Election Dispatches:What Tonight’s Senate Debates in Michigan, Maine and Georgia Say About the Midterms
“Debates in Georgia, Michigan, and Maine reflect midterm dynamics: Jon Ossoff leads Mike Collins; Abdul El-Sayed faces Mike Rogers amid Trump’s attacks; Susan Collins counters Troy Jackson, backed by Obama. Trump’s policies and voter shifts shape outcomes.
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The trifecta of Senate debates scheduled for Thursday night represent three distinct political landscapes shaping the final weeks before the midterm elections. The first one, an example of the Democrats’ confidence, is in Georgia, where Senator Jon Ossoff has proved to be such a formidable candidate in his race against Representative Mike Collins that Republicans have moved some TV advertising away from the state.
The second, a far-left test case, is in Michigan, where Democrats are running Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a candidate that some in the party fear is too progressive to win a general election. Polls show him narrowly ahead of former Representative Mike Rogers. And the third political reality, a proving ground for the G.O.P. establishment, is in Maine, where Senator Susan Collins, a Republican who has survived many a challenge, is showing signs of strength in the final sprint against the Democratic nominee, Troy Jackson, who was endorsed by former President Barack Obama in a video released Thursday morning.
President Trump attacked Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, by calling him “Mohammad” in a post on Truth Social, in an effort to emphasize Dr. El-Sayed’s Muslim faith. Mohammad is an alternate spelling for both the name of the founder of Islam and part of El-Sayed’s full given name, Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed. “Mohammad goes back to the days of the Jihad,” Trump wrote.
El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim to serve in the Senate if elected, replied on X that Trump “knows my name is Abdul.” He added: “He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us at the pump, at the grocery store, and at the doctor’s office.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan will appear with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the state’s Democratic Senate nominee, in Grand Rapids ahead of tonight’s debate, per El-Sayed’s campaign. Whitmer endorsed El-Sayed’s opponent, Representative Haley Stevens, in the bitterly divisive Democratic primary, and this will be her first appearance with her party’s nominee.
Both of Michigan’s Senate candidates are fighting significant vulnerabilities with voters heading into the first of two scheduled debates tonight. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrat, has angered some Jewish Democrats with his left-wing positions on Israel policy, while former Representative Mike Rogers has been trying to distance himself from President Trump’s tariff policy — which he supported earlier in his campaign.
The debate will be in Grand Rapids, the hub of western Michigan, a part of the state that had long been friendly for Republicans but has become increasingly Democratic during the Trump years.
Michigan is key to both parties’ hopes of winning a Senate majority. Democrats must retain the seat being vacated by Senator Gary Peters and flip at least four Republican-held seats to take control, while if Republicans win in Michigan it makes their path of keeping control far easier.
As the Senate race in Maine heats up, the state is getting cold.
And for many Maine voters, chilly weather could present a particular challenge this year: New England’s northernmost state is singularly reliant on heating oil, and the price of the product is surging because of President Trump’s war with Iran, which has clogged a vital oil shipping corridor.
The second debate in the race between Senator Susan Collins of Maine and her Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson, scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern tonight, comes ahead of two more debates next week. On Tuesday night, Jackson targeted Collins over her vote to confirm Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Collins tried to separate herself from President Trump, saying she was “not exactly his favorite senator,” and assailed Jackson for misrepresenting aspects of her record.
The debate schedule in Maine is unusually frenetic. Troy Jackson, the Democrat, is trying to introduce himself to voters, and the experienced incumbent, Senator Susan Collins, is trying to appear more senatorial than her rival, a newcomer to national politics. Strategists in both parties said Jackson performed better than they expected in the first debate. But each debate offers another test for Jackson, who can speak in a halting style and has recently made comments in unscripted settings that have forced him to apologize or backtrack.
Former President Barack Obama endorsed Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, in a video Jackson’s campaign released this morning. “In this economy, we need a fighter like Troy,” Obama says in the video, pointing to Jackson’s background as a logger and his efforts as a state lawmaker to “raise wages, lower the cost of prescription drugs and provide free lunch to every student in the state.”
Not long ago, Georgia looked like it might be one of the tighter Senate contests of the midterms: Georgia remains a difficult state for Democrats to win, and Jon Ossoff is the only Democratic incumbent seeking re-election in a state that President Trump won in 2024. But the race has tilted away from Republicans in recent months, so the pressure will be on the Republican challenger, Representative Mike Collins, to show during tonight’s debate that he is still in the fight.
President Trump’s deep unpopularity has been difficult for Representative Mike Collins to outrun — he made a point of running as the MAGA candidate in the Republican primary — and so has the high cost of living fueling voter frustration across the country. Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, a Republican who has backed Collins, recently extended the state’s gas tax suspension, which may have at least spared Collins more $4-plus gas signs around the voter-rich metro Atlanta area.
Representative Mike Collins, the Republican challenger in Georgia’s Senate race, will have to find a way to speak to independent voters, as polls suggest he trails Senator Jon Ossoff with that group in particular. Ossoff, for his part, has cultivated a reputation for delivering a strong rally speech with the kind of zingy lines that can go viral as social media video clips. He will be expected to do the same on the debate stage, in a less controlled environment.
| Poll | Margin |
|---|---|
Emerson College Oct. 3-5Added 5h ago | Hochul +13 52% Kathy Hochul (D) 40% Bruce Blakeman (R) |
CNN/SSRS Sept. 29 - Oct. 56h ago | Brown +6 49% Sherrod Brown (D) 43% Jon Husted (R) |
CNN/SSRS Sept. 29 - Oct. 56h ago | Acton +8 50% Amy Acton (D) 42% Vivek Ramaswamy (R) |
CNN/SSRS Sept. 29 - Oct. 56h ago | Hinson +2 45% Ashley Hinson (R) 43% Josh Turek (D) |
The Democratic candidate for Senate in South Carolina, Annie Andrews, is airing a new ad responding directly to attacks on her past stances on transgender issues. In the direct-to-camera spot, Dr. Andrews, a pediatrician, says she does not support “biological men playing women’s sports, and I don’t support and haven’t ever performed gender surgery for minors.” She accuses her opponent, Senator Darline Graham, of “lying about me.”
Andrews has supported prescribing puberty blockers and hormone treatment for children, but has said she opposes gender-transition surgery for those under 18. She previously argued against a bill that barred transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.
Graham has called her “one of the most radical people that has ever been the nominee for a statewide office in South Carolina.” She has accused Andrews of believing “boys should be allowed to compete in girls’ sports.”
If Democrats make big gains in the midterm elections in four weeks, it may not only be because their most loyal voters come out in force, or because their candidates have converted Republican voters to their cause.
Instead, the Democrats’ dream blue wave could come from Republicans who sour on President Trump and stay home. It already has a name: the red undertow.
Representative Ashley Hinson, the Republican nominee for Senate in Iowa, and her Democratic opponent, State Representative Josh Turek, sparred politely but sharply at their first televised debate over the war with Iran, Medicaid cuts, taxes and congressional stock trading.
The debate on Wednesday in Johnston, Iowa, came a week before early voting begins in a red state that has become increasingly competitive as President Trump’s approval ratings have sunk. Polls including a recent New York Times/Siena survey show a neck-and-neck race that could decide control of the Senate. The two candidates will debate on Tuesday night for a second and final time.”
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