Get the latest on the midterms & more in the NPR AppWhen this election cycle began, Democrats were seen as a longshot to pick up the Senate.That's because so many seats that are up for election are in red states.But as the year has gone on and the war in Iran has continued, the field has widened considerably.Polling, ad money and candidate and surrogate travel have all indicated competitive races in places Trump won by double digits in 2024.
Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and Texas are all considered Toss Ups, according to the Cook Political Report."I'm very energized," said Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is charged with trying to elect Democrats to the Senate.
"We have so many candidates running in so many deep red and purple places, and they are winning, and it is exciting.People want change, and we have so much talent on the field right now.
I feel very inspired."The races in all of these competitive states where Trump won are within the margin of error.Republicans have a decidedly different view."Senate Democrats' socialist surge has reached a fever pitch, and their desperate conspiracies to defraud voters appear criminal," said Bernadette Breslin, national press secretary for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the counterpart to the DSCC.She's referring to a controversy in the Alaska Senate race about the alleged involvement of members of the campaign for the Democratic candidate, Mary Peltola, to recruit Daniel J.
Sullivan to run, as first reported by The New York Times.The incumbent Republican is named Dan Sullivan."Common-sense voters across red-leaning battlegrounds are preparing to reject the dangerously unaffordable agendas of Abdul El-Sayed [in Michigan], Troy Jackson [in Maine], and Mary Peltola—along with the Democrat Party's dying brand."But showing the direction the winds have been blowing, North Carolina, where Trump won narrowly, and was seen as a Toss Up race at...