Good morning. It’s Yom Kippur. If you’re observing, I hope you have an easy fast. Here are some ways American Jews are finding meaning in their observance this year. There’s a great deal of news below. But first, you had questions about the midterm elections. We took them to our colleagues.
Your politics questions
The primaries are over and the midterms are 43 days away. The final story lines have begun to take shape. The polls look grim for Republicans, and the party out of power generally fares well in midterms. Inflation, the Iran war and low approval ratings stalk President Trump. Republicans are playing defense in what would normally be safe races. Even the MAGA faithful in Congress are distancing themselves from the president. (Read these dispatches from Iowa and Florida about G.O.P. members there who’ve had enough.) But the Democrats would need an extraordinary run of victories to retake the Senate — including “at least two seats where Mr. Trump won by at least 11 points in the last election,” as Nate Cohn, our chief political analyst, put it. “That’s really tough, even in a wave year.” Meanwhile, Democrats may get control of the House, but fewer districts than ever are competitive. Today we’re answering your questions about the election and looking at the pickle in Missouri. Your questionsTrump said every American will get $5,000 if Republicans sweep in the midterms. He’s offering a big check in exchange for my vote. Is that legal? — Jane Bergwin-Rand | College Park, Maryland Federal law prohibits paying individuals to vote or not vote. But because this (very) hypothetical $5,000 check would ostensibly go to every American adult, experts said it did not seem too different from a candidate’s promise to cut taxes. The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled in 1982 that such payments generally constitute protected political speech “so long as the hoped-for personal benefit is to be achieved through the normal processes of government, and not through some private arrangement.” — Bayliss Wagner, who covers politics Does donating to candidates really make a difference in the outcome? In the Florida Senate primary, Angie Nixon beat Alex Vindman even though he’d out-raised her 16-to-1. What kind of spending really moves the needle for a candidate? — Nancy Moeller | Roswell, Georgia History is full of examples of candidates being badly outspent and still winning. Just look at 2024, when former Vice President Kamala Harris spent roughly twice as much as President Donald Trump — and still lost. One way to think about money in campaigns is that while a sizable war chest is necessary to win, it’s not always sufficient. A campaign does not need to match the other side’s spending to win. It just needs enough money for viability (paying staff members and traveling to events) and getting out the message in ads. — Lisa Lerer, who has covered four previous midterm elections Not all that long ago, QAnon seemed so influential. Now I hear little about the group. Is it still active? What is it up to? Who are its leaders and adherents? — Glenn Steckler | Telluride, Colorado The QAnon movement is dead. But its conspiratorial approach to politics lives on. The movement’s figurehead, known only as Q, stopped posting, and much of his movement has been absorbed by the Republican Party, according to experts. Some of Q’s supporters stopped discussing the arrest of Democrats and pedophiles and now speak about the MAGA movement. Many QAnon followers became active in the anti-vaccine communities. Claims about sex trafficking morphed into a focus on transgender Americans and Jeffrey Epstein. Trump’s administration winks and nods at QAnon on social media. — Stuart Thompson, who covers online influence Missouri’s new map
It’s a chaotic cycle all around: The Supreme Court has already rejected the administration’s plan to restrict certain mail-in ballots, and several states are dealing with new congressional maps. One of them is Missouri, which redrew its boundaries last year at Trump’s urging and had voters pick congressional nominees based on the new lines. Then the state’s Supreme Court said the new map was void unless Missouri residents voted for it in a referendum. (They have not.) So although they nominated their representatives to Washington on one map, they’re set to elect them on another. My colleague Mitch Smith reported this colorful story from Columbia and Jefferson City about all the confusion. More on the elections
Drone invasion: Residents of a Dallas suburb can get Amazon packages in as little as 30 minutes. Some say it’s not worth it. Champagne, caviar, Sinatra: The Iranian Embassy in Washington was once known for glamorous parties. Could it ever reopen? Metropolitan diary: A tight spot. Holy infestation, Batman!: Bats have taken over a 19th-century estate that served as Wayne Manor in “Batman Begins.” Your pick: The most clicked link in The Morning yesterday was about a mother’s decision to send her child to a low-performing public school — and what happened next.
Trump Administration
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Around the World
Other Big Stories
Times Opinion asked seven people, including Senator Bernie Sanders, Susan Rice, a former national security adviser, and Jack Dorsey, a co-founder of Twitter, about what role the government should take in A.I. regulation. Political neutrality for celebrities is a misguided notion, Roxane Gay writes: Just look at the way Macklemore got dropped from Ed Sheeran’s tour. Introducing the Shows tab. A new place to find and follow podcasts in audio and video. Explore Shows in The Times app.
30,000— That is how many square feet for amenities developers put into an office-to-residential conversion in the Financial District of Manhattan, including a “creator’s room” for making art, a cafe, a co-working space, a bowling alley and a lab where you can analyze your golf swing. They have their reasons. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
