NPR to Visit Six Battleground States With Four Weeks to Midterms
NPR's Morning Edition will travel to six states with competitive races in the final four weeks before Election Day in the 2026 midterms to ask voters what is driving their choices. NPR Voting was already underway as of Oct. 6, with four weeks left in the campaign. NPR
The series starts with a national poll that favors Democrats. The latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found registered voters prefer Democrats for Congress over Republicans by 12 percentage points. Forty-five percent said their vote for Congress is a vote against President Trump, compared with about a quarter who said it is a vote to support him. NPR That leaves a 20-point gap in how strongly each side is motivated by the president. Ballots are already being cast.
The six states are Maine, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio and Michigan. The Texas report is set for Oct. 13. After Texas, the series plans reports from North Carolina and Georgia, then Ohio and Michigan.
Steve Inskeep will report from North Carolina and Georgia. Michel Martin will report from Ohio and Michigan.
Each stop covers a different part of the fight for the House, Senate and governor's offices. North Carolina has an open Senate seat, meaning no incumbent is running, and newly redrawn House districts. Ohio has competitive races for governor and Senate. Georgia has competitive races for Senate and governor.
In Ohio, the plan includes Springfield. Martin will report on how the end of temporary protected status, a federal program that lets people from crisis-hit countries live and work legally in the U.S. for a time, is affecting Haitians there. Haitian immigrants make up a significant share of the population in Springfield.
NPR's earlier Senate ratings give context for the trip. NPR rated North Carolina as Tier 1, or most likely to flip parties, among Senate races to watch. NPR It rated Alaska, Maine, Michigan and Ohio as Tier 2 toss-ups, or races with no clear favorite. Three of those Tier 2 states, Maine, Michigan and Ohio, are also on the Morning Edition list.
The broader context here is timing and targeting. With four weeks left and early voting underway, campaigns must persuade undecided voters and turn out supporters at the same time. For campaign staff, that shortens the time to test messages and puts more focus on chasing returned ballots, predicting turnout and responding to late issues in local media markets.
Looking at what this means for the map, the trip follows places where control of the Senate, House and governors' offices overlap. In North Carolina, an open Senate seat plus new House lines creates a two-level spending choice, with Senate campaigns and outside House groups spending on different schedules in the same areas. In Georgia and Ohio, where Senate and governor races are both competitive, campaigns face similar choices about staff, field work and TV and digital ad bookings between state and federal efforts.
In my view, the poll numbers on Trump deserve a close look next to the 12-point congressional lead. Forty-five percent voting against the president and about 25 percent voting for him suggests uneven motivation, not a uniform shift to one party. If the interviews show that pattern, individual candidates in Tier 1 and Tier 2 Senate states may still stand out from national trends, since ticket-splitting and incumbency can soften national headwinds. It also raises the stakes in newly drawn districts, where voters know candidates less well and early votes are locked in before late ads peak.
What to watch in Springfield is how an immigration decision plays out locally. Temporary protected status is set by the executive branch but has direct local effects. Hearing from employers, service providers and voters there will show how a federal status decision shapes views of Senate and governor candidates, not just presidential approval.
