Early Voting Nears 50M as Candidates Blitz Texas, Alabama & Alaska

With national early voting totals approaching 50 million ballots heading into the final weekend before Tuesday's midterm elections, party leaders and candidates crisscrossed battleground states while federal courts weighed election, monument, and defamation filings, according to reports from The Associated Press via KCBS Radio (Harris tour, Alabama 2nd District, Texas Senate & early voting, Alaska Senate lawsuit, D.C. memorial arch lawsuit, and administration social media posts), NBC Bay Area, and The Press.

Kamala Harris Wraps 7-State Tour as Texas and Virginia Races Tighten

Former Vice President Kamala Harris concluded a 7-state midterm campaign swing — with stops in Nevada, New Hampshire, Michigan, Mississippi (supporting U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom), and a 2-day finale in Atlanta, Georgia — urging voters at Elizabeth Baptist Church and a Fulton County Democratic gala to deliver a turnout "too big to rig" while calling for U.S. Supreme Court expansion and statehood for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

In Texas, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton (who defeated Sen. John Cornyn in the primary) rallied supporters in Fort Worth while Democratic state lawmaker James Talarico campaigned in Houston in a competitive U.S. Senate race. President Donald Trump dialed into 6 virtual tele-rallies on Saturday from West Palm Beach ahead of Sunday stops in Iowa and Kansas, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries campaigned in Virginia's 2nd Congressional District alongside former Rep. Elaine Luria in her rematch against Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans as Democrats target at least 60 House seats. In Michigan, Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and former primary rival Haley Stevens navigated campaign tensions ahead of a Sunday church appearance invited by Rep. James Clyburn.

$10 Million Ad Surge in Alabama’s Redrawn 2nd Congressional District

In Alabama — which is 27% Black and holds 7 U.S. House seats — Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures is defending the 2nd Congressional District against Republican state lawmaker Rhett Marques after the Legislature redrew the map to reduce the district's Black voting-age population from 48% to 40% (an area Trump carried by 14 percentage points 2 years ago). According to AdImpact, television ad spending in the race jumped to nearly $10 million over the past 7 weeks. Figures, joined on the trail by Sen. Cory Booker, has focused on affordability — citing $4-a-gallon gas, $8-a-pound ground beef, and Alabama's $34,000 median individual income across stops from Montgomery and Tuskegee to the Boll Weevil Fall Festival in Enterprise (population 31,000) and churches in Dothan — while House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Coffee County Sheriff Scott Byrd campaigned with Marques.

Federal Court Disputes in Alaska, Washington, D.C., and Defamation Dismissal

Several high-profile legal disputes also advanced over the weekend:

• Alaska Senate Ballot Lawsuit: Alaska's Republican-led state government urged U.S. District Judge Sharon L. Gleason on Saturday to dismiss with prejudice a Justice Department lawsuit seeking to halt certification of a potential win by Democrat Mary Peltola against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and to segregate ballots cast for retired Petersburg teacher Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., whom the Alaska Supreme Court ruled eligible this summer.
• Virginia and D.C. Sue Over Proposed 250-Foot Memorial Arch: Attorneys General Brian Schwalb of Washington, D.C., and Jay Jones of Virginia filed suit Saturday to block a proposed 12-story, 250-foot (76-meter) Triumphal Arch in Memorial Circle near Arlington National Cemetery — 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty and detailed in a 106-page Friday plan. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan consolidated the suit with an earlier challenge brought by 3 Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian, while Judge Ana Reyes opened a formal inquiry Friday over the East Potomac Golf Link dispute and Judge Christopher Cooper scheduled a Tuesday hearing on Rep. Joyce Beatty's motion regarding the planned 2-year Kennedy Center renovation.
• Government Social Media Posts & WSJ Suit Dismissal: Critics faulted official social media posts from the White House and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins (who shared an image referencing an Oct. 7 federal indictment and Oct. 13 arrest of Georgia social media personality Mercedes Reshard New, known as "Shawty Dred," over 350 fraudulent SNAP accounts totaling $4 million between January 2020 and July 2026). Separately, a federal court dismissed with prejudice President Trump's defamation lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal; Trump's legal team said he plans to appeal.