Trump rallies for embattled Senate seats after Halloween bash detour

• By Elissa Fitzgerald

• Topic:World Politics

Posted Mon 2 Nov 2026 at 7:35amMon 2 Nov 2026 at 7:35am

Hello! Welcome back to the daily briefing on the US midterms campaign trail. We're now just one day out from election day. 

Click here to see how popular US President Donald Trump is today, and click here for a quick breakdown on what the midterms are all about.

Here's what you need to know today

• Trump returns to the trail: Donald Trump spent part of the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, throwing a jungle-themed Halloween bash. What was his costume, you ask? Himself — complete with navy suit and red tie. "I didn't have time to get — people spent a lot of time and money. Rich people. They spent nine hours getting ready. I had 10 minutes, so I came as Donald Trump," he told The New York Times. The president is back on the campaign trail now, with rallies in Iowa and Kansas, where Republicans are fighting to retain US Senate seats.
• Alaska antics: A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration that sought to block Alaska from certifying election results if Republican senator Dan Sullivan lost. If you haven't been following along, a second Dan Sullivan is running in the same race. Trump says it's part of a ploy to confuse voters. The race, in which polls suggest Democratic candidate Mary Peltola is leading, could be one of the deciding factors in whether Republicans can defend their control of the Senate.  
• California ballot stoush: California Governor Gavin Newsom has warned federal judges in his state that Trump may try to block the certification of Democratic wins. The Trump administration says California may have thousands of non-citizens on its voter rolls. A federal judge has rejected a Department of Justice request to block the counting of more than 20,000 ballots on these grounds, and the Trump administration has signalled signalled it will likely ask the US Supreme Court to take up the case. An outside analysis found many of the names collated by the US Department of Homeland Security did not appear to match up with anyone on the rolls.   
• The Democrats are fighting: The crucial Senate race in Michigan had an unexpected detour after Democratic representative Haley Stevens endorsed the Republican candidate over her party colleague, Abdul El-Sayed, who beat her in the primary. Stevens had been scheduled to appear with El-Sayed at an event billed as a show of party unity, but she was reportedly uninvited after she called on El-Sayed to condemn an ad by an outside group that she said blamed Israel for high grocery prices. You can find the full story here.   

You can read more about concerns that the Trump administration may try to interfere with the election results here. 

Here's what that all means

I've been talking about a couple of Senate races that will likely decide who ends up with control of the chamber. Another race we'll be watching closely this week is Texas. North America correspondent Kamin Gock is there at the moment. I messaged him about the state of play. 

Elissa Fitzgerald

You're in Texas this week, covering a US Senate race that's been getting plenty of attention. What makes it so interesting? 

Kamin Gock

The last time Texas voted for a Democratic senator was 1988, but the Republican candidate this time, state Attorney-General Ken Paxton, has been plagued by scandals. He was impeached by his own party over bribery allegations but later acquitted, his wife accused him of adultery and filed for divorce on "biblical grounds", and he faced securities fraud charges (he pleaded not guilty) but they were dismissed after he reached a deal to avoid a trial. He has Trump's endorsement but Republicans have not united around him. Meanwhile the Democrat in the race, James Talarico, is a Presbyterian seminarian who's raised a lot of money. Polls suggest it's a really close race. If Talarico can flip the Texas seat, it will be a crushing defeat for the Republican Party.

Elissa Fitzgerald

This is the most expensive US Senate race ever. Financial tracking shows combined advertising spending has topped $US500 million ($711 million). Is there any sign that all this money is making a difference? 

Kamin Gock

The amount of money pumped into this race is crazy and the political ads are inescapable. Elon Musk, a Texas resident with major business interests in the state, gave $US158 million to a group backing Paxton and it's been pumped into campaign. Talarico has tried to seize on this, arguing Musk wants his own senator to control in Congress. Polling appears to be tightening up between the two candidates — but it's also hard to know how many people are left to convince, and how many feel totally over-saturated by ads and aren't listening anymore.

How popular is Donald Trump today?

US President Donald Trump might not be up for election at the midterms, but his popularity will have a strong influence on the outcome. 

The president's party almost always loses House seats in midterm elections and that trend gets steeper when the president is unpopular. 

Historic polling data collated by analytics firm Gallup shows presidents with approval ratings below 50 per cent have seen their party lose an average of 37 House seats. 

Presidents with approval ratings above 50 per cent have netted smaller loses, with an average of 14 seats. 

Your crash course on the midterms

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Thanks for joining me! I'll be back same time tomorrow with more.