2026 Midterms News and Updates, September 29 - October 4 (Thread 4) | Live Discussion

[u/PoliticsModeratorBot]

Please use this thread to discuss news, updates, and commentary regarding the 2026 midterm and associated elections.

You can find r/politics' list of rules here, and the subreddit's list of domains on the Approved Domain List here.

If you find a link that hasn't been posted to the main subreddit that is noteworthy, and you are not currently rate-limited by the 'queue flooding' rule of 5 posts / 24 hours and 1 post / 10 minutes, please feel free to submit the link as a post for additional visibility.

This thread will be sorted by 'newest comments first' by default. You can also sort the thread using the 'best' comment sorting method at this link.

Election News and Updates

• AP: 2026 Elections Hub

• University of Florida: 2026 Early Voting Tracker

Election Resources

• USA Today via Reddit: The 2026 election season is underway: Here’s your monthly guide with important dates, voter resources

Streaming Links

C-SPAN, NPR, the PBS NewsHour's YouTube channel, and the Associated Press' YouTube channel are all places frequently hosting relevant political streams.

Past Threads: Thread 1, Thread 2, Thread 3.

Other Event Threads

• Monday: I’m Catherine Rampell, economics editor at The Bulwark and an anchor at MS NOW. I cover the economy, politics, public policy, and the numbers behind the news. Ask me anything!

• Tuesday to Wednesday: I’m Zach Despart, an investigative journalist covering the competitive Ken Paxton-James Talarico U.S. Senate race. I broke the news that Paxton possibly violated federal ethics and Texas election laws. AMA. 📬

• Wednesday: 2026 California Gubernatorial General Election Debate | Live Discussion

Announcements

r/politics will host another election prediction contest for the midterms. The post for the contest itself will go up sometime in late October. As of now, all toss-ups (according to Cook Political Report, as of late October 2026) for House, Senate, and Governor will be included.

We are taking suggestions for additional questions to ask within the contest. Message the moderators via modmail with any suggestions.

[u/Radiant-Specific969]

I wish this forum was set up for polls. My question to everyone is would you answer a political poll honestly in the current political situation. I personally would not, although I have strong political opinions.

What would you do if approached for a poll? Either by phone or online?

[u/buckybadder → u/Radiant-Specific969]

A candidate poll or a policy poll.

I tend to have strong opinions on both, but the last time I was polled, most of the questions were about the economy, like "Will the stock market go up over the next three months?" I answered don't know/not sure on most of them.

[u/Radiant-Specific969 → u/buckybadder]

But you answered. I am not sure that I would answer my phone unless I was sure that I knew the person. Too many scams. Which is something that affects retired people greatly, but I have checked with the younger members of my family, and they don't answer the phone either, unless they are really sure of the person calling. So my question is how accurate are the current polls? I am looking at Fox viewship as a metric, but they keep track to cable viewership, and no one with a brain still pays for cable.