Trump's closing message focuses on Reflecting Pool; key Pa. House race shifts toward Dems; bid to remove Bucks election board member fails

Gov. Josh Shapiro closed out his gubernatorial reelection campaign on familiar turf in Jenkintown on Monday night, urging supporters to look toward the future as Democrats aim to retake Congress and the Pennsylvania state Senate on Election Day.

Flanked by his family and numerous elected Democrats, Shapiro reflected on his political beginnings in Montgomery County and implored the crowd to reject what he described as the “chaos,” “cruelty,” and “corruption” of President Donald Trump’s administration.

Standing in the shadow of Jenkintown’s Plaza Apartments, Shapiro recalled his first political campaign in 2004, when he ran for state representative and, after knocking thousands of doors, beat a well-known Republican incumbent.

Stacy Garrity, the Republican Party’s nominee for Pennsylvania governor, projected confidence at an Election Day eve rally in Bucks County, despite multiple statewide polls showing her with a double-digit disadvantage in the race.

“The most important message of tonight,” she said to a crowd of about 170 people Monday in Newtown, “we will win this race.”

Garrity, who is challenging popular incumbent Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, has struggled to find her footing in the gubernatorial race and build a strong war chest to match Shapiro’s massive haul.

The mood was loose and jubilant as more than 150 supporters for Democrat Rebecca Bennett running in the 7th District crowded inside Chisolm Community Center in Springfield, New Jersey on election eve Monday night.

With pundits and polls predicting a victory over two-term incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr., the state’s biggest political names — U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim, Gov. Mikie Sherrill and Senate President Nicholas Scutari gathered to cheer Bennett on.

“Everything is on the ballot tomorrow,” Sherrill said. “If you care about working people having a shot in this country, if you care about protecting people’s rights, if you care about the future for our kids, everything is on the ballot tomorrow.”

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s push to force California to set aside thousands of ballots from people the federal government claims are noncitizens, a decision that came hours before the final day of voting in the pivotal midterm elections.

The high court refused to immediately intervene in a case involving 20,000 people the Republican administration flagged as likely noncitizens on the largely Democratic state’s voter rolls.

The swift rejection capped a string of losses for the president’s effort to intervene in the election before the counting of ballots to decide who controls Congress in the last two years of his second term. No justices publicly dissented.

Nichole Gardner tried to get a few minutes in Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s ear as the governor greeted locals at a Vineland get-out-the-vote rally Monday for Cape May Mayor Zack Mullock, the Democrat running against Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew.

Gardner, 44, is a Vineland resident involved in the Cumberland County Democratic Committee, and she’s also cochair of Sustain South Jersey, a group against the massive data center in Vineland.

Before Sherrill’s staffer whisked the local advocate away, Gardner said she was able to get her point across to Sherrill.

For attendees of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s rally in Narberth, an increasingly unpopular President Donald Trump will be on the ballot tomorrow.

Mary Reese, 71, said she believes voter attitudes are different now than they were two years ago, when the nation reelected Trump and delivered the House and Senate to Republicans.

“We’ve had enough of the chaos and the confusion and the grift,” Reese, a Havertown Democrat and retired teacher, said.

Zack Mullock, the Cape May mayor challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, said he wouldn’t be running if it weren’t for President Donald Trump after an appearance in Vineland with New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill.

The candidate told a crowd of local Democrats in Vineland on Monday he was nervous about introducing the governor, and his mother – whom he described as religious and reserved – told him to just make sure he doesn’t talk about other people’s rear-ends like Trump has in recent viral remarks.

Mullock said that as much as that gave him a laugh, it was also a reminder of what he called the “absolute insanity” of the Trump administration.

Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick did not succeed in his effort to disqualify Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia from serving on the county election board, a judge said in his ruling, just a day before the general election.

Fitzpatrick sued Ellis-Marseglia last week, claiming the Democratic county official expressed “animus” toward his candidacy that requires her disqualification. Ellis-Marseglia also shown a “disdain for election law,” the suit said.

The suit centers on the commissioner’s support for her close friend and county board of commissioners colleague, Bob Harvie, who is challenging Fitzpatrick in the tossup 1st Congressional District race, which could determine party control of the U.S. House.

Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a major nonpartisan elections forecaster, moved the 1st Congressional District from a toss up to “leans Democratic” in its final slate of ratings on Monday, just a day before Democrat Bob Harvie and Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick go head-to-head in one of the most closely watched races in the country.

Monday’s rating of the Bucks County-based district joins the three other swing congressional races in Pennsylvania — the 7th, 8th, and 10th — that could determine which party controls the U.S. House.

Harvie, a county commissioner, has waged Democrats’ best challenge yet against Fitzpatrick, but the Republican is well-known and well-fundraised and has survived blue waves before during his roughly 10 years representing Bucks County in Congress.

Cumberland County Democrats were bursting with excitement Monday as Gov. Mikie Sherrill made an appearance at their Vineland headquarters in support of congressional candidate Zack Mullock, the Cape May mayor challenging U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew.

“The governor doesn’t usually come to Vineland, especially the night before election night, so we are super thrilled about that,” said Carlos Mercado, a Democratic state committee member and legislative chair for the New Jersey State Firefighter Mutual Benevolent Association.

“Yes, yes, yes!” an attendee said. “She’s here,” another urgently whispered as the governor walked toward the crowd.

President Donald Trump had algae on the mind Monday, where he focused his closing election message to voters on work done on the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C.

Speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial on the day before the 2026 midterms, Trump spent most of his speech focusing on the extensive repairs his administration had done at the popular tourist site.

At one point, he even brought an aide on stage to show pictures of rusty pipes and rundown joints.

Local and state officials across Pennsylvania are projecting confidence about the safety and security of Tuesday’s election.

But unexpected issues can happen — and with broader concerns about poll watchers, AI deepfakes and other forms of misinformation, voters should know they have resources available to them to sort through any problems, said Lauren Cristella, president and CEO of the Committee of Seventy.

Cristella said she and her organization are encouraging voters to call 866-OUR-VOTE if necessary. The hotline is administered by the nonpartisan Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and offers assistance on basic voting procedures and any obstacles that voters might encounter.

The top Democrat in charge of getting her party elected to the U.S. House is not entertaining a scenario where Bob Harvie loses Tuesday.

Harvie, a county commissioner, has waged the most competitive challenge yet against Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in the Bucks County-based 1st Congressional District race. That seat could help deliver Democrats a majority in the U.S. House if they pull off a win against one of the toughest GOP incumbents in the country in one of the swingiest places in Pennsylvania.

Asked what happens if the tides don’t turn their way on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in an interview: “Bob Harvie’s going to win and he’s going to win because people want to change, and people know who he is and what he stands for.”

Ahead of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s closing rallies before Election Day, where he’s asking voters for a second term in office, he returned to his home.

In Montgomery County, Shapiro, 53, of Abington Township, served as a state representative and county commissioner.

To a crowd of about 150 people in Narberth, about a dozen miles from Abington, Shapiro thanked the residents for their support over the years and asked them to vote for him to a second term as governor.

At a pre-Election Day rally in Lower Merion Monday, Gov. Josh Shapiro said the path to a Democratic majority in Congress runs through Pennsylvania.

“We quite literally will decide the balance of power in the Congress of the United States with these competitive congressional races all across our commonwealth,” he said.

Over the closing days, as he’s crisscrossed the state in during a bus tour, Shapiro has campaigned with each of the Democratic congressional candidates vying to defeat GOP incumbents in four swing districts. If Democrats flip just a handful seats, they take the majority in the U.S. House, and the popular governor is aiming to provide his coattails to bring each down-ballot candidate across the finish line.

Tuesday is make or break for Democratic congressional candidate Bob Harvie.

“We’re going to win this race because, quite frankly, we don’t have an option,” he told supporters gathered in his campaign office in Lower Bucks County on Monday morning.

Harvie is locked in a competitive toss-up race against Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in the Bucks County-based 1st Congressional District, one of four key swing seats in Pennsylvania that could determine control of the U.S. House.

Gov. Josh Shapiro was about to recite his well-tread story about the signing of the constitution — as he tells it, a band of patriots gathered in Philadelphia to declare their independence from a king and set up the new nation — when a man interjected his speech.

“OK, Mr. President,” said Scott Anthony Romano, 61, who lives in Belmont Hills.

At a rally in Lower Merion Monday, Shapiro asked voters to elect him to a second term as governor to raise Pennsylvania’s minimum wage, codify abortion rights and increase funding for mass transit. Attendees like Romano, however, have grander visions for Shapiro’s next step.

President Donald Trump’s administration appealed to the Supreme Court on Monday in its push to sideline thousands of disputed California mail ballots the day before the pivotal midterm elections.

The emergency appeal came after an appeals court rejected the request to set aside some 20,000 ballots from people the federal government suspects may not be citizens.

The federal government says those ballots should not be counted until the voters’ status can be verified. California officials say the list is highly unreliable and likely includes many people who are U.S. citizens.

Over the history of the Times/Siena poll, there have been two previous elections when the final polls showed everything seeming to break toward Democrats.

The first was in 2018. Our final polls showed Democrats gaining across the board, including in races that had barely been on the radar. Democrats surged by double digits in just a few weeks to build startling leads over longtime Republican incumbents in districts that supported Trump in the previous election. Democrats even led in Georgia’s 6th, which had badly disappointed them in a special election one year earlier when Jon Ossoff lost.

In the end, the final Times/Siena polls were dead-on — including where Democratic strength was most surprising.

While many Republican candidates are distancing themselves from Donald Trump, the president is scheduled to deliver his closing election remarks at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool Monday at 2 p.m.

Trump’s decision not to travel to key states on the eve of the election is a continuation of a strategy that’s seen him campaign in heavily conservative areas amid polling that shows a massive wave of support for Democrats.

Democrats have a 96% chance of winning control of the House and an 80% chance of taking over the Senate, according to longtime election prognosticator Nate Silver and his FLIPR election forecast.

As the 2026 midterm elections draw near, two closely watched Pennsylvania House races appear to be shifting in the Democrats’ favor.

Among the 12 last-minute House rating changes is Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District, which Cook Political Report moved from “Lean Republican” to “Toss-up.”

In the Bucks County district, incumbent Brian Fitzpatrick — the last remaining House Republican in the Philadelphia suburbs — is trying to fight off a challenge from Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie.

The U.S. Department of Justice plans to send election monitors to polling places in Philadelphia and three other Pennsylvania counties on Election Day. Whether that’s cause for concern or business as usual is up for debate.

It’s not uncommon for the federal government to deploy election monitors. However, the plan has raised alarms due to President Donald Trump’s track record of disputing election results. The Justice Department, which is run by Trump’s former personal attorney Todd Blanche, said the goal is to make sure federal law is followed.

The Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees elections in the commonwealth, shared some of the Justice Department’s communications, as well as its plans. Here’s what we know:

Democrats gained ground right to the end in the final New York Times/Siena University polls of the 2026 midterm campaign. The party is ahead in all seven states likeliest to decide control of the Senate: Michigan, Kansas, Texas, Maine, Ohio and, more narrowly, Alaska and Iowa.

A substantial Democratic lead in Texas? Kansas? Anything like these results would have been unfathomable just a few months ago.

In today’s polarized era, there’s no precedent for a party to fare this well in so many states that are generally safe wins for the other side. The only plausible comparisons are the Democratic victories in 2006 and 2008, but the recent polls outpace even those. The average of all polls shows Democrats leading in the same states as the Times/Siena surveys, giving the party the edge in more solidly Republican Senate seats than it managed to flip in 2006 and 2008 combined.

Election Day is right around the corner, and deadlines for mail voters are fast approaching.

Pennsylvanians who are casting their vote by mail have until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, to get their filled-out ballots to their county board of elections. (The deadline to apply for a mail ballot has passed; if you missed it, you can vote in person or request an emergency absentee ballot.)

There’s a couple ways to ensure your vote counts. Here’s what to know.

Pennsylvania, can you believe it? It’s almost here. Voters across the Keystone State are gearing up to cast their ballots in November’s midterm elections, which will decide the balance of power in Harrisburg and Washington.

Control of the U.S. House could come down to a few key Pennsylvania congressional districts, including one in the Philly suburbs. And the election will determine whether Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro holds onto the governor’s office as he faces a challenge from Republican Stacy Garrity.

Pennsylvanians will also make their voices heard in state House elections and state Senate races as Democrats vie for their first trifecta in Harrisburg in decades. The majority in the state Senate will likely come down to a handful of competitive races in the eastern half of the state.