The Latest: Battle lines as Republicans retreat from front-line House districts
Republicans are retreating from a handful of battleground U.S. House races, while Democrats are racing to raise money to boost candidates who seemed like long shots earlier this year. The strategy in the final three weeks of midterm campaigns points to an increasingly defensive posture by Republicans, who have already trimmed their expectations in U.S. Senate races, and new aggression from Democrats, who are trying to capitalize on President Donald Trump’s weak approval ratings.
Kamala Harris is building out her final fall campaign blitz on behalf of other Democrats, completing a midterm schedule that by Election Day will have taken her to multiple early presidential primary states on Democrats’ 2028 calendar as the former vice president mulls whether to seek the White House again.
A federal judge on Tuesday extended an order blocking Trump’s administration from banning reporters for three news outlets from the White House, a pivotal operational development for the organizations as the extraordinary case — pitting the president against the media that cover him — makes its way through the legal system.
The Latest:
The U.S. and other wealthy nations need to urgently tackle mounting global debt levels that are weighing most heavily on low-income countries and straining the global financial system, the head of the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other U.S. leaders recognize that the federal deficit and national debt are too high. But she said the U.S. can’t grow its way out of more than $40 trillion in national debt.
Meanwhile, rising bond yields, reflecting higher premiums demanded by investors for taking on greater risk, have been disrupting financial markets.
“We believe that growth, of course, helps, but it cannot deliver fast enough the necessary adjustments,” Georgieva said at the autumn meeting of the IMF and World Bank in Bangkok. “There is no magic.”
The Social Security Administration projected Wednesday that the annual cost-of-living adjustment for older adults and people with disabilities will go up by 3.6% beginning in 2027. Some recipients are already complaining it’s not enough to offset soaring prices.
The adjustment translates to $75 extra per month for the 73 million people who receive monthly Social Security benefits and nearly 7.5 million beneficiaries who get Supplemental Security Income.
The cost-of-living adjustment is financed by payroll taxes collected from workers and their employers, up to a certain annual salary. The cap is set to increase to $192,300 in 2027, from $184,500 in 2026.
Water polluted by industrial agriculture runoff and high cancer rates have been the focus of debate questions, roundtable events and campaign advertisements for both Republicans and Democrats, up and down the ballot in Iowa.
The issue has historically been politically taboo in Iowa, where chemical fertilizers and animal waste from huge corn, soybean and hog operations get washed into drinking water sources. The political calculus has shifted amid restrictions on water use in the Des Moines area and a burgeoning “Make America Healthy Again” movement in rural communities.
“The real issue is the water and the nitrates,” Democratic Senate nominee Josh Turek told cancer patients.
The Republican congresswoman running against Turek, Ashley Hinson, said Iowans can feel safe because tap water meets federal regulations.
“I don’t think water quality is a partisan issue,” Hinson said as she gathered farmers, researchers and local officials to discuss the water problems.
Senate Democrats are pouring another $6.7 million into two competitive Senate races, announcing Wednesday that they will spend an additional $3.7 million to support Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and $3 million to back Troy Jackson in Maine.
The Senate Majority PAC, which is aligned with Sena te Democratic leadership, is increasing its investment as both candidates face significant Republican spending advantages. Jackson is challenging Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a longtime Democratic target, while El-Sayed is locked in a close race with Republican Mike Rogers for an open seat.
Senate Democrats have pulled back spending meanwhile from North Carolina and Georgia, where their candidates have money advantages against Republican opponents.
Katie Zacharia, now the official voice of the world’s most powerful person, put the “brief” back in briefing during her initial White House press conference, reading from a prepared text before answering just four questions.
“I get to do what I was doing on the outside already, which was hoping to amplify, multiply and expand upon President Trump’s incredible agenda for the American people,” Zacharia said.
Nowhere did she mention the task of disseminating accurate information to Americans.
How will Zacharia fare in coming days and weeks and, if her tenure lasts, months? That, like so much else, depends on one thing: Donald Trump.
U.S. inflation accelerated last month as gas, clothes, and air fares got more expensive just as Americans prepare to vote in elections focused on affordability.
The consumer price index rose 3.7% in September compared with a year ago, the Labor Department said Wednesday, up from 3.4% in August. Monthly costs showed the biggest gain in five months.
The figures reflect the lingering impact of the Iran war on gas prices and surging investments in data centers and artificial intelligence. Core prices rose 2.6% in September from a year ago, up from 2.4% the previous month, well above the Federal Reserves’s 2% target.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found just 17% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living, and only 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, a new low.
Trump said “massive” oil, gas and mineral exploration is set to begin in “our new and beautiful Greenland ” early Wednesday.
It wasn’t immediately clear what exploration or developments the U.S. president was referring to in his post, and Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, rather than a part of the United States.
Rising energy prices — a direct result of Trump’s war in Iran — are creating serious and sustained financial hardships for America’s working class ahead of the midterm elections next month. Trump’s comments Wednesday are likely aimed at addressing voters’ concerns before they head to the polls.
But despite Trump’s optimism, resource exploration and extraction in Greenland has stymied companies for decades thanks to the island’s harsh climate, lack of key infrastructure and difficult geology. Previous efforts to extract so-called rare earth minerals, as well as oil and gas, have never progressed beyond the exploratory stage.
A federal judge on Tuesday extended an order blocking Trump’s administration from banning reporters for three news outlets from the White House, a pivotal operational development for the organizations as the extraordinary case — pitting the president against the media that cover him — makes its way through the legal system.
In a victory for media organizations at a time when tension between the White House and journalists is high, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are likely to succeed in their constitutional free speech and due process claims.
“Still,” he added in his late-night order, “no one should interpret the Court’s decision to suggest that President Trump’s concerns about accuracy and fairness in the media’s reporting are unfounded, or that the government is powerless when its true aim is to protect national security when classified information is unlawfully disclosed.”
But Kelly agreed with the plaintiffs that the national security arguments came after the fact and were unsupported by the administration.
Kamala Harris is building out her final fall campaign blitz on behalf of other Democrats, completing a midterm schedule that by Election Day will have taken her to multiple early presidential primary states on Democrats’ 2028 calendar as the former vice president mulls whether to seek the White House again.
Spanning from Oct. 21 to Oct. 30, Harris’ expanded closing stretch will now include New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Mississippi, along with a virtual event in Florida, according to a schedule her office shared first with The Associated Press. Harris already had announced late October stops in Georgia and Nevada.
Harris has said in multiple recent interviews that she’s focused on helping Democrats win in November. But she’s not ruled out another presidential campaign after losing the 2024 general election to Donald Trump.
Her late October tour focuses on nominees for governor and U.S. Senate, including pairings that put the first Black woman to serve as vice president alongside potential history-making candidates.
Republicans were retreating Tuesday from a handful of battleground U.S. House races while Democrats were racing to raise money to boost candidates who seemed like long shots earlier this year.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, the leading House Republican super PAC, canceled spending in four races from the Midwest to the East Coast and increased its investment in 16 other races from Texas to Pennsylvania. Another super PAC allied with President Donald Trump is cutting back in a battleground district in the Las Vegas area.
Meanwhile, Democrats’ House campaign committee is eyeing openings in Republican-held districts and hoping to raise millions of dollars in the next week to fuel a late round of advertising that they say could net at least a half dozen more seats.
The shifting money in the final three weeks of midterm campaigns points to an increasingly defensive posture by Republicans, who have already trimmed their expectations in U.S. Senate races, and new aggression from Democrats, who are trying to capitalize on President Donald Trump’s weak approval ratings.
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