EXCLUSIVE – As the GOP fights to win back the Senate majority, the leading super PAC that supports Republican incumbents and candidates says it hauled in $114.5 million during the July-September third quarter of 2024 fundraising.

And the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), in sharing its fundraising figures first with Fox News on Tuesday, reports having $112 million cash on hand as of the end of last month.

The group, which is aligned with longtime Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, noted that its fundraising the past three months included a $28 million contribution from One Nation, its allied non-profit organization.

And SLF touted that its haul over the past three months brings to $181 million its fundraising for the entire 2024 election cycle – and that it has raked in more this cycle than it did at the same point in the 2022 midterms.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLS IN THE 2024 ELECTION SHOW 

“Our goal from the outset of the cycle was to win back the majority by helping recruit great candidates and raising enough money to help them compete against entrenched, well-funded Democrats. As we approach Election Day, our donors have continued to support our efforts in these battleground contests, and we’re grateful for their generosity,” SLF President and CEO Steven Law told Fox News in a statement.

Democrats hold a slim 51-49 majority in the Senate, which includes three independent senators who caucus with the Democratic conference.

SIX KEY SENATE SEATS THAT COULD FLIP IN NOVEMBER 

That means Republicans need a net gain of either one or two seats to win back the majority – depending on which party controls the White House after this year’s presidential election.

The math and the map favor the GOP in 2024. Democrats are defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. 

One of those seats is in West Virginia, a deep-red state that former President Trump carried by nearly 40 points in 2020. With moderate Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Joe Manchin, a former governor, not seeking re-election, flipping the seat is nearly a sure thing for the GOP.

Republicans are also aiming to flip seats in Ohio and Montana, two states Trump comfortably carried four years ago. And five more Democrat-held seats up for grabs this year are in crucial presidential election battleground states.

With Democrats trying to protect their fragile Senate majority, they received another headache in February when former two-term Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland launched a campaign for an open seat in the heavily blue state.

SLF says that it and the allied group American Crossroads have reserved $228.5 million in television, radio and digital ads across Montana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan and started spending that money as of Labor Day. 

The two groups are spending a combined $82.5 million in Ohio, where longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is fighting for his political life against GOP challenger Berie Moreno, and $47.9 million in Montana, where polls indicate that Republican challenger Tim Sheehy holds a slight lead over Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.

SLF is spending $52 million in Pennsylvania, where polls point to Republican nominee Dave McCormick closing the gap against Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.

The group is also dishing out $23.6 million in a very competitive race in Wisconsin, where Republican Eric Hovde is challenging Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, and $22.5 million in Michigan where former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers is facing off against Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin in the race to succeed longtime Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

With three weeks to go until Election Day, Americans are already showing a strong partisan preference for how they vote, according to a new public opinion poll.

The NBC News poll found that 5% of registered voters said they have already cast their ballots in the 2024 presidential election. Three percent of voters said they mailed their ballot while 2% voted early in person. Nearly half of survey respondents who have not yet voted, 47%, said they plan to vote early – 20% intend to vote by mail and 27% want to vote in person.

Of those early voters, Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, holds a commanding 17 percentage point lead over her rival, former President Trump, 57% to 40%. Harris leads among those voting by mail 66% to 32%, with a narrower lead among those who intend to vote early in person, 51% to 47%.

TRIO OF NEW POLLS AGREE ON WHERE TRUMP AND HARRIS STAND WITH 3 WEEKS TO GO UNTIL ELECTION DAY

But Trump, the Republican candidate, has a strong lead among those who intend to vote on Election Day, 58%-37%. 

The survey found that 52% of voters said they plan to cast their ballots early, while 44% plan to vote on Nov. 5. Another 3% said they aren’t sure how they will vote, while 1% said they won’t vote.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLS IN THE 2024 ELECTION SHOW

The NBC News poll of 1,000 registered voters was conducted Oct. 4-8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

To date, 46 states and Washington, D.C. have begun some form of early voting. 

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION

States have long allowed at least some Americans to vote early, like members of the military or people with illnesses. Many states expanded eligibility in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic made it riskier to vote in-person.

That year, the Fox News Voter Analysis found that 71% of voters cast their ballots before Election Day, with 30% voting early in-person and 41% voting by mail.

Early voting remained popular in the midterms, with 57% of voters casting a ballot before Election Day.

Elections officials stress that voting early is safe and secure. Recounts, investigations and lawsuits filed after the 2020 election did not reveal evidence of widespread fraud or corruption. 

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom, Kellianne Jones and Rémy Numa contributed to this report. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Former President Donald Trump issued a full-throated endorsement of incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) on Truth Social.

“While I have Endorsed Ted, on numerous occasions, verbally, because of the Importance of the Race, and Ted’s Importance to the future of our Country, I thought the Endorsement should be memorialized in writing,” Trump declared in a post.

Cruz — who has served in the Senate since 2013 and is currently seeking a third term — is facing off in the 2024 Texas U.S. Senate race against Democratic challenger Rep. Colin Allred, who has served in the House since 2019.

CRUZ RACE NOW A TOSS-UP SHOULD BE WARNING FOR TEXAS GOP, SAYS EXPERT

The two men are slated to debate on Tuesday night.

“Ted is one of the strongest Senators in the Country on Border Security, whereas his Opponent, Colin Allred, is a Radical Open Border Extremist, who will put our Country, and Safety, LAST. Ted, on the other hand, will ALWAYS put Texas, and America, FIRST,” Trump said in another post on Truth Social. “Ted Cruz has my Complete and Total Endorsement – HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!”

“Thank you!! Vote Trump! Vote Cruz!” the Lone Star State senator tweeted in response to Trump’s messages.

TED CRUZ WARNS TEXAS SENATE RACE IS ‘INCREDIBLY CLOSE’

Cruz endorsed Trump back in January on the heels of the former president’s decisive win in the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses.

Former President Barack Obama has urged voters to back Allred’s Senate bid.

‘AGAINST OUR DAUGHTERS’: CRUZ CHALLENGER HIT WITH BLISTERING 7-FIGURE AD OVER TRANSGENDER SPORTS BILL VOTE

Texas has been a reliably red state in presidential contests for decades. Jimmy Carter’s 1976 win there marked the last time a Democratic presidential candidate won the Lone Star State.

As Election Day creeps closer, Vice President Kamala Harris has sought to define herself as a champion of small businesses, which she has called “the engines of our economy.”

However, does the vice president’s record match her rhetoric? Voters who rank the economy as their top issue in this election do not seem to think so. The Harris-Walz campaign has lagged behind rival former President Donald Trump, who, as of Oct. 1, held a nine percentage point lead over Harris in trust on this issue, according to the Fox News Power Rankings. 

To undercut Trump, Harris has proposed a wide range of policies to boost small businesses, with an ambitious goal of 25 million new business applications by the end of her first term, should she be elected president. She hopes to outpace the 15 million applications filed during Trump’s first term. Harris has pledged to give startup businesses a $50,000 tax deduction and steer venture capital toward local entrepreneurs in rural parts of the country to meet that goal. 

“I believe America’s small businesses are an essential foundation to our entire economy,” Harris said at a Sept. 4 rally in North Hampton, New Hampshire, where she outlined her vision for an “opportunity economy.”

 JAMES CARVILLE ADMITS HE’S ‘SCARED TO DEATH’ ABOUT ELECTION DAY

Her proposals include low and no-interest loans to small businesses, simplifying how businesses can file taxes, increasing the number of federal contracts with small businesses and increasing taxes on “billionaires and big corporations” to fund these programs. Harris’ tax deduction plan has won praise from some economists, including Nicholas Creel, an assistant professor of Business Law at Georgia College and State University, who called it “potentially transformational.” 

Creel told Fox News Digital her plan would help people “justify the risky prospect of starting a new business and making sure more of those new businesses survive.” 

Other supporters point to Harris’ work as vice president and senator to boost minority-owned businesses in poorer communities. 

“As Vice President, Harris established the Economic Opportunity Coalition, an unprecedented public–private partnership that has poured billions of dollars of critical investment into historically underserved communities. As Senator, she secured a transformative $12 billion for Community Development Financial Institutions and other community lenders, providing capital to small businesses around the country, including to rural communities,” said Lindi Li, a Democratic strategist and member of the Harriz-Walz National Finance Committee. 

Li’s family owns commercial and residential real estate in Pennsylvania.

“My family and I run a small business ourselves and the Biden-Harris administration has been incredibly supportive, always extending a listening ear,” she told Fox News Digital. 

‘WE BELIEVE IN DONALD TRUMP’: MORE THAN A DOZEN MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENTS ENDORSE FORMER PRESIDENT

Hundreds of venture capital investors have signed on to the Harris economic agenda as well. 

“VP Harris’ support for small businesses and startups is genuine and began long before this campaign,” said Gayle Jennings O’Byrne, CEO of Wocstar Capital. “I had the opportunity to speak with her earlier this year when she came to North Carolina to announce $32 million in investments into women and minority-led venture capital funds, including mine. Over 825 of the nation’s top venture capitalists, myself included, believe in her commitment so strongly that we publicly signed a pledge titled ‘VCs for Kamala.’”

Republicans are predictably far less optimistic about Harris’ plans. Critics point to high inflation under the Biden-Harris administration, brought about by excessive government spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, as harmful for existing businesses. 

“Vice President Kamala Harris has certainly positioned herself as an advocate for small businesses, with notable initiatives like increasing the startup tax deduction and focusing on underserved communities. However, the reality on the ground tells a more complicated story,” said Ryan Waite, a Republican political consultant. 

Waite argued the Biden-Harris record has exacerbated inflationary pressures and undermines any support for small businesses Harris aims to provide. Year-over-year price increases peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, though inflation has since fallen to around 3% – still above the Federal Reserve’s target 2% rate. 

“Entrepreneurs need more than just access to capital. They need a stable economic foundation to thrive. So far, the administration has fallen short in addressing these immediate concerns, and many small businesses aren’t seeing the benefits of these policies as quickly as VP Harris would have us believe.”

The Harris-Walz campaign and White House did not respond to requests for comment. 

Harris’ campaign website claims she was a strong advocate for small businesses as both a U.S. senator and later as vice president. She was California’s junior senator from 2017-2021, when Trump occupied the White House, during which time she opposed the GOP economic agenda.  

Harris voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which slashed corporate taxes and provided tax relief for small businesses with the Qualified Business Income Deduction, in addition to changes in individual tax deductions and the family tax credit, which affects the economy overall.

As one of the more liberal members of the Senate, Harris co-sponsored the Raise the Wage Act of 2019. Introduced by self-described democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the bill would have increased the federal minimum wage to $15. Republicans opposed the effort, arguing it would increase costs on businesses that rely on low-skill or entry-level labor. It passed the House but died in the Senate.

TRUMP, HARRIS LOCKED IN DEAD HEAT IN 7 BATTLEGROUND STATES, POLL FINDS: ‘COULD NOT BE CLOSER’

On a more bipartisan note, Harris voted for the CARES Act of 2020, a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package that created the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan initiatives to help small businesses survive COVID lockdown mandates. The final bill passed nearly unanimously, 96-0-4.

Later that year, Harris secured passage of the Jobs and Neighborhood Investment Act, which was included in the COVID-related stimulus package passed in December 2020. The legislation provided $12 billion to community development financial institutions (CDFIs), which direct capital to businesses in minority and low- and moderate-income communities. 

Harris also took several votes on amendments that impacted businesses. She voted for an amendment that would extend and expand paid sick and paid family and medical leave mandates on small businesses; against an amendment to ensure that supplemental unemployment insurance compensation created in the CARES Act would not exceed employer compensation; and she opposed the nomination of Linda McMahon to be Administrator of the Small Business Administration in February 2017.

Outside of Congress, Harris consistently supported “Small Business Saturday” during her time in the Senate, and she regularly visits small businesses while traveling and on the campaign trail.

As vice president, Harris has mainly served as a spokeswoman and advocate for “Bidenomics.” However, at a pivotal moments, she has cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate to pass signature legislation called for by President Biden. 

In the early days of the administration, Harris pushed through the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package that built upon the CARES Act. She also campaigned on behalf of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Though an infrastructure deal had evaded the Trump administration, the Biden-Harris law has since allocated nearly $454 billion in funding, including over 56,000 specific projects and awards across more than 4,500 communities nationwide, Forbes reported. 

Again in August 2022, Harris was the tie-breaking vote in favor of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which extended tax credits for health care plans through the Affordable Care Act and implemented additional tax credits to help small businesses save money on energy costs. 

GOP lawmakers have criticized the IRA for ramping up government spending without significantly reducing carbon emissions or inflation. 

KAMALA HARRIS FEATURED ON COVER OF VOGUE IN GLOWING PROFILE: ‘NATIONAL RESCUE’

In support of the Biden administration’s small business initiatives, and building on her work in the Senate, Harris has led calls for the federal government to expand capital access to underserved communities. The administration followed through by permitting new applications for Small Business Lending Company licenses for the first time in 40 years – which allows lending organizations to use government guarantees when underwriting small business loans, reducing risk to the lender and effectively subsidizing costs to the borrower. 

In 2022, Harris established the Economic Opportunity Coalition, a group of financial institutions and companies that joined together “to address economic disparities and accelerate economic opportunity in communities of color and other underserved communities.” Member institutions have set a goal for $3 billion of investments into CDFIs and minority depository institutions, which support businesses in those communities.  

The White House has placed a strong emphasis on supporting minority entrepreneurs and claims statistics show its programs are working. “Data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances shows that between 2019 and 2022, the share of families owning a business increased by 9%, with particularly large increases among Black and Hispanic households,” the White House has said. 

The administration has noted with approval that the percent of Black households owning a business between 2019 and 2022 has more than doubled after falling between 2007 and 2019. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Javier Palomarez, founder and CEO of the United States Hispanic Business Council, calls the Biden-Harris record on small businesses “mixed.” 

“On one hand, they championed the passage of the bipartisan infrastructure law, which has been a key achievement and boost for small businesses. The once-in-a-lifetime investment presented countless opportunities for small businesses, especially hispanic businesses, ranging from construction and extraction to transportation and more,” Palomarez told Fox News Digital.

“On the other hand, the Biden-Harris administration has taken no action on policies such as Research and Development (R&D) amortization for businesses,” he added. 

“Vice President Harris has a mixed record with small businesses under Biden, and has worked to distance herself from that record. However, the Vice President should come up with realistic solutions and do more to speak directly to the concerns of small businesses like interest rates, the cost of living, energy prices and supply chains.”

The Kamala Harris campaign rocket, which soared to dazzling heights when she got into the race, is losing altitude.

Despite raising a billion dollars, despite overwhelmingly positive coverage by the mainstream media, she has failed to deliver a compelling message and is especially struggling to win over Black and Latino voters. There’s no question that many Democrats, who grew accustomed to reading stories about who’ll be in the Harris Cabinet, are panicking.

Now you could look at the glass as half-full and say it’s remarkable that a relatively unpopular vice president, in a short period of time, is running neck and neck with Donald Trump. She is tied nationally in a new NBC College poll. But that’s a drop of five points for Harris since the last survey in September.

Trump is the ultimate Teflon candidate. The press may jump on him for refusing to release his medical records (as Harris just did) but demanding she take a cognitive test; for using incendiary language against illegal immigrants, or for vowing to protect women when it’s his Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe. 

NOW THAT KAMALA HARRIS IS DOING INTERVIEWS, PEOPLE ARE REMINDED THEY ‘DON’T LIKE HER’: LISA BOOTHE

It doesn’t matter. MAGA loyalists can’t stand the media, and they’re not going to change their minds at this late date. He has the advantage of having held the job. They remember Trump’s presidency with growing fondness, particularly for a strong economy and greater limits at the border, and brush aside any negative developments, especially Jan. 6. 

Harris has certainly made policy proposals and done a bunch of softball interviews. But she made a big mistake on “The View,” saying she couldn’t think of a single thing where she’d differ from Joe Biden. It was not intended as a gotcha question.

How can she grab the mantle of the change candidate and, with that sentence, cast herself as Biden 2.0? 

KAMALA 2.0’S CHALLENGE? MAKING MORE NEWS, AND NOT JUST WITH ULTRA-FRIENDLY HOSTS

If she feels loyalty to Joe, it’s misguided. As a veteran pol, he would understand if she said he did a good job but here’s several areas where I disagree with him and would do things differently–no word salad allowed.

Axios and others are reporting tension between the Harris and Biden camps – she’s replaced the president’s top strategists and spokesmen – precisely the kind of leaks that mark a sputtering campaign.

When people complain that they don’t really know Kamala, they’re really saying they’re not yet prepared to trust her with the nuclear codes. She still has to pass the commander-in-chief test. But she also has to seem warm and approachable. That’s a daunting challenge in a country that, unlike much of the world, has never elected a female president.

Here’s some British invective from Andrew Sullivan on his Substack:

“The more I listened to her in these interviews, the more worried I became that she doesn’t actually believe in anything…

“Her team either fears or knows she may not be up to it. And this is bleeding obvious. A presidential campaign where you rarely face the press, never deal with a hostile interview, and never hold a presser is a campaign defined by fear. You can smell it from miles away.”

Andrew, by the way, is voting for Harris, mainly because he’ll do anything to keep Trump out of the White House. 

Kamala keeps talking about being the underdog, but she’s run a very cautious campaign. The anxiety about making a mistake should be outweighed by the need to make news, at a time when Trump is back to dominating the news. Many days go by in which she’s a minor TV presence compared to the ratings-boosting Trump.

It’s smart that she’s now agreed to several network town halls, but she should have been doing these from the start, rather than reciting the same stump speech at rallies. Drinking beer with Stephen Colbert doesn’t quite cut it.

WHY VANCE EASILY BEAT WALZ IN DEBATE, SOFTENING HIS IMAGE IN THE PROCESS

And who would have thought that the woman of color would be lagging behind the usual Democratic margins among Blacks – particularly Black men – and Latinos?

Things reached the point where Barack Obama had to scold Black men for sexism, accusing them of not being comfortable with voting for a woman.

The battleground polls are tight, so obviously Harris can still win. But she basically needs to camp out in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin rather than trying to pick off these Sunbelt states. 

In fact, if she had put aside any personal friction and picked Josh Shapiro, she’d probably have more of an edge in his state. Instead, she went with Tim Walz, who’s not helping the ticket much no matter how many pheasants he hunts. He has, however, done well in two straight interviews with “Fox News Sunday.”

A major step forward: Harris agreeing yesterday to an interview with Fox anchor Bret Baier, on Wednesday in Pennsylvania. Some headlines are calling this a risky move, but Bret has vast experience with such interviews and will absolutely be fair. The upside for her: reaching the largest audience by far in cable news.

Bret said on the air that he believes there’s “a sense that they have inside the campaign, their strategy has to change, they’ve got to change. They’re losing Black males… I think that the campaign realizes they have to do more outreach.”  

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES

Maybe this is all too much to lay on Kamala’s shoulders. Maybe she’s doing the best she can against a former president whose message is clear and simple: Stop illegal immigration, mass deportations, combat inflation, end wars in the Middle East. And an incumbent is always subject to the counter-charge: Well, why haven’t you done it already?

The vice president simply hasn’t been able to generate the excitement that surrounded her initial campaign launch. Three weeks is a long time in politics, but whether Harris can reenergize her candidacy remains an open question.

Little noticed but high-stakes elections on the November ballot will be for seats on state supreme courts, where legal precedents will be set on matters such as abortion, election integrity, gun rights, redistricting and other issues.

In 2024, 82 state supreme court seats are to be decided by voters in 33 states and Guam, according to Ballotpedia. Of those, 18 races are partisan, 34 are nonpartisan and 30 are retention elections, meaning that rather than deciding between two candidates, voters will determine whether a justice typically appointed by a governor will remain on the state’s high court. However, some of the races have already been decided, while other candidates are running unopposed on the November ballot.

Some of these judicial contests are happening in key battleground states, such as Arizona, Michigan and North Carolina, where turnout will almost certainly be high for the presidential contest.

“Across the nation, as the federal Supreme Court is tearing back the role of the federal court, you’ve seen an increased role for state courts,” said David Porter, a former Michigan assistant attorney general.

In Michigan, where Democrats hold a 4-3 majority on the state’s high court, two Supreme Court seats are being contested. Although races are nonpartisan, state parties endorse a candidate.

Andrew Fink, a Republican state representative, is running against Kimberly Thomas, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, for an open seat.

Incumbent Supreme Court Judge Kyra Harris Bolden was appointed by Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November 2022. This year she is running to retain her seat against Patrick O’Grady, a state circuit court judge. Whitmer appointed Bolden to fill a vacancy left by the departure of Judge Bridget Mary McCormack.

“In the last two decades, the state Supreme Court was led by a conservative majority,” Porter said. “We are now seeing a big shift. Liberal justices have taken control and are more interested in revisiting decisions of the past 20 years.”

Porter described Justice Elizabeth Clement as a swing vote; so, if Democrats expand their majority to 5-2, it could sometimes be 6-1 decisions.

MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATES CLASH ON NATIONAL SECURITY, IMMIGRATION AND ABORTION

In Arizona, voters will determine if two Republican-appointed justices, Clint Bolick and Katheryn Hackett King, will remain on that state’s high court.

It’s not clear if voters are noticing state Supreme Court cases more, but political donors seem to, said former Arizona Solicitor General Dominic Draye.

“I don’t know if voters are paying more attention to these races, but there is more out-of-state money being spent than in the past retention races,” Draye told Fox News Digital. “I don’t remember before seeing yard signs. Now I see yard signs everywhere, and I’m getting mailers to retain or don’t retain.”

ARIZONA SUPREME COURT RULES 98,000 PEOPLE WHOSE CITIZENSHIP IS UNCONFIRMED CAN VOTE IN PIVOTAL ELECTION

All seven justices are Republican appointees, and two are up for retention in November. If the seats open up, Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs would pick their replacements.

“It has devolved into a policy debate instead of a debate about whether a judge can be fair and impartial,” Draye said. “There are people who want to obtain certain outcomes in the judicial process and change the composition of the court.”

In North Carolina, Republicans have a 5-2 state Supreme Court majority and aim to make it 6-1. Incumbent Judge Allison Riggs, a Democrat, is running against Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin, a state appeals court judge.

Although Nevada is a fiercely contested battleground state between presidential candidates, three incumbent state Supreme Court judges, Elissa Caddish, Patricia Lee and Lidia Stiglich, are running unopposed and have nothing to worry about from the likely high voter turnout.

PA GOV TAKES VICTORY LAP AFTER SUPREME COURT REJECTS GOP BID TO OVERTURN ELECTION LAW ‘USURPATIONS’

Meanwhile, another high-profile state on the national stage, Georgia, already had state Supreme Court elections in May.

Though not a battleground in the presidential race, other states will likely have high voter turnout for competitive Senate races that will trickle down to the supreme court races.

Montana has two nonpartisan high court races. One is between Broadwater County Attorney Cory Swanson and former federal magistrate Jerry Lynch. Another is between two district judges, Katherine Bidegaray and Dan Wilson.

Ohio also has a highly competitive Senate race, another incentive for voters to turn out. The state has a 4-3 Republican majority. One Ohio race has two incumbent justices.

Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Justice Joseph Deters in 2023 to fill the remaining term of Justice Sharon Kennedy after Kennedy won the chief justice seat. But Deters opted to remain on the court and is challenging another incumbent, Democrat Justice Melody Stewart.

Also in Ohio, Democrat Justice Michael Donnelly is facing Republican challenger Megan Shanahan, a Hamilton County judge. Democrat Lisa Forbes, a state appeals court judge, is facing Republican Dan Hawkins, a Franklin County judge, for an open seat.

In Kentucky, conservative-leaning Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter is retiring at the end of his term. That leaves a nonpartisan race for a vacant seat between Lexington attorney Erin Izzo and Pamela R. Goodwine, an appeals court judge who has the backing of Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear. Though the winner of the race will fill a vacant seat, the next chief justice will be chosen by colleagues on the court.

Two of the nation’s largest states also have supreme court races in November.

In Texas, three Republican justices are facing Democrat challengers, who are all district judges. GOP incumbent Jimmy Blacklock is facing Democrat DaSean Jones; GOP Justice John Devine faces Democrat Christine Weems; and Justice Jane Bland is fending off Democrat Bonnie Lee Goldstein.

In Florida, two justices, Renatha Francis and Meredith Sasso, have retention elections. Both are appointees of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

MARICOPA COUNTY, AZ – Arizona is expected to be one of the most closely watched and highly competitive swing states in the upcoming presidential election and the state’s largest county will play a critical role in deciding who wins that state and ultimately the White House.

Maricopa County, which surrounds Phoenix in south central Arizona and is home to over 4.5 million people, is widely considered one of the key battleground counties in the United States due to its diverse political breakdown and will deliver 11 crucial electoral votes to either former President Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Maricopa County is our largest and most populous county in Arizona,” Arizona GOP Chairwoman Gina Swoboda told Fox News Digital. “It contains over 60% of our voters statewide. It’s about a third Democrat, a third Republican, and a third Independent. That fluctuates a bit. But essentially, we’re a third, a third, a third.”

“We have what I would call a dense urban core in Phoenix. And then we have suburbs and it’s growing. It’s consistently one of the highest growing counties in the United States. It’s a diverse county just because of the makeup, we’ve got urban and then we’ve got the suburbs and then we have what were kind of little, little towns becoming cities very rapidly. So when you have that kind of growth, that puts a lot of pressure on a community and because it’s 60% of the vote of the state, it gets a lot of attention.”

IN ARIZONA SPEECH, VANCE SAYS NEXT PRESIDENT MUST PUT AMERICANS FIRST, SLAMS FEMA MONEY FOR MIGRANTS

Swoboda told Fox News Digital that if you’re looking to run for office in Maricopa County you’ve got a “broad swath of the electorate” and you “have to speak to their issues.”

Those key issues during this election cycle, according to Swoboda, are the economy and immigration. 

“Inflation is number one and when we say inflation in Arizona, we’re one of the hardest hit states in the country for our prices going up,” Swoboda said. “But part of that is affordable housing. And that’s a huge issue in the state of Arizona, particularly in rapidly growing Maricopa.”

President Joe Biden won the state of Arizona by less than 1 half of 1 percent in the 2020 election and the results in Maricopa County were also slim with Biden beating former President Trump by 2 %.

The Harris-Walz campaign has been active in the county over the last few months and the Arizona campaign team told Fox News Digital that they have knocked on 90,000 doors, made over 1.7 million phone calls, and have 15,000 volunteers that have completed a shift in the county.

ENIGMATIC VOTER GROUP COULD SPLIT TICKET FOR TRUMP, DEM SENATE CANDIDATE IN ARIZONA

“Vice President Harris, Governor Walz, Second Gentleman Emhoff, and Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz all visited Arizona in September,” the campaign said. “Recently, Vice President Harris visited Douglas, Arizona to tout her policies to keep Arizona’s border secure, marking her eighth visit to Arizona this year.”

Polling has increasingly shown that Trump leads Harris with low propensity voters which has become an increased focus in the Trump ground game. The same is true in Arizona, specifically Maricopa County, where Turning Point Action, which has taken the lead in organizing Trump’s GOTV efforts, has launched programs like “Commit 100” and “Chase the Vote” to mobilize those voters.

A spokesperson for Turning Point Action told Fox News Digital that it is actively targeting 400,000 low propensity voters in Arizona and that Republican voter registration efforts in Arizona over the last two years has “put the state in a very difficult mathematical spot for Democrats.”

A spokesperson for the RNC told Fox News Digital that Republicans have “doubled” the GOP voter registration advantage in Arizona since 2020 and that the RNC has almost a dozen offices across the state as part of its Trump Force 47 initiative to “meet voters where they are.”

Nationwide, immigration is one of the most important issues to voters according to the polls and that’s no different in Arizona where voters who spoke to Fox News Digital said immigration is a top concern despite differing opinions on which candidate would best handle the unfolding crisis.

“We have to have swifter incarceration at the border,” Mary from Phoenix told Fox News Digital. “And if there’s a suspicion that they’re going to commit a crime, lock them up.”

Mary said that it was “infuriating” that the recent bipartisan border deal died in Congress and said that if Harris is elected, “She will get it signed.”

Nick from Sun City West told Fox News Digital that Harris’ immigration policy has been “dismal at best.”

“Control the border,” he said. “At least keep the border safe. Keep people from being able to get in that aren’t supposed to be able to come in unless they come in through the regular normal channels.”

Trump holds a razor-thin two-point edge over Harris in battleground Arizona, according to a recent public opinion poll.

Fueling the former president’s margin appears to be support from voters age 50 and over. Trump stands at 49% among likely voters in Arizona, with Harris at 47%, according to an AARP poll conducted Sept. 24-Oct. 1 and released on Tuesday. According to the survey, Green Party candidate Jill Stein grabs 1% support, with 3% undecided.
 

“In some ways, it’s like a state of its own because 65, 68% of our entire state population in Arizona resides in Maricopa County,” Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake told Fox News Digital. “It’s one of those mega counties. I frankly also think it’s a mega county, but it’s a mega county. And so it’s a really important county. What happens in Maricopa County can affect the entire country and really the entire world, because we know whatever way Maricopa County can take the whole country that way, because it’s so massive, it can take the whole state that way. And so it’s an important county.”

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Hannah Ray Lambert contributed to this report

Democrat Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Republican challenger Dave McCormick face off Tuesday in their second and final debate.

The showdown in the key battleground state comes with three weeks to go until Election Day in a crucial, combustible and expensive Senate showdown that may decide whether the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority.

And if the face-off is anything like their first debate, which quickly became personal as both candidates accused their opponent of lying, expect more verbal fireworks.

Casey, during the first debate, argued that McCormick, a former hedge fund executive, West Point graduate, Gulf War combat veteran and Treasury Department official in former President George W. Bush’s administration, is a wealthy carpetbagger.

CASEY, MCCORMICK TRADE SHOTS IN FIERY FIRST DEBATE IN CRUCIAL SENATE SHOWDOWN

McCormick, who grew up in northeast Pennsylvania and who is the son of the Keystone State’s first state university system chancellor, has come under attack in both his 2022 and 2024 Senate runs for owning a house in an affluent part of Connecticut during his tenure as CEO of Bridgewater Associates. 

The narrator in a Casey digital ad that launched on the eve of the final debate charges that McCormick “told voters he lived in Pennsylvania when he was really living in Connecticut. Hope he can find his way back.”

And on the campaign trail this past weekend, referring to McCormick, Casey argued that “you shouldn’t lie to the people you seek to represent, especially about something as simple as where you live.”

HARRIS-TRUMP POLL POSITION WITH 3 WEEKS UNTIL ELECTION DAY

McCormick, in a Fox News Digital interview last week in Pittsburgh, said he’s “a seventh-generation Pennsylvanian.”

During their first debate, McCormick targeted Casey as a do-nothing career politician.

Casey, the son of a popular former governor, is running for a fourth six-year term in the Senate. He served a decade as Pennsylvania’s auditor general and then treasurer before winning election to the Senate in 2006.

“With Bob Casey, you have a guy who’s a career politician, 30 years in elected office, who has shown he won’t lead and who has voted 99% of the time with Biden-Harris and will vote 99% of the time with Harris-Walz,” McCormick said in his interview.

McCormick said he’s “a business guy, someone who went to West Point, somebody who’s a combat vet. That kind of independence and leadership is what’s seriously lacking in Pennsylvania.”

Pointing to polls that indicate Casey’s lead shrinking, McCormick said that “what you have here is a career politician, 30 years in elective office, who’s fighting for his life. He, all of a sudden, is waking up and the possibility of losing is really dawning on him.”

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE 2024 ELECTION

McCormick was part of a crowded and combustible battle for the 2022 GOP nomination. He ended up losing the nomination by a razor-thin margin to celebrity doctor and cardiac surgeon Mehmet Oz, who secured a primary victory thanks to a late endorsement from former President Trump. Oz ended up losing the general election to then-Democrat Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.

This time around, McCormick faced no major opposition in the GOP primary. He was backed last year by longtime Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell as well as the Pennsylvania GOP, and he was encouraged to run by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is the party’s Senate campaign arm.

And Trump endorsed McCormick in March. Since then, the Senate GOP nominee has rarely missed an opportunity to appear with Trump during the former president’s numerous rallies in Pennsylvania, which is the largest of the seven key presidential battleground states.

“For me to win in Pennsylvania, I need to run my own campaign, which I’m doing. But I also need to do two things. I need to be able to turn out the voters across our Republican Party in these red counties … and President Trump’s unbelievably helpful in that. He’s been very supportive of me, and I’ve been supportive of him,” McCormick said.

But he added that “I also need to be able to appeal to independents. I need to be able to appeal to people who are on the fence, places like Alleghany County where we live and places like southeast Pennsylvania, the collar counties around Philadelphia. And I’m able to do that because of the life I’ve led, because the fact that I’ve shown my independence. Sometimes I’ve disagreed with President Trump.”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz held a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Monday to shore up support just three weeks before the presidential election.

While warning the crowd about what he said is at stake if former President Trump were to take back the White House, the vice presidential candidate bragged about the unorthodox trio of supporters backing the Harris-Walz ticket.

“The road to the Super Bowl, the road to control of the Senate, and the road to the White House, goes right through the NFC North, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Look, you had a Lions fan, a Packers fan and a Vikings fan up here,” Walz said, referring to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Ivers, and himself. “The only thing more amazing is we got Bernie Sanders, Dick Cheney and Taylor Swift on the same ticket.” 

Cheney, who was vice president to former President George W. Bush, was vilified by Democrats for his hawkish defense of the Iraq War. But last month, Cheney made the stunning announcement that he planned to vote for Kamala Harris as president. 

TRUMP ALLY TIM SCOTT MULLS BID FOR TOP ROLE AT SENATE CAMPAIGN ARM

Taylor Swift also announced her endorsement of Harris last month, just minutes after the presidential debate between the two candidates. 

Walz used his speech in Green Bay on Monday to hash out a list of grievances against Trump and his running mate JD Vance, who he debated earlier this month.

TRENDS ARE GOOD IN THE SWING COUNTY GOP CHAIR CALLS ‘LITTLE PENNSYLVANIA’: IT’LL ‘BE A REPEAT OF ’16′

Walz attacked Trump’s mental acuity and age, alleging that the former commander-in-chief has “been forgetting things.” 

“He’s confused. He’s a nearly 80-year-old man. He’s ranting and rambling until people get bored and leave his rallies,” Walz said. 

Walz appealed to men who were on the fence about who they planned to vote for. 

“I’m going to make a message to the guys here. You got any women you love in your life? Your wives, your daughters, your mothers, and friends? Let’s not forget their lives are literally at stake in this election,” Walz said, invoking Trump’s appointment of three Supreme Court Justices who were instrumentally in overturning Roe v. Wade. 

“He brags about it. He’s glad my daughter Hope now has fewer rights than her mother had,” Walz said. “That’s what he’s bragging about.” 

Walz ended his speech by imploring the crowd to vote for Harris, likening them to the “underdogs.” 

“For Christ’s sake, I’m a Vikings fan,” Walz quipped. “We’re always the underdogs.” 

Vice President Kamala Harris’ criticisms of former President Trump and her drawing of connections between his agenda and that of the conservative Project 2025 initiative spurred chants at an Erie, Pennsylvania, rally reminiscent of the 2016 White House race.

Shortly after the crowd erupted in “lock him up” retorts – similar to Trump rallygoers’ reaction to Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified communications during the 2016 cycle – Harris played a mashup of clips in which Trump warned of dangers from “the enemy within.”

“The worst people are the enemies from within… those people are more dangerous; the enemy within; than Russia and China. These people should be put in jail the way they talk about our judges and our justices,” Trump collectively stated in some of the television clips played.

“You heard his words,” Harris said after the montage. “He’s talking about the enemy within, Pennsylvania. He’s talking about the enemy within our country, Pennsylvania. He’s talking about how he considers anyone who doesn’t support him or who will not bend to his will, an enemy of our country. It’s a serious issue,” she said.

TRENDS ARE GOOD IN SWING COUNTY GOP CHAIR CALLS ‘LITTLE PENNSYLVANIA,’ PREDICTS REPEAT OF 2016

In recent comments on the matter to Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo, Trump spoke about such “enemies,” and quipped that while China and Russia are “dangerous” at times to deal with, “the thing that’s tougher to handle are these lunatics that we have inside like Adam Schiff.”

Schiff, a congressman from Burbank, Calif., is currently the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate against Republican retired MLB star Steve Garvey.

In Erie, Harris said Trump opened the door to using the military to “go after” groups, hypothesizing that they might include journalists critical of him, election officials he clashes with or judges that rule against his will.

The Democratic nominee said that, therefore, voting for Trump would be a “huge risk for America” and that her GOP opponent is “increasingly unstable and unhinged.”

Reached for comment, the Trump campaign rejected her warnings, expressing that it was the “Harris-Biden administration that weaponized our justice system to go after President Trump with trumped-up charges in an effort to silence their political rivals.”

“If Kamala wants to cry about ‘unchecked’ abuse of power, she should look in the mirror,” said Pennsylvania Team Trump spokesman Kush Desai.

PA TOWN ROILED BY TALK OF MIGRANT HOUSING IN CIVIL-WAR-ERA ORPHANAGE BUILDING

Meanwhile, Harris’ preceding comments about the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling in Trump’s favor led to the aforementioned “lock him up” chants.

Harris appeared to sidestep any agreement with such expression, telling the crowd, “hold on, hold on,” and advising that they make their voice heard instead at the ballot box.

“The courts will handle that. Let’s handle November, shall we?” Harris said.

“Look, anybody who said they would terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States – never again.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Prior to the rally, Harris stopped at a local business, and was greeted upon arrival in Pennsylvania’s only beachfront city by Democratic Mayor Joe Schember and State Rep. Ryan Bizzarro, D-Erie, according to reports.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., offered the warm-up speech, and the Democratic nominee was ultimately introduced by Karen Kalivoda, a retired civil servant and Erie native.

On the other end of the Commonwealth, Trump was participating in a Pennsylvania town hall hosted by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem at an exposition center near King of Prussia.