US Midterms 2026: Campaign Trail Meets Courtroom As Alaska Probe, California Ballot Dispute Intensify

The Trump administration has stepped up its legal and investigative efforts ahead of the midterm elections, as federal prosecutors investigate whether aides to Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola helped recruit a rival with a similar name in Alaska, while the Justice Department is likely to take its legal challenge over thousands of California mail-in ballots to the Supreme Court. The developments come as candidates enter the final weekend of campaigning ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections.

Voters will decide the outcome of 35 Senate races and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, determining whether Republicans retain control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate and a narrow advantage in the House. The closely contested Alaska Senate race is considered crucial to Democrats' efforts to take control of the upper chamber.

Reuters reported that more than 51 million Americans had already cast ballots in person or by mail, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab. The figure exceeds the nearly 46 million who had voted before Election Day during the 2022 midterm elections.

FBI Investigation Intensifies In Alaska Senate Race

Federal prosecutors in Alaska are investigating whether aides to Democratic challenger Mary Peltola helped recruit a retired schoolteacher, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr., to contest the Senate election because his name resembles that of Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan.

US Attorney for Alaska Michael Heyman said at a press conference on Friday that a New York Times report about the alleged recruitment effort had prompted a "surge" in FBI resources devoted to the investigation. Heyman said he had assigned several prosecutors to the case and that investigative steps were being carried out "intensely and swiftly."

Peltola and her campaign committee have denied involvement in any effort to recruit the second Sullivan. The retired teacher has also denied coordinating with Peltola's campaign.

Voters in Alaska have largely dismissed the fight over the ballot. Mickey Buster, 36, said he did not believe voters would confuse the two candidates' names on the ballot.

"I knew which Dan Sullivan was which Dan Sullivan, you know? It's very clear on the ballot," he said outside a polling place on Saturday.

However, another Anchorage voter, Carol Riggs, 52, said she was disappointed by the entire situation and the possibility it "muddies the water for some voters, potentially."

Trump Administration Considers Supreme Court Appeal Over California Ballots

A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 this week against the Justice Department's emergency bid to compel California to set aside mail ballots from more than 20,000 registered voters it alleges are likely noncitizens.

Speaking to Fox News on Saturday, acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter indicated that the administration could take the dispute to the country's highest court.

"I hesitate to give a final answer, but I think probably the Supreme Court's next on this one," McCotter said, adding that any request for Supreme Court consideration would come before Tuesday's election.

According to Reuters, the California case is part of a wider legal campaign by the administration, which has sued around 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking access to unredacted voter registration records.

The lawsuits have alarmed state election officials, given that the US Constitution grants states primary authority over the conduct of elections.

On Friday, a federal judge ordered the Justice Department to stop threatening to prosecute California election officials who refuse to follow its directives.

California Governor Gavin Newsom also warned the state's top federal judges on Saturday that the Justice Department could seek warrants to seize ballots before election results are certified. However, he said he was unaware of any pending request.

In a letter to the judges, Newsom said the only reason to seize ballots "would be to interfere" in the count.

Sean Morales-Doyle of the Brennan Center for Justice said the efforts, while unlikely to win in court, aim at "creating uncertainty, sowing fear, distrust, chaos," in hopes of pressuring officials such as Alaska's lieutenant governor "to do something that they're not supposed to do."

Despite the legal disputes, most voters remain confident about the electoral process. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted between September 30 and October 5 found that 76% of US voters were confident their ballots would be counted accurately. Confidence levels were broadly similar among Republican and Democratic voters.

El-Sayed Campaign Seeks Distance From Democratic Primary Rival

Divisions within the Democratic Party have also resurfaced in Michigan, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is facing Republican Mike Rogers in another closely watched Senate contest.

Tensions between El-Sayed and US Representative Haley Stevens, whom he defeated in the Democratic primary, have flared again in the final days of campaigning.

El-Sayed's campaign has asked Stevens to skip his events through Election Day so as “not to distract from the central issues of the campaign,” a person familiar with the matter said.

Although Stevens has backed El-Sayed, she has demanded that he condemn an advertisement by an outside group blaming Israel for high grocery prices and apologise for his past rhetoric about Israel.

Matt Grossmann, a political scientist at Michigan State University, said: "It's certainly unhelpful to the El-Sayed campaign to have continued visible division within the party just before Election Day."

Polls indicate that El-Sayed has largely consolidated support among Democratic voters.

Trump To Resume Campaigning In Kansas, Iowa

Trump, who has campaigned across multiple states over the past month, is spending Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. He is scheduled to return to the campaign trail on Sunday, with visits planned to Kansas and Iowa, Reuters reported.