It’s Tuesday, November 3. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Joe Klein and Eli Lake on Haley Stevens and the Democrats’ civil war she provoked. Arthur Brooks on why it’s okay to read to your teenagers. And more.
But first: Trump’s closing argument and the volunteers taking election integrity into their own hands.
If Republican candidates braced for midterm defeat were hoping for some eleventh-hour message discipline from Donald Trump, let’s hope they didn’t turn on their televisions on Monday afternoon. Had they done so, they would have found the president standing not in a swing state but in front of the reflecting pool. The president eventually made his closing pitch to voters. But not before a 20-minute riff extolling the renovations to the Washington landmark he ordered earlier this year, including pictures of pipes and a detailed rundown of the “high-quality materials” used by the contractors. When the president finally got to the election, he didn’t exactly sound optimistic. “For some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms. But we gave this a very strong shot,” he said.
While Trump is setting expectations low, Democrats are trying not to get ahead of themselves. We may have learned by now not to trust the polls, but everything suggests a blue wave. To find out whether or not that blue wave materializes, tune in to our election livestream tonight (scroll down for more details and mark your calendars here). Before that, though, Americans have to vote and their ballots have to be counted. And that—in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade—has become a more contentious process than one would like. Today, Olivia Reingold meets the ranks of progressive activists fashioning themselves as “Election Defenders” at polls across the country. Read Olivia’s piece for an Election Day look at the messy, combustible picture on the ground as Americans head to the polls.
—Oliver Wiseman
Will Democrats Regret Spurning Haley Stevens?
Haley Stevens just might be the most hated woman in Democratic politics right now. On Sunday, the Michigan congresswoman, who lost to Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic primary for Senate, un-endorsed her former opponent and instead backed Republican Mike Rogers. The subsequent vitriol from her erstwhile colleagues has been astonishing, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer calling her switch a “despicable betrayal.”
Today, we have two pieces about l’affair Stevens from different perspectives. Joe Klein considers Trump “a clear and present danger to our country” and dearly hopes that both houses of Congress will elect Democratic majorities after today’s election results are in. But, he argues, Democrats need to be clear-eyed about the danger El-Sayed poses to the party. If they don’t, he writes, the party “will pay the price in a loss of decency and humanity.”
For his part, Eli Lake wonders when all the Democratic pooh-bahs who are now furiously condemning Stevens will realize what a mistake they’ve made by getting behind El-Sayed as a means to gain back the Senate. “They all have chosen to purge Stevens instead of thinking through what happens when the man they have endorsed wins his election and becomes a kingmaker,” Eli writes. “Perhaps then the Democrats making a show of their solidarity with El-Sayed will learn they have invited a wolf into their henhouse.”
And ICYMI, catch up on Olivia Reingold’s exclusive interview with Stevens on the ground in Michigan.
Tune In for LIVE Midterms coverage with The Free Press and 2WAY!
The Free Press and 2WAY are teaming up for a real-time interactive election night special. You can tune in right here.
Will Rahn will co-host with Mark Halperin and the 2WAY team, joined throughout by Free Press writers, editors, and contributors, including Douglas Murray, Mene Ukueberuwa, Audrey Fahlberg, and Suzy Weiss.
Watch the election night special live from 8 p.m. to midnight ET on Tuesday, November 3, right here. Viewers can also visit this page to join the conversation and participate through 2WAY’s interactive community.
MORE FROM THE FREE PRESS
Join Us on Substack’s 2026 Midterms Experience
The Free Press is participating in Substack’s Midterms Experience, a new hub featuring election coverage from across the platform. Join us as we cover the 2026 midterm elections with reporting, analysis, and commentary throughout the night. Follow along here to make sure you don’t miss a thing.
THE NEWS
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Ultra-wealthy GOP donors are watching four states—Alaska, Iowa, Maine, and Ohio—that could form a “red wall” and keep the Senate in Republican hands, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times. The note circulated among a group of top GOP donors called the American Opportunity Alliance, whose members include hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer and financial services billionaire Charles Schwab.
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The U.S. attacked Iran’s Qeshm Island on Monday in a strike one official said President Trump kept quiet to downplay the resuming of combat operations, The Wall Street Journal reported. Trump told Axios earlier in the day that he was “in no rush” to make a call on whether to resume strikes.
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The judge presiding over Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial is leaning toward a March retrial after he declared a mistrial in September, CBS News reported yesterday. Prosecutors have not yet determined the charges for Clancy, who admitted to killing her three young children in 2023 and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Clancy’s lawyers are pushing for a dismissal.
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Customers of the crypto exchange Binance withdrew $4.6 billion in assets from the platform following the largest digital coin theft ever, which emptied $6.3 billion in cryptocurrency from the company’s coffers. The FBI has linked the theft to North Korean cybercriminals.
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The Supreme Court will hear a case today on whether Colorado can exclude Catholic schools from its universal preschool program. The Catholic plaintiffs are expected to prevail based on several recent rulings siding with religious organizations excluded from state programs.
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A cyberattack targeting supermarket fridges swept through Europe on Monday, raising temperatures in dozens of stores and forcing retailers to throw away food. “Everything is destroyed,” one sales manager at a grocery store in Stockholm told Reuters, noting that all of the store’s freezers reached 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
