Midterm campaign updates: GOP's Cheney endorses Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan for Senate

Democrat John Fetterman held back-to-back rallies Saturday for the first time since his stroke in May, the latest step for a candidate who has eased his way back to the trail as he battles celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

The lieutenant governor spoke in Philadelphia -- his first open-press event in the city since he launched his campaign, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer -- before rallying in the politically competitive Lehigh Valley with vulnerable House incumbent Susan Wild.

He recycled the same messaging that has riled his supporters since the summer – jabs at Oz for his New Jersey ties and jokes about a video in which Oz shopped for crudite.

"[My team] said, 'Check out the crudite video.' And I heard that, and I actually thought it was a stroke thing. I said, 'What is this?' and Googled, 'What is a crudite?'" Fetterman said, to roars of laughter from the crowd, which the campaign said exceeded 1,000 people.

Wild is fighting to hang on to her House seat in a district that was redrawn this year to include more Republican voters. Cook Political Report labels her race “Lean R,” and she encouraged the crowd to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot.

In an on-camera interview with ABC News after the event, Wild said that the redistricting has not affected her message to voters.

“People across my district, no matter what part of the district they’re in, they have the same issues,” she said. “People here are concerned about jobs, about making sure that we bring back this ‘made in America’ mentality, because that’s what this district was founded on.”

-ABC News' Will McDuffie

The former president's eldest son and the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Michigan each joked about the 2020 kidnapping plot against Democratic incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

"The sad thing is that Gretchen will tie your hands, put a gun to your head and ask if you're ready to talk," Dixon said at a rally Friday in Troy. Trump Jr., stumping for Dixon and the rest of the state's Republican ticket, called the plot a "PR stunt."

When asked by ABC News at a gaggle after the rally wrapped whether the jokes were a step too far, Dixon said that "we have to have a little levity still in life." Trump Jr.'s response: "Oh, I think we also have to hold those accountable" as he accused the FBI of staging the plot.

Two men were convicted in August for conspiring to kidnap Whitmer and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction. The governor was not harmed.

The Democratic Governors Association called Dixon's comments "dangerous" and an "insult to law enforcement."

-ABC News' Paulina Tam

Taking the stage ahead of Donald Trump at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ted Budd went after President Joe Biden on several policy issues.

Budd specifically hit at the administration over high inflation being felt in North Carolina and across the country, telling the crowd he'll work to "make your life better."

The GOP candidate also touched on border issues amid an influx of apprehensions, calling it a "humanitarian crisis." Budd, however, did not mention Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis flying migrants to Martha's Vineyard as he blamed Biden for the immigration challenges.

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, speaking Friday on ABC's "GMA 3," acknowledged polls showed she was running behind incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

With only about a month and a half left before the midterm elections, Abrams said the polls were not "paying attention" to growing momentum among young voters.

A Monmouth University poll published Thursday found that Abrams' path to victory is narrower than Kemp's as more Georgia voters have ruled out voting for Abrams (46%) than Kemp (37%).

"We are behind, but only by a couple of points. And we know that these are polls that are not paying attention necessarily to the growing energy among women and young people," she said.

Abrams noted that victory may hinge on the issue of abortion, which has been moving party bases in even red states over the past primary season, along with issues like gun control, following mass shootings earlier this summer.

"Georgia is, unfortunately, one of the states with a six-week abortion ban, and that ban is animating voters. We have seen record number of women asking for absentee ballots early in the process, and we know that we're seeing the same energy on the ground," she said.

"We also know that we're a state that is number nine in gun violence and that guns are the number one killer of our children."

See more here.