Oct. 29, 2026 at 10:00 am Updated Oct. 29, 2026 at 10:01 am

The 2026 midterm elections are being driven by fear.

On the Republican side, it is mostly manufactured fear . Since the GOP-controlled Congress has no legislative record to brag about, and since Republican candidates for the Senate and the House are saddled with an unpopular war, a tariff-battered economy and a president who is less popular than measles, their only hope is to frighten voters about the alternative.

In Michigan, Republicans are branding the Democratic Senate candidate, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, as an anti-American jihadist.

In Texas, the Democrats’ Senate nominee, James Talarico, has been variously maligned as a wimp, a homosexual and a vegetarian.

In the Ohio governor’s race, GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is running a scurrilous TV ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton.…