Closing summary

This concludes our live coverage of the 2026 midterms for the day. Here are the latest developments:

  • Barack Obama campaigned for Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit today. “Change is in the air,” the former president said of the 2026 midterms, in a speech that laid aim at the Trump administration and called on voters to elect “serious” leaders who share their values.

  • Speaking ahead of the former president, El-Sayed said that growing up with “an eleven letter first name” he never thought he could run for office, until he saw a man named “Barack Hussein Obama” become president.

  • Michigan gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson denounced Donald Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 election, and described her efforts as secretary of state that year in her address to voters in Detroit.

  • In New Hampshire, Kamala Harris has joined Democratic congressman Chris Pappas, who is running to fill the state’s vacant Senate seat, for a podcast taping. At an earlier rally in Manchester, Pappas criticized his opponent’s opposition to abortion.

  • Donald Trump voted in West Palm Beach, Florida today, telling reporters at the polls that he voted straight Republican on his ballot. Trump has historically mailed-in his ballot rather than voting in-person. Trump will campaign in Georgia today.

Updated

Reporting from Manchester, New Hampshire

With 10 days until the midterms election, New Hampshire has caused some eleventh-hour consternation for Democrats when it comes to the competitive Senate race.

Chris Pappas, the four-term Democratic congressman who is vying for the open seat, took to the stage in Manchester ahead of an intimate live podcast taping with Kamala Harris, the former vice-president, and Mini Timmaraju, the executive director of Reproductive Freedom for All – one of the country’s oldest abortion rights groups.

“Shouldn’t we have a senator that’s just going to turn the page on the chaos, the corruption, and the cruelty of what we’ve seen over the last couple of years?” Pappas told the crowd, while targeting his Republican challenger, John Sununu, a former US senator.

“He [Sununu] might still be our senator if he was pro-choice. But when he was in office, he voted for a national abortion ban. He voted not to require hospitals from providing emergency contraception to women who have been raped, and he stands with the Trump administration on their efforts to unwind family planning and to attack the right to choose,” Pappas said.

Sununu’s family name is also a known entity in the state – his brother and father are both former governors. In a state where voters handed Harris a win in 2024 while electing a Republican governor on the same ballot, some Democratic operatives are concerned this creates an opening for Sununu – who has characterized himself as an independent voice, focused on protecting New Hampshire from federal oversight.

The GOP nominee has also distanced himself from Donald Trump, despite winning the president’s endorsement.

If elected, Pappas would make history as the first openly gay man to serve in the US Senate.

A reminder that Democrats need to hold on to the 47 seats that they currently hold, which includes New Hampshire, as well as pickup four more.

Updated

Barack Obama concluded his remarks at Abdul El-Sayed’s rally in Detroit, saying: “Michigan, you and I have proved before that it’s hard to stop change when it’s time has come. So I’m asking you to do it again in 10 days.”

Updated

“These are unsettling times,” Barack Obama said in his address at Abdul El-Sayed’s rally in Detroit, urging voters to elect “serious” candidates who share their values.

The former president noted that the economy is changing fast, artificial intelligence is set to change the world and the United States is facing a major housing shortage. He added that the Republican party no longer seemed to be the party of small government, and that Democrats are struggling to deliver quickly enough for people.

“We need serious people in Washington and state capitals,” Obama said. “These are serious times. This is not the time for reality TV.”

He added that “we need to make sure we elect” candidates like Abdul El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson. “They understand that what ails us right now, what’s throwing this country off kilter so much” is “about values.”

Barack Obama encouraged voters to elect Democratic governors and members of Congress in November’s midterms to check the Trump administration.

“This election is our last, best chance to at least reign in some of the foolishness of this administration,” Obama said.

Updated

Obama says Trump 'excels at grifting'

Barack Obama criticized Donald Trump for profiting off the presidency during his address in Detroit.

“We have never seen a president straight-up excel at grifting on your dime like this,” Obama said. “We have lost count of all the deals he and his family have done.”

Updated

“He should be on HGTV,” Obama said of Donald Trump’s many renovations in Washington, including the White House ballroom and Rose Garden. “He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

“Don’t boo, vote,” Barack Obama repeated throughout his speech in Michigan, responding when rally goers booed at Obama’s description of current policies being pursued by the Trump administration.

Barack Obama criticized Donald Trump from levying tariffs and starting trade wars with “that well known evil empire, Canada.”

“These are the people who gave us Martin Short and Maple syrup. They are the nicest people," Obama said.

Obama: Pete Hegseth and other officials are 'not serious people'

Barack Obama called Pete Hegseth and other Trump administration officials “not serious people.”

Obama said the secretary of defense was more concerned about “the jawline and testosterone levels of our troops” and “livestreaming executions” than ending the war in Iran.

“How much time do you think this man spends in front of the mirror every day?” Obama joked.

Updated

Barack Obama criticized “the current occupant of the White House”' and his 2024 campaign promises “to keep costs down” during his appearance in Detroit.

“I don’t have to tell you how tough things are out there, you’re living it,” Obama said, echoing the Democratic Party’s affordability message that has driven this midterms cycle.

Obama acknowledged that, as a past president, he realized some factors were beyond a president’s control, but said “the administration’s actions are directly responsible for rising costs.”

Barack Obama criticized the last “ten years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence, tomfoolery, nonsense, the likes of which this country has not seen in modern times at least” during his address in Detroit.

'Change is in the air': Obama says El-Sayed campaign 'feels just a little bit different'

Speaking about the nearly 20 years he’s been in national politics, Barack Obama joked that he’s been campaigning for too long – but said because of the experience “I can tell you when an election comes along that feels just a little bit different.”

“An election where people are so ready for something new, so hungry for something better, so sick and tired of being sick and tired, that everywhere you go it feels like change is in the air. And Michigan that’s what I’m feeling right now,” Obama said.

Updated

Barack Obama rallies for Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan

Barack Obama has taken the stage at Abdul El-Sayed’s rally in Detroit.

“Detroit, it’s good to be back in Detroit,” he said as he took the podium.

Updated

Abdul El-Sayed said that growing up with “an eleven letter first name” he never thought he could run for office, until he saw a man named “Barack Hussein Obama” become president.

Abdul El-Sayed said his experience spending summers in Egypt and returning to the United States as a child shaped his love for the country, denouncing claims that he was too critical of the United States.

“I love America. I’m so grateful I get to raise my two daughters here in America. I just love America enough to call on her to be America for all of her kids,” he said.

Abdul El-Sayed led rally goers in a chant of “it just shouldn’t be this hard” at his rally in Detroit.

“Shouldn’t be this hard to afford a second bag of groceries”, to fill up your tank, to pay your rent or your mortgage, to see a doctor, or to “pay your taxes and know that that money’s going to be spent on you and your kids, instead of dropping bombs on somebody else and their kids,” he said.

Abdul El-Sayed takes stage before Obama in Detroit

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Michigan, has begun speaking in Detroit.

Updated

Michigan gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson denounced Donald Trump’s false claim that he won the 2020 election, and described her efforts as secretary of state that year in her address to voters in Detroit.

“In 2028, the path to the presidency, to the future of our nation, runs right through Michigan,” she said. “Who do you want running this state when Donald Trump tries to pressure the governor to overturn an election, or to turn over your private voting information in the lead up to an election?”

Rally goers in Michigan are now waiting for Abdul El-Sayed and Barack Obama to arrive at the venue in Detroit, where state candidates including senator Elissa Slotkin and US House candidate Christina Hines have already spoken.

Jocelyn Benson, the current secretary of state who’s running to be the state’s next governor, has just begun speaking – suggesting El-Sayed and Obama may not be far behind.

Updated

With just 10 days until the US midterm elections, early voting data is rolling in nationwide.

As my colleagues Shrai Popat and Lucy Campbell reported yesterday, that data shows:

1. Turnout is surging in key battleground states: As of Friday afternoon, more than 23 million Americans had already voted in person or by mail. Among the key battleground states, Michigan and Ohio have each passed 900,000 ballots cast, while Georgia has recorded almost 1.5m early votes, North Carolina more than 1.2m, Florida almost 2.2m and Texas more than 2.8m, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab, as of 23 October.

2. Those early votes are pacing well ahead of 2022: Early voting is soaring compared with the last midterms in many of the battleground states, which will decide control of the Senate.

3. Democrats lead in early returns: Registered Democrats account for 45% of early ballots cast, compared with 30% from Republicans (tracking returned ballots, not candidate selection). The party gap is particularly pronounced in North Carolina, Kansas and Iowa – all states that traditionally favor Republicans.

4. Mail-in voting remains resilient: More than 57m mail-in ballots have been requested or sent nationally – greater than the 52m requested in 2022 – according to NBC News, using data from TargetSmart. The University of Florida’s Election Lab has the figure for mail-in ballots requested at more than 59m.

Here’s their full report:

Related: Surging turnout, with Democrats voting more: key takeaways from early voting data

Updated

Trump votes in midterm elections from West Palm Beach, Florida

Donald Trump voted in West Palm Beach, Florida today, telling reporters at the polls that he voted straight Republican on his ballot. Trump has historically mailed-in his ballot rather than voting in-person.

Speaking from the polling site, Trump defended an ad from Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, his administration’s lawsuit seeking to block certification of the Alaska Senate race if Repubican senator Dan Sullivan loses his race and the war in Iran.

Updated

The man who recently attempted to ambush the Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed with a question about his supposed allegiance to the Muslim Brotherhood – which El-Sayed parlayed into a viral clip for his campaign – is the son of a political operator who recently received $250,000 for “canvassing and influencer marketing” against El-Sayed, the Guardian has learned.

In the now-famous exchange, a man – first identified by the Handbasket as Thomas “Tommy” Teepell – asked El-Sayed if he would “disavow” the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Sayed said he would, but then asked: “What are you implying? Do you assume that I wouldn’t?” What followed was a five-minute exchange that has drawn over 50m views across several social media platforms, in which El-Sayed queries the man about the guarantees of religious freedom in the constitution.

Teepell is the son of Timothy “Timmy” Teepell, a longtime strategist for the Missouri Republican senator Josh Hawley as well as former Republican Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal. Timmy Teepell’s firm, Breakthrough LLC, was paid $250,000 on 29 September by America Next, a 501(c)(4) non-profit with which it shares a Baton Rouge office suite, according to a filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Related: Man who heckled El-Sayed is son of Republican adviser who was paid for ‘influencer marketing’

The El-Sayed rally in Michigan is under way with members of the state’s Democratic party speaking in advance of Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed and former president Barack Obama.

Speaking after House of Representatives candidate Christina Hines, current senator Elissa Slotkin said, “When Barack Obama comes to Detroit, Democrats win.”

Slotkin noted that the Obama’s visit was well timed, with Donald Trump expected to visit Michigan tomorrow, and JD Vance visiting later this week.

Trump continues his midterms campaign blitz in Georgia

While Barack Obama and Abdul El-Sayed have Democrats’ attention locked on Michigan today, Donald Trump is slated to speak today in Georgia.

The president is expected to announce that the car company Audi will build a new plant there, which is expected to produce 200,000 SUVs annually, Reuters reports.

Updated

My colleague Joseph Gedeon is attending the rally for Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan today, where he says thousands are in attendance. Joseph will bring us the latest lines directly from the rally.

Analysis: El-Sayed confronts critics head-on as attacks ramp up

As a candidate positioned at the center of what researchers say are the worst Islamophobic attacks seen since the aftermath of 9/11, many would expect Abdul El-Sayed to simply defend himself and move on.

Instead, the Democratic candidate for US Senate in Michigan has repeatedly demanded those who question his positions on Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood and his faith, explain the premise of their inquiry. Rather than let others put his loyalties on trial, he has tried to put their assumptions on trial.

The clearest example is a town hall exchange from last weekend that has been viewed more than 50m times. A man in the crowd demanded he disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. “Sure, yeah, absolutely,” El-Sayed said. Then: “What are you implying? Do you assume that I wouldn’t?”

His direct approach has yielded a nickname: “Mean Mamdani”, or “Meandami”. While New York City mayor and fellow Muslim Zohran Mamdani wins people over with warmth, El-Sayed goes at his critics head-on. Both have made establishment resistance part of their political identity, but El-Sayed treats confrontation itself as a way to expose what he sees as a rigged political debate.

It is an approach the Democratic establishment doesn’t quite know what to do with.

Related: ‘What are you implying?’: El-Sayed confronts critics head-on as attacks ramp up

Barack Obama made his first appearance of the 2026 midterms campaign season today at an earlier event in Cleveland. There, the former president stumped for the Democratic Senate nominee, Sherrod Brown, and gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton.

In Cleveland, Obama sharply criticized Donald Trump, and a recent ad the state’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy released in recent days.

“After two years of chaos and cruelty and corruption and incompetence, the likes of which we have not seen in modern times, you get a chance to say enough is enough,” Obama said.

He added that it seemed there was “no line” Ramaswamy was not willing to cross after releasing an ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, accusing the daughter she lost custody of in 1978, after her second husband was charged with raping her then 12-year-old daughter, of lying about her childhood.

Updated

Abdul El-Sayed, a doctor and former Wayne county health director, ran on Medicare for All and a refusal to take corporate Pac money, and was backed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

He made opposition to US military aid to Israel and criticism of its conduct in Gaza central to his campaign, and has described Israel’s actions there as genocide. Aipac and its allies as a result spent a record-breaking $30m trying to stop him, according to AdImpact.

Barack Obama’s presence matters most in Detroit, where Black residents make up more than three-quarters of the population and where he is still highly popular.

Kamala Harris, the first Black and south Asian vice-president, campaigned with El-Sayed last month, and Obama phoned him after the primary.

Related: Obama to appear at Abdul El-Sayed rally in critical Michigan Senate race

Hundreds of people wait to see Obama at El-Sayed rally

Hundreds of Michiganders have gathered outside Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Michigan, where former president Barack Obama will stump for Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed at a rally slated to begin in about an hour.

Updated

Obama to rally for El-Sayed in Detroit ahead of key US Senate race

Good afternoon and welcome to a rare weekend edition of the Guardian’s US politics live blog.

We are coming to you live as US midterm elections draw closer and candidates are jockeying fiercely to win the hearts, minds and votes of the American people.

As part of progressive Abdul El-Sayed’s effort to do just that, he’s added Democratic star power to his rally lineup tonight in Detroit: former president Barack Obama will take the stage and offer his support to the Senate hopeful.

This rally falls on the first day of Michigan’s in-person early voting period and 10 days before election day.

Stick with us as we bring you the latest news from the rally and beyond.