Candidates in some of the most critical Senate and governor's races took to the stage for a final time Wednesday as voters have already started casting their ballots, with less than two weeks to go before Election Day.
While President Trump is not on the ballot, he was at the center of the conversation Wednesday night, with Democrats seeking to tie their opponents to his most unpopular policies. Republicans sought to create some distance from the president, while casting their foes as extreme liberals aligned with the party's far left.
Here's four key moments as candidates made their final pitch to the voters.
Marshall embraces Trump
As many Republicans are finding ways to distance themselves from the president as his approval rating has been plummeting, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) took the opposite approach during Wednesday night's debate against Democrat Adam Hamilton.
“If you want the Trump agenda to continue, if you want secure borders, if you want a strong military, if you want lower taxes, you voted for President Trump, you need to come out because we delivered on those things,” Marshall said, adding a vote for him is a vote for the president.
The debate was hosted by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.
When pressed, Marshall noted he had criticized federal immigration operations in the state and Trump's beef import plan.
“Just like with my wife, I can disagree with her,” Marshall said, adding that, while “my wife is always right, President Trump is not always right.”
Kansas voted for Trump by double digits in each of his elections. Hamilton also seemed to acknowledge that reality with his approach.
He emphasized that he's not running against the president, only Marshall. He largely focused on attacking the incumbent and noted that some of his own supporters also back the president. Those are voters Hamilton will need if he is to pull off a win.
Muslim Brotherhood attacks
During the final Michigan Senate debate, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) plowed forward with his attack on Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed with efforts to tie him to the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Being bought off by the Muslim Brotherhood, having donors to his campaign from Hamas that support Hezbollah. It’s not a problem? If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know: Are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?” Rogers said.
El-Sayed hit back at Rogers for questioning his "loyalty." Rogers has pointed to political contributions to El-Sayed from individuals with ties to the group, which Trump designated a terrorist organization last year.
“I am proud of America. I’m proud to be an American,” El-Sayed said Wednesday. “I’m proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray. And the question that you would ask that, I think, is actually really quite shameful.”
With Rogers trailing El-Sayed in polls, Republicans are pouring money into the Muslim Brotherhood line of attack, The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports.
Keeping distance
In the lone Wisconsin governor's debate, both candidates had to walk a careful tightrope addressing touchy issues.
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) faced questions about why he voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. He initially avoided the question to shift the focus to his opponent, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley (D), but eventually pointed to "Zuckerbucks" upon being pressed.
“We should not allow private money to go into what is a public process, our elections,” Tiffany said.
The term "Zuckerbucks" was coined by conservatives to refer to funds that the Center for Tech and Civic Life issued as grants for localities to facilitate the 2020 election during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the funding came from Mark Zuckerburg. Some alleged the funds were improperly used and benefitted Democrats.
Tiffany has stood by his vote against certifying the election in Pennsylvania and Arizona over the years, but the vote could come back to haunt him running statewide in a battleground state.
Crowley, meanwhile, kept his distance from his primary opponent, Francesca Hong, and other democratic socialists. He had said over the summer, as Hong was rising in the polls, that he didn't differ with her on many issues. But took a different approach on the debate stage.
“I’m not familiar with the DSA platform to be answering that question,” he said about whether he supports the group's priorities.
Fraud scandal
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who is running for governor, called the widespread fraud in the state’s social services programs in recent years “simply unacceptable” in her debate against state House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R).
Klobuchar said Gov. Tim Walz (D), who was also former Vice President Harris’s running mate in 2024, “should have done more” about fraud in the state, which has become a defining issue in the election.
Pressed on specifics by Demuth, Klobuchar said she would have caught the fraud sooner, used a $17.5 billion budget surplus more effectively, and would not have pardoned a Hmong man accused of sexually assaulting a child two decades ago. The man was deported by the Trump administration in July.
“You have not come up with one way you differ from Donald Trump,” Klobuchar said to Demuth.
Demuth later said she had broken with Trump on the Iran war and also criticized his trade war with Canada and a plan to import foreign beef.
"That’s the best you can come up with? I literally can’t believe it,” Klobuchar responded, saying Demuth waited too long to oppose the Iran war and bringing up deadly ICE sweeps earlier this year.
“You literally said Kristi Noem showed steady leadership when 3,000 ICE agents descended onto the streets of our state,” Klobuchar said.
▪ The Hill: Takeaways as Marshall, Hamilton clash in battleground Kansas.
▪ The Hill: El-Sayed, Rogers face off in final debate.
▪ The Hill: Tiffany, Crowley tangle in only governor’s debate.
CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE: With the recent disclosure of more fake polls that fooled much of the political world, the polling industry is facing the seemingly Sisyphean challenge of restoring trust in its work with the midterms almost here. Jared explores how this incident and a previous one are undermining the industry at a critical time.
Insiders can read more here about what happened with Wedgewood Polling and its implications.
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