Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03) is running against Republican Kari Lake for U.S. Senate in Arizona on a record of opposing border security measures. Even though the state is facing staggering increases in violent crime, breaking records, Gallego hasn’t appeared to flip-flop back on most of those positions.  On his campaign website, Gallego declares, “our border communities are not the war zones that news stations often portray them as … Ruben has been on the forefront of sensible, comprehensive immigration reform in Congress … [and has] spoken out against extremist right-wing policies.” Gallego lists 13 issues his website, including LGBTQ+ and abortion, but nothing specifically about crime. 

Arizona voters will choose whether to retain 69 judges up for retention election this fall, the bulk from the Maricopa County Superior Court. The Arizona Sun Times worked with a team of researchers and insiders to produce a report informing voters on the partisan leanings and contentious decisions from 48 of those judges. Voters angry with judges who found ways to dismiss election lawsuits challenging corruption in the 2020 and 2022 elections have vowed to boot those judges out of office. County officials begin mailing early ballots on October 9.

Democrats called the latest version of ballot language for Issue I rigged and misleading after the Ohio Ballot Board made court-ordered changes Wednesday. The Ohio Supreme Court ordered the board to change two of eight areas in Issue 1’s ballot language that deals with limits on challenging court decisions and the public’s right to influence the commission.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are statistically tied in Pennsylvania, according to a poll released on Thursday that also shows Republican U.S. Senate candidate tied with Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), the three-term Democrat he hopes to unseat in November. Commissioned and conducted by The Washington Post, the pollsters found Harris was supported by 48 percent of respondents, including both likely voters and registered voters. Trump had the support of 47 percent of respondents.

Polling data increasingly shows former President Donald Trump gaining ground on Vice President Kamala Harris in both the national race and in key battlegrounds, suggesting that her debate performance has not fundamentally altered the race. The latest New York Times/Siena College poll shows the pair are tied at 47% support among likely voters nationwide. The current RealClearPolitics polling average shows Harris with a 1.9% lead, roughly where it has sat for all of September.