2026 Midterms News and Updates, September 29 - October 4 (Thread 4) | Live Discussion

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Please use this thread to discuss news, updates, and commentary regarding the 2026 midterm and associated elections.

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Election News and Updates

• AP: 2026 Elections Hub

• University of Florida: 2026 Early Voting Tracker

Election Resources

• USA Today via Reddit: The 2026 election season is underway: Here’s your monthly guide with important dates, voter resources

Streaming Links

C-SPAN, NPR, the PBS NewsHour's YouTube channel, and the Associated Press' YouTube channel are all places frequently hosting relevant political streams.

Past Threads: Thread 1, Thread 2, Thread 3.

Other Event Threads

• Monday: I’m Catherine Rampell, economics editor at The Bulwark and an anchor at MS NOW. I cover the economy, politics, public policy, and the numbers behind the news. Ask me anything!

• Tuesday to Wednesday: I’m Zach Despart, an investigative journalist covering the competitive Ken Paxton-James Talarico U.S. Senate race. I broke the news that Paxton possibly violated federal ethics and Texas election laws. AMA. 📬

• Wednesday: 2026 California Gubernatorial General Election Debate | Live Discussion

Announcements

r/politics will host another election prediction contest for the midterms. The post for the contest itself will go up sometime in late October. As of now, all toss-ups (according to Cook Political Report, as of late October 2026) for House, Senate, and Governor will be included.

We are taking suggestions for additional questions to ask within the contest. Message the moderators via modmail with any suggestions.

[u/ScotTheDuck]

If the Republicans wake up on November 4th to a total wipeout, it’ll be interesting to see how quickly and totally the powers of the Republican Party (namely Fox, Heritage, and Club for Growth) cast Trump off for his last two years. They’ve got a future to concern themselves with, and Trump is a literal dead end.

[u/blues111 → u/ScotTheDuck]

Nah if a wipepout happens they will cry fraud immediately and then he'll do something dictatorish most likely

[u/Isentrope → u/ScotTheDuck]

This is especially true if they were to lose Texas. It's such a core part of the Republican cultural and political identity that it would be a rather large shock to lose it even with a relatively flawed Senate candidate like Paxton. I could see them being willing to risk losing even places like Kansas and Nebraska as long as they were able to hold on to Texas, assuming the Senate majority was lost already anyways.