Political groups aligned with the Democratic Party are spending heavily to boost third-party longshot candidates in must-win races across the country as polls show Republicans gaining ground in the homestretch of the 2022 midterm elections.
Democratic groups have popped up in recent weeks to bolster third-party candidates in high-profile contests in which vulnerable Democrats are struggling.
Tied to Democratic operatives and firms, the groups are spending money to convince voters that the third-party longshots are the true "conservative" choice, efforts that can split the conservative vote and help ensure a Democratic victory.
Read more from Fox News' Haris Alic here: Democratic groups fund third-party conservative longshots to siphon votes from Republican candidates
Republican Pennsylvania Senate nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz has received the endorsement from one of the state's largest newspapers with little more than a week left in his heated race against Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman.
The editorial board of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette issued its endorsement on Sunday, telling readers Oz was the candidate "better prepared to lead," and citing concerns over Fetterman's lack of transparency regarding his health and lack of real-world experience as reasons for the endorsement.
"We believe Mr. Oz is the better bet for Pennsylvania," the board wrote, before writing that Fetterman's health stemming from the stroke he suffered earlier this year was not an issue for them.
"His lack of transparency, however, in refusing to release his medical records is troubling. It suggests an impulse to conceal and a mistrust of the people. All candidates for a major elected office should release their medical records, as did Mr. Oz. If you want privacy, don’t run for public office," it added.
Democratic Ohio Senate nominee Tim Ryan appears to have turned to a former Republican strategist with ties to the disgraced Lincoln Project for help with his campaign as he enters the final week leading up to Election Day, trailing in the polls to Republican nominee JD Vance.
Steve Schmidt, a co-founder of the left-wing PAC that has been beset by scandal and embarrassment as it seeks to stop the GOP from gaining control of the House and Senate, joined Ryan on the campaign trail for a number of days, lauding him as the "pro-democracy" candidate in the race and Vance as a "fascist."
"For the past few days, I’ve been out on the campaign trail with my good friend [Tim Ryan], who is in a very tight Senate race with the fascist [JD Vance]. What are you doing to support pro-democracy candidates on November 8th?" Schmidt wrote in a Sunday tweet, including a photo of himself with Ryan.
Founded in 2020 as an anti-Donald Trump PAC by disgruntled Republicans, the Lincoln Project received liberal media acclaim for its vitriolic, trolling ads. However, its reputation collapsed in a wave of humiliating scandals in 2021, including when one of its co-founders, John Weaver, was accused of sexually harassing more than 20 young men, one of whom was 14 at the time of the alleged harassment.
{{#rendered}}A Democratic prosecutor in the Chicago-area is sounding the alarm over a criminal justice reform law that will "tie the hands" of prosecutors and "destroy the criminal justice system in Illinois."
The Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act, signed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, D-Ill., in 2021, will implement sweeping reforms to Illinois’ criminal justice system, though it has drawn criticism from law enforcement professionals across the political spectrum.
"I never, in my 40-years in this profession, ever thought I'd ever see anything close to this," Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow told Fox News Digital in an interview. "The intent of this law is to destroy the criminal justice system in Illinois, and I'm not going to let that happen."
Read more from Fox News' Sophia Slacik and Andrew Murray here: Top Dem prosecutors revolt against criminal justice reform law they say will 'destroy' Illinois
Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman said Saturday that his debate this week against his Republican challenger, Dr. Mehmet Oz, "wasn't easy" and blamed the struggles he faced throughout on a stroke he suffered in May.
During his remarks, which came during a weekend neighborhood rally held in Philadelphia, Fetterman attempted to defend his record on several issues, including concerns of rising crime.
"On a serious note, the debate wasn't easy, you know," Fetterman said to a crowd of his supporters. "It wasn't area [sic] five months after a stroke, but p. After that stroke, I got knocked down, but I got back up because I had to. And that's really the core value of our campaign. We are running for anyone that ever got knocked down that had to get back up, too. Any forgotten communities or community's towns that got left behind, that got knocked down, because they have to get back up."
Taking aim at his challenger, Fetterman claimed Oz has never stopped "reminding" voters of the stroke he suffered and suggested that he faces individuals at events who are "trying to get me to miss some words."
"You know, I know with my stroke Dr. Oz has never stopped reminding about that… again and again," he said. "At every event, everywhere I go, there's usually at least one person that's showing up trying to get me to miss some words. And that's the truth. It's no secret, I'm gonna miss some words, I'm gonna mush some words up together."
"How inspiring of a campaign is that is," Fetterman continued. "What kind of a real doctor has somebody that knows that he's sick rooting to have him not get any better?"
To read more from Fox News' Kyle Morris, click here.
Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker responded to disparaging remarks from former President Barack Obama during a Friday evening rally in the Peach State.
Speaking from the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Obama took aim at Walker, the first-time Senate candidate and a well-known football player, claiming he is "a celebrity who wants to be a politician."
"President Obama was here last night. He said I'm a celebrity. He got that one wrong, didn't he? I'm not a celebrity, I'm a warrior for God. He got something else wrong, too. Remember two years ago he told us to vote for Joe Biden, didn't he? He got that one wrong, did he not? He's lost twice to Georgia already, hasn't he, so I think he probably needs to sit this one out," Walker said Saturday, according to political reporter for The Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Walker said he would pray for the former president and concluded that "he got with the wrong horse" by supporting his Democratic challenger, incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.
Read more: Walker reacts to Obama attacking him as a 'celebrity' politician: 'I'm a warrior for God'
{{#rendered}}Republican governors Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., and Glenn Youngkin, R-Va., are touching down in the Empire State to support Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., as he looks to unseat Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in an unexpectedly close race.
DeSantis will be joining Zeldin at a get-out-the-vote rally on Saturday evening from the Zeldin campaign headquarters on Long Island.
Hochul led by double-digits until October when Zeldin's crime messaging seemed to increasingly resonate with New York voters.
The Virginia governor will join Zeldin on Monday afternoon for a rally in Westchester, New York, as part Youngkin's national tour to battleground races across the country.
Read more: Potential 2024 GOP candidates descend upon New York to stump in battleground race for governor
Connecticut Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes is in a dead-heat race against Republican opponent George Logan, according to new polling data.
Hayes and Logan are polling at identical levels of support, each at 45%, according to a CT Examiner/Fabrizio, Lee & Associates poll.
Approximately 10% of those polled were undecided. Logan is looking to become the first Republican in 16 years to win in the state's 5th Congressional District.
Within those undecided respondents, 28% said they were leaning toward supporting Logan. Approximately 16% of undecided voters said they were leaning toward Hayes.
The CT Examiner/Fabrizio, Lee & Associates poll surveyed 600 likely voters in the district from Oct. 23 to Oct. 27. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Read more from Fox News' Timothy Nerozzi: Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes, Republican challenger tied in heavily blue Connecticut: poll
{{#rendered}}Making his return to the campaign trail on behalf of fellow Democrats with just a week and a half to go until Election Day, former President Barack Obama is on a mission.
"I am here to ask you to vote," the former president told approximately 7,000 people packed into an arena steps away from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia.
And pointing to the nearly 1.4 people who’ve voted already cast ballots in early voting — a midterm record in Georgia — Obama on Friday evening emphasized: "You don’t have to wait until Nov. 8 to cast you ballot. You can vote right now."
Read more from Fox News' Paul Steinhauser: Obama makes last-minute push to get Democrats to vote in midterms, some supporters 'wish he’d come more often'
As hopes look increasingly bleak for Democrats less than two weeks from Election Day, a number of the party's candidates at risk of losing their races have begun calling for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and President Biden to be replaced despite their voting records largely aligning with party leaders.
Although Democrats' cries for "new blood" began with the rise of the party's far-left members, such as the "Squad," voters in many areas of the country that aren't buying into "woke" culture, and are seeking a solution to the economic challenges that have become central issues in the midterm elections, are driving these candidates to turn on their leaders.
In September for example, Democratic Ohio Senate candidate Rep. Tim Ryan, who is trailing in the polls to Republican rival JD Vance, called for the next generation of leadership to take hold of the party when asked in a radio interview if he thought Biden should run for a second term in 2024.
Democrats across the country are facing an increasingly bleak outlook as election forecasters continue to shift more races in Republicans' favor with less than two weeks to go before Election Day.
The shifts have taken place in a number of races once thought out of reach for Republicans. But, as voters' concerns over inflation, the economy, violent crime and the border crisis continue to rise, Democrats are beginning to see hopes of maintaining majorities in both houses of Congress, and some governorships, slip through their fingers.
On Tuesday, Fox News' Power Rankings made changes to five key races, all centered in the Northeastern U.S., a region that's been trending more Democratic in recent years.
The changes included, notably, the New York gubernatorial contest between incumbent Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin, which shifted from "solid Democratic" to "likely Democratic," and the race in the state's 17th Congressional District between Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney and Republican Mike Lawler, which shifted from "lean Democratic" to a toss-up.
{{#rendered}}Despite Stacey Abrams doubling down on voter suppression claims earlier this week, numbers from early voting show that a higher share of Black voters in Georgia are turning out in the midterm elections than in the 2020 election.
According to figures from the United States Election Project, Black voters make up 30% of early votes cast so far — up three percentage points from 27% in the 2020 election — while the share of the White vote in Georgia has remained steady at 57% in both elections.
Peach State voters have cast 1.4 million early votes so far, almost double the amount of the votes cast at this point in the 2018 midterms.
Abrams, the Democratic nominee in Georgia’s race for governor, repeated warnings of voter suppression in a press conference earlier this week, despite Georgia smashing early voting records from past midterm elections.
Read more from Fox News' Sophia Slacik here: Black voter turnout is up in Georgia as Stacey Abrams, White House double down on voter suppression claims
Amid an unprecedented spike in violent crime in Portland, Oregon, voters will be deciding this election if stronger gun control is the answer. Ballot Measure 114 would add Oregon to the list of 14 states that currently require people to obtain a permit before buying a gun.
However, Oregon’s law would be the only one that mandates a live-fire safety class approved by the state police and administered by local law enforcement.
"It is impossible for us to do what they’re asking us to do," said Sheriff Brad Lohrey of Oregon’s Sherman County.
Read more from Fox News' Dan Springer: Oregon voters to decide on strict gun control measure: 'People will not have the means to protect themselves'
With a week and a half to go until Election Day 2022, and Democrats desperately trying to hold onto their razor-thin congressional majorities, the most popular person in the Democratic Party is returning to the campaign trail to try and perform some last-minute political magic.
Former President Barack Obama will headline a rally in the crucial southeastern battleground of Georgia on Friday evening, followed by stops in the Midwestern swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin on Saturday.
The former two-term president heads to the purple state of Nevada on Tuesday, and the crucial northeastern battleground of Pennsylvania on Nov. 5. Four of the states hold high-stakes Senate elections that will likely determine which party will control the chamber's majority going forward, and four hold high-profile gubernatorial contests.
Many in the Democratic Party are looking to Obama to serve as the closer this cycle. But veteran Republican strategist Colin Reed noted that there's a downside.
"It's all well and good that former President Obama is campaigning, and maybe he'll help turn out the base, but he's also a president who's been out of office now for close to six years," Reed told Fox News.
"And if you want to make this election a vision for the future or a reason to keep electing Democrats, trotting out former party leaders, no matter how popular they may be, still sends a message that we're stuck in the past," Reed said.
Read more: Democrats look to Obama as their party's closer as they try to salvage their majorities in Congress
{{#rendered}}Coverage for this event has ended.