One week to election day Nov. 8: GOP, Democrats make final pitch to voters ahead of 2022 midterms

Republican Ohio Senate nominee J.D. Vance said during Fox News' Tuesday Ohio Town Hall that the border and drug crises could be addressed by finishing the wall and classifying drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

"I have had such a good time campaigning across the state of Ohio but one of the really sad parts is that every single stop that we make I meet somebody who has lost a son, a grandson, a daughter, a granddaughter to the opioid problem. We really got to get control of this," Vance said when asked about the border.

"It’s killing our people. It’s totally unnecessary and totally self-inflicted wound," he said. "We actually learned over the last six years border walls work. We need to finish the border wall and actually complete the southern border."

"The other crazy thing is that we know that the drug cartels are actually destabilizing Mexico. Like our Mexican allies don’t like what’s going on with the cartels right now. I think they would love it if we declared the cartels a terrorist organization and actually brought the full force of American law against them," he added.

Ohio Republican Senate candidate JD Vance said the greatest threat to American democracy is big tech companies aligned with China during a Fox News town hall.

"I happen to think the biggest threat to American democracy today is big technology companies in bed with the communist Chinese who are censoring information about American policy," Vance said. " And this is this is really, really important because, look, Facebook, Twitter, you know, all these companies are now the digital public square."

Vance was asked to explain his statements that he thought the 2020 election was "stolen." He said he did not want to run away from that statement, but added that between states not following their own election laws and influence from big technology companies, he did think there was unfairness in the 2020 election.

"If those companies, which some of them have financial stakes in communist China, if those companies are censoring information in a way that helps one political party or hurts another political party, I don't care if it's my political party being helped or hurt. I don't want these companies interfering in our elections. And I think that happened in 2020," Vance said.

Democratic Ohio Senate nominee Tim Ryan said during Fox News' Tuesday Ohio Town Hall that marijuana needed to be legalized.

"I think we need to legalize marijuana," he said when asked about his stance on releasing prisoners serving sentence for non-violent crimes.

He referred to the money used to keep prisoners incarcerated who were serving sentences for marijuana-related crimes as the "stupidest expenditure" of taxpayer money in history.

He added that the country could benefit from taxing marijuana.

Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance says the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was disgusting, but said it raised the bigger issue of illegal immigration.

"I think the effort to turn this into a political issue actually is a real problem here, because Paul Pelosi was attacked by a person who's an illegal alien in our country and should not have been here in the first place," Vance said during a Fox News town hall with Bret Baier and Martha McCallum Tuesday.

Earlier in the town hall, Ohio Democratic candidate Rep. Tim Ryan criticized Vance for not condemning the incident where Paul Pelosi was hurt with a hammer in his San Francisco home.

Vance dismissed that he had downplayed the attack on Paul Pelosi, and said he thought it was something that all people should condemn.

"My view very simply is that we need to deport violent illegal aliens," Vance said.

A man named David DePape was arrested and faces charges for the attack on Pelosi. Fox News reports that he is an illegal immigrant from Canada.

Democratic Ohio Senate candidate Tim Ryan defended funding for thousands of new IRS agents as part of the Inflation Reduction Act during Fox News' Tuesday Ohio Town Hall.

"It’s not an either/or ... 40,000 IRS agents are going to retire in the next 10 years. This is over 10 years. We’re going to replace those people. But we also have a lot of fortune 500 companies and a lot of really rich people who have teams of accountants, teams of lawyers, and they don’t pay any taxes," Ryan said when asked about his vote in favor of the bill.

"I think if you should be able to build yourself and fly yourself into space, you should pay your fair share in taxes. So we need enough agents to be able to go after these billionaires who are avoiding taxes at all cost," he added.

Ryan added that he would "never" vote to increase taxes on working class people.

Democratic Ohio Senate candidate Tim Ryan avoided saying what limits he thought needed to be placed on the ability to get abortions during Fox News' Tuesday Ohio Town Hall.

"I believe if it’s later in the term there should not be an abortion unless there is a medical emergency," Ryan said when asked what his limits would be.

"At that point, you know, people are – they have a nursery, they have binkies, they have blankets. They have names picked out. They are ready to have a party. If it happens late in term, that’s tragedy, absolute tragedy," he added.

He went on to claim that his Republican opponent, J.D. Vance, wanted national ban on abortion, and reiterated his support for Roe v. Wade.

When pressed on an exact time frame in a pregnancy when abortions should be prohibited, Ryan avoided giving an answer.

Democratic Ohio Senate candidate Tim Ryan admitted "crime is an issue" during Fox News' Tuesday Ohio Town Hall.

The congressman made the admission while responding to a question from the audience expressing concern over rising crime rates across the country, and added that the thought the nation needed more police on the streets.

"I don’t care what anybody says about that about that. We need more cops, we need better paid cops and we need to make sure that we invest into police training," he said. 

He went on to call for "stupid" partisan fighting over the issue to stop because crime is "a real problem," and implored both sides to work together to fix it.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, the state's Democratic Senate nominee, called for a tax cut to alleviate the pressures of inflation facing Americans during Fox News' Tuesday Ohio Town Hall.

"I think when it comes to inflation, we need a tax cut. We need to put money in people’s pockets if we’re going to weather the storm here," Ryan said after one audience member expressed concern over inflation.

He admitted that Americans wouldn't see the Inflation Reduction Act affect the historic inflation rate in the short-term, but stood beside his support for it.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Adam Laxalt (AP Photo)

A new public opinion poll in the key western battleground state of Nevada indicates that with a week to go until Election Day, it’s a margin of error race between Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and her Republican challenger, former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt.

A survey from Suffolk University/USA Today released on Tuesday also indicates the state’s gubernatorial battle between Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak and Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, the GOP nominee, is dead even.

Cortez Masto, a former two-term state attorney general who made history in 2016 as the first Latina elected to the Senate, and Laxalt — an Iraq War veteran and grandson of the late Nevada governor and senator Paul Laxalt who succeeded Cortez Masto as state attorney general and was the 2020 GOP gubernatorial nominee in Nevada — are facing off in a race that’s among a handful across the country that will likely determine if the GOP wins back the chamber’s majority in next week’s midterm elections.

Cortez Masto edges Laxalt 45%-44% among likely voters questioned in the poll, which was conducted Oct. 24-28. The incumbent’s one-point advantage is well within the survey’s sampling error.

Read more from Fox News' Paul Steinhauser: It’s a coin-flip in crucial races for Senate and governor in battleground Nevada: poll

POLITICS

Dems pivot to debunked Social Security talking point in run-up to midterms

Democrats are reviving an old talking point ahead of the midterms about Republicans wanting to end Social Security, which has been repeatedly debunked by fact-checkers.

In a last-ditch effort to hold onto their razor-thin majorities in Congress, Democrats are reviving an old Social Security talking point that has been repeatedly debunked by fact-checkers.

"They’re coming after Social Security," Biden said Thursday in New York. "Now it sounds like, you know, ‘What’s – there’s Biden. That’s a typical Democrat saying Republicans are after Social Security.’ This is the one thing they’ve said out loud. They’ve written it down on pieces of paper."

The president then cited Sen. Rick Scott’s, R-Fla., "11-Point Plan to Rescue America," released in February, which proposes that "all federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again." 

Scott's plan did not specifically mention Social Security or Medicare, and many Senate Republicans, including GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., disavowed Scott’s plan at the time.

Read more from Fox News' Jessica Chasmar: Dems pivot to debunked Social Security talking point in run-up to midterms

Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman applauded Oregon voters in 2020 after they approved a measure to decriminalize possession of small amounts of hard drugs like heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and ecstasy.

Fetterman, running in one of the most closely watched Senate races this midterm season, says he does not support decriminalization of hard drugs in Pennsylvania. But in a "Social Justice Power Hour" conversation with the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice in November 2020, Fetterman praised the Oregon measure.

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks at Temple University in Philadelphia Oct. 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Ryan Collerd)

"We have a mental health crisis in our country, and you have these pharmaceuticals that have all of these side effects and have all these other externalities," Fetterman said at the time. "And here, you know, like I applaud Oregon for the step they took this last election, you know, decriminalizing small amounts of drugs, and realizing you can’t arrest your way out of addiction. … If you criminalize addiction, you have what we have, and that is one of the core tenants of mass incarceration."

Measure 110, which was approved by voters in Oregon Nov. 3, 2020, took effect in February 2021 and decriminalized small amounts of hard drugs, including psilocybin and psilocin, LSD, methadone, oxycodone, heroin, ecstasy, cocaine and methamphetamine.

The measure reclassified possession of small amounts of hard drugs as a civil violation. Offenders face a $100 fine, which they can avoid with a "health assessment" — a 24/7 phone service that will help determine what services an individual might need. Small amounts are classified as less than 1 gram of heroin or MDMA, 2 grams of cocaine or methamphetamine, 12 grams of psilocybin mushrooms and 40 doses of LSD, oxycodone or methadone.

Read more from Fox News' Kyle Morris here.

Utah independent Senate candidate Evan McMullin, despite a pledge not to caucus with Democrats if he is elected, has received millions in support from tech leaders and groups aligned with the Democratic Party as he seeks to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Lee.

The contentious race has been inundated with outside spending as super PACs unaffiliated with either the Lee or McMullin campaigns spend heavily on glossy mailers and on attack ads on local TV channels in the lead-up to the midterm elections.

Independent Utah Senate candidate Evan McMullin participates in the discussion on democracy and the future of the American political system at the Salt Lake City Public Library on Oct. 20, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Campaign finance disclosures filed Friday, covering a period through Oct. 19, show the McMullin campaign raised $6.9 million and Lee's campaign brought in $8.6 million.

Though they’re spending heavily on their own campaign ads, polling, consultants and staff, the candidates are receiving boosts from independent expenditure committees that aren’t allowed to coordinate with their campaigns.

The most active is a pro-McMullin super PAC called Put Utah First. It has spent $5.1 million throughout 2022, including $3 million from Oct. 1 to Oct. 19.

The group, according to a report from The Associated Press, has received most of its funding from Blake Murray, the former CEO of the financial services technology company Divvy. Murray is among a number of Utah technology leaders and venture capitalists supporting McMullin and co-hosting a fundraiser Tuesday with former Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams. The group also received $250,000 from American Bridge’s political action committee. American Bridge has spent $45 million nationwide on the midterm elections and is running ads on abortion in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Read more from Fox News' Kyle Morris here.

President Joe Biden will visit South Florida on Tuesday, just seven days before the midterm elections. (Anna Moneymaker)

President Joe Biden is heading to red-state Florida on Tuesday to campaign for struggling Democratic candidates, the same day former President Barack Obama will pay a visit to one of the top battleground states of the 2022 midterm elections, Nevada.

Biden's decision to campaign in Florida comes after Democratic candidates competing to oust Republican leadership on the Senate and gubernatorial levels were found trailing by double digits in a recent political poll.

Biden will first speak in Hallandale Beach, Florida, to deliver remarks on health care and reportedly focus on Republicans’ "very different vision" for America.

He will then head to Golden Beach, Florida, to fundraise for former Rep. Charlie Crist, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate challenging rising Republican star. Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Read more from Fox News' Aubrie Spady here.

Blake Masters (AP Photo)

The Libertarian candidate in Arizona's senate race has dropped out and endorsed his Republican opponent. 

Libertarian senatorial candidate Marc Victor, who was polling at 1% in a New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday, dropped out of the race Tuesday, throwing his weight behind Republican nominee Blake Masters.

Masters is facing Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly in the midterm election. "I've said from the very beginning that the reason I'm running for senate is to promote and get us in the direction of freedom and peace and civility," Victor said in a YouTube video announcing his endorsement.

Victor said at one point in his video, "[Masters] really is — in his heart and in his mind — he's in favor of doing everything he can to get us very sternly, very smartly in the direction of 'live and let live.' And that seems like a good tradeoff to me."

Masters, who sat down with Victor for a 20-minute recorded phone call on Monday, is hoping the competition-turned-endorsement will give him a boost in the polls.

Read more: Arizona Senate race: Libertarian candidate drops out, endorses Blake Masters

Obama (AP Photo)

"I’m here to ask you to vote," former President Barack Obama urged Democrats as he headlined large rallies in three crucial battleground states this past weekend on a nationwide tour aimed at giving the party a last-minute boos before Nov. 8.

Tuesday marks one week until Election Day 2022 when about a third of the Senate, all 435-members of the House of Representatives, and governors’ offices in 36 of the 50 states are up for grabs.

Democrats are facing historical headwinds — the party that wins the White House traditionally suffers major setbacks in the ensuing midterm elections — and a very rough political climate fueled by record inflation, soaring crime and a border crisis, and these are accentuated by President Joe Biden’s rebounding but still underwater approval ratings.

"It's real simple. People are fed up with open borders, high inflation, high crime. They're just fed up with this stuff, and the Democrats did it," GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said in an interview with Fox News on Monday.

Read more: Final countdown: Here's what's at stake in next week’s midterm elections