The Department of Justice also filed with the court a list of proposed questions it seeks to compel the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to answer about their reported role in recruiting the challenger Dan. J. Sullivan.

US attorney Michael Heyman cited reports that Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign and Democrats allegedly ‘orchestrated a sprawling conspiracy’ to recruit a sham candidate

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James Talarico, the Democratic nominee in Texas, attacked his Republican opponent Ken Paxton for cancelling some of his final rallies before the midterm election.

“No one’s going to Ken Paxton’s rallies, so he’s canceling them and hoping Elon Musk will buy his seat for him,” Talarico wrote, referencing the donations Paxton has received from the world’s richest man.

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© Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

© Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

© Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Endorsement not always full-throated but party backing marks major turn after bitter split over nomination

Facing a barrage of extreme attacks from Donald Trump and his allies, the Democratic establishment is finally rallying around progressive Abdul El-Sayed, the party’s candidate in the closely watched US Senate election in Michigan. But the endorsement is not always full-throated, and often even omits his name.

At a rally in Port Huron on Sunday, the US president launched the latest in a wave of Islamophobic rants against El-Sayed, erroneously branding him a “jihadist” and “Muslim Brotherhood member” while invoking 9/11.

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© Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

Senate candidate Mary Peltola speaks out as US justice department escalates criminal investigation

• Alaska Senate race: what to know about Democrats’ alleged ballot-stacking effort

Mary Peltola has denied that she knew anything about an effort to put another candidate on the Alaska ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent, as the US justice department escalated a criminal investigation this week with new grand jury subpoenas.

“I just want to clear the air,” the Democratic Senate candidate said on Thursday at the top of a speech in a downtown bar in Juneau, Alaska’s capital. “I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters.”

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© Photograph: Nathaniel Wilder/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Nathaniel Wilder/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Nathaniel Wilder/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The surge is especially pronounced in Texas, where voters are deciding closely watched Senate, House and governor's races. More than 6.3 million Texans had voted early as of Wednesday, compared with 4.2 million at the same point four years ago, a 50% increase.

Endorsement not always full-throated but party backing marks major turn after bitter split over nomination

Facing a barrage of extreme attacks from Donald Trump and his allies, the Democratic establishment is finally rallying around progressive Abdul El-Sayed, the party’s candidate in the closely watched US Senate election in Michigan. But the endorsement is not always full-throated, and often even omits his name.

At a rally in Port Huron on Sunday, the US president launched the latest in a wave of Islamophobic rants against El-Sayed, erroneously branding him a “jihadist” and “Muslim Brotherhood member” while invoking 9/11.

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© Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

Young men swung to Donald Trump in 2024. Polling shows they are now moving away — but to what? Sabrina Tavernise, a reporter for The New York Times, went to Michigan to find out.

© Luke Piotrowski/The New York Times

A backlash over high prices helped Republicans capture a majority in 2024. Now, it may be the source of the party’s own undoing.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Polls show the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham in a virtual tie with her Democratic opponent, Dr. Annie Andrews. An upset was unthinkable just a few months ago.

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The fate of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive candidate in the race, will serve as a litmus test for the left’s potency heading into the next presidential contest.

© Nick Hagen for The New York Times

The Justice Department issued subpoenas, a House oversight committee sought interviews and the state opened its own inquiry into a Democratic plan to recruit a spoiler into a Senate race.

© Kerry Tasker/Reuters

Alaska's governor is ordering an investigation into Democrat Mary Peltola's Senate campaign over reports that it recruited a spoiler candidate to dilute Republican votes. That's as President Trump repeated calls for Peltola's prosecution during a trip to another deep red state where his endorsed candidate is facing headwinds. Liz Landers reports.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is unlikely to act before the end of the year on a House-passed bill that would make daylight saving time permanent, defying President Donald Trump and dashing the hopes of Americans who don't like having to change their clocks twice a year. As daylight saving time ends early Sunday and much of the country turns the clocks back an hour, several senators are holding up legislation that would eliminate the...

Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign allegedly collaborated with party operatives to confuse voters in midterms

The US justice department on Thursday is reported to have issued subpoenas in response to a report that the Alaska Democrat Mary Peltola’s campaign collaborated with party operatives to get a challenger with the same name as the Republican senator Dan Sullivan on the midterm ballot.

ABC News and the Associated Press reported the subpoenas, citing sources familiar with the matter. The federal investigation comes a day after the New York Times found that the effort to recruit a second candidate named Dan Sullivan in the Senate race set to be decided on Tuesday was led by Peltola’s campaign, which had for months denied involvement.

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© Composite: Getty Images

© Composite: Getty Images

© Composite: Getty Images

The other Dan Sullivan in Alaska has drawn the most attention, but both parties are quietly trying to use little-known candidates in other battlegrounds to siphon votes, too.

© Becky Bohrer/Associated Press

Democrat Annie Andrews neck-and-neck with Republican incumbent, Darline Graham, sister to Lindsey Graham

• US politics live – latest updates

A US Senate race in one of the most Republican states in the country is now a dead heat, according to a new poll showing Annie Andrews, a Democrat, tied with Darline Graham, the Republican incumbent senator.

South Carolina has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998, and Donald Trump won it by nearly 18 points in 2024, but a New York Times/Siena poll this week has the two candidates neck and neck, at 48% each.

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© Composite: Win McNamee/Getty Images

© Composite: Win McNamee/Getty Images

© Composite: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Democrat Annie Andrews neck-and-neck with Republican incumbent, Darline Graham, sister to Lindsey Graham

• US politics live – latest updates

A US Senate race in one of the most Republican states in the country is now a dead heat, according to a new poll showing Annie Andrews, a Democrat, tied with Darline Graham, the Republican incumbent senator.

South Carolina has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998, and Donald Trump won it by nearly 18 points in 2024, but a New York Times/Siena poll this week has the two candidates neck and neck, at 48% each.

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© Composite: Win McNamee/Getty Images

© Composite: Win McNamee/Getty Images

© Composite: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Expectations are cresting for Democrats, and some kind of wave seems likely, but so much will depend on a few close Senate races.

© The New York Times

Republican Mike Dunleavy plans search after Peltola accused of recruiting Dan Sullivan to confuse voters

The Republican governor of Alaska announced plans to launch a criminal investigation after a report accused the campaign of the Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola of trying to confuse voters by recruiting a candidate with the same name as her opponent.

Governor Mike Dunleavy wrote on social media that he was “directing the department of public safety to investigate whether this scheme violated Alaska’s laws and whether criminal charges or civil action are warranted”.

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© Photograph: Kerry Tasker/Reuters

© Photograph: Kerry Tasker/Reuters

© Photograph: Kerry Tasker/Reuters

Michigan US Senate candidate signaled support for Egypt’s pro-democracy movement in 2012, not Islamist group

The Republican campaign to defeat Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race by casting him as an Islamic extremist is based on a false claim first made by the conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer eight years ago, a Guardian review of the evidence reveals.

Loomer, an influential outside adviser to Donald Trump who calls herself “a proud Islamophobe”, has claimed since El-Sayed entered politics in 2018 that an open letter he signed in support of democracy in Egypt in 2012 was a public endorsement of the Muslim Brotherhood. The text of the letter, however, does not even mention the Muslim Brotherhood, and is not, as Loomer maintains, “a pledge” of support for the Egyptian Islamist group.

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© Photograph: Brian Cahn/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Brian Cahn/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Brian Cahn/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock