The president visited Sioux City, part of deep-red Western Iowa, in an effort to boost GOP turnout in a state that was once solidly Republican.

© Alex Kent/The New York Times

At an event in Maine, an audience member told the New York progressive that “a lot of trans people in America feel that we have been abandoned by the Democratic Party.”

© Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press

Progressive activists released a video of three men making the allegations about the South Carolina Republican, who died in July. The New York Times has not confirmed their claims.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

In a year when the wealth of the rich soared while workers lost ground to inflation, class has become political, especially in the Nebraska Senate race.

© David Robert Elliott for The New York Times

The transfer came a day after the news that the pro-Israel lobby was planning to contribute as much as $9 million to defeat the Democratic nominee for Senate.

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The justices had been asked to weigh in on a New Hampshire directive that prevented election officials from considering student IDs to prove a voter’s identity.

© Alex Kent/The New York Times

Russian influence operations appear to be stepping up efforts to meddle in the midterms, according to intelligence officials. Most are targeting Democrats.

© Desiree Rios for The New York Times

Democrats believe circumstances have aligned for them to win a slew of competitive elections in the state

• How will Trump’s mass deportation agenda shape the US midterm elections? Our reporters answer your questions

Mary Peltola’s campaign to represent Alaska in the US Senate has taken her to parts of the massive state’s interior that are inaccessible by road and on the frontlines of the cost-of-living crisis she hopes will make her the first Democrat to win the seat in nearly two decades.

She has been to towns where paper towels retail for $40, a half gallon of oat milk goes for $21 and the cost of a new freezer can be quadruple what it is in the state’s largest city, Anchorage, simply because it’s so complicated to get there. Along the Arctic Ocean, she’s heard of communities where power bills have climbed to $1,500 a month because they rely on generators for power and the Iran war has pushed the cost of diesel to new heights.

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© Photograph: Kerry Tasker/Reuters

© Photograph: Kerry Tasker/Reuters

© Photograph: Kerry Tasker/Reuters

Frustration with a sprawling fraud scandal has cut Peggy Flanagan’s poll lead – could ex-NFL reporter Michele Tafoya win a first statewide election for Republicans in 20 years?

• Our reporters answer your questions about ICE, immigration and the midterms

As Democrats fight to regain control of the US Senate, hopes are rising in states – from Kansas to Texas – where they have not prevailed in decades. But in Minnesota, where Republicans have not won statewide election since 2006, the contest for an open Senate seat is closer than expected.

Should Peggy Flanagan – the state’s Democratic lieutenant governor – win the election, she will be the first Native American woman to serve in the US Senate. But history has not yet been made. The closely watched Cook Political Report shifted its rating on the race this week from “likely Democrat” to “lean Democrat”.

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© Photograph: Elizabeth Flores/TNS/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Elizabeth Flores/TNS/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Elizabeth Flores/TNS/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

Chris Pappas, the Democratic nominee in New Hampshire, would make history if he won. On the campaign trail, he doesn’t dwell on it.

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The Republican incumbent, Roger Marshall, is facing a surprisingly tough challenge from the Democratic nominee, Adam Hamilton.

© Pool photo by Charlie Riedel

Abdul El-Sayed accused Mike Rogers of being overly devoted to President Trump. Mr. Rogers accused Dr. El-Sayed of not enough loyalty to the country. It was still more cordial than their last debate.

© Pool photo by Robin Buckson

Mr. Trump is barnstorming across conservative America this week to shore up support for Republican candidates in unexpectedly competitive races.

© Kent Nishimura/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Republican incumbent is trying to hold on to his seat and keep his state from sending a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in nearly a century.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

The Republican incumbent is trying to hold on to his seat and keep his state from sending a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in nearly a century.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

The candidate, a political newcomer, is hoping to be the first Democrat to represent the state in the Senate in nearly a century.

© Christopher Smith for The New York Times

© Christopher Smith for The New York Times

County election officials have rejected ballots for such issues as an unsealed “inner” envelope. Voting rights groups are urging voters to fix their ballots or vote in other ways.

© Logan Cyrus/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee generally supports Democrats, but it has spent heavily against Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a vocal critic of Israel. Its general election spending comes after initial concerns from the campaign of Mike Rogers, the Republican.

© Nick Hagen for The New York Times; Emily Elconin for The New York Times

In the final weeks of Michigan’s Senate race, the Democratic nominee finds himself facing both ugly attacks and pointed questions about family members. He has pushed back forcefully.

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Republican Neil Bush says he was ‘deeply troubled’ by Ken Paxton’s conduct and ‘enormously impressed’ with Talarico

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Neil Bush, a son of former president George HW Bush and a lifelong Republican, announced on Tuesday that he crossed party lines to vote for James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas.

In a Facebook post, Neil Bush said he chose to vote early for Talarico over Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate and current Texas attorney general, because he was “deeply troubled” by Paxton’s conduct and was “enormously impressed” by Talarico’s principles.

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© Composite: Shutterstock, Getty Images for Points of Light

© Composite: Shutterstock, Getty Images for Points of Light

© Composite: Shutterstock, Getty Images for Points of Light

Likely voters favored Democratic candidates over Republicans by 11 percentage points in their congressional district, a New York Times/Siena poll found.

© Jillian Vordick/The New York Times

The enormous spending by the term-limited president’s super PAC has no parallel in American history, and could offer struggling Republican candidates a lifeline.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Mike Rogers and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the candidates in the tight race, defended their economic policies at the Detroit Economic Club.

© Pool photo by Paul Sancya

In Tarrant County, a fight over polling places has energized Democrats as Republicans seek to defend their grip on a longtime stronghold.

© The New York Times

Senator Katie Britt of Alabama was the latest national Republican to visit Iowa to campaign for Representative Ashley Hinson. President Trump will follow on Thursday.

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A changing of the congressional guard in January could leave room for meddling, though most legal scholars doubt it would happen.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

President Trump said that opponents of Senator Roger Marshall had unfairly cast him as “some kind of a Shylock-type guy.” Mr. Trump used the same slur last year at a rally in Iowa.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

The liberal pro-Israel advocacy group’s ads denouncing incumbents in Iowa and Pennsylvania put it at odds with the larger organization for the first time.

Ukraine got no early warning from its partners of the first wave of Russian ballistic missiles on the night of 18–19 October, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told US senators on 19 October. He also said Starlink and Starshield terminals still stop working above certain speeds on parts of the front, and that Washington has explained neither problem. In the same video call, according to a transcript obtained by Axios, he said US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not signing off on deliveries of Patriot interceptors and AIM-9X missiles for NASAMS that NATO countries have already paid for.

This comes as the US presses Kyiv to stop its strikes on Russian oil refineries, which Trump has blamed for high fuel prices at home. Washington supplies both the early launch warnings and the Patriot interceptors Ukraine needs against Russian ballistic missiles, and Zelenskyy says both are now failing at once, as Russia keeps firing ballistic missiles at Ukraine’s grid ahead of winter. If neither the warnings nor the interceptors come through, Ukrainian cities would face winter strikes with less notice and fewer means to stop them.

On the morning of 20 October, Zelenskyy wrote that he had spoken with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio about interceptors against ballistic missiles, early warning of Russian ballistic attacks, and restoring Starlink and Starshield. He thanked Rubio for his readiness to help and his clear position, and said they had agreed to speak again soon. He did not say whether anything had been resolved.

Patriots paid for, not signed

“We have almost no Patriot interceptors left from the US partners,” Zelenskyy told the senators.

Hegseth “has the contracts for Patriot missiles on his desk,” a Ukrainian official told the Kyiv Independent, adding that allies had already paid for them. Another senior official called the batch “significant.” One of the main channels for Ukraine’s Patriot supply is NATO’s PURL mechanism, under which allies fund purchases of US weapons for Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian military official told the outlet.

On 19 October, Zelenskyy wrote that some types of vital supplies were being delayed at the US Department of War, as the Trump administration also calls the Pentagon. He added that some political agreements had not been carried out at the working level.

A NATO official told the Kyiv Independent that PURL deliveries, including air defense, were continuing. Another said some shipments could face delays, but that political reasons were unlikely to explain them. A US government official called Ukraine’s claims “not true.” The Pentagon did not respond to the outlet.

No warning for Kyiv hours after Zelenskyy said US alerts were back

On 18 October, Zelenskyy said on NBC that US warnings of ballistic launches had resumed after three days without them. That night, Russia launched two ballistic waves at Ukraine, and information from partners did not arrive before the first, Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat said. Zelenskyy told the senators Ukraine had not received US warnings on three occasions in the past week. “We have received no clear explanation from Washington,” he said.

“All of this suggests that some political decision has been made to slow down support for us,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy offered a 30-day pause on refinery strikes for Patriots

Zelenskyy told the senators he had offered US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner a 30-day halt on strikes against Russian refineries. In return, the US would supply Patriot interceptors to cover that period. He said the envoys had shown no openness to the idea.

On 20 October, Norway announced talks in Oslo that day between Zelenskyy, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, with Witkoff attending in person and Kushner by video.

Senators back Kyiv. Trump says intelligence still flows

Senator Thom Tillis said he and his colleagues remain committed to standing with Ukraine and its European allies, while Senator Richard Blumenthal wrote that bipartisan support was “clear and unequivocal” and would be expressed “in upcoming action.”

US President Donald Trump told reporters on 19 October that Washington is still sharing intelligence with Ukraine and that he did not know who ordered the throttling of Starlink, Axios reported.

“Zelensky doesn’t know what he is talking about,” Trump said.

The president came out in support of Senator Roger Marshall, who is facing an unexpectedly strong challenge from Democrat Adam Hamilton

The fact that Donald Trump was here at all said more about a looming electoral disaster facing his Republican party next month than anything contained in his dark and discursive 98-minute stump speech.

On Monday, amid raucous chants of “USA! USA!”, the president held his first campaign rally in Kansas for eight years. No Democrat has won a US Senate seat in this ruby-red state since 1932, the year Herbert Hoover was president, Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and the Nazis became the biggest party in the German Reichstag.

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© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

Former Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia said he told Senator Susan Collins, who is locked in a tough re-election fight, “Whenever you run again, I’m going to come.”

© Sarah Silbiger for The New York Times

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign in Michigan released a new ad highlighting his faith, which Republicans have used to attack him in a tight Senate race.

© Zbigniew Bzdak for The New York Times

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A new Washington Post-ABC poll shows that Donald Trump’s approval rating has reached a new low – 33%.

This comes, just over two weeks away from the November midterms, as the president continues crisscrossing the country as part of his campaign blitz for embattled Republicans.

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© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

With Republicans seen as less likely to hold their majority in the House, the party is focusing more on the battle for the Senate, where it is vastly outspending Democrats on ads.

© The New York Times

Early voting in Texas, where the outcome of the Senate race could determine which party controls the chamber, will run through Oct. 30.

© Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

To boost Senator Jon Husted, who is in a tight race to keep his seat, some Republicans who were making a jobs pitch have pivoted to focus on socialism.

© Dustin Franz for The New York Times

The Texas attorney general’s powers could come under scrutiny in a close Senate contest, though election experts say courts would likely constrain him.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

The Democratic candidate invoked a rallying cry from the TV show “Friday Night Lights” as he began his final campaign push before the Nov. 3 election.

© LM Otero/Associated Press

The president on Sunday justified his reversal of almost five years of sanctions against Russia as part of peace negotiations. He did not name any hostage.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

The Republican state attorney general appears uniquely ill-chosen as a candidate – but he is a political survivor who could yet frustrate Democratic dreams

Depending how you look at the situation, it is either predictable that Ken Paxton, Texas’s attorney general and Republican candidate for US Senate, is struggling in the polls – or impressive that he is not doing worse. Beloved by hardcore Maga voters and regarded with skepticism by the broader voting public, Paxton is also puzzlingly bland. Recently, Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters that the 63-year-old Paxton “may not dress right, he may not talk exactly perfectly, and he may not be the best-looking guy I’ve ever seen”. The president was endorsing him.

Yet it is Paxton’s ability to attract – and somehow scrape through – scandal that makes him a less charismatic, perhaps, but still kindred spirit of “Teflon Don”: nothing sticks. He has survived state prosecution (on securities-related charges that he settled without admitting guilt), impeachment by the Republican-led Texas legislature (on abuse-of-office charges of which he was later acquitted), and so many controversies that it can be difficult to pin down the most outrageous.

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© Photograph: Christopher Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Christopher Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Christopher Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images

As he stumps for midterm candidates, the president has been especially eager to talk about the physical appearance of some men.

© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has made a point of investing in Republican-leaning states. He rallied in Tampa for Ms. Nixon, the underdog Democratic nominee for Florida Senate.

© Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Senator Darline Graham, appointed to fill the Senate seat of her late brother, Lindsey, gently disagreed with the president’s decision to exempt Russia from the sanctions legislation.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Ken Paxton’s bus tour of Texas comes as polls have shown the race for Senate is increasingly close. His rival, James Talarico, is scheduled to kick off a similar tour on Sunday.

© Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

The sanctions were part of a measure that was named after Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who died in July.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Four battleground congressional districts in the state reveal fault lines that are echoing nationwide.

© Rachel Wisniewski for The New York Times

Ms. Collins, a Republican running in a crucial race, said the debate remark by Troy Jackson reflected how he treated women. Mr. Jackson defended his comment.

© Charly Triballeau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Four battleground congressional districts in the state reveal fault lines that are echoing nationwide.

© Rachel Wisniewski for The New York Times

The incidents, the first of which was reported on Thursday, came as election officials have reported a growing number of threats directed at them.

© Tierney L. Cross for The New York Times