Today's Headlines: With the big day tomorrow, 54 million Americans have already voted, up 8 million from this point in 2022, and in the 27 states that report party affiliation, Democrats are outpacing both Republicans and unaffiliated voters, while in the 14 states that report by age, voters over 40 account for more than 80% of early votes. Meanwhile, Trump’s attempts to influence the results hit a wall when a federal judge dismissed his lawsuit to block certification of Alaska’s results if Sen. Dan Sullivan loses, calling it “infeasible” because ballots are already cast and the government had no workable plan to segregate votes for the other Dan Sullivan while preserving voter secrecy, though the DOJ says it will appeal, naturally. The other big midterm drama came out of Michigan, where Rep. Haley Stevens, who lost the Senate primary, switched her endorsement from Democrat Abdul El Sayed to Republican Mike Rogers after insisting to colleagues as recently as the day before that she’d stick with El Sayed, and instead of attending a unity event with El Sayed at a Black church in Detroit, she popped up with Rogers at a different Black church, leaving her own staff to show up at the El Sayed event. Drama. On a more worrying note, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, 53, suffered a stroke Saturday but is reportedly awake, alert, and being treated at Johns Hopkins. In a first, ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales was indicted in Texas for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly ramming his car into a Mexican construction worker in Houston, leaving the man with a broken leg. Meanwhile, Trump had a rough Halloween when a federal judge threw out his $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over the Epstein birthday book drawing, saying he was “grasping at straws” and dismissing it with prejudice so he can’t refile. Finally, a private jet from Austin to the Bahamas crashed near Cresthaven, Florida, reportedly not far from Mar-a-Lago, killing nine, with videos showing it nosediving into a fireball near a highway.
Resources/Articles mentioned:
USA Today: Early voting surges past 54 million, topping 2022 midterm total
AP News: Judge dismisses lawsuit seeking to block certification of Alaska Senate race
AP News: El-Sayed's primary opponent stuns Democrats by endorsing Republican opponent in Michigan Senate race
Politico: Haley Stevens' bombshell sends Michigan Senate race into chaos
NYT: Senator Chris Murphy Is ‘Awake and Alert’ After Suffering a Stroke
CNN: An ICE officer has been charged after striking a man with a car in Houston
AP News: 'Grasping at straws': Judge dismisses Trump suit against Wall Street Journal over Epstein letter
CNN: Learjet plane crash in Palm Beach County, Florida kills 9
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