Campaign for Control of Congress Enters Final Weekend as Early Voting Nears a Record 50 Million
With all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats at stake on Tuesday, the number of Americans who have already cast early ballots neared 50 million, a record for a midterm election, Reuters reported, as the Trump administration stepped up legal intervention in a key Alaska Senate race.
The campaign for control of the U.S. Congress reached its final weekend on Saturday, Reuters reported. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs on Tuesday, along with 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate, in races that will set the tone for President Donald Trump's final two years in office.
Early voter participation has set a record. More than 49 million Americans have already cast ballots, either in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab figures reported by Reuters, up from nearly 46 million who voted before Election Day in the last midterms in 2022, with the total nearing 50 million.
In Alaska, the Department of Justice accelerated its criminal investigation on Friday, Reuters reported, following reports that aides to a Democratic Senate candidate recruited a retired schoolteacher from a remote fishing village to get on the ballot because he has the same name as the Republican incumbent, Dan S. Sullivan; the ballot also includes nonpartisan candidate Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. The closely contested Alaska race is seen as crucial for Democrats hoping to take control of the Senate, Reuters reported.
Trump has campaigned in multiple states over the past month but was not scheduled to travel on Saturday, Reuters reported, a day that mixes politics, Halloween and college football across the country; he returns to the campaign trail on Sunday in Kansas and Iowa. Even amid the legal fights, a bipartisan majority of voters trust the overall electoral process, Reuters reported, with 76 percent in a September 30 to October 5 poll saying they are confident their ballots will be counted accurately.
