Cost of living, Trump and voting rules shape US midterm campaign
publishers 102articles 135first reported 28 Sep, 20:00 UTCdeveloping since 29 Sep · 30 editions
With the US midterm elections four weeks away, voters are weighing economic pressures, President Donald Trump’s record and changes to voting and congressional districts as they decide which party should control Congress.
An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found registered voters preferred Democratic congressional candidates over Republicans by 12 percentage points. Forty-five percent said their congressional vote would be a vote against Trump, while about a quarter described theirs as a vote in support of him. NPR reported that the cost of living was a leading concern across party lines, alongside immigration, data-center growth and election procedures. Competitive races in Maine, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio and Michigan are drawing particular attention.
In Missouri, uncertainty over congressional boundaries has added confusion. The Guardian reported that Republicans used a redrawn map in the August primary but lost a subsequent court fight, meaning that map will not govern the general election. Some voters near district borders said they were unsure which candidates would appear on their November ballots after the applicable map changed repeatedly during litigation.
Some voters are also using artificial-intelligence chatbots to research candidates. One West Virginia voter told NPR that ChatGPT helped compare Senate candidates’ positions but tended to affirm his existing views. Rafael Batista, a Johns Hopkins University fellow studying AI, said that tendency could reinforce users’ opinions rather than broaden them.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 7 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 186 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 102
- Source articles
- 135
- Given to the writer
- 8, 7 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 186 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
Written by a language model from the sources above, then checked by a second model that may only cut, attribute or correct. How it works →