October 22: The Midterm Sprint Begins

With control of Congress at stake, the most famous names in American politics are heading into the battleground states for one final push.

The 2026 midterm elections are 12 days away, and both parties are sending out their biggest names. Democrats have put former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris on the trail in key Senate races. Republicans are relying on President Donald Trump, who is holding rallies across the South and the Midwest. Republicans hold a 53–47 majority in the Senate, and the battle for that chamber has become one of the most closely watched contests of the year.

The Heavy Hitters Hit the Road

Harris is on a five-state swing through Nevada, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Georgia. Today she campaigns in Mississippi with Democrat Scott Colom, who is challenging Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in a state Democrats hope to put in play, backed by a new $1.2 million ad campaign from the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC. Obama has taken a more selective approach. He taped about two dozen ads for Democratic candidates and will hold a rally in Detroit on Saturday with Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson, in one of the races expected to decide the Senate majority. Former President Bill Clinton is also campaigning in Florida.

Republicans are pushing back just as hard. Trump rallied in Greenville, North Carolina, on Tuesday for Senate candidate Michael Whatley, heads to South Carolina next, and will campaign in Port Huron, Michigan, on Sunday, a day after Obama’s Detroit event. In Michigan, Republicans are on pace to outspend Democrats by nearly two to one over the final two weeks, and GOP nominee Mike Rogers argues that his opponent is vulnerable with key voting blocs. Republican strategists say the party still has a clear path to keeping the Senate, even as Democrats point to tightening races in states that once seemed out of reach.

A crowd gathered around an empty campaign podium draped in red, white, and blue bunting on an autumn evening

In the final days before a midterm, the campaign trail becomes a race against the calendar.

Midterms have long been one of the toughest tests in American politics, and history usually favors the party out of power. Since World War II, the president’s party has lost House seats in nearly every midterm, with rare exceptions such as 1998 and 2002. Former presidents and vice presidents have often become the most sought-after surrogates in these final weeks, trading on name recognition and the loyalty of their party’s voters. Whether those visits change any minds will become clear on November 3, when voters decide who controls Congress for the next two years.