US midterms 2026 latest: ‘Who threw that punch?’ Trump rally turns ugly

Welcome to Al Jazeera's Midterms Roundup. Good to have you with us. I'm Jonah Hull, and 12 days out now, the president is rallying Republicans, and it's this state, Michigan, where his shadow may be looming largest. Voters will pick new representatives in all 13 House seats and one critical Senate race that will have major implications for Congress and for the country over the next two years. Well, Wednesday night's final debate was one of attack and counterattack. Once again, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed said Mike Rogers can't be trusted to stand up to Trump. And the Republican said his Democratic challenger has misled voters. Well, let's go to Alex Marquardt in Michigan now to see how the race is playing out on the ground. Alex. Yeah, thank you, Jonah. So less than two weeks from now, Michigan will have a new senator elect who will be heading to Washington to the U.S. Senate. Will it be Republican Mike Rogers or the Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. Now, the polling showed the two men neck and neck as they headed into Wednesday night's final debate here in Detroit. It got heated very quickly. El-Sayed repeatedly tying Rogers to Donald Trump, to his war in Iran, and to the trade war with Canada. Now, Rogers is trying to create some distance from Trump over those issues while he repeatedly accused El-Sayed of lies and deception. But the most pointed moment came when Rogers questioned El-Sayed's backers and his loyalty. Take a listen. Being bought off by the Muslim Brotherhood, having donors to his campaign from Hamas that support Hezbollah is not a problem. If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know, are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas? He keeps raising this question about this association with an organization I've never been a part of. Because my mom, who's a nurse in Missouri, It doesn't make any sense. And it's actually really quite beneath you, Mike. It's really quite beneath you. To call into question my loyalty to the Constitution, I'm talking. So, Rogers claimed that he is picking up Democratic voters who are disenchanted with Abdul El-Sayed, particularly black and Jewish voters. Now, at a debate watch party on Wednesday night with El-Sayed's supporters, everyone we spoke with thought that El-Sayed did win the debate. But they all acknowledge that this race is going to be extremely close. I think it's going to be a close race because there's a lot of prejudice in the state. And I think that the Republicans are capitalizing on that racism. His rhetoric about, you know, the Muslim Brotherhood and him being Muslim, that stuff. People are really into the identity politics. So I think they really will focus on the identity of him instead of the policies that he talks about. I think that the climate in our country has really, really, really heightened in terms of hate, in terms of racism, in terms of apathy, in terms of just the value of people being equal. I want to bring in our Richard Gaisford. Richard, you have been here for several days. You're going to be here through the election. You've been paying attention very closely to this race between Rogers and El-Sayed. What stood out to you in the debate last night? I was at the studios last night watching the debate as it unfolded, and it seems clear that Dr. El-Sayed has diagnosed Mike Rogers' weakness as being President Trump. Almost every answer linking him to Trump, and at one point said he had to beg the president to come and support him here in Michigan. Now, I asked Mike Rogers about that after the debate, and he said, absolutely not. But on the flip side, you've got Mike Rogers continually making these suggestions, not quite pinning it on him, but suggestions of terrorist sympathies. Very personal. very personal. And I spoke to El-Sayed about that afterwards and said, listen, what do you have to do to convince these undecided voters that you don't have these terrorist sympathies? And he said, I just have to keep lying it on, putting it on the line that I am loyal to the US. I was born in the US. I'm a US citizen and the constitution is the highest thing that I look at and he's confronted last week about the Muslim brotherhood and he disavowed it. That's something that a lot of people have been waiting to hear from him And it keeps coming back at him. And it was mentioned again in questions last night after the debate. And it does seem to be having some cut through, though. I was at an event earlier this week in Detroit speaking to voters who were watching both of them talk about their economic policies. And two younger girls stood out to me. And take a listen to this, because his name seems to be an issue. I'm definitely biased towards Mike Rogers. I feel like he has a way better campaign. And he's, I want to say he's fully telling the truth, but he's still more than Abdul. I think Abdul's barely out there. He doesn't even say his real name. Like, why can't you share your real name? What is his real name? His real name is Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. You didn't see where he said it's Mohammed? It's Abdul Mohammed El-Sayed? Yeah, but my name is Richard Paul Gaisford, but I always... But he's running for the Senate. He should write his full name on there. Well, what is Mike Rogers' middle name? But that's not, that's, Mohammed's not his middle name. I do not feel the same way, no. I am totally not biased between them. I am undecided. I don't know who I'm going to vote for, but I do have a few things to say. Mike Rogers does have a great campaign. Abdul, he's very broad when he speaks. We don't really know what his decision's really going to be. When he says he's going to take money out of politics, we don't really know what that means. Richard, what we just heard there from the woman you met does smack of some of that prejudice that al-Sayed's supporters were voicing after the debate. But let's talk about the black vote, because there has been this big question about how hard al-Sayed needs to work to win over these traditionally Democratic voters. What's your take? We've been out in some of the less wealthy neighborhoods of Detroit precisely to find these people to talk to them. And I have to say, in the hours that we've spent out in some of these more deprived areas, not finding black voters who are against him. They like what he stands for. They like his message on public health. They certainly like this idea of universal health care because so many of them can't afford the insurance. On the flip side of that, Mike Rogers telling me yesterday at his bus launch that he has huge numbers of African-Americans coming into his campaign. He says it's the biggest, fastest growing group of supporters for him. And yet At that bus launch, there was no black people at all. It was a universally white experience. Yeah, I've been speaking with some black political leaders who are telling me that this is overblown, that the black vote that you would expect to go for a Democratic candidate is going to turn out for Al-Sayed. At the same time, they do acknowledge, and this was Kandia Milton, who runs what's called the Black Slate, he acknowledged that there is long-simmering tension, aside from Al-Sayed, between the Arab American and the African American community. So, of course, that is one electorate that we're going to be watching closely. I want to ask you about one more thing, Richard, which you've been looking into. These allegations of socialism, of his alliances, or at least being sympathetic to the Democratic Socialists of America, which al-Sayed has said repeatedly he's not a member of, unlike Mayor Mamdani in New York. Those accusations, are they landing? They certainly are. And you heard Mike Rogers last night constantly saying he didn't want Detroit to become a Democratic Socialist of America city. And we've been speaking to the DSA and they support Abdul El-Sayed, but they don't endorse him. And that is purely because he says he's a capitalist. You know, he stands away from them. He's obviously needing their support. We saw that because he went into some pretty red areas with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is a leading DSA politician here in the States, also sitting under the Democrat umbrella. But it just shows how split the Democrats are in all of this. And I think that's, you know, something that is going to play out. But really, this idea that he is some sort of communist getting ready to take over Michigan, I think he is desperately fighting hard against. Yeah, and a Republican a short time ago just making the point to me that this is not a progressive state, that this is a centrist state. These two men neck and neck in these final polls. Richard, thank you very much. So now that this debate is over, we are truly into the final stretch in this campaign. And this weekend, there are two high profile visitors coming to Michigan. You have former President Barack Obama. He is coming here to throw his very significant weight behind Al-Sayed and other Democratic candidates. And then President Donald Trump will also be campaigning in Michigan this weekend with a bigger question about whether that actually helps or hurts Mike Rogers. But for now, Jonah, back to you. Alex, thanks for that. Well, speaking of the president, he, meanwhile, has been in South Carolina on Wednesday rallying support for Senate Republican Darlene Graham, the sister of late Senator Lindsey Graham, who died in July. He was interrupted by protesters for the second day in a row. Thirteen days from now, the people of South Carolina are going to elect Darlene Graham to the United States Senate. Protesters, it's unbelievable. They'll do whatever they can to win. Who's the guy that threw that punch? Who threw that punch? Well, we've got correspondents, as ever, in key states. Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Houston, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee. First though to Tanya Nuri in Fort Bragg. And it's not the first time, is it, Tanya, that the president has been heckled. He tends to try and give as good as he gets. Is there a sense, though, that he's doing more harm than good to Republican chances in the midterms? So it's not unusual for hecklers to interrupt rallies, whether it's a Republican or a Democrat speaking, but I've covered many Trump rallies and I don't think I've ever seen anyone ever get whacked before or any fists flying. So this might be a first, but President Donald Trump is trying to rally GOP voters to get out and vote for Republican candidates because these races and these reliably red states are becoming closer than expected. And he encouraged the sister of the late Lindsey Graham, Darlene Graham, to run for Senate and to take her brother's seat. And she is neck and neck right now in a race against the Democrat, Annie Andrews. And what was notable is that on Wednesday, President Trump announced that he would be waiving the Russia sanctions that he put, that was named in honor of her late brother. and she broke from that, saying that she supports those sanctions and she'd like to see those sanctions in place. But something that they are on the same page about is the war in Iran. And this is something that many Americans are attributing to the high costs, rising gas prices and grocery prices, but they are on the same page about that. So we traveled to Fort Bragg, which is one of the largest military installations, not only in the United States, but in the world, to see how this community feels about it, because there were two service members who were assigned to this base who were killed in the operations related to Iran. And these are some of the people that are closest to those currently fighting in Iran, especially since President Trump said that the war is not over. So take a listen to what they had to say. President Donald Trump says he has no regrets taking the United States to war with Iran. It's one of the greatest things we've done. We've stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon. It's one of the best things that we've done. But the costs are mounting. 21 American service members have been killed in operations related to Epic Fury. And disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz are pushing up fuel prices back home. Outside Fort Bragg is a community shaped by military service. And some veterans are questioning not just how the war is being fought, but why. I don't think a war is worth fighting if we're being attacked. If we're not being attacked, I don't think we should be attacking people. He said, I have stopped eight wars. And he didn't mention that he'll start wars, too. Another veteran supports regime change in Iran, but says the war is not unfolding as expected. We were under oppression when it first started. that it's only going to take two weeks. His disillusionment is turning him away from the ballot box. Traditionally, I've been a conservative, but I'm more or less what I consider independent now. And I'm not sure if I'm going to even vote this time around because I'm so disgusted with what's going on right now. Especially when the consequences are being felt by everyday Americans. When you can't feed your children, you get behind on bills, people's cars are being repossessed, houses being repoed. And then you've got a homeless problem here, too. I mean, I'm sure everybody knows about it. And it's not just Fayetteville. Everywhere's a Fayetteville. Trump says victory is within reach. But for these veterans, the message is even simpler. Just get the job done. Tanya Norrie, Al Jazeera, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Let's take you to Kansas now, where Democrat Adam Hamilton and his Republican rival Roger Marshall have sparred over who's to blame for high fuel and fertilizer costs. The Senate race there has become an unexpected toss-up in a state that's usually safe for Republicans. The real problem with the cost of diesel in particular is number one is the Ukraine war. And because of that, diesel production has gone down. But beyond that, why are we dependent upon diesel imports? It's because of the Green New Deal policy that my opponent supports. See, he just said that the war in Iran is not the problem. The war in Ukraine is a problem. The Ukrainians trying to defend themselves are the reason why we have record diesel prices. Nobody believes that this happened in response to the war in Iran that didn't need to happen, was not a necessary war. And this is why the prices went to record highs. And Roger Marshall supported that. Well, let's talk about Kansas. Phil LeValle standing by in Houston, Texas for us. And Phil, we've been talking about how surprising it is that Kansas is showing up at all for the Democrats. Is the party now seeing a real chance of picking up seats in the Deep South? Yeah, I mean, what we're seeing is absolutely gripping here in the South. I mean, here in Texas, for example, they've smashed early voting records. They are up 74 percent on 2022. Kansas, like we're talking about here, they have seen their early voting numbers double since 2022. And the reason it's so gripping is, if you look at the context, Kansas is as Republican as it gets. It hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate in nearly 100 years. Donald Trump won this state by 16 points in 2024. And now when you look at the Republicans versus the Democrats, there is only about 0.3% between the two of them. So it is absolutely fascinating to see what's happening here. The Republican, Roger Marshall, he's backed by President Trump. He's saying to voters, look, this is a Republican state. You know what you're getting. you need to stick with me. The Democrat, Adam Hamilton, he is a former Republican. And what they're really hoping is that this breaks through with Republicans who would never vote for a Democrat in a million years. But they look at this guy and they say, OK, he's got some Republican DNA. Maybe it's safe to go with him. But the big issue for Kansas is really the economy and it is agriculture. You know, it is a huge farming population in Kansas and they are seeing huge spikes in prices. Farmers there have seen diesel prices double over the last few months. They are in the middle of harvest season. So it's really that perfect storm. And that is likely to be one of, if not the driving factors that is getting people out of the polls, both early and on election day. And this is happening all over the South. There's another state where it's also happening. I'll let Alex Bird tell you all about that. So we're going to zoom in on a state which wasn't even on this map until two days ago. And honestly, I was so surprised that we had to double check because the non-partisan Cook Political Report now has Mississippi of all states deeply southern and deeply red leaning Republican not likely Republican meaning the state isn't a sure bet anymore. The Democrats have caught wind of what's happening in Mississippi and have just launched their first TV ad there to attack incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. Now she has held that seat since 2018. She's the first woman to represent the state in Congress and she actually used to be a Democrat when she was serving at a state level and then switched parties in 2010, saying it was because of her conservative beliefs. Now, her Democratic opponent is here, Scott Colome. He's the first black district attorney to represent a majority white district in Mississippi history. Now, when I say this is a deeply red state, I really, I really do mean it. Because you see here, this is John Stennis. He was the last Democratic senator to serve Mississippi back in 1989. And the last time there was a black senator was in 1871 with Hiram Revels here. That was only six years after the Civil War. That's interesting because Mississippi has the highest proportion of black residents for any state in the country, more than a third of the state. No one expected that of all states, Mississippi would have a competitive edge. So competitive that even the president has just announced that he's heading to the state to rally next week time for a quick look at early voting now that's uh underway in several states including Tennessee where Matthew Torres has been patiently hanging around waiting for us thank you Matthew, uh some reports of voter issues with those trying to cast their early ballots what more can you tell us we know there have been some ballot machine concerns at different polling locations in Middle Tennessee, most notably coming from the late country music legend Dolly Parton's sister, who said on social media every time she tried to vote for the Democratic nominee for Tennessee's governor's race, it kept defaulting to the Republican nominee to the point that a poll worker had to intervene and correct that matter. According to reports, the state's elections office says that they have received one, if not very few, official complaint out of all the ballots cast and urges the voters to make sure they look at the final step to make sure that their ballot is correct. It's still unclear, though, exactly if any, there have been any malfunctions with these machines. Early voting started last week. There have been nearly half a million ballots cast and already doing larger numbers compared to the same time frame in 2022. We've also been speaking with voters across Tennessee. And while, yes, affordability is a key issue, it's not always The first thing that people bring up, we've heard them talk about public safety, education and most notably data centers as communities continue to push back on development. It has become a bipartisan ballot issue. Even then, President Donald Trump continues to show his support for data center development and most recently urged companies to provide some sort of dividend to these communities. Despite the unpopularity, the Republican nominee for the governor's race, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is backed by Trump as well as leading in some polls, says data centers are good for the economy. Republican voters seem split on this. Meanwhile, Democratic voters say while the economy needs to be prioritized, it should be done in other ways. You need the data centers. A lot of people are crying about it. Yeah, where are your Instagram stores in a data center? All your apps in your phone run from a data center. I got nothing against data centers. Nothing. We need them. We want to keep the interest of the whole county, not just to benefit a few. I want to get a little light signed on small businesses and opportunities that may arise for them rather than the big corporate communities. coming into Nashville has been great, but I think that there's also money that needs to go into the other cities as well. I think Memphis is a very important city that has not been paid attention to a lot. That's it from us. Thanks to all our correspondents and thank you for watching. That was the midterms roundup here on Al Jazeera English coming up at 18.30 GMT. That's 2.30 p.m. Eastern time here in the U.S. This is America has a special episode from Michigan, taking a deep dive into that important Senate race and how it could change the direction of the United States. Bye-bye. Michigan's a purple state, and it always seems to be the center of discussions when we have these types of elections, when there's so much at stake.