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

ABC News is reporting on campaign developments in key states across the U.S.

The 2022 campaign is shaping up to be a historic, decisive moment in American politics.

From our reporters across the country, ABC News brings you all the latest on what the candidates are saying and doing -- and what voters want to happen in November's midterm elections.

For more from ABC News' team of reporters embedded in battleground states, watch "Power Trip: Those Seeking Power and Those Who Chase Them" on Hulu , with new episodes on Sunday.

Power Trip
Power Trip
"Power Trip: Those Seeking Power and Those Who Chase Them" follows 7 young reporters as they chase down candidates in the lead up to the midterms with George Stephanopoulos guiding them along the way.
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Biden's 'focus not on himself,' White House says, as poll finds Dem skepticism

On Monday, the White House side-stepped the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll showing a clear majority of Democrats wanting the party to replace Joe Biden as its nominee for president in 2024 -- again repeating his intention to run for another term.

Asked by ABC Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega if Biden is concerned with a majority of Democrats wanting a change at the top of the ticket, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden's "focus is not on himself," but rather "continuing to deliver for the American people."

The poll, published Sunday, found that 56% of Democrats want the party to nominate someone other than Biden in 2024. His overall job approval numbers remain under 40%.
Biden's polling on the economy is also in trouble, with just 36% of Americans approving of how he's handling the issue. Pressed by Vega on whether there's anything the White House plans to do differently in the final stretch before the midterms, Jean-Pierre said administration officials will continue to "go out there" and talk about their wins in the past 19 months.

"I understand what you're saying about the president's numbers, but what we are going to focus on is how we are going to continue to deliver for the American people, especially at the most important things that matter to them," she said.

"When you think about Medicare, you think about Social Security, you think about the pieces of legislation that we have passed, they are very popular with the American people, with Republicans and Democrats. And so that is also important to note. So we're going to keep getting out there."

–ABC News' Justin Gomez


Cheney says she'll campaign against Lake, Mastriano because of election denials

Outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., reiterated this weekend that she would campaign against election deniers, singling out Republican gubernatorial nominees in Arizona and Pennsylvania who've floated conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential race.

Cheney, who lost her primary last month to a challenger endorsed by former President Donald Trump, said at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Saturday that she would seek to prevent Arizona Republican Kari Lake and Pennsylvania Republican Doug Mastriano from being elected to their states' governors' mansions.

"I'm going to do everything I can to make sure Kari Lake is not elected," Cheney said at the closing night of the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.

"I think we have to do everything we can in '22 to make sure those people don't get elected," she added. Turning to the governor's race in Pennsylvania, she said, "We have to make sure [Doug] Mastriano doesn't win."

She also criticized Republican leaders like Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin for, in her words, accommodating election deniers even as she praised Youngkin because he "hasn't bought into the toxin of Donald Trump."

See more here.

–ABC News’ Libby Cathey and Tal Axelrod


Pelosi raises stakes as Democrats confront stark new polls: The Note

She's been here before -- on both sides of elections she's wanted framed as either choices or referendums, in years that saw Democrats winning and losing and winning again before this fateful cycle began.

This time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is helping message on what she hopes will be a "choice" election around a series of issues that are specific and tangible but, taken together, are almost unimaginably broad.

"The planet, the democracy, the future for our children is on the ballot," Pelosi told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an interview for the inaugural episode of the Hulu series "Power Trip."

That argument comes as Pelosi's Democrats confront polls that speak to a specific political predicament. The shows President Joe Biden's approval rating stuck below 40%, with Republicans clinging to a very narrow edge in the generic congressional ballot.

See more here.

–ABC News’ Rick Klein


Fetterman holds same-day rallies for first time since stroke

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


Warren heading to Wisconsin for early voting rally with Evers

Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is expected to campaign on Oct. 26 for Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes and state Attorney General Josh Kaul in what is the latest appearance by a prominent Democrat to rally voters weeks before the high-stakes midterms.

The events with Warren, first reported by ABC News, will also feature Wisconsin's Democratic senator, Tammy Baldwin.

Baldwin, Evers, Kaul and Warren will host an early voting event focused on young people near the campus of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, according to the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

Baldwin and Kaul are expected to walk with a group of students to an early voting location to cast their ballots.

Barnes is in a tight race to defeat incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican.

Polling shows that Evers is in a toss-up race, too, against Republican challenger Tim Michels, with the latest FiveThirtyEight average showing Evers with less than 1% lead.

In a statement to ABC News, the Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler said: "This election is deadlocked, and no one can sit this out. If Wisconsin students turn out to show the GOP they won’t let them trample on their rights, Democrats will win up and down the ballot. Senator Warren is an electrifying voice who will bring her incomparable energy and vision to mobilize Wisconsin students at exactly the moment it’s needed most."

In her own statement, Warren said, "Voters in Wisconsin know what is at stake in this election. Wisconsinites have the opportunity to vote for [Senate nominee] Mandela Barnes, Tony Evers, and Democrats all the way down the ballot who will fight to restore a woman’s right to choose, to bring down costs, to build an economy that works for all of us, and to attack the climate crisis head on. I’m proud to join them in this critical fight."

Warren joins a growing list of big-name Democrats -- including former President Barack Obama -- to hit the trail in various battleground states before Election Day.

They hope to counter the history of rough midterm elections for the party in power, plus major headwinds like high inflation, in part by focusing on Republican-backed restrictions on abortion and the extremism of some of the GOP nominees.

When asked by reporters after a gubernatorial debate on Friday whether former President Donald Trump planned to stump for the Republican ticket in Wisconsin, Brian Fraley, a communications specialist for the Michels campaign, said they would notify the press if such an event was scheduled.

Fraley said then that Obama coming to Milwaukee was a "sign" that the Evers campaign was "in trouble" because "they're calling in all the big dogs."

-- ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett and Paulina Tam