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Trump Campaigns In Multiple Red States To Get Out Of Vote; More Than 32 Million Americans Have Already Voted; Texas Latinos Make Up Nearly A Quarter Of Early Vote; Elon Musk Pours $158M Into Texas Senate Rate; DOJ Plans To Send 1,000 Election Monitors To All 50 States; Trump Admin. Challenging Limits Of Federal Role In Midterm Voting; Polls: No Clear Leader In Michigan Senate Race. Aired 12- 12:30p ET

Aired October 27, 2026 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: One week to go, and dozens of races could go either way.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

Just seven days, one week from today, that is election day, and we are tracking the races, candidates and stories that could shift the balance of power right here in Washington and all across the country. Here's what's on our midterm radar.

Today, President Trump heads to Texas for not one but two rallies. First in Corpus Christi, then in Lubbock, where he'll stump with his handpicked Senate candidate Ken Paxton. At the same time, Democrat James Talarico will hold a rally there. It's part of the president's final push through states he won handily, but as he explained while campaigning in what is usually a reliably red state, Mississippi. He said he can't take anything for granted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Sometimes when you think somebody's doing so well, nobody votes, they all stay home. Oh, Cindy's great. She's going to do no problem. Let's stay home, and then bad things happen, Cindy, right? So that's why I'm here. Just get out and vote. Somebody says he has -- he has quite a busy schedule yet. Let's see somebody else do it, but it's fun to do it. You know, when you love the people, it's fun. You know, God didn't make your vocal cords to do a rally every day, but when you love the people, it's fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: After his two stops in Texas, he'll be in Ohio tomorrow and South Carolina on Thursday. Now to Michigan, where a top Democratic donor and former chairman of Democrat Haley Stevens' Senate campaign is crossing party lines to vote for Mike Rogers. In a statement, David Kramer explains why he's choosing Rogers, the Republican, over Abdul El-Sayed. Even though he says he disagrees with the Republican on many issues.

Kramer writes in part. I do believe that Mike Rogers is committed to keeping Jews safe in Michigan and in the United States, and to clearly distinguishing between American enemies and allies, including our ally, Israel. El-Sayed is a frequent critic of Israel who has declined to say the country should exist as a Jewish state.

And the 2026 midterms just set a record. Another one, political ad spending, according to Ad Impact, campaigns and outside groups. Ready for this? They have already poured in $11.21 billion, just into ads, surpassing the record set during the 2024 presidential election. And with a week to go, that number is only going to get bigger.

Now to Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass is getting a boost from a former opponent in her race against Democratic Socialist Nithya Raman. Billionaire Rick Caruso, who lost the 2022 mayoral election to Bass, posted this video on X.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK CARUSO, FORMER LOS ANGELES MAYORAL CANDIDATE: For the love of L.A., I must put the past behind me because this election must be about our future and not a referendum on the past. I will be casting my ballot for Mayor Karen Bass. I have serious concerns about Councilwoman Raman. It is not so much about ideology, but about competence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Recent polls have shown City Councilwoman Nithya Raman is leading Mayor Bass. I'm joined here by a terrific group of reporters. One week to go, guys. Let's look at what's already happening out there because it's big. Early votes, nationwide. We are looking at 32,600 -- excuse me, 32,641,036 votes cast and counting.

Let's drill down on Texas, where the president, as I mentioned, has two rallies today. Just in Texas alone, it's over 4.5 million votes. And then let's look at this because this could help tell the story of where Texas is going to go. Look at -- this is broken down by ethnicity, and all the way on the right, we see 24, 21, 19. This is the Latino vote in Texas. Right now, it's 24 percent.

Let's go down to 2022 because that was the last time there was a midterm election. This is the share of the vote. Now it is 24, and last time it was 19. What does that -- again, we don't know who the Latino voters in the share, which makes up a big one, who they're voting for, but the fact that the enthusiasm is there says what?

[12:05:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Preface with because our research wizard Ethan Cohen would punch me if I did not preface with this and he's the one who actually tells me what's really going on. Because according to my Twitter feed, both candidates are cooked and both are -- or it's already won. None of which is true. And I think when you talk to Texas -- BASH: Your Twitter feed is much nicer than mine.

(CROSSTALK)

MATTINGLY: But you talk to Texas operatives on both sides, we're like, look, there's no like clear, clean line here. There's not party identification.

BASH: Yeah. No.

MATTINGLY: What people are pointing to right now is, to the extent you can read anything at all, the demographic makeup of voter share up to this point. If it tracks with what we've seen in polling for Latino voters over the course of the last several months, where for Republicans, many of whom benefited for a pretty significant swing, particularly in Texas border counties in 2024 in supporting Donald Trump.

If that swings back, and if it swings back to the degree it seems to have fallen off a cliff for Republicans over the course of the last couple of months, then presumably a higher share of Hispanic voters voting would be -- would net out on some weight, but we just don't know. We know that there is a significant enthusiasm.

BASH: Exactly.

MATTINGLY: Not as big as 2018, bigger than 2022 by a lot. It seems to be going in that direction, so we'll just have to watch.

BASH: Yeah, and in 2018, obviously. Generally speaking, not necessarily in Texas, but Democrats did quite well. They took over. Speaking of, let's look at the bigger map because it also shows that the -- when you look at the share of the Latino vote, it's up 10 percent. And if you look even more specifically, there's sort of different shades of the green that shows you in which states, including obviously Texas, which we talked about and some other key swing states where the enthusiasm, at least the share of the early vote is up among Latino voters.

SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, POLITICS REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I appreciate all the Ethan caveats here.

MATTINGLY: I did it so no one else has.

RODRIGUEZ: I appreciate.

(CROSSTALK)

RODRIGUEZ: But look, right now Democrats are looking at this, and they feel like this is a promising sign for them. We won't know until obviously, election day and until it's truly over. But for Democrats, they were hoping to see this boost of turnout amongst Latino voters because poll after poll, and myself just traveling to South Texas and parts of the country with large Latino populations, you hear about the frustration and the shift away from Donald Trump and Republicans. He had campaigned successfully with many in 2024, and not just Latinos, but voters writ large, with this message about how he was going to improve the economy, how he was going to get the border under control, and how he was going to have, you know, a tighter immigration enforcement that did resonate with people at the time in 2024.

But now, two years into his presidency, something I've heard voters' reference was, in 2024 he'd talk about, oh, is your life better today than it was four years ago? And now, two years in, people are asking themselves the same question two years in, and they don't feel that the economy is better, and they feel that the immigration enforcement looks a lot messier and uglier than they ever thought it could.

BASH: Which is one of the reasons why Elon Musk is just flooding the zone. The zone being Texas, other states, but let's stick with Texas right now with money. Check this out. His Texas Senate spending, $158 million. And talk to Democrats, they will say that as much as they have enthusiasm -- Democrats have enthusiasm on their side. They just don't know the impact that this huge sum of money, particularly in Texas will have on trying to boost the Republican turnout to overcome their lack of enthusiasm. The person who is also clearly worried about it is the Democrat on the ballot in Texas. James Talarico, he called out Elon yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES TALARICO, (D) TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: This election is about whether or not you want a senator who serves you or who serves his billionaire mega donors. Elon Musk wants our land. He wants our water, he wants our tax dollars, he wants his very own personal United States senator.

BASH: Jamie?

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it is time to quote Dan Rather with the following Texas-ism that both sides are more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Look, they don't know this is a toss-up. And I've spoken to pollsters on both sides who say, let's talk on Tuesday. They really don't know.

A couple of anecdotal things in addition to what Sabrina said about voters. A friend of mine in Houston, someone from Bush world, has been trying to go early vote, and every time this person goes, they can't even find a parking space. The person said the voters are around the block, said, it looks like a Taylor Swift concert. A lot of young people turning out.

[12:10:00]

I also think it's worth underscoring that Donald Trump, as you said, is back in Texas, not making one stop but two stops. So, they're both worried.

BASH: Yeah, yeah. And he's campaigning for the Republican candidate in the -- for Senate, who he endorsed and really helped make this as incredibly tight and competitive as it is. Don't go anywhere. Coming up. We have new information on the Justice Department's push to contest midterm votes before they're even cast.

Plus, the latest course in the Trump rally -- excuse me, the Trump- Obama rivalry involves The Cheesecake Factory. We're going to serve up the details, which actually includes a French dip cheeseburger. He cannot make this up. Stay with us.

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[12:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: The Justice Department is having a very busy week ahead of election day. We learned yesterday that the Trump DOJ criminally charged James Comey again. This time for a decade-old allegation that, as FBI director, he ordered his staff to leak classified information.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: It would almost be funny if it weren't such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice, one that we cannot become numb to. Nothing's changed with me. I'm still innocent. I'm still not afraid of these people, and I still believe in the independent federal judiciary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And on the election front, we're learning a lot more about how the administration plans to put pressure on state and local election officials and the judiciary. Yesterday, the Justice Department announced it will send one thousand election observers to all 50 states. That's more than double the election monitors sent under the previous administration, and it comes as the Trump administration faces legal setbacks in two preemptive moves.

One in California to get 20,000 ballots set aside that the administration insists could be illegal, and in its attempt to pause certification in Alaska. If the incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan doesn't win, Gabe Cohen is following all of the election top lines, particularly what is going on the election monitoring front.

Gabe, sort of catch us up on -- I know it's a lot because --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: Well, yeah. We're starting to really drink from a fire hose as we watch what the DOJ is doing. But put it in context for us on how aggressive they are being versus what you've been reporting on for, you know, the better part of a year on what the expectation was.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Let's start with the election monitors because I will stress that these are not federal law enforcement officers. These are mostly federal lawyers. There's a long history of election monitors being sent out to polling places on election day, even if they say this is the biggest effort in history. President Trump himself, as well as other Justice Department leaders have said there are not going to be any sort of disruptions at polling locations, so voters shouldn't be scared to go out and vote.

This is really about looking for, they say, potential violations of federal law or any other irregularities that could lead to challenges after election day. I will note we did have previous reporting on the monitors that were sent out during the primaries that showed at least a few of them had previously worked on some of the legal efforts to challenge and overturn the 2020 election.

And there was this incident in Wyoming where even the Republican state election officials were very upset about the federal monitors that were there, their aggressive behavior. They said they way overstepped their authority. But I think talking to officials across the country, they're less concerned with disruptions with the monitors on election day. It is more about, you know, an administration that is trying to find voter fraud.

Just look at the president's comments offering a million dollars to anyone who digs up evidence that they are seeking it out. And will this overhaul Justice Department, and particularly the Civil Rights Division, that's leading the monitor effort, will they follow those longstanding federal standards? Are they going to potentially use some observations sowing doubt?

BASH: Right. And it's the sowing doubt. And just to be clear, and I know this is exactly what you're -- what you're saying. Making sure that there's no election fraud is what they should be doing and it's what the federal Justice Department and election monitors have done in Democratic and Republican administrations. It's -- what is paired with that the other moves that not just the administration is making, but some of their allies are doing online, which I'm going to get to in one second.

Because you mentioned the president and the $1 million bonus that he's giving people on voter fraud. Here's what he put on social media. Anybody reporting voter fraud in past elections or the upcoming 2026 midterm election will be paid a million dollars upon the arrest and conviction of those that created the fraud. So that speaks to, you know, OK, it's fine for people who are officials going in and looking at the situations to make sure everything is going smoothly. It's another thing to potentially instigate vigilantes.

[12:20:00]

COHEN: Yeah, correct. And I think the lawsuits that we've just seen in California and Alaska, and this letter that went out to the state of Washington about non-citizen voters also set the stage for this administration to perhaps challenge the results of the election. Obviously, in Alaska, they're talking about preemptively blocking the state from certifying the election if the Democrat wins. But in California, we're seeing this lawsuit over what they say are 20,000 non-citizens, who they believe have already received ballots in the midterms and are casting votes as we speak.

So, they're saying that election fraud is literally happening right now. That's what the Justice Department's position is. And they're demanding that California set those ballots aside until some sort of investigation can happen literally in the midst of a midterm. States are really not capable of doing that. And now we have Washington getting a letter saying, we found non-citizens on your rolls as well who are voting.

The question is -- and something that struck me about the letter is, it's almost like a copy paste from what we saw in California. 48-hour deadline. That deadline hasn't come yet. We don't know if they're going to sue Washington, but they're now going to the courts saying fraud is underway. And the question is, if they do get blocked, which a lot of people think they will, what are they -- what does that mean for legal challenges to the actual results?

BASH: And just the -- just what they're going to say, they, including especially the president are going to say publicly once we get these results. On that note, our friends at the New York Times spoke to the secretary of state in Maine, Shenna Bellows, who said this is the first time ever that we have had to engage in scenario planning to safeguard against potential federal interference in elections. It seems like the federal government is now adversarial to the states. Jamie?

GANGEL: Yeah. Well, Attorney General Todd Blanche does not seem to be Attorney General Bill Barr. And the problem with all of these cases and what you're hearing from Maine is there is no proof in some of these cases before it's gone from, you know, maybe there was a question about 6000, and then it was 374. There is no underlying reliable information that this is fraud.

And I think what, you know, what Maine is saying, and California and Alaska is, look, we all hope there are no disruptions. We all hope that this doesn't become a situation where candidate -- where people who are elected are not seated. But January six did happen, and you can't ignore that President Trump, his allies, and it appears Attorney General Todd Blanche with these cases are setting the stage for doubt, chaos, and confusion.

BASH: And your former colleagues at the Washington Post are reporting that there are nearly 600 high-profile right-wing social media accounts, podcasts, and other online media publishing more than 7,000 statements already questioning the elections' integrity so far. This is the concern. This is the movie that we have seen before, at least the trailer. Hopefully, the movie looks different.

RODRIGUEZ: Well, it's interesting to see that because I think back to 2021. I remember the Senate runoffs in Georgia, where one of the concerns Republicans had in it was that Trump talking so much about undermining the election integrity and coming out and saying the election was stolen was going to depress turnout and was going to make people question the election or make them even question if they wanted to turn out.

So, I think there's some of that playing out. Now, where there's questions of people saying, well, if -- it does it matter anyway, and I think that long term hurts us here, you know, hurts this country, hurts people, voters that are questioning the integrity of our elections. When you have the president of the United States and his allies, and now a massive influencer community that has only grown in the last five years since that election coming out and already trying to sow that doubt.

BASH: I'm going to -- everybody put a pause button on this because John King has made it to Michigan. He's taking the pulse of voters in that Senate race, which is so close that both parties are very uncomfortable. Stay with us.

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[12:25:00]

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BASH: It's day two of five states in five days, and CNN's John King is in Michigan. The Senate race between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers could very well determine control of the U.S. Senate. There you see him. John is in Dearborn, Michigan. You can explain to the viewers how you're getting from point A to point B later. But more importantly, what are the Michiganders you're talking to are telling you.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dana, as you know, this is a fascinating state. We'll get to the map more in a minute, but just to show the other map, and you look at, you know, 80,000 votes in 2024. Donald Trump wins this state. Kamala Harris loses it. Remember, Democrat Elissa Slotkin won a Senate race in that same campaign by about 17,000 votes.

So, every vote does matter. It's a cliche, but it matters here. Dearborn, majority Arab, American city. We were just at an early voting location where local officials says, there's been a steady stream of people coming in. That is absolutely essential to Abdul El- Sayed's math here. He needs to run it up. Kamala Harris could not get the support here because of anger at the Biden-Harris administration over what these voters believed was too much of a green light to Israel, in Gaza after October 7.

So, this year it's all about coalition building. Abdul El-Sayed thinks he'll get bigger turnout here, but, but we know from our all over the map voter conversations

[12:30:00]