This Weekend in Politics, Bulletin 493. Ron Filipkowski Nov 1 … Rep. Haley Stevens went into full traitor mode and endorsed MAGA Mike Rogers for senate after attending a church service with him. Stevens attempted to hold a brief press gaggle with Rogers outside the church after making the endorsement, but quickly fled the scene after being heckled by attendees of the church. … Stevens: “I stood with my party. I was booed off the stage. I am voting for Mike Rogers. I’m not turning my back on Democrats. Everyone should be fired up for Democrats.” … A man then yelled out, “Haley Stevens is a traitor!” She then walked away. … Abdul El-Sayed outside a church with Rep. Jim Clyburn (R-SC), who traveled to MI to campaign with him in the final days. “None of this matters. You know what matters? There are families who are preparing to send their kids to schools tomorrow that look like they did 50 years ago. They're worried about what they're going to feed their kids for lunch. They're worried that if one of their kids gets sick, they're not going to be able to pay the bills. Those are the things that matter.” “At the end of the day, I actually don't think about Haley Stevens. Because you know what? I'm just less interested in the politics of it all than I am in the policy of it all. If you are somebody who believes that we should stand up to hate, and you have watched this last campaign, I think we probably would not want to support Mike Rogers and Trump and JD Vance.” … MI State Senator Mallory McMorrow on MS NOW: “It feels like it's more about her feelings than Michiganders. Politics is not easy. I was in this primary too. It was one of the most brutal, ugliest primaries I have certainly seen. But there is too much on the line right. It is a choice between MAGA and MI. And I'm on team MI.” “If anything, I think this has galvanized more people to come out and vote because they see this for what it is: a blatant attempt at relevancy and trying to make an election about herself when the election is not about her, it is about MI. So I don't think this has had the effect that that Haley thought it would. It has pissed people off in a big way.” “It’s just a sad desperate attempt to be relevant. To have Haley abandon Michiganders and her constituents is deeply, deeply sad.” … Michigan Democratic Party chair Curtis Hertel issued a statement: “Haley Stevens’ decision to campaign with Rogers—a man who has repeatedly sold out MI’s working class, wants to pass a national abortion ban, and has pledged to be a loyal vote for Trump’s agenda—shows that she has abandoned everything she claims to care about. We reject the attempts by Stevens and bad-faith actors to divide our party and undermine our momentum, and will not allow these 11th-hour distractions deter us.” “Congresswoman Stevens is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future.” … Sen. Democratic leader Chuck Schumer: “This is a despicable betrayal from Rep. Stevens. Senate Democrats are united in our support for Abdul El-Sayed, because we know he will fight for the economic interests of working families in MI, unlike Mike Rogers, who is a tool of Trump and billionaire donors.” … DNC Black Caucus chair Virgie Rollins: “We are dismayed that Congresswoman Haley Stevens has revealed herself to be a sellout who used Black Michiganders for a political stunt. Congresswoman Stevens has lost her way, and Michiganders know that Mike Rogers is a shill for Trump.” … Former Rep. Susan Wild: “Haley’s endorsement of Rogers in the MI senate race is appalling. Not because he’s a Republican, but because what he stands for is what she, and I, and our caucus has fought so hard against. Rogers is a 100% anti-choice politician. He is a Trump loyalist. He’s shown his Islamophobia in his many remarks against Abdul El-Sayed, and with this endorsement, Haley has shown that she agrees with his positions. I’m shocked by Haley’s endorsement. I’m terribly sad and disappointed. I’m furious and will be more so if we lose the MI senate race. So many people in the Democratic Party have shown so much support to Haley over the years, and she has betrayed them all. If this is because of her new relationship (about which many of us were so happy for her after she lost the primary), all I can say is that any woman who abandons her friends when a new guy comes along is no friend at all. The fallout for Haley won’t just be in Dem politics; she will be a pariah among her friends in the Democratic caucus in Congress. Only she will be able to decide whether it was worth it.” … Detroit News reporter Melissa Nann Burke: “Haley Steven’s official staff including her longtime chief are resigning from her office this morning.” … Haley Stevens chief of staff Justin German to Washington Sun: “We are shocked and heartbroken. As of this morning, many members of our team have resigned, including myself.” … Trump and Mike Johnson were together today in IA and were asked about the Stevens situation: Q: “Do you plan to reach out to Haley Stevens? Trump: Yes, to thank her.” Q: “Do you think she should be a member of the Republican Party? Trump: I’d love to have her.” Johnson: “I sent her a note.” … Rep. Nancy Pelosi: “Haley Stevens has chosen to dangerously betray MI families’ healthcare, freedoms and future with her horrific endorsement of Mike Rogers. Abdul El-Sayed must win - because MI and our country deserve better.” … Before Stevens made her announcement on Sunday, El-Sayed spoke to reporters who asked him about her recent statements: Q: “Is Haley Stevens trying to rat fuck your campaign? El-Sayed: That is not a question for me.” Q: “Do you believe Haley Stevens is hurting the ticket? El-Sayed: I have much respect to the congresswoman. We had a hard fought primary. That primary ended in August. I’m focused now on beating Mike Rogers. I hope that every Democrat, frankly, I hope that everybody who’s worried about the state of our democracy, worried about the ability to afford gas and groceries, worried about ending illegal wars or ending tariff wars is with me in that fight.” Q: “Do you want Haley Stevens to come to church with you tomorrow? El-Sayed: I’ve been very clear that I would rather not distract from the key issues of this campaign, and those are getting money out of politics, putting money in your pocket, passing Medicare for all. She wants to talk about other things.” … Rep. Debby Dingell (D-MI) on CNN: “Jim Clyburn is going with Abdul in the city of Detroit, going to churches, doing the souls to the polls event, talking to people about why this matters. Trump could get two more supreme court nominations.” “The Black community knows what the supreme court has done to the Black vote and to redistricting and trying to decrease minority representation. I meet with them all the time. The people who have lost health care and can’t afford groceries.” Q - “Our reporting is that he disinvited her from the campaign event. Dingell: No, I’m the one. I am the one that talked to Haley. And I am the one that said this isn’t working. So I want to be really clear on that.” … Stunning early voting numbers across the country. VoteHub: NC final numbers at the end of early in-person voting. Republicans did not win a single day of early voting. Even when high-propensity voters were red, those gains were overwhelmed by exceptionally blue turnout among less frequent voters: 🔴 2024: R+41,457 🔵 2026: D+343,548 … This was a Fox analysis of early voting numbers: … WaPo: “Republican lawmakers are confronting an enthusiasm gap nationally due to the unpopularity of Trump, wars, data centers, and high gas and grocery prices. Nowhere is the fallout more visible than in TX, where Trump held Republicans’ midterm convention last month and visited several times this month to rally support. … Republicans have controlled every lever of state govt for generations by winning rural counties and significant margins in suburban and urban areas where most voters live. But early turnout shows Democrats - led by state Rep. James Talarico - doing the reverse. Turnout for Democrats has increased in urban areas, and Democrats have posted gains even in conservative rural counties. … A blue wave could be forming mainly because of a combination of Democratic and Republican anger and apathy. Even Republicans who go to the polls may skip some races or split their tickets to vote for Democrats, particularly Talarico and Gov. Greg Abbott’s challenger, Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa. … Some Texas GOP voters, particularly those in rural areas upset by data centers and a new statewide voucher program, have said they plan to vote Democratic for the first time.” Crazy day today with the Stevens drama as I had to follow all the twists and turns in real time as it unfolded. I still am reasonably optimistic about this race and feel very good about the midterms overall. This move has already backfired on Stevens - I really don’t think she expected the ferocity of the backlash - and I think it will also backfire on Rogers. What will come from the Trump admin in the aftermath of the midterms? That I don’t feel great about. Halloween last night was a lot of fun. Our historic neighborhood with many very old houses (mine was built in the 1780s) closes the street, people go crazy with the decor, and kids come from all over the area. We were expecting around 600 kids. We got nearly 1,000. The population of our town is 4,000. It was a nice night and it fell on a Saturday, so that probably contributed to the huge turnout. My daughters were here from FL so we had 3 women dressed as witches handing out the candy while I DJ’d the Halloween music and tended the fire pit. If you missed Friday’s Bulletin, you can find it here. Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. … NBC: “With 3 days until Election Day, TX early voting numbers show a staggering surge of Hispanic voters in the state. To date, nearly 1.8 million Hispanic voters have cast ballots in TX. Compared to the same time in the 2022 election cycle, that represents an increase of more than 881,000 additional Hispanic voters statewide, or an 87.2% bump.” … Political commentator Tom Bonier: “There are now 763,307 Texans who have early voted who did not vote at all in the 2024 Presidential election. 48% of them are Hispanic. And 39% of those Hispanic surge voters are under the age of 30.” … I talked about his on Uncovered a couple of weeks ago. There was a Hispanic baby boom in TX 15-20 years ago. Those babies are all now registering to vote for the first time. This is a demographic moment in TX that Republicans have feared for a long time. … Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) on MS NOW: “What we are seeing that is really encouraging is record-breaking youth turnout for a midterm election in Georgia. Young voters will be decisive.” … Fox News ratings change. US Senate 2026: Kansas: Lean R —> Toss-up Nebraska: Likely R —> Lean R … Decision Desk HQ ratings change. US Senate Maine: Toss-up —> Lean D … Ken Paxton at a campaign event: “Tell your friends the difference between me and James Talarico. An audience member then yelled out: Paxton, you take bribes!” … That is one big difference between them. … NBC: “Democrats have a sizable advantage in the battle for control of Congress days ahead of the midterm elections, a new national NBC News poll finds, with voters clamoring for change and voicing all-time high disapproval of Trump. … Registered voters prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress by a 7-point margin, with Democrats leading Republicans 52%-45% - 2 points more than in last month’s poll. That includes a 21-point lead among independents.” … Speaker Mike Johnson: “I’m telling you, the polls are wrong. We’re going to defy history, and we are going to be celebrating big victories on Tuesday night. That’s my prediction.” … Axios: FL Republicans aren’t panicking about sluggish turnout for the midterms, but one senior Republican said, “We’re white-knuckled.” The early voting data sent a chill through Republican ranks in Tallahassee last week: What if the polling assumptions about stronger Republican turnout were wrong? … Republicans have also quietly fretted that racism could hurt their candidate for governor Rep. Byron Donalds, who is Black. One longtime GOP consultant: “We’re about to run the biggest experiment to see how racist some of our voters are.” He noted that the counties where turnout has been the lowest are the whitest and most conservative. … FL MAGA influencer Laura Loomer: “During the primary, he underperformed in the Panhandle and if people think skin color didn’t play a role in that, they are naive.” … Guardian: “Trump has held dozens of campaign rallies before next week’s US midterm elections. He remains convinced that he can prove the doubters wrong again and help Republicans retain control of Congress. But it was 5 words he uttered at this summer’s Republican convention in Dallas that could seal his party’s fate: ‘Pretend I’m on the ticket.’ … That plea was music to the ears of Democrats. It helped ensure that the midterms will deliver a national verdict on Trump’s second term in the WH. And opinion polls suggest that the judgment will be damning, piercing his aura of invincibility, reshaping the final two years of his presidency and setting the stage for a fierce battle to succeed him.” … Former RNC Chair Michael Steele: “Trump nationalized these races, and now they’ll lose seats because of it. He made himself the referendum. Individual candidates wanted to run their individual races but he told them: ‘Put me on the ballot.’ He has political instincts for himself, but no political instincts for the party.” … Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) on NBC: Q - “Is a vote for a Republican candidate a vote for the Trump agenda? Scott: There’s no doubt - Trump has said himself that the midterm election is about him.” … NYT: “Trump’s performances on the road and at the WH this fall have produced many head-scratching moments that have revived questions about his age and stability. He can be forgetful and repetitive. He is more long-winded, more profane and more absolutist than when he ran for president a decade ago. … His rambling speeches seem even more garbled at times. He makes comments that leave people wondering what he is talking about or that sound like he is saying something he is not. And even for a president who has never fully observed the norms of the office, he seems more willing to say things no other president would say. … He declared that at an unfenced construction site ‘only a Hispanic could survive that fall.’ He wants to ban immigrants from Norway ‘because I didn’t get the Nobel Prize.’ He says ‘I don’t give a damn’ if he is seen as caring more about oil company profits than struggling workers. He mispronounces the Strait of Hormuz as the ‘Hormone Strait.’ He has told supporters to ‘cheat like hell’ in the Nov. 3 elections. He says military leakers ‘should be shot.’ And then there is his baffling fixation with admiring men’s posteriors.” … Texas Tribune: “Republican senate nominee Ken Paxton was supposed to make the last stand of his campaign at the TX landmark around which his ‘Come and Take It’ bus tour centered: The Alamo. But on Sat, two days before his final rally would’ve taken place on the eve of Election Day, Paxton appeared to scrap those plans. … Instead, his campaign added Monday events in Conroe and Allen. The event in Conroe is set for 11 AM, while the one in Allen is scheduled for 5:30 PM, at a restaurant 300 miles from the Alamo. … The only events on Monday listed by Paxton’s campaign on Eventbrite, where it has posted his tour stops, were for Conroe and Allen. His website did not list any events for Monday.” … Paxton abandoned the Alamo. … Meidas: “Just days before the midterms, Lara Trump presented Fox viewers with what the network billed as a bipartisan panel of MI voters. So the president’s daughter-in-law gathered 5 people at a waterfront restaurant in Detroit for a discussion about the race between Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed. … They talked about socialism, immigration, the economy and why some traditional Democratic voters were turning away from their party. Fox identified each participant with a simple description: ‘MICHIGAN VOTER.’ During the segment, the network even displayed a chyron declaring: ‘BIPARTISAN VOTER PANEL SHARES UNIFYING MESSAGE.’ … There was just one rather glaring omission. 4 of the 5 panelists had appeared at official Mike Rogers campaign events, where they publicly endorsed the Republican and urged voters to support him. Their endorsements were published on Rogers’ own campaign website. A 5th had previously expressed support for Rogers on national television. … And one of the supposed ordinary voters had an even more significant connection: She was the treasurer of a super PAC that had raised more than $5.7 million and spent millions supporting Rogers and opposing El-Sayed. Fox did not disclose that 4 panelists had already appeared at Rogers campaign events, nor did it identify Whitsett’s leadership role in a multimillion-dollar pro-Rogers super PAC.” … IL Gov. JB Pritzker was asked on NBC about the situation in AK: “It’s important for us to recognize that the AK governor is being influenced by Trump. Trump of course wants to prosecute all of his opponents. He has threatened to jail me. He frankly just brings up the law now as a weapon and uses his DOJ against Democrats across the country. That winner should be certified. We Democrats don’t stand against the idea of counting all the votes. … Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) was asked on CNN if he will only accept the result of the election if he wins: “No, I’m going to accept the election results.” … Sen. Bernie Sanders on ABC: “Frankly, what the Democrats did in Alaska seems to be pretty dumb. It’s not illegal. It’s what happens in every election. Is this a good thing to do? No, it’s a stupid thing to do.” … Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) was asked on CNN about Sen. Ted Cruz saying that Muslims won’t go to heaven: “It’s bigotry. Pure and simple. Religious bigotry is bigotry. Republicans know they are losing the argument. It’s deeply disheartening, though not terribly surprising, that they are trying to stir up these old demons.” … NYT: Sen. Susan Collins has a bristly relationship with Sen. Angus King, who defeated her in the governor’s race in 1994 and succeeded Olympia Snowe in 2013. While they exchange occasional text messages, the two haven’t spoken in months. They last texted Oct. 12. … Aides in King’s office often are instructed to let Collins get the lion’s share of the credit for bills and earmarks passed that benefitted Maine, they said, if that’s what it takes to get a policy initiative accomplished. … NYT: “There were cheetah and zebra stripes on the walls and tables. Women wore sequined leotards and elaborate headdresses, and one couple flocked around in bright-feathered costumes of jungle birds. Then Trump arrived outfitted in his standard red tie and navy suit.” … Trump to attendees: “I came as Donald Trump. I didn’t have time to get - people spent a lot of time and money. Rich people. They spent 9 hours getting ready. I had 10 minutes, so I came as Donald Trump. Look at all my rich members. They spent all day getting ready. Look at these guys. These are the biggest guys on Wall Street.” … Trump has never worn a Halloween costume in his life. … “Such was the scene Saturday night, when hundreds gathered in the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago to celebrate Halloween with the president. The theme was the jungle, if an opulent one. There was Alaskan king crab and a caviar bar. There were bongo drums and puppets. Attendees posted photos on social media that showed a pen at the club with a zebra and a miniature pony. … Much more frightening for Republicans is the political environment across the country. And yet even as they brace for potential losses on Tuesday, Trump, whose approval rating is near historic lows, was thrilled to be entertaining.” … Vance posted photo of his Halloween attire. His kids look happy. … CNN: “A federal judge dismissed Trump’s defamation lawsuit against WSJ over its reporting on a lewd birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s name. For the second time this year, US District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled that Trump failed to plausibly allege that newspaper acted with ‘actual malice’ when it published the story. … Gayles rejected the president’s argument that WSJ should have withheld its story after he denied writing the letter, saying such a requirement would violate the First Amendment: “Were that the law, any time a public figure or his team denies an accusation, journalists would be immediately blocked from publishing negative or contradictory press.” … The ruling is another stinging defeat in the president’s legal crusade against the American news media and is sure to be celebrated by the press freedom groups that have denounced Trump’s suits.” … Daily Mail: “Trump appeared to contradict the FBI just hours after the agency said N. Korea was behind the ‘biggest hack in history.’ The FBI asserted on Sat evening that an investigation uncovered an unprecedented hack targeting Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, was executed by the N. Korean malicious cyber group, TraderTraitor. … Binance said on Thursday that the estimated total impact was ‘around $6.3 billion,’ making the hack one of the most significant security incidents on record. When asked about the findings by a reporter at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said his admin was ‘learning about’ what happened. ‘We don’t know if it’s N. Korea. But if it is, we’ll talk to N. Korea about it.’” … There is nothing dictatorships can do that Trump will ever criticize or even acknowledge as true. … Daily Mail: “One set of documents is stashed in a gun safe in Northern VA. Another sits in a safe deposit box at a Washington, DC, bank. A third is tucked away somewhere on the West Coast. All 3 hold evidence that fed-up DOD officials hope will force Pete Hegseth out after next week’s midterm elections. … Pentagon sources said they and their colleagues have spent much of the last 22 months compiling emails, memos and meeting notes. … The files detail times the defense secretary and his inner circle allegedly ignored strategic and legal advice, berated the experts who gave it, withheld information from Congress and the public, and threatened the careers of subordinates who either challenged his decisions or struck him as too woke, fat, queer or disloyal. … They figure the paper trail, plus a list of potential witnesses from inside the department, will come in handy if Democrats retake the House in November and, as expected, open an impeachment investigation in 2027. ‘We’re ready with the receipts,’ said a longtime Army officer who keeps a binder double-locked in his basement gun safe. Inside are documents that he believes could one day bring down his boss. … He is one of several DOD insiders who described coordinated plans to hand paper trails and personal accounts to lawmakers interested in investigating, and possibly impeaching, Hegseth.” … Sen. Chris Murphy’s office issued this statement: “Yesterday afternoon, Sen. Murphy started experiencing numbness in his arm while at his son’s hockey game. He was taken to a local hospital where it was discovered that he had a stoke. He was transferred to Johns Hopkins and is responding well to treatment. He is awake, alert and we are optimistic he will make a full recovery.” … Marco Rubio at a press gaggle with European media: Q: “The president has been very active on the campaign trail saying he's glad that Denmark gave Greenland to the US. That is being perceived differently in Denmark and Greenland. So has the president misunderstood the agreement? Rubio: I'm not sure what comments you are referring to.” … The Secretary of State doesn’t know what the President of the United States has been saying for the past several weeks about allegedly acquiring a vast territory from another country. Right. … One of the few reporters allowed in to observe the evacuation of residents in a besieged city in Ukraine under a cease fire has been taken off the air by her employer Newsmax: “Waited until our team crossed the border before commenting on this report, which got me pulled off air yesterday. Viewers should be aware of the perils and pitfalls of reporting from Russian-occupied Ukraine, where information is tightly controlled and independent journalism faces serious constraints.” … This is what she said that caused Newsmax not to put her on air again: “Russia is using this humanitarian operation as a propaganda opportunity. Moscow wants to portray itself as the rescuer of civilians in a city that it occupies, one it has destroyed and plunged into this humanitarian crisis. And we need to be clear, Russia controls what we are going to be allowed to see. Moscow appears to have brought in numerous Russian media compared to just the one American news outlet.” … Trump was asked about Alina Habba getting paid $50 million to “work” for a man she helped to get a pardon from Trump without giving Trump his cut: “I thought it was terrible. I told her, and I said I don’t want her paid. I thought we had somebody speak to the people that did it, and she used her relationship to do that, and it was far too much. It's one thing for a person to get paid legal fees or whatever; she's a lawyer. But I thought it was totally obnoxious and outrageous, and it's not acceptable. Not acceptable at all.” … Sounds like Trump wants at least half. Probably more than that.