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

Former Vice President Mike Pence joined Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in Phoenix on Tuesday to formally endorse Donald Trump-backed GOP Senate nominee Blake Masters.

At a school choice forum with conservative political action committee Club for Growth, with less than a month until the midterm elections, Pence offered Masters his total endorsement, calling Masters a "proven conservative" and "one of the brightest stars in the Republican Party."

Masters’ contest against incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, is one of the razor-thin races that may determine which party controls the upper chamber next session.

"It is a special privilege to me to come here to the Grand Canyon to tell the people of this state that Arizona and America need Blake Masters and a Republican majority in the United States Senate," Pence said.

“Blake Masters may be the difference between a Democrat majority in the Senate and a Republican majority," he continued. "Blake Masters could well be the deciding vote of whether or not Republicans will have a majority to stop the runaway spending agenda, open borders, inflation-driving policies that are beset this country and are hurting families here in Arizona."

Masters originally launched his candidacy with the support of Trump-aligned billionaire Peter Thiel but has since received funding from groups like the Senate Leadership Fund, a Mitch McConnell-adjacent PAC. Trump endorsed Masters on June 22 and has not shied away from inflammatory remarks pointed at McConnell.

(Masters, for his part, has alternately distanced himself from and embraced Trump's false claim of 2020 election fraud.)

Pence’s support for Trump-backed Masters comes after he’d deviated from his former boss during the Republican primaries by endorsing a number of candidates who were competing with the former president’s selections. In Arizona, Pence supported, and even traveled to campaign ahead of the race, for Republican Karrin Taylor Robson in the Arizona governor’s race. He pitted himself against Trump, whose choice was the current GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake.

-- ABC News' Libby Cathey

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump loomed large in the first, and likely only, Senate debate in the battleground state of North Carolina between Democrat Cheri Beasley and Republican Rep. Ted Budd.

During the hour-long debate, Beasley tried to distance herself from Biden while Budd embraced his endorsement from Trump, saying he is an “America first candidate.”

"It's wrong to align me with anybody unless I specifically say what my positions are, and I'm glad to talk about my positions because my positions really do support people here in North Carolina,” Beasley said when asked if she would appear with members of the Biden administration and if she wanted Biden to campaign with her.

Budd, asked if Trump's endorsement would hurt him with unaffiliated voters, emphasized that Trump won North Carolina twice and named some of the successes of the Trump administration.

Budd embraced his endorsement from Trump while also saying that Beasley was running away from any connection to Biden. But both candidates deflected when asked if Trump and Biden should run again in 2024.

The economy and abortion were top issues for voters as Beasley had to fend off attacks from Budd trying to connect her to the policies of the Biden administration. Meanwhile, Budd was pressed on his anti-abortion stance and his support of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s national abortion ban bill.

Budd was asked several times if he would support a total ban with no exception, to which he did not answer.

Beasley took advantage of the question to expand on her legal background as a former chief justice of the state.

"I know having been a former judge and chief justice that women have a constitutionally protected right to make this decision for themselves with their physician free from government interference,” she said.

- ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

Republican incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson and his Democratic challenger, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, duked it out at their first debate at the PBS studios in Milwaukee on Friday.

The duo addressed topics that have cast a shadow on their campaigns, with Sen. Johnson responding to past comments on Social Security, which he’s proposed to make discretionary rather than mandatory spending -- a move Democrats say puts the program in jeopardy.

"I want to make myself very clear, I want to save Social Security. I want to to save Medicare," said Johnson.

Barnes responded that Social Security should be strengthened and that the "wealthy should pay for their fair share," adding that Johnson had once called the federal benefit program a "Ponzi scheme."

The Democratic nominee was also given the opportunity to discuss his stance on bail reform, an issue that Republicans have focused on in their many crime-related attack ads against Barnes.

"I appreciate the question because it has been sensationalized and it's also been mischaracterized," said Barnes. "I support bail reform."

Johnson rebutted that Wisconsin has a problem with "skyrocketing crime" and pointed at Barnes' past record that he wrote a bill that would eliminate cash bail.

"First of all you have to fully fund the police and of course my opponent is opposed to fully funding police budgets," said Johnson.

The two also clashed over Jan. 6, 2021, as Barnes said Johnson "left behind" the 140 officers at the insurrection -- a jab at Johnson's comments earlier this week calling the mob violence that day "not an armed insurrection" and that the protesters "did teach us" how to use flag poles as weapons.

Johnson on Friday said Vice President Mike Pence did the “right thing” by certifying Joe Biden’s win, and used mentions of Jan. 6 to discuss protests that occurred in the summer of 2020: "If you want to talk about rioting, we should take a look at what happened in Kenosha.”

- ABC News’ Paulina Tam

President Joe Biden was focused on his midterm messaging In Hagerstown, Maryland on Friday, while criticizing GOP lawmakers for requesting Democratic-led infrastructure funding that they publicly opposed.

Biden highlighted a CNN report that detailed some GOP members of Congress who voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and called it “socialism,” but are now asking for funds to help their districts. The president even name-checked several of them and what they’ve requested, like Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

“Socialism. I didn’t know there were that many socialist Republicans. I was surprised to see so many socialists in the Republican caucus," he said.

The president spent much of his speech touting his legislative wins and benefits that stem from the American Rescue Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. He warned what could happen if Congress flips after the midterms.

“If Republicans take control of the Congress, the $2,000 cap on prescription drug costs we just passed goes away. Gone. If they take back control of the Congress the $35 month cap on insulin for folks on Medicare we just passed goes away,” he said, again calling out specific GOP members and what their involvement might be in challenging the landmark policies.

“And folks, it's not just the Inflation Reduction Act, they’re coming after your Social Security and Medicare as well,” Biden said.

“There's a senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson... As he says, Social Security and Medicare should be on the chopping block every single year.”

–ABC News’ Justin Gomez