Control of both chambers of Congress is on the line, and dozens of governorships, secretaries of states and attorneys general are on the ballot

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar expressed optimism in response to California Gov. Gavin Newsom saying Democrats are “getting crushed on narrative” in the 2022 midterms. 

“We are going to win these races,” Klobuchar told CNN’s Dana Bash Sunday. “So he can talk about all the ones out there. I’m in the middle of it.”

Bash also asked Klobuchar about Democratic groups spending millions to boost Republican Don Bolduc in the primary — who is running against Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in the general election in New Hampshire — now that it’s a really tight race and Hassan could lose her seat.

Klobuchar also said that she would support President Joe Biden in the 2024 election after CNN has reported former President Donald Trump plans to jump into the race.

“President Biden has made clear he is running and I support him,” Klobuchar said. “And what I will say about this: Donald Trump cannot be president again. The American people know it.”

Watch some of Klobuchar’s interview below:

Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, defended the practice of poll watching Sunday when asked about instances of voter intimidation throughout the country, but added that everyone needs to abide by election laws.

McDaniel continued to defend poll watchers, claiming they were facing intimidation, too. Poll watchers “do not break the law. Do not attack or intimidate people who are trying to vote,” she said.

“I don’t think that should be done at all. Also, don’t intimidate our poll watchers. Because we’re having that right now too,” McDaniel continued.

She would not criticize Republican candidates who have raised doubt about the upcoming election and sought to draw a false equivalency between GOP candidates and Democratic candidates on whether they would accept election results. 

Asked for a yes-or-no answer to whether all Republican candidates should accept election results, McDaniel said: “Well, I would say the same to Stacey Abrams, right? Or Hillary Clinton who’s already saying in 2024, we’re going to rig the election. That’s not helpful.”

“Listen, you should have a recount. You should have a canvass and it’ll go to the courts and then everybody should accept the results. That’s what it should be,” McDaniel continued. “But I’m also not going to say if there’s problems that we shouldn’t be able to address that. If there’s real problems, everyone should be able to address that.”

“But we need to have that ability to fix it. And every election’s run differently at the county level, at the precinct level. So we want to make sure it’s run fair and transparently. And then we’ll let the process play out and then we’ll accept the results,” she added.

McDaniel also predicted that Republicans would take back both chambers.

Are you facing any voting issues? Send us your stories here. And here’s a guide to navigate intimidation and other obstacles to voting.

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the Democratic candidate in the state’s gubernatorial race, criticized the recent visit to the border by GOP candidates in Arizona.

Hobbs called the trip, attended by her opponent Kari Lake and fellow Republicans Blake Masters, Abe Hamadeh and Mark Finchem, a political stunt.

The Democrat also responded to Lake calling her an “incompetent” secretary of state and constantly referencing ballots that were sent to wrong voters in Arizona this cycle. 

“I don’t send any ballots, number one, and that’s just a clear misunderstanding of the role of the secretary state in elections versus the county’s,” Hobbs said. “It was a potential that 6,000 voters were impacted, but it was far, far less than that.”

What Lake is saying: During their border visit Friday, Lake and her fellow Republicans vowed to continue building former President Donald Trump’s border wall.

More context: Immigration remains a major concern for many Arizona voters, particularly the independents who could decide the state’s hotly contested top races.

GOP Senate nominee Blake Masters told CNN’s Kyung Lah this week that it is a key issue that’s helping him build momentum and win over voters: “We’ve got a wide-open southern border – moderates don’t like that,” he said.

Kim Bicsey, a Republican resident of Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, cleans homes and businesses for a living. She’s been doing that for 40 years.

Former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Pennsylvania’s Senate and gubernatorial candidates in the upcoming midterm election matters to her. The Trump rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania Saturday night for Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano was her fifth one.

Bicsey’s voting Republican all the way but is concerned about gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano’s stance on abortion with no exceptions.

Bicsey is in support of increasing access to birth control, so women aren’t put in situations where they get an abortion.

“Now, I’m definitely against, you know, having sex before you get married. But if that happens, use a condom, then you won’t have to get pregnant and get an abortion,” Bicsey said.

As he sets the stage for a 2024 presidential bid, former President Donald Trump stumped largely for himself during a rally meant to boost his hand-picked 2022 candidates in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night.

The trip, three days before Election Day, was designed to help Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is locked in one of the most critical Senate races in the country — one that could determine control of the body. 

But Trump seemed largely focused on his own political future. He coined a new nickname for his presumed leading 2024 Republican rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, calling him “Ron DeSanctimonious.”

The remarks came while Trump used a big screen to put up various polls showing him leading in both the Republican 2024 presidential field, as well as in a potential general election rematch against President Joe Biden in certain states.

The tension between Biden and DeSantis has spilled out into public ahead of a potential 2024 GOP primary contest. On Sunday, Trump will be rallying in the Sunshine State with Sen. Marco Rubio. DeSantis, who is running for reelection, will hold his own, separate events. 

The former president, who is eyeing the two weeks after the midterms to announce a third Presidential run, told the crowd that he promised they would “in the very next very, very, very short period of time … be so happy.” He added that he didn’t want to announce now because he wanted the focus to be on Mastriano and Oz.

Yet he did not delve into either candidate until an hour into the rally. Trump criticized Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman and said that Oz was “so much better than” retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.

Trump called both Mastriano and Oz up to speak. Mastriano praised Trump saying the state needed him, while Oz made a brief appeal to the crowd to get out and vote. In a fumble, Oz told the crowd to contact 10 people Sunday morning before the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers game — however, the Steelers are on their bye this week and aren’t playing this weekend.

President Joe Biden rallied with former President Barack Obama and top Pennsylvania Democratic candidates in North Philadelphia, where he criticized “mega MAGA Republicans” and touted his bipartisan infrastructure law.

“Elect John Fetterman in the Senate, please. He’ll protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare. And will guarantee that veterans are always cared for. Always, always, always,” Biden told a packed crowd at The Liacouras Center on Temple University’s campus.

“My objective when I ran for president, was to build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out. It’s a fundamental shift, compared to the Oz and the mega MAGA Republican trickledown economics,” Biden said, referring to Fetterman’s GOP opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

As the crowd booed, the president continued, “No really. This ain’t your father’s Republican Party. This is a different breed of cat. I really mean it. Look, they’re all about the wealthier getting wealthy. And the wealthier staying wealthy. The middle class gets stiffed. The poor get poorer under their policy.”

Obama takes the stage: The former president offered a prebuttal to the possibility of Democratic losses.

“I can tell you from experience that midterms matter, a lot,” Obama said, a reference to the 2010 election that saw the GOP retake power in the House of Representatives during his first administration.

Obama’s speech was chock full of praise for Fetterman and Shapiro and disdain for their opponents.

“Josh’s opponent, woof. Oy vey,” Obama said. “He is willing to take the most extreme positions on pretty much everything.”

The former president hit Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano’s position on abortion and recalled that he wore a Confederate war uniform in a photo in a 2013-14 faculty photo at the Army War College.

“Pennsylvania, let’s remember what century it is,” Obama said. “This would be funny, it would be an SNL skit, if it weren’t so serious. You cannot let somebody that detached from reality run your state.”

Obama couldn’t hide his disapproval for Oz.

“Who do you really think knows more about budgets and having to pay the bills, John Fetterman or Dr. Oz? Come on,” Obama said.

Pennsylvania’s Democratic candidates make their case: Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate, and Josh Shapiro, the nominee for governor, both spoke before Obama at the Saturday night event.

Fetterman, who had a stroke in May, joked about appearing on stage just ahead of the former president.

“Let me tell you, anyone in recovery of having a stroke, really, the worst guy you have to go before, Barack Obama coming up has got to be the worst,” Fetterman said to laughs.

The 2022 election cycle will feature new congressional districts in 44 states – six states only have one at-large congressional district. Additionally, 13 states gained or lost seats in the House. The decennial census was conducted in 2020 and determined how many congressional districts each state would have for the next decade. 

Republicans control most of the state legislatures across the country, which gave the party an advantage going into the redistricting process — most states have their maps passed by the state legislature. However, after almost a year of political and legal fights, neither side ended the process with a significant advantage, while competitive seats were the biggest losers. 

Democrats had legal victories in states like Pennsylvania and North Carolina that resulted in more favorable maps. But Democratic attempts to draw aggressive maps in their favor were blocked by courts in New York and Maryland. 

Republicans were able to erase Democratic seats in Florida and Georgia but drew a map in Texas that focused more on protecting incumbents rather than picking off Democrats. 

Commissions also played a major role in drawing maps across key states, like California and Michigan, and analyses found they generally produced maps that were more competitive than those drawn by partisan actors. That is, when they worked. Commissions in several states, including New York and Virginia, failed to agree on maps entirely. 

Even with the midterms, redistricting is not over. Legal disputes in several states are ongoing and the Supreme Court is hearing cases from Alabama and North Carolina that could still significantly impact how districts are drawn. 

Read more about how the new congressional map shifts voting power here.

A seismic political shift is currently underway in Florida — one that may alter the national political map in the years to come. 

President Joe Biden was in South Florida earlier this week to campaign for Democrats. On Sunday, Donald Trump will host his own event for Republican Sen. Marco Rubio on Sunday in Miami. 

The circumstances of their arrivals have brought their own intrigue. With Democrats reticent to welcome Biden and his underwater approval rating elsewhere, the president spent one of the final days before the election in a state that has been an afterthought for his party for much of the midterm cycle. Meanwhile, Republicans speculate Trump is holding court in the Sunshine State two days before the election in part to needle Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 rival who was not invited to the weekend campaign stop.

Most election years, a visit by a high-profile politician to the Sunshine State would be the norm, if not expected. Trump and Biden each had multiple stops in Florida two years ago – including dueling rallies days before the election in 2020 separated by a few hours and just 10 miles of Tampa roads. And four years ago, races for governor and US Senate in Florida were decided in a recount. 

But now, Republicans and Democrats are on opposite trajectories. Republicans believe they are headed for their most successful election night in a generation, buoyed by DeSantis’ record-breaking fundraising and a surge of enthusiasm. Democrats, trailing in the polls and lagging in excitement, are hoping for an unexpected change of political winds or they could be left without a single statewide elected official in Florida for the first time since at least Reconstruction. 

Here are four factors driving the state’s right turn. 

We’re one week out from Election Day. Democrats are hoping to hold on to power, while Republicans yearn to gain control of both the House and the Senate. And while we all have guesses of what will happen, the truth is that we don’t know what will play out. 

With that uncertainty in mind, here are three different scenarios that could be key to how the battle for control shakes out. 

Georgia runoff determines Senate  

Unlike other states with close Senate races, Georgia requires candidates to receive a majority of the vote to win on Election Day. If no candidate does, then a runoff between the top two candidates is held in December. 

The conditions are fairly ripe for such a scenario. Neither Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock nor Republican Herschel Walker is at 50% in the Georgia Senate polls. Libertarian Chase Oliver is pulling in 3% to 4%. 

If every other race goes exactly as the polls predict, Democrats will have 49 seats, not including Georgia. Republicans will have 50 seats. This means that whichever side wins in Georgia would control the Senate. 

The Senate actually gets projected early  

Then there’s the other side of the spectrum. Most people are anticipating that we won’t know who wins the Senate until days, if not weeks, after Election Day. That may be the case, but it’s far from a certainty. 

There are a few ways we could conceivably get a fairly fast call. The easiest way for it to happen is if the Republicans win both Georgia (with a majority to avoid a runoff) and Pennsylvania. That way, we’re probably not reliant on what could be longer counts in Arizona and Nevada. 

Another way this might happen is if there is a surprising result in the east. If Republicans have a very good night, they could win the New Hampshire Senate race, where Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan is running for reelection against Republican Don Bolduc. If Democrats have a very good night, they could win the Ohio Senate race, an open seat where Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan is facing off with Trump-endorsed J.D. Vance. 

An early call of the House  

Just weeks ago, the race for both the House and Senate looked close. While the Senate still does, it’s easy to see how the House could turn into a relative blowout. 

If that happens, we won’t have to wait for the West Coast or the results from ranked-choice voting races. 

Instead, we’ll get a pretty good idea from even the earliest of poll closings. Consider a race like that for Virginia’s 2nd District, a swing district centered in Virginia Beach. Rep. Elaine Luria would likely win if Democrats are to be competitive in the House. If she’s defeated, Republicans are probably on their way to House control. 

If it’s a big Republican night, we could also see Democratic Rep. Frank Mrvan go down in Indiana. Indiana, unlike a lot of other states, requires voters to have an excuse to vote absentee. 

The bottom line is that if Republicans end up with close to 240 seats (as they did in 2010), then the race for House control won’t be drawn out. 

Read more potential Election Day scenarios here.