A Democratic Betrayal and GOP Panic: The Wild Finale of the Midterms

One more sleep. Here’s everything you need to know. It’s almost over, and on this special Election Eve edition of Stress Test, David Corn and Garrison Hayes deconstruct the manic final moments before America votes. The big last-minute surprise was the 11th-hour bombshell out of Michigan. Defeated Democratic primary contender Haley Stevens sent shockwaves through the political world on Sunday when she rescinded her support for Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and endorsed Republican nominee Mike Rogers—a move that drew fierce condemnation from Democratic leadership and praise from Donald Trump. What was especially odd was that Stevens could not clearly explain her rationale for this decision. But she claimed she felt “hurt” by El-Sayed. It was like a soap opera might determine control of the Senate. “American democracy may hinge on who wins the Senate,” David observes, “and who wins the Senate may hinge on this little personal vendetta.” Garrison highlights the bitter irony of Stevens—who spent years cultivating a reputation as an “Obama-adjacent Black voter whisperer”—rolling out her GOP endorsement inside a Detroit Black church, leaving local Black voters feeling deeply blindsided and betrayed. From there, the hosts examine the limits of late-stage polling and the preemptive legal battles being waged by the Trump administration over ballots in California and Alaska. Garrison points out, “If confidence is to be measured by the way the Trump administration has been handling elections before votes have even really been counted, I don’t know if they’re showing very much confidence.” The early legal maneuvering may well be a prelude to the post-election fights to come. Next, reporter Noah Lanard calls in from a car in upstate New York after trailing Vice President JD Vance’s last-minute rally for GOP sticker-magnate-turned-candidate Anthony Constantino, who has dumped $17 million of his own fortune into a House race. Why is the GOP dispatching the veep to a deep-red district that Trump carried by 21 points? As Noah says,”If you told me a year ago this is where I would be on election eve, I would kind of do a spit take and immediately say, okay, something has gone horribly wrong for Republicans.” Noah describes the surreal scene of Constantino lambasting reporters as not the “fake news” but as the “evil news” who should be “deleted,” before riding off on a mobility scooter alongside an elderly veteran across an airplane hangar. Before signing off, David and Garrison examine key races to watch on election night, including a bellwether House contest in Kentucky’s 6th congressional district, where polls will close at 6:00 p.m. ET, as well as high-stakes showdowns in Pennsylvania, Kansas, Georgia, and Tennessee. Stress Test will be back for an Election Night special to break down the returns in real time. Until then, as David notes, “Every time American voters have had a chance to judge Trump’s performance in office… they’ve wanted to throw the bum out.” The midterms will show if that pattern holds.