00:00Welcome back. With three days to go before the midterm elections in the United States,
00:03the race for control of the Senate is becoming increasingly close.
00:08As key races, legal disputes and uncertainty in the polls shape the final stretch.
00:13Our correspondent, Dan Albright, has more.
00:20Yeah, thanks. Three days before the election, and the House is all but assured for the Democrats,
00:26so now much of the attention is on the Senate, where Democrats need a net gain of four seats to
00:32take control.
00:33In Michigan, progressive Abdul El-Sayed is in a dead heat with Republican Mike Rogers
00:39in what's become a very vicious, vitriolic race.
00:43El-Sayed would become the first Muslim senator.
00:46In Texas, James Tallarico is within striking distance of beating Republican Ken Paxton.
00:52The Senate seat in Texas being a long-sought-after prize for Democrats.
00:58And in Maine, former logger and labor leader Troy Jackson is running just ahead of longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins
01:06in a state that has rejected Trump in both of his elections,
01:10but which has had a strong fondness for Collins at the same time, as it reported the other week in
01:16Bangor.
01:16North Carolina is Democrats' strongest pickup opportunity,
01:21while races in Ohio, Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, and now even South Carolina are in play.
01:28The Trump administration, meanwhile, has taken the unusual step of weaponizing the Justice Department
01:35aggressively this close to an election, going against department guidelines
01:40with raids, charges, and politically sensitive investigations normally avoided during this period.
01:46In Alaska, Trump said he personally ordered a DOJ lawsuit to block certification if Democrat Mary Peltola wins.
01:55But I should say, analysts are being very cautious about what the polls are saying this year.
02:00During the primaries, polls had El-Sayed up by about 10 points, but he ended up winning very narrowly.
02:08In Wisconsin, polls showed Democratic Socialist gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong leading by up to 20 points,
02:17but then she narrowly lost.
02:19Analysts are saying what we could be seeing is Trump supporters increasingly just not picking up pollsters' calls.
02:25So we really are going to just have to wait and see what happens on election night this Tuesday.
02:32From Boston, Dan Albright, Telesaur. Back to you.
