2026 Midterm Elections

Public disputes concerning the 2026 U.S. midterm election cycle, including campaigns, candidates, conventions, advertising, endorsements, and election-related policy promises.

Related cases

Case

Jon Ossoff’s travel with Natalie remark about Donald Trump and Natalie Harp

At an Atlanta reelection rally, Senator Jon Ossoff said President Donald Trump did not want to do the work of the presidency and instead wanted to build a ballroom and “travel with Natalie” on a Qatari aircraft. Trump allies accused Ossoff of misogyny and of implying an affair with White House aide Natalie Harp. Ossoff did not apologize and said senior White House aides are powerful taxpayer-paid public officials whose influence is fair to scrutinize.

Case

Did Mike Collins support compensation for January 6 defendants?

At an August 11 Savannah campaign event, Mike Collins said the federal government has a liability when it harms someone after a pardoned January 6 defendant asked about compensation for people he said were targeted by a weaponized political system. Jon Ossoff said the answer backed taxpayer-funded payments to violent January 6 participants; the Collins campaign said it did not back automatic or blanket payouts for people prosecuted for January 6.

Case

Did Jon Ossoff’s Social Security ad fairly represent Mike Collins’s radio interview?

Jon Ossoff’s campaign ran an ad using Mike Collins’s words “get off of Social Security, get back into the workforce” to say Collins wanted to push beneficiaries off Social Security. Collins’s campaign said he misspoke and meant Medicaid; Ossoff’s campaign said the ad fairly reflected Collins’s support for pressuring beneficiaries into work. The full radio interview contains the surrounding discussion of tax cuts, Medicaid, Social Security, and work incentives.

Case

Hasan Piker’s “Hamas over Israel” comparison

Hasan Piker affirmed a hypothetical preference for Hamas over Israel through lesser-evil reasoning. Jon Favreau disputed the moral comparison, while the ADL cited it as whitewashing terrorism. Piker later acknowledged Hamas war crimes and denied endorsing its domestic policies, while maintaining that Israeli occupation was the overriding concern.

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Statements

Gloria Allred

Role at the time: Civil-rights attorney, participating in a CNN panel

September 10, 2026Challenged the characterization

Responding to

Trump’s $5,000 election pledge: policy dividend or vote-buying?

"I don't think it's going to happen."

Why we used this label

Allred challenges the pledge's credibility by doubting that payments will occur. She expressly has not examined the legal question.

Gloria Allred: CNN panel on Trump's $5,000 pledgeOpening panel on Trump's pledge before the 01:05 ET marker; Gloria Allred and John Kobylt

Read statement Trump’s $5,000 election pledge: policy dividend or vote-buying?

Erica York

Role at the time: Tax Foundation economist, commenting on her own X account

September 10, 2026Challenged the characterization

Responding to

JD Vance said tariff penalties had generated revenue and helped pay down debt while presenting tariffs as a possible source of the proposed dividend.

"There has been no paying down of the debt with tariff revenue"

Why we used this label

Explicitly disputes the factual fiscal description supporting the proposed dividend. This is not treated as agreement with the bribery accusation.

Erica York challenges tariff funding and the debt-reduction rationale - Erica YorkOriginal X post and reply context

Read statement Trump’s $5,000 election pledge: policy dividend or vote-buying?

John Day

Role at the time: New Mexico attorney, quoted by the Associated Press

September 10, 2026Challenged the characterization

Responding to

Trump’s $5,000 election-contingent pledge amounts to bribing people to vote Republican, according to Sam Stein.

"This is a campaign promise."

Why we used this label

Challenges an illegal-vote-buying interpretation without endorsing the proposal’s policy merits. His view is an attorney’s assessment, not a judicial determination.

AP reports Marc Goldwein’s fiscal objection and John Day’s legal distinctionReported comments by Marc Goldwein and John Day

Read statement Trump’s $5,000 election pledge: policy dividend or vote-buying?

Marc Goldwein

Role at the time: Senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, quoted by AP

September 10, 2026Challenged the characterization

Responding to

Marc Goldwein said the United States did not have a budget surplus available to distribute as a dividend.

"We don’t have surpluses to give away."

Why we used this label

Challenges the financial-surplus characterization underlying the dividend analogy; it is a fiscal objection, not a legal vote-buying conclusion.

AP reports Marc Goldwein’s fiscal objection and John Day’s legal distinctionReported comments by Marc Goldwein and John Day

Read statement Trump’s $5,000 election pledge: policy dividend or vote-buying?

John Fetterman

Role at the time: Democratic U.S. senator issuing a later statement

September 9, 2026Challenged the characterization

Responding to

Fetterman said the convention appearance did not change his Democratic identity.

"We are in different parties, but we are both Team PA"

Why we used this label

An actual post-backlash rebuttal to interpretations that the appearance meant abandonment of his party.

Fetterman defends convention remarks and reaffirms Democratic affiliation

Read statement Was John Fetterman's GOP-convention appearance bipartisanship or political betrayal?

Mike Collins

Role at the time: Mike Collins U.S. Senate campaign, through spokesperson Sam Densmore

September 4, 2026Challenged the characterization

Responding to

Did Jon Ossoff’s Social Security ad fairly represent Mike Collins’s radio interview?

"Rep. Collins misspoke"

Why we used this label

The campaign directly contests the ad’s interpretation and says the excerpt omits crucial context.

FactCheck.org review of Ossoff’s Social Security advertisement and campaign responsesOssoff advertisement, full radio quotation, and campaign responses

Read statement Did Jon Ossoff’s Social Security ad fairly represent Mike Collins’s radio interview?

Aaron Parnas

Role at the time: Attorney and political commentator

August 19, 2026Challenged the characterization

Responding to

Jon Ossoff’s “travel with Natalie” remark insinuated that Donald Trump and Natalie Harp were having an affair.

"All Jon Ossoff said was that Donald Trump wants to fly with Natalie."

Why we used this label

Direct challenge to the characterization that the statement itself alleged an affair.

CNN Connect the World transcript — August 19, 2026Segment replaying the Ossoff line and response

Read statement Jon Ossoff’s travel with Natalie remark about Donald Trump and Natalie Harp

Mike Collins

Role at the time: Mike Collins U.S. Senate campaign, through spokesperson Meyer Siegfried

August 12, 2026Challenged the characterization

Responding to

Did Mike Collins support compensation for January 6 defendants?

"“Mike Collins fully supports holding the government accountable when federal agencies abuse their power and believes Americans who’ve been wronged by their government ought to have a path to seek justice. He does not support a blank-check fund or automatic taxpayer-funded payouts to anyone simply because they were prosecuted for January 6.”"

Why we used this label

The campaign expressly disputes Ossoff’s characterization of Collins’s answer as support for taxpayer-funded payouts to January 6 defendants.

Georgia Recorder report on Mike Collins’s January 6 compensation remarksSavannah breakfast Q&A; Collins campaign clarification

Read statement Did Mike Collins support compensation for January 6 defendants?

Abdul El-Sayed

Role at the time: U.S. Senate candidate in Michigan

March 18, 2026Challenged the characterization

Responding to

The Temple Israel attack should be understood in part through the cycle of violence created by the regional war and the Israeli airstrike that killed members of the assailant's family.

"It was a risk."

Why we used this label

He maintained the decision to provide causal context rather than accepting critics' characterization of the statement as excusing terrorism.

Abdul El-Sayed calls statement on Temple Israel attack a riskFull report

Read statement Abdul El-Sayed's cycle of violence framing after the Temple Israel attack

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Daniel Goldman is a Democratic U.S. representative for New York's 10th Congressional District. A former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, he has also worked as a legal analyst and congressional investigator.

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John Kobylt

John Kobylt is a Los Angeles talk-radio host of The John Kobylt Show on KFI AM 640. Previously a co-host of The John and Ken Show, he discusses local politics, public policy, and current events.

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Gloria Allred

Gloria Allred is a civil-rights attorney and founding partner of Allred, Maroko & Goldberg. Her work includes employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and representation of sexual-assault victims.

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Erica York

Erica York is a senior economist at the Tax Foundation, where she researches federal tax policy. She has also taught at Sterling College and holds a master's degree in economics from Wichita State University.

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Matthew Boyle is Washington bureau chief for Breitbart News, where he covers U.S. politics and conducts interviews with public officials. He joined Breitbart in 2012 after reporting for The Daily Caller.

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Evan Kilgore

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