Hello, readers. Welcome back to On Politics. It's Jay Stahl, I'm a senior political reporter at USA TODAY. The upcoming midterm elections are a month away, and USA TODAY will continue its coverage until the last polls across America are closed. To open the week with our recent reporting, keep reading.
Can Kansas Democrats break 100 years of losing?
Democrats in Kansas are trying to break nearly 100 years of losses. After a century, and a competitive 2020 contest that didn't yield a competitive result, the party has hinged their hopes on Rev. Adam Hamilton to unseat Sen. Roger Marshall.
A New York Times report that revealed Marshall's pursuit of patients for unpaid bills, which resulted in 81 arrests, has made a splash in the unexpectedly close Senate race in the Sunflower State. Then a 30-second
commercial from Hamilton's campaign, which featured a former Marshall patient, garnered over 1 million times on the social media platform X.
Marshall holds a "complete and total endorsement" from President Donald Trump, who has won the state three times. However, nationwide concerns over the struggling economy, high gas and grocery prices, and Hamilton's name ID as senior pastor at the country's largest Methodist parish have also boosted his campaign.
Kansas is unique electoral territory as its Senate rate shifted from "likely Republican" to merely "leans Republican," by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report on Sept. 23. Despite Trump's win, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly was first elected in the 2018 midterms and reelected in 2022. Over the last century, several Democratic governors have served, including Kathleen Sebelius, the Obama-era Health and Human Services secretary.
A politics rundown
- Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert dies at 84
- Supreme Court won't hear 'Let's Go Brandon' school speech case
- 2026 midterm betting odds: Who will win the House and Senate?
Daily photo gallery: FBI Director Kash Patel engaged to country singer Alexis Wilkins
Democrats will have to contend with Trump if they win the House
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is promising voters his party will make life more affordable, if they boot Republicans from power in Congress in the midterms.
But if Democrats win the House in November, President Donald Trump will still be in office for two more years. Democrats’ ability to move their agenda may rest on Jeffries’ ability to cut deals with the Republican president.
That could prove tough, with Democrats promising to investigate, and potentially impeach, Trump and members of his administration, and the president insisting he deserves an A+ for his handling of the economy.
"As long as the president and the people around him continue to pretend like everything is okay, then it's going to be very difficult to actually get to a point of us decisively doing something in all of these areas," Jeffries recently told my colleague Francesca Chambers.
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Ken Paxton's estranged wife urges Texans to vote Republican
Angela Paxton — the estranged wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — is urging Texans to vote Republican in November in a new ad despite the "elephant in the room." Her estranged husband is locked in an unexpectedly competitive contest with Democratic nominee James Talarico for a U.S. Senate seat. "Either we hold every Republican seat, or we hand the future of Texas to the other team," Angela Paxton said. Read more about the race.
Questions? Comments? Tips? Reach me at jstahl@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Can Democrats expand their Senate map?
