Midterms 2026: Early voting sees big turnout in battleground Senate states as Trump begins final election push

Voters in the key Senate battleground states are casting ballots early at a pace ahead of the 2022 midterms, as President Donald Trump enters the closing stretch of the campaign. The Associated Press found that more than 43 million Americans have already voted, with the biggest jumps in Texas, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina and Kansas, according to The Independent.

Trump's weekend plans briefly caused confusion. Republican officials had canceled in-person events in Kansas and Iowa, but the president reversed course and will now appear in both states on Sunday. A source told The Independent that those stops were reshuffled to make room for 19 telerallies. When a Reuters reporter asked whether health played a role in the earlier cancellation, Trump snapped that he simply did not feel he had to go to Kansas and said he felt perfect. Friday night finds him on stage in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Separately, The New York Times reports that at least nine of Trump's 15 cabinet secretaries have faced accusations of violating the Hatch Act in recent months by joining campaign events. Ethics experts say this breaks the federal law, which covers most executive branch employees but exempts the president and vice president.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Independent’s reporting. Read the full story at The Independent →