
Democratic and GOP strategists assess midterm landscape
Clip: 10/28/2026 | 7m 47sVideo has Closed Captions
Democratic and GOP strategists assess midterm landscape in final week
To discuss how the midterm races are shaping up in the final days, Amna Nawaz sat down with Democratic strategist Mo Elleithee and Republican strategist Doug Heye.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Major corporate funding for the PBS News Hour is provided by BDO, BNSF, Consumer Cellular, American Cruise Lines, and Raymond James. Funding for the PBS NewsHour Weekend is provided by...

Democratic and GOP strategists assess midterm landscape
Clip: 10/28/2026 | 7m 47sVideo has Closed Captions
To discuss how the midterm races are shaping up in the final days, Amna Nawaz sat down with Democratic strategist Mo Elleithee and Republican strategist Doug Heye.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Where to Watch PBS News Hour
PBS News Hour is available to stream on pbs.org and the PBS app.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipWell, for more on how the races are shaping up in these final days, we turn now to the insights of Democratic strategist Moy and Republican strategist Doug Hy.
Good to see you both.
Good to be with you.
Hi.
Less than a week to go for that final day of voting in these midterm elections.
So far, as you both seen and have said, the indicators are good for Democrats.
It's a matter of how good a night it will be.
So, Doug, what are Republicans bracing for?
Is it a blue wave, a blue tsunami, a blue ripple?
What do you expect?
Uh, first, they're they're prepared to lose the House of Representatives.
Um, every conversation I've had with Republicans has been that seems to be a done deal.
The question is is what what is that margin and we don't really know at this point and and it goes to ultimately what is turnout going to be and that then goes to the United States Senate and I can't talk to a single person who can tell you anything that is solid or predictable about what's going to happen in pick your seven states.
Well, what do how are you looking at?
Yeah, I think that's exactly right.
um the margin in the House is going to matter for governing, right, for running the House if it all goes as expected.
Speaker Jeff uh needs a little bit of a cushion because we have now seen several consecutive speakers who have had incredibly small margins, but the Senate um I think it's a coin flip at this point.
I think um Democrats are in a really good position, much stronger position.
I think they will at the very least pick up seats.
The question is how many?
Lisa was talking about the need for four.
I think a lot of people are hoping that it's actually five just in case John Federman decides after the new year to have some fun with the math.
What do you think are the most likely seats for Democrats to pick up from the Senate?
I think North Carolina's done.
I think Ohio is looking really good.
I think Kansas is looking better and better.
Um, Texas is a coin flip.
People were feeling really good about Alaska as well.
And everyone I talk to RD when you ask about specific states, they sort of make that face that m I don't really know what's going to happen in Iowa.
I don't really know what's going to happen in Michigan.
There are a lot of states like that.
Well, that may be your answer when I ask you this next question as well.
But I want to point to what the New York Times showed in their latest poll about South Carolina this morning.
a reliably red state there.
But the Senate race between Darlene Graham and Annie Andrews is now effectively tied.
Doug, is that a an outlier out or a warning sign for Republicans?
Uh, it's a real warning sign.
It's a warning sign in this race for two reasons.
One, Darlene Graham just hasn't been a candidate that's really caught fire.
Um, been incredibly uh weak and and and weak support from within the party.
Uh, but it also tells us where Donald Trump's numbers are in South Carolina like they are everywhere else.
And when I was at the Republican National Committee in 2010, our magic number for Obama was 46.
If Donald Trump were at 46% approval right now, we're not talking about Iowa or Michigan or Maine or a lot of these other states.
It'd be a very good night for Republicans.
His numbers are just so critically low, even in South Carolina.
Can a Democrat win in South Carolina, though?
I think they can.
I mean, look, we all have, every Democrat has memories of Lindsey Graham's last race against Democrat Jamie Harrison where the polls showed it was tied headed into election day and he ended up winning by double digits.
The big difference is that Lindsey Graham was still popular among South Carolinians.
Darlene Graham is not by a double digit double-digit margin.
The voters are saying they don't think she's qualified to be in the United States Senate.
candidate quality really really matters and that's the underlying factor beyond the national numbers beyond the president's number you see where Republicans are really struggling across the country is because they nominated really bad candidates in those states you mentioned Alaska and I want to put to you another big headline today related to that Senate race more reporting from the New York Times that Democrats actively recruited a spoiler candidate in Dan J Sullivan to join the Senate race to boost the Democratic cand candidate Mary Pelah.
He of course has virtually the same name as the Republican incumbent Dan S. Sullivan.
Late today at Joint Base Andrews, President Trump called on Pelah to resign from the race.
He also said this to reporters.
Take a listen.
It's a fraud and they said they didn't do it and they did do it and they got caught and in fact it was a plot by the Democrat party and frankly they should be uh I think they should be prosecuted.
To me that's voter fraud at the highest level.
Mo, how do you look at this?
Is this unethical but legal?
What happened here?
It's boneheaded but legal.
It's dumb but legal.
I don't like it when parties do this.
I don't like this in Alaska.
I didn't like it when Republicans were funding the petition drives to get Green Party candidates on the ballot in a number of states.
I hate this.
Now, the reason it's boneheaded is because this is one of those stories where the headlines are going to be worse than the impact.
Dan Sullivan, number two, isn't going to have that big of an impact on this race.
He didn't in the primary.
Rank choice, folks.
This is what the ballot looks like, right?
uh the and rank choice voting which they have in Alaska will actually help mitigate any confusion if people you know the the Senator Dan Sullivan campaign is are running ads saying rank Dan and Dan first and second so this way it works if Dan Sullivan Senator Sullivan loses not going to be because of this it's going to be because of the incredibly high cost of gas and cost of living in the state of Alaska There's no reason the Pelah campaign needed to create this story.
What's your take, D?
I think if if you watch the Ramaswami campaign over the last week, they've not been able to talk about what they want to talk about.
They've been talking about their ad and trying to defend it.
It's the same problem for Port her her campaign messaging now is is been derailed.
She's going to have to talk about this all day, every day.
What did you know and when did you know it?
I think nationally it's a problem for Democrats as well because Democrats will tell you they're very nervous about what Donald Trump may do with a loaded gun.
This is a very silver bullet they just gave him.
Well, to that point, we know the DOJ was already suing to potentially block the certification of that Alaska vote.
President Trump has been calling fraud already in the Alaska race.
Does this boost their legal case and does it lead to a long drawn out fight after the election?
Well, it certainly boosts their political case.
Donald Trump would not have been able to credibly say what he said today had we not had this revelation from the New York Times.
So the politics for Trump work on this and he doesn't have a whole lot of politics working for him right now and it certainly means that they'll there'll be a legal fight if Sullivan doesn't prevail.
How worried are you Mo about other legal fights?
We know the president's DOJ have been laying the ground for exceeding doubt in some of the electoral systems.
Is that a concern among Democrats?
Sure.
But Democrats have been prepared and they've been preparing for months if not years now building sort of an army of lawyers around the country who are ready to swoop in in whatever district you know after after he lost in 2020.
We saw just how much he would lean into the courts and he has every right to do that even though the courts threw out most of those cases.
That's the process.
So Democrats have been preparing.
They've got some really good lawyers out there.
The messaging you're hearing though more than look how dangerous this is to this system is you're going to be fine.
Just go vote.
Your vote will count.
We'll take care of the rest.
Just days to go and it's all in the voters's hands.
Moy Doug.
Hi.
Great to see you both.
Thank you.
America's long history of gerrymandering
Video has Closed Captions
America's long history of gerrymandering and its role in this year's midterms (9m 41s)
Brazil's Flávio Bolsonaro flees to U.S. after election loss
Video has Closed Captions
Brazil's Flávio Bolsonaro flees to U.S. after election loss (5m 29s)
How the Associated Press tracks results on Election Night
Video has Closed Captions
How the Associated Press tracks and calls races on Election Night (3m 30s)
News Wrap: Fed holds interest rates unchanged
Video has Closed Captions
News Wrap: Fed holds interest rates unchanged as inflation remains elevated (5m 1s)
Polls suggest surprising Democratic gains in red-state races
Video has Closed Captions
New polls suggest surprising Democratic gains in red-state Senate races (3m 43s)
Remembering pioneering labor leader and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta
Video has Closed Captions
Remembering pioneering labor leader and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta (5m 45s)
Shock, anger and mourning in Spain after train crash
Video has Closed Captions
Shock, anger and mourning in Spain after 2nd major train crash this year (2m 26s)
What's next for Israel after election produces gridlock
Video has Closed Captions
What's next for Israel after election produces political gridlock (4m 35s)
Where key Senate races stand in final days of campaigning
Video has Closed Captions
Where key Senate races stand in the final days of campaigning (3m 18s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
- News and Public Affairs

FRONTLINE is investigative journalism that questions, explains and changes our world.
New Episode- News and Public Affairs

Today's top journalists discuss Washington's current political events and public affairs.


New Episode
New Episode
New Episode
New Episode


New Episode
Support for PBS provided by:
Major corporate funding for the PBS News Hour is provided by BDO, BNSF, Consumer Cellular, American Cruise Lines, and Raymond James. Funding for the PBS NewsHour Weekend is provided by...








