{"id":3710,"date":"2026-11-03T10:03:58","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T05:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3710"},"modified":"2026-11-03T10:03:58","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T05:03:58","slug":"tensions-rise-as-campaign-ends-with-control-of-congress-at-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3710","title":{"rendered":"Tensions rise as campaign ends with control of Congress at stake"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Congressional candidates and President Donald Trump made their final arguments to US voters on Monday, the eve of the midterm elections,<\/a> with tensions running high in Michigan, where Abdul El Sayed aims to become the \u200bfirst Muslim elected to the Senate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

California was also in the spotlight after the Supreme Court swiftly quashed an attempt by Trump\u2019s Justice Department to intervene and block vote counting from alleged non-US citizens.<\/p>\n

With control \u200cof the US Congress at stake for his final two years in office, Trump devoted his last major speech before voting day to touting renovations of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, one of the Washington public works projects he has made a priority since returning to the White House.<\/p>\n

He later spoke by telephone on Fox News\u2019 Hannity<\/em> show, urging Republicans to pretend he is on the ballot in an effort to increase voter participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to vote. If our people vote, we win in a landslide,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

All 435 seats in the US House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 US \u200bSenate seats will be contested on Tuesday. Democrats are widely favoured to retake the House but face a greater challenge in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Loss of control in either chamber would constrain Trump and empower Democrats to investigate his administration, while \u200ba Senate majority would also allow them to block his appointees to federal courts, including the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration\u2019s attempt<\/a> to temporarily block California from \u2060counting mail-in ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters who federal officials alleged were likely non-US citizens.<\/p>\n

It was quick action from the high court. California had argued the federal lawsuit would disenfranchise 20,000 voters based on vague accusations and that the \u200bprocess for identifying noncitizens was error-prone.<\/p>\n

A US judge on Monday also ordered the Trump administration<\/a> to stop demanding that California segregate ballots cast by people on lists of suspected noncitizens.<\/p>\n

Trump, 80, has campaigned hard for Republicans, holding events in 20 states over the past 32 \u200bdays, the White House said.<\/p>\n

His final in-person event was a speech at the belated reopening of the Washington reflecting pool, where the former real-estate developer spent more than 20 minutes discussing pipes, joints, caulking, granite resurfacing, algae and leaks.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we have a lot of great things planned for Washington, and I could get into the nation, but for that you don\u2019t have enough time,\u201d Trump said, also mentioning the grass at the White House, his new Marine One helipad, a golf course and plans for a triumphal arch that are facing a court challenge.<\/p>\n

A Reuters\/Ipsos poll<\/a> completed \u200bon Monday found 46% of registered voters said they would vote for Democrats in congressional elections, compared with 38% who picked Republicans.<\/p>\n

Early voting, whether in person or by mail, has already set a record with 57 million votes cast as of Monday \u200bafternoon, up from 45 million in all of the 2022 midterms, according to the University of Florida\u2019s Election Lab.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Michigan tensions high<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In Michigan, Democratic candidate El Sayed, a physician and former public health official, is attempting to become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate, running against Republican \u200cMike Rogers.<\/p>\n

Their tight \u2060Senate race grew more heated over the weekend when US Representative Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary to El Sayed, switched to backing Rogers.<\/a><\/p>\n

Afterwards, El Sayed\u2019s campaign said it raised $2.4 million on Sunday, its largest single-day fundraising haul, fueled by small-dollar donations.<\/p>\n

El Sayed, an Egyptian American Muslim born in Michigan, has been targeted by Trump and other Republicans who have questioned his loyalty to the US and baselessly called him a terrorist sympathiser.<\/p>\n

El Sayed has called questions about his loyalty to the US \u201cshameful.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Fox News\u2019 Hannity<\/em> show on Monday, Rogers cast El Sayed as \u201cjust too extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a Michigan rally on Monday, Rogers said, \u201cThis election was never about how someone prayed. It was always about how you think, what your philosophy and what your ideology is.\u201d<\/p>\n

El Sayed appealed for unity at a campaign rally on Monday, saying, \u201cI believe that \u200bwe have the opportunity to breach those divides, divides of \u200bgeography, of race, of sexual orientation, gender identity, of \u2060faith, to build together what we only can have together.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>Trump seeks to intervene<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Trump administration also has sought to intervene in election disputes in Alaska.<\/p>\n

A federal judge on Sunday dismissed a US Justice Department lawsuit seeking to block certification of election results in Alaska if Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan narrowly loses.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department has argued voters may be confused by a \u200bchallenger named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. on the same ballot.<\/p>\n

The issue of two Sullivans running in Alaska has roiled the campaign since the New York Times<\/em> reported last week that \u200bDemocrat Mary Peltola\u2019s campaign was involved \u2060in recruiting the latter Sullivan into the race as a spoiler.<\/p>\n

The senator said on Sunday he would accept the results of Tuesday\u2019s election even as the Trump administration presses a criminal investigation into the issue.<\/p>\n

Peltola has denied involvement, and Sullivan Jr. has denied coordinating with Peltola\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

Introduced as \u201cthe real Dan Sullivan\u201d at a rally in Alaska on Monday, the senator said Democrats see Alaska as key to taking control of the Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about Alaska,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are the firewall for freedom for America right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

A supporter of the Senate \u2060challenger Sullivan Jr. \u200bsaid FBI agents on Friday questioned him about his $500 donation.<\/p>\n

Barry Bracken, a retired fisheries biologist living in Sullivan\u2019s hometown of Petersburg, Alaska, where he \u200bsaid they have known each other for more than 40 years, said he told the agents he had intentionally donated to Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.\u2019s campaign, and they left soon after.<\/p>\n

The FBI did not reply to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Congressional candidates and President Donald Trump made their final arguments to US voters on Monday, the eve of the midterm elections, with tensions running high in Michigan, where Abdul El Sayed aims to become the \u200bfirst Muslim elected to the Senate. California was also in the spotlight after the Supreme Court swiftly quashed an attempt by Trump\u2019s Justice Department to intervene and block vote counting from alleged non-US citizens. With control \u200cof the US Congress at stake for his final two years in office, Trump devoted his last major speech…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3710\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}