The campaign of Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican running for governor in Ohio, sparked controversy this week with an ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton. In the ad, Acton’s mother calls her a “liar” who is being dishonest about her past.
Our latest quarterly report on various statistical indicators of how the country is faring as the midterms loom.
In the Maine Senate race, ads from pro-Republican groups give Democratic candidate Troy Jackson the nickname “Taxin’ Jackson,” but they make misleading claims about his proposal for Social Security taxes and his votes on some other issues.
Democratic ads in multiple congressional races are accusing Republican candidates of “gutting Medicare,” voting for “huge cuts to Medicare” and “cheering on Trump’s attack on Medicare.” Several ads cite President Donald Trump’s major domestic policy law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But the law’s changes to Medicare are narrow in scope and affect relatively few beneficiaries.
An ad from a Democratic-aligned super PAC claims Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan “voted to raise Alaskans’ healthcare costs by $1,800 and on that same day voted to give himself a $500,000 taxpayer-funded payout.” But that’s not the whole story, and the ad leaves the false impression that Sullivan received that money.
In partially repealing a Biden-era regulation that limited carbon emissions from power plants, Trump administration officials have misleadingly cast the prior administration’s policy as a threat to grid reliability. Experts say that’s unfounded.
In several congressional races, Republican ads are claiming that Democratic candidates support “sex changes” for children or support taxpayer money being used for such surgeries. But the allegations are flawed.
Multiple ads airing in Michigan attack Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed for past statements he made, or positions he held, about policing and prisons. But the ads either omit context or exaggerate his past policy proposals.
In congressional races around the country, Democrats find themselves under attack in political ads for allegedly opposing the popular tax cuts for tips, overtime and older Americans that were part of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Many of the candidates themselves say they support those particular provisions.
President Donald Trump’s remarks about the possibility that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego have sparked a firestorm of criticism, with Democrats claiming the president was either calling for a foreign adversary to attack the U.S. or portraying the destruction of two major cities as acceptable collateral damage. That’s not our reading of the president’s comments.
