Good morning. Nineteen days out.

Three major Senate debates ran this week, in Maine, Georgia and Iowa.

Democrats need to net four seats to take the Senate. Maine and Iowa are two of the Republican-held seats we rate Toss Up. Georgia is the seat Democrats already hold and have to keep, or a flip somewhere else just makes up for it.

In Iowa, the biggest fights were over the candidates' personal conduct. Our columnist Aleigha Cavalier argues that's what debates are for now. You can read more below to find out what she means.

You'll also find Russell Payne on Senator Susan Collins agreeing with her Democratic opponent on tariffs and Iran, Kim Lyons on Senator Jon Ossoff's flat no on 2028, and this week's Ups and Downs.

— Elias Isquith

In a September debate in Alaska, after a question about the state's fishing industry, Republican Senator Dan Sullivan checked which way Democrat Mary Peltola was voting on her yes-or-no paddle before he lifted his own. Peltola used to fish commercially for a living.

As our columnist Aleigha Cavalier writes, that moment wasn't really about fisheries. It was about which candidate looked prepared.

And she thinks campaigns now walk into debates hunting for moments like it, ones that say something about who a candidate is, because those travel a lot further than a policy answer. Here's how she describes the playbook:

Character matters, she grants. Her worry is what gets squeezed out.

To find out what she thinks a debate owes voters besides a clip, read Aleigha Cavalier's full column at The Caucus.

In Maine, Republican Senator Susan Collins spent stretches of her third debate with Democrat Troy Jackson agreeing with him.

As our Russell Payne reports, she blamed the Trump administration, not Canada, for the tariff fight. And she said President Donald Trump went into the Iran war without a good plan.

That's a lot of daylight for a Republican incumbent to put between herself and her party's president. It makes more sense when you remember Trump lost Maine by seven points in 2024. We rate the race a Toss Up.

To find out how the ICE body-camera fix Collins touted is working in practice, read Russell Payne's full story at The Caucus.

In Georgia, a moderator asked Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff whether he's running for president in 2028. "I have zero interest," he said. Asked whether he'd serve all six years of a new term, he said yes.

That's the right answer for a senator asking Georgians to believe he wants this job and not the next one.

As our Kim Lyons reports, Republican Rep. Mike Collins (GA-10) was less direct. He didn't say whether he'd back more ground troops in Iran, and for the second debate running, he didn't say whether the 2020 election was stolen. We rate the race Expected D.

To find out what Mike Collins said when a moderator asked whether he's a white nationalist, read Kim Lyons's full story at The Caucus.

In Iowa, the second debate between Democratic State Rep. Josh Turek and Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson (IA-02) turned personal.

Hinson hit Turek over the votes he missed in the legislature this year. As our Alex Rifaat reports, Turek said he's been out campaigning in all 99 counties, then went after a financial disclosure showing Hinson's net worth has grown nearly fifteenfold since she was elected to Congress.

Democrats haven't won a Senate race in Iowa since 2008. We have this one as a Toss Up.

To learn how Hinson explained the jump in her wealth, read Alex Rifaat's full story at The Caucus.

👍 Three new Texas polls, three Talarico leads. Among likely voters, the University of Texas's Texas Politics Project has Democrat James Talarico up 50 to 47 over Republican Ken Paxton, ReconMR has him up 48 to 44, and Marist has him up 47 to 45.

👎 All three leads are close. And in Marist's poll, 53 percent of likely voters still expect Paxton to win. Leading in the polls and being believed are two different things.

👍 Republicans are paying more to get less. Across nine of the most competitive Senate races in September, Republicans outspent Democrats on broadcast TV $233 million to $121 million, CNN reports, but got only about 40 percent more rating points, the industry's measure of how many people actually see an ad. A lot of GOP money runs through super PACs, which pay higher rates than candidates do.

👎 They can afford it, and now they're aiming it. The head of the Senate Leadership Fund, the main Republican Senate super PAC, told Bloomberg that Iowa, Alaska, Maine and Ohio are the party's "red wall," and that's where it's focusing.

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