Candidates state differing positions on tariffs, immigration, health care and Iran
Millions of Americans are about to decide which party controls the Senate in the 2026 midterms, an election BBC News said will have a significant impact on President Donald Trump’s final two years in office. A four-seat Democratic gain would give Democrats control, with the power to limit Trump’s ambitions, reject his judicial nominations and investigate his administration. Billions of dollars are being poured into 35 Senate races across the country, but the independent elections analyst Cook Political Report rates seven as toss-ups: Alaska, Maine, Texas, Michigan, Iowa, Kansas and Ohio.
In Maine, Republican Sen. Susan Collins is seeking a sixth term against Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee and a former president of the Maine state senate. Collins, 73, began her political career fresh from college in the 1970s and entered the U.S. Senate in 1997. One of the few Republican senators to vote to convict Trump when he was impeached in 2021, Collins has consistently outperformed her party in the Democratic-leaning state, partly by presenting herself as a rebel. BBC News said Collins hopes her reputation as a centrist will persuade independent-minded voters in a state that reliably votes Democratic in presidential elections. BBC News also described Collins as one of the most vulnerable incumbent Republicans seeking reelection when she entered the midterm cycle, and said her campaign will test whether Republicans can win by distancing themselves from Trump.
Her opponent, 58-year-old logger Troy Jackson, draws on his lumberjack background to persuade blue-collar Mainers that he can relate to them and hopes time is finally running out for one of the survivors of U.S. politics. But Collins has been helped by controversy on the other side of the aisle involving Graham Platner, who was ultimately replaced as the Democratic nominee by Jackson. Jackson became politically active after helping to lead a protest to block lower-paid workers from Canada entering Maine. Collins and Jackson both oppose Trump’s tariffs on Canada, mindful of their effect on the border state. Unlike Collins, Jackson favors abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is running to keep the seat in Democratic hands against Republican Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent and congressman who received a surprise endorsement from El-Sayed’s defeated Democratic rival, which BBC News said added to the acrimony that has characterized the race from the start. BBC News described the contest as one of the most bitter of the cycle. A doctor and public health official, El-Sayed was described by BBC News as one of the most left-wing Senate nominees this election cycle. He supports a government-run health insurance system and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while his strong criticism of Israel has created tension within the party.
Rogers emphasizes his military and intelligence background and has maintained Trump’s support despite criticizing the president’s Canada tariffs and Russia diesel deal. He has also called for a quick end to the war with Iran, and El-Sayed would be the first Muslim person ever elected to the U.S. Senate. Trump and Rogers have sought to link El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood, which El-Sayed has denounced. Trump also invoked 9/11 and called El-Sayed a “jihadist” without citing evidence, prompting backlash and accusations of Islamophobia. El-Sayed, 41, was born and raised in Michigan before medical studies in the US and UK and subsequent work in the health sector. Rogers, 63, served in the US Army and FBI before entering Congress and becoming a key advocate of US surveillance policies.
In Texas, Republican Ken Paxton, whom the BBC profile identifies as a Trump ally, faces Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, a former teacher and Presbyterian seminary student who wants to end a decades-long pattern of Republican statewide victories. Republicans have won statewide races in Texas for more than 30 years, and the matchup has become the most expensive Senate race ever. BBC News said Texas Republicans face a challenging national political environment for conservatives, with state issues such as data center construction and aggressive immigration enforcement cutting against the party, and added that Paxton is a controversial candidate.
BBC News described the campaign as acrimonious, with Talarico targeting Paxton’s 2023 impeachment by the Republican-controlled state House for alleged corruption, bribery and abuse of power. Paxton denied the charges and was later acquitted by the state Senate, calling the impeachment a “politically motivated sham from the beginning.” Paxton was supported by more than $170 million in funds from tech mogul Elon Musk and has attempted to paint Talarico as a liberal out of touch with Texans on transgender rights, law enforcement, immigration and energy policy.
Before entering public service, Paxton spent 14 years launching and building his own law firm, then served in the state House and Senate before becoming Texas’s chief legal officer. Talarico taught at a middle school in San Antonio, in a neighborhood he has described as one of the state’s poorest. He has studied theology and names Pope Leo as a “spiritual hero.” Talarico also aims to show that one of Republicans’ main strongholds could be in play for the 2028 presidential election. BBC News said a Democratic victory might indicate that Texas, described as America’s second-biggest electoral prize in a presidential election, could be within reach in 2028 and potentially reshape the national political landscape.
A Democratic victory in Kansas would upend 94 years of history because the state last elected a Democratic senator in 1932. Republican Sen. Roger Marshall is trying to avoid defeat against first-time candidate and Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton. Both are fifth-generation Kansans who emphasize their ties to local issues. Marshall, 66, worked for 25 years as an obstetrician and delivered some 5,000 babies. Hamilton, 62, founded a church that became the center of the largest United Methodist congregation in America. Marshall has closely aligned himself with Trump and positioned himself as a pro-farmer candidate.
Hamilton, who once considered running as an independent, has pitched himself as a candidate who can bridge the partisan divide and has focused on lower costs and protecting health care access. Marshall has attacked Hamilton’s record as a pastor, describing him as “too woke” for the conservative state. Marshall has faced scrutiny since reports emerged that he sued patients unable to pay their medical bills. He told Fox News the story was a hit job by the left media and senior Democrats. The tight Kansas race was broadly seen as a potentially ominous sign for Republicans, according to BBC News, while a Hamilton victory would be seen as a sign of increasing dissatisfaction with Trump’s policies, particularly on economics, in territory once considered safe for the party.
President Donald Trump made the trip to Iowa on the final day of his campaign rallies, which BBC News said reflected the race’s importance. Polls show a toss-up between Republican Ashley Hinson, a former local news reporter and television news host, and Democrat Josh Turek, who won basketball gold at two Paralympic Games. Farms, tariffs and Trump have emerged as key issues. Hinson, 43, says her journalistic background helps her understand the issues facing Iowa’s farmers and small businesses. Turek, 47, was born with spina bifida, underwent multiple surgeries and represented the US at wheelchair basketball at four Paralympic Games.
Hinson has slightly distanced herself from the president, urging him to end the war with Iran and breaking with him on easing beef tariffs while continuing to defend his broader tariff policies as important. Turek argues that Trump’s tariffs have caused a “farmageddon” in the largely rural state and that the war in Iran has increased fuel and fertilizer costs. Hinson has cast Turek as a candidate who would vote as an “East Coast liberal.” The candidates have also disagreed over taxes, Social Security and immigration. The last time a Democrat won a federal election in Iowa was nearly 20 years ago.
Ohio pits Republican Sen. Jon Husted against Democrat Sherrod Brown, 73, who is running to regain his old Senate seat. Brown spent three decades representing Ohio in Congress, including years in the Senate, before losing his seat. Trump won Ohio with ease in 2024, and a year earlier no one considered the race in play for the midterms, but Husted now finds himself neck and neck with Brown. Husted was appointed in 2025 to the seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance and is running for the remainder of Vance’s term. He promises to use his business experience to bring jobs and growth to Ohio.
BBC News assessed Ohio as a one-time swing state that has become reliably red in the Trump era and said Husted would probably be favored in a different election cycle. BBC News described Husted as facing a formidable challenge from Brown, who has high name recognition from three decades representing Ohio in Congress. BBC News noted that Brown is known as a champion of workers and was advocating economic populist policies long before others in his party. BBC News called the race a referendum on Trump’s economic policies, particularly his trade wars that have impacted the manufacturing and auto industries underpinning Ohio’s economy.
Husted, 59, began life in a foster home and was in business before politics; he was an elite American football player in college, and Trump has repeatedly praised his physique at rallies. Brown was introduced to political activism at a young age and recruited into local politics before graduating from Yale.
BBC News said Alaska could be the state that determines which party controls the chamber if, as expected, the state is slow to produce an outcome. Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan is seeking a third term against former House member Mary Peltola, the first Alaska Native elected to Congress and the first person born in the state to represent it in Congress. Peltola, 53, grew up fishing salmon with her father, ran on “fish, family, freedom” and attacked Sullivan’s record as Alaska’s natural resources commissioner. Sullivan, 61, is a longtime Marine Corps reservist who also served as Alaska’s attorney general. He retired from the US Marines in 2024 after a 30-year career that included deployments to Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Sullivan accused Peltola of introducing his namesake to confuse voters, alleging links from her campaign to the effort that brought a second man named Dan Sullivan into the race. Her campaign denied any such link. The issue is the subject of a state investigation and a Justice Department lawsuit, which a judge rejected on Sunday. Alaska’s ranked-choice system adds uncertainty, while the state has historically been difficult to poll, with surveys historically underestimating Republican voters.
Democrats need four gains to take the Senate, while Republicans must defend enough seats to hold it. BBC News said a four-seat Democratic shift would give the party the power to limit Trump’s ambitions, reject his judicial nominations and investigate his administration. Across the profiles, the candidates’ stated positions show the policy differences: Collins and Jackson oppose Trump’s Canada tariffs because of their effect on Maine, while Rogers criticizes the president’s Canada tariffs and Russia diesel deal; Jackson and El-Sayed favor abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement; El-Sayed supports government-run health insurance and Hamilton has campaigned on protecting health care access; and Rogers and Hinson call for an end to the war with Iran, while Turek links that war to fuel and fertilizer costs. Paxton has portrayed Talarico as out of touch on immigration, and Hinson and Turek have also disagreed over immigration.
The BBC News report was written by Bernd Debusmann, Daniel Bush and Anthony Zurcher in Washington, and James FitzGerald and Tom Geoghegan in London.