if Ken Paxton, I stress, if Ken Paxton has a bad night in November. Because take a look at this post from the president this was put on Truth Social yesterday in which he said if Ken Paxton loses it will be the fault of Carl Rove, he's a Republican strategist, and John Cornyn the president's saying that they are not backing Paxton enough. Now Ken Paxton does have what you might refer to as a hot mic problem in that we keep on getting leaked recordings of him saying things that are not seen as to be as being flattering for the Republicans, the latest which was published by Rolling Stone, has him apparently conceding that Republicans are likely to lose seats and also saying that the governor's race is in trouble. That is despite a huge amount of money being spent by the Republicans there. The Paxton campaign says those quotes were cherry picked, that it was taken out of context. But we've also had James Talerico back on the campaign trail, too, and he has been slamming his opponents. And Phil, let's stay in the South and on Donald Trump, because we have Trump who is going to Georgia at a time when it looks increasingly like Democrats have that Senate race in the bag. So what's the what's the reasoning there? Well, you've got to remember, there are two races taking place. So you've got the Senate race and you've got the governor's race. So the Senate race, John Ossoff, the Democrat, he's been consistently ahead. And we're talking a fairly substantial lead, like maybe eight to 10 points, according to latest polling. So there's always a chance, of course, that the Republicans could take that seat. But it looks unlikely, according to the current numbers. But then you look at the governor's race. The Republican, Rick Jackson, is about one, two points ahead of Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is the Democrat. So there are two real stories to tell here. And remember that this is a swing state. It's gone for the Republicans in the past. It's gone for the Democrats in the past. This is the state that was at the heart of Donald Trump's claims that the 2020 election was stolen. It really could go in either direction. He's going to be in Dalton in Georgia later today. that is in the north. It's considered friendly territory. It's a conservative area. The reason he's going there is not to convince people not to vote Democrat. It's to say, please come out and vote for me. People might be angry about Iran. They might be angry about affordability, Epstein, all of those issues we hear a lot of. But he needs to make sure the base comes out and vote, because if they don't vote, that potentially gives the Democrats even more leverage here. It's all about that enthusiasm. Phil Lavelle in Dallas, Texas, thank you very much. And thank you for watching. That was the latest Midterms Roundup here on Al Jazeera English. And coming up at 18.30 GMT, 2.30 p.m. Eastern Time, This Is America looks at why a nation filled with young people is led by some of the world's oldest politicians. I mean, we've got senators and congresspeople who are asking tech CEOs about AI when they don't even know how to post on Facebook. When we think of people like Mitch McConnell, honestly, they shouldn't be in the positions of power that they are, especially under the conditions that they're in mentally. I think what the framers had in mind was not an office for life, a sinecure, if you will. And there are so many careers where people age out. There's a lot of ageism when it comes to hiring. The same thing should be applied to the livelihoods of so many people.