Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.

* Iowa wasn’t expected to be one of the nation’s most important battlegrounds this year, but it’s clearly become one. In fact, there’s fresh evidence that the state, which has become a Republican stronghold in recent years, is shifting in a blue direction.

The latest Marist poll shows Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek leading Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson in the U.S. Senate race among registered voters, 50% to 42%. The same statewide survey found that in the race for governor, Rob Sand, Iowa’s Democratic state auditor, had an even larger advantage over Republican Zach Lahn, 54% to 42%. Most other recent polling in the state has shown both races as much closer contests.

Nevertheless, it is against this backdrop that Hinson took new steps to distance herself from the White House this week, insisting that she wants to see the war with Iran “brought to a successful and immediate end.” It’s a politically convenient move that is sharply at odds with the GOP congresswoman’s recent legislative record.

* With six weeks to go before Election Day, the mess surrounding Missouri’s congressional district map is still messy. Roll Call reported late Monday, “A federal appeals court on Monday reinstated a Republican-preferred congressional map for Missouri, setting up a likely third Supreme Court fight over the district lines for the Show-me State. The ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit found that, because the state used a map drawn by legislators in 2025 for the August primary, the state must use it for the November election.”

* George W. Bush has generally steered clear of the political arena, but the former president is poised to host a fundraiser in Dallas with outgoing Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas in support of six GOP Senate candidates in battleground states. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, however, was excluded from the list of beneficiaries.

* In Michigan’s closely watched U.S. Senate race, the latest Suffolk University poll in Michigan finds former Democratic state health official Abdul El-Sayed ahead of former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, 47% to 40%.

* Amid recent chatter that Republicans might have to give up on North Carolina’s Senate race, Semafor reported that a key super PAC aligned with the party, Old North Action, had planned to invest $6.5 million in campaign ads in the state but it recently decided to drop that ad buy. Recent polls have consistently shown former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper leading former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley.

* And speaking of the RNC, Whatley’s successor, incumbent RNC Chair Joe Gruters, told Fox Business on Tuesday morning, “This is not your grandparents’ Democrat [sic] Party. … They want to get rid of July 4.” For the record, I’m not aware of any Democratic officials or candidates who have endorsed the elimination of Independence Day.

The post Tuesday’s Campaign Round-Up, 9.22.26: Poll shows Turek leading Hinson in Iowa appeared first on MS NOW.

Author: MOSAEC

From MS Now.