Jeffries pledges oversight of Hegseth as Johnson casts election as spiritual battle
The closing weekend of the midterm campaign stretched on Saturday from Fort Worth to southeast Virginia to a Michigan tossup district, with candidates and party leaders delivering final arguments in an election the Associated Press reported could reshape the final chapters of Donald Trump’s second presidency.
Republicans hold a 53-47 advantage in the Senate, where Democrats need to pick up at least four seats for a majority — and at least five if they lose Michigan, a seat the party already holds. In the House, Democrats are targeting at least 60 seats, many of which Trump won by double digits in 2024. Texas, which was not expected to be an epicenter of the election, has become one measure of voters’ frustration with Trump’s leadership and his party, according to the news service’s reporting.
Paxton, the longtime state attorney general who defeated Republican Sen. John Cornyn earlier this year with Trump’s help, warned voters against restoring Democratic control of Capitol Hill during a Saturday morning stop in Fort Worth. “The left in this country keeps getting more and more radical,” Paxton said. The election, he told his supporters, will “go down to the wire” and is about rejecting “every dangerous idea that Democrats across the country are putting forward right now.”
Talarico, a state lawmaker, was to rally support in Houston later Saturday. Early voting was nearing its conclusion in several states, with early balloting totals approaching 50 million heading into the weekend. About 112 million voted in total in the 2022 midterm elections.
Trump was scheduled to call into six tele-rallies after spending the morning and early afternoon at the golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida — a departure from his rally speeches, which often stretch for 90-plus minutes. Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC said tele-rallies were lined up for races in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Michigan and two separate calls for Florida. The White House released few details on what to expect, but the president generally participates in such calls. “Answer your phones, and ENJOY!” Trump posted Saturday on his social media site.
The president has blitzed the closing weeks of October with rallies across the country, including in states he won comfortably in each of his three campaigns.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who would become speaker if Democrats win a House majority, campaigned in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District with former Rep. Elaine Luria, who is in a rematch with Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans. Luria lost her seat to Kiggans four years ago.
“We’re going to fight hard each and every day for an affordable America,” Jeffries said. He accused Republicans of filling a “graveyard of broken promises” and repeated his pledge to hold votes on reversing Republicans’ healthcare cuts, pass sweeping voting rights laws and limit Trump’s military actions on Iran.
“Beginning on day one, we’re going to hold the crooks accountable,” Jeffries said, previewing aggressive oversight of the Trump administration. He specifically named Trump’s Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, who has rankled Democrats and Republicans, among other actions, with his overhaul of military leadership and dismissals of top generals and other officers. “In the majority, one of the first things we are going to do is run Pete Hegseth out of town,” Jeffries said, drawing perhaps the loudest roar of his 11-minute speech. The southeast Virginia district is among the most competitive on the House battleground map.
House Speaker Mike Johnson answered in a Michigan tossup district with what the Associated Press described as dystopian warnings about Democrats. “It’s a spiritual battle,” said Johnson, whom the news service described as an outspoken conservative Christian, suggesting Republican voters owe it to a higher power to vote. “I know God does not hold us responsible for the results, but he does hold us responsible to be faithful in our duty,” Johnson said, as he framed Democrats as a godless party.
“These are Marxists, socialists, communists. It’s their ideology,” Johnson said. “The communists, as you know, murdered tens of millions of innocent people in the 20th century alone. That is not who we are in America, and it will not happen on our watch.”
Paxton — whom the Associated Press described as beset by years of controversy but backed by Trump — followed a similar script of dire warnings, casting Talarico as the frontman for a far-left agenda and Washington powerbrokers like Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat.
“I’m not exaggerating when I say, if we lose Texas, we lose America,” Paxton said. “That’s what we’re fighting for. This is our time, our moment to draw our line in the sand that generations of patriots drew before us.” He urged Republicans to match the enthusiastic early voting turnout from Democrats, then made one more entreaty: “Pray for our Texas,” he said. “Pray for me.”
Democrats, as enthusiastic as they have been about their prospects, are still navigating internal divisions in a tight Michigan Senate race for a seat they already hold. Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and former primary rival Haley Stevens were expected to campaign together on Sunday with Rep. James Clyburn, but that appearance is in doubt. After Stevens renewed her criticism of El-Sayed, his campaign is no longer welcoming her to events, according to a person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters.
Antjuan Seawright, an adviser for Clyburn, said the congressman was still inviting both to join him for church on Sunday morning. Stevens and her spokesperson did not respond to texts asking whether she was still planning to attend. Stevens has been demanding that El-Sayed condemn an advertisement linking U.S. support for Israel to rising grocery prices, and also address concerns about his past rhetoric that has concerned some Jewish voters.
Trump returns to in-person campaigning on Sunday with rallies set for Iowa and Kansas — events that were scheduled, pulled down and then rescheduled.