We made it to Friday, and 25 days out from Election Day. 

This week saw the start of debate season. Debates are always something of a watershed moment in campaigns. They can and have made and destroyed entire careers in less than 90 minutes. The famous 1960 Kennedy-Nixon debates, the first televised presidential head-to-heads, started it all as the prime example.

Now campaigns spend weeks preparing, having staffers stand in as opponents, and workshopping one liners that sound off the cuff. The whole thing feels like rehearsals for a high school play. 

Our Russell Payne wrote about the debate in Maine’s senate race between incumbent Republican Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson. While talking heads will argue who won this one, the winning line, at least according to online meme accounts, seems to be Jackon’s quick rebuttal “We can’t eat road salt!” to Collins’ brag about getting road salt off of Trump’s tariff list in the trade war with Maine’s neighbor Canada.

In such a close race, a viral hit  like that may be enough to boost Jackson a point or two. The candidates are scheduled for three more debates. No word yet if those will actually even happen. But I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff and his challenger Republican Congressman Mike Collins went toe-to-toe down south in Georgia. Kim Lyons’ piece gave great insight into the tenor of the night, which was heated as expected. Ossoff has a pretty comfortable lead in every poll, and is rated by us here at The Caucus as ‘Expected Democrat,’ which means pending something drastic happening this month, Ossoff should win reelection. 

What was common between those two debates and most others this week (we also covered the Iowa U.S. Senate and Georgia governor contests), was that Donald Trump loomed large over all of them. This year’s cycle appears to be one of the starkest examples of the old but true cliche that a midterm election will always be a referendum on the current president. Republicans have begun preemptive damage control, and 50% of Democrats say that if the party does take back the House and or Senate it will be because of Trump.

We’re less than four weeks from the election, this is the time where campaigns shift toward GOTV efforts. Look for major names showing up for rallies, e.g. Obama in Michigan. We’ll cover it all, who’s going where, who’s spending what, and any October surprises that happen.

Have a great weekend!

— Jake Rakov, Co-Founder, The Caucus

As our Kim Lyons reported this week, “A slew of Democratic challengers are emphasizing their working-class experience in the 2026 election cycle.” She spotlighted Ohio ironworker Brian Poindexter, Maine lumberjack Troy Jackson, Wisconsin waitress Rebecca Cooke, and Pennsylvania firefighter Bob Brooks.

As the co-author of the 2024 book The Rural Voter told Kim, “It’s not just the organic emergence of candidates who are sick of the status quo and find themselves drifting toward Democratic politics.”

You can read Kim’s full story at The Caucus.

— With Democrats looking more likely to have a shot at flipping the Senate, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is looking less vulnerable to a leadership challenge than he did last fall — though neither is a foregone conclusion. Schumer has been atop the Senate Democratic Caucus since 2017. (The Washington Sun)

— The Democratic National Committee is suing President Donald Trump to stop him from running additional taxpayer-funded ads that promote the president during the election season. The DNC said that the ads have continued airing with government funding despite Trump saying that his super PAC would start paying the bill. (POLITICO)

— “In 30 years of doing debates, I’ve never seen it continue during the commercial,” Michigan Senate debate moderator Rick Albin (WOOD TV) said. The head-to-head between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers was the most heated debate of the cycle so far. (The Hill)

We’re 100% independent and reader supported. The more members we have, the more coverage we can provide. Become a founding member of The Caucus today.

We’re your go-to source for what’s actually happening inside the Democratic Party. We don’t just write about the news of the day, we tell you what will matter tomorrow. We want to hire more reporters to cover campaigns, well-sourced journalists in Washington to write about what’s happening on the Hill, and analysts to break down all of the races you care about. But we need your help to do it.

Please consider becoming a founding member today. It’s just $10/month or $90 for a year.