Democrats Hold Polling Edge as Trump Plans Final Pre-Vote Appearance

Democrats lead Republicans 52 percent to 45 percent in the final stretch before the U.S. midterm elections, according to polling cited by RaiNews. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has said he would act as "Mr. Veto" if Democrats win, and his administration has asked the Supreme Court to temporarily stop California from counting 20,000 mail-in ballots that the Justice Department says may have been cast by people who are not U.S. citizens and therefore are not legally eligible to vote.

The request reached the high court on the eve of the elections that will renew Congress, RaiNews reports. Trump's last scheduled appearance before voting is set for the Lincoln Memorial, where he is expected to draw a contrast between the two parties' agendas.

Why it matters

The outcome will decide control of Congress for the second half of Trump's term, and both sides are treating the final hours as decisive. The polling lead gives Democrats momentum in the Senate battlegrounds, while the administration's legal push in California signals that disputes over ballot counting may continue past election day. A White House official told CNN, as reported by RaiNews, that the president's final remarks will focus on the "America First" agenda.

A press conference, not a rally

The event at the Lincoln Memorial will not be a rally of the kind Trump has held in recent weeks. According to RaiNews, it will be an outdoor press conference in front of the reflecting pool, with only a few seats reserved for the media. Because the site is usually crowded with tourists, the podium has been shielded with bulletproof glass.

Trump said he picked the location to show "how beautiful" it is. RaiNews notes that many analysts see the monument as a symbol of the difficulties of his second presidency, and that his advisers have urged him not to dwell on Washington building and restoration projects during the speech.

The White House official told CNN that the address will highlight what the administration says it has achieved in making the country safer and more prosperous. The official framed the Republican program as grounded in common sense and the "America First" principle, and described the Democratic agenda as radical and oriented toward putting America "last."

California ballot fight reaches the Supreme Court

The Justice Department sued California on October 15 in a federal district court in Los Angeles, seeking to block the counting of the 20,000 mail ballots. On the previous Wednesday, Judge David Carter rejected the request, saying that never before in American history had the federal government tried to force a state and local government to abandon its constitutional election procedures and submit to the will of the executive branch, according to RaiNews. The government appealed, and that appeal was also denied, prompting the request to the Supreme Court.

Senate map and a funding surge in Michigan

The New York Times and Siena University poll cited by RaiNews found Democrats ahead in nearly all seven states that will decide Senate control, with their margins widening. To win a Senate majority, Democrats must hold every seat they currently have and take at least four from Republicans — a difficult task that requires beating the GOP in its strongholds. The same survey put Democrats in a strong position in Texas, which has not elected a Democrat in decades, according to the reporting.

In Michigan, the campaign of Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive Muslim candidate who would become the first Muslim U.S. senator if elected, raised $2.4 million on the day Democratic Representative Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers in the Senate race, RaiNews reports. El-Sayed's campaign called it its largest single-day haul. He was scheduled to campaign alongside Senators Elissa Slotkin, a moderate who criticized Stevens for the switch, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Nearly 30 percent of registered Michigan voters had already cast ballots when Stevens made her endorsement, according to the state department.

Trump on Musk, and the view from Moscow

In an interview with "Pod Force One," Trump said he would protect Elon Musk if Democrats won and took control of Congress and opened investigations into the SpaceX chief executive. According to RaiNews, the president also raised the idea of granting preemptive pardons to people close to him should Democrats prevail.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Interfax, said the midterms are an internal U.S. matter but that Russia, like the rest of the world, is watching closely. He said Trump will remain president until the end of his term and will continue to pursue his foreign policy, when asked whether the elections could affect efforts to resolve the war with Ukraine.

Separately, RaiNews reported on research into how information bubbles form. A team led by the CNR-ISTI institute in Pisa, working with the universities of Pisa, Trento and Lyon's Claude Bernard University, built a digital twin that reproduces the dynamics of a social network, publishing the work in Big Data & Society. The researchers note that during major events such as U.S. midterms, these echo chambers can deepen political polarization and limit voters' exposure to differing views.

What to watch: whether the Supreme Court responds to the California request before ballots are tallied, and whether the Democratic polling advantage holds in the seven Senate battlegrounds.