October 7, 2024, presidential campaign news

Sen. Sherrod Brown speaks at a campaign rally on October 5 in Cincinnati.

Candidates in several key 2024 Senate races have announced large third-quarter fundraising hauls, offering a snapshot of their resources heading into the critical final stretch of the election.

In Ohio, Sen. Sherrod Brown — among Democrats’ most vulnerable incumbents this year — announced a blockbuster third-quarter fundraising haul of $30.6 million. It’s a quarterly record for Ohio federal candidates, and a crucial injection of resources for what’s become the most expensive congressional race on record by advertising.

Brown’s GOP opponent, Bernie Moreno, has not yet announced his third-quarter fundraising total. But Moreno, with a net worth in the tens of millions, has the advantage of being able to inject some of his personal fortune into his campaign to keep pace with Brown.

In Arizona, Rep. Ruben Gallego, the Democratic Senate nominee, also announced a large third-quarter haul of $21.7 million, more than double his Q1 haul. Gallego is well-positioned to continue outraising GOP opponent Kari Lake, who has not yet announced her third-quarter fundraising totals.

In Michigan, home to another key open-seat race, Rep. Elissa Slotkin announced a strong Q3 fundraising total of $18 million, the most the Democratic nominee has raised in a quarter for her Senate bid. Her GOP opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, who has also trailed Slotkin in fundraising throughout their race, has not yet announced his Q3 totals.

Meanwhile, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced a third-quarter fundraising total of $21 million, another strong haul in a race that’s been flooded with campaign money. Cruz’s Democratic challenger, Rep. Colin Allred, is a powerhouse fundraiser himself and had, through September, significantly outspent Cruz on advertising. Allred’s campaign has not yet announced his Q3 totals.

Former President Donald Trump listens to a question from the audience during a town hall-style campaign event at the Crown Center Arena October 4 in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Donald Trump suggested Monday that undocumented immigrants who commit murder have “bad genes,” in the latest example of the former president using dehumanizing rhetoric as he tries to stoke fears about those in the country illegally.

In a radio interview on “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” Trump again distorted statistics on immigration and crime to attack Vice President Kamala Harris as he falsely claimed she was “allowing people to come through an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers.”

“You know, now, a murderer, I believe this – it’s in their genes. And we got bad, a lot of bad genes in our country right now,” Trump said.

CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

Some background: The comments marked the latest instance of Trump using dehumanizing and disparaging rhetoric as he targets undocumented immigrants and vows mass deportations if he’s reelected. Trump has made curbing illegal immigration a central part of his 2024 campaign message and regularly uses degrading language when describing undocumented immigrants.

Last fall, Trump said in an interview that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” using language that is often employed by White supremacists and nativists in comments that drew rebuke from civil rights groups. Trump has also spread false rumors about Haitian migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

White House response: The White House forcefully condemned the comments from Trump later Monday, calling the former president’s language “hateful” and “disgusting.”

“That type of language is hateful, it’s disgusting, it’s inappropriate and has no place in our country,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

This post has been updated with a response from the White House.

Tim Walz on Monday visited a Los Angeles installation honoring the victims of the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel who were killed while attending a music festival, according to reporters traveling with the Minnesota governor.

Walz, who is in Los Angeles for interviews and private meetings, commemorated the one-year anniversary of the attack by visiting the Nova Exhibition, an exhibit retelling the events at the Nova music festival in southern Israel one year ago.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee took a tour of the exhibition, which includes remnants of the festival in the wake of the attack, including a “Lost and Found” section featuring personal artifacts of festival attendees.

Absentee ballots are prepared to be mailed at the Wake County Board of Elections on September 17, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

North Carolina’s election board unanimously passed a resolution Monday to grant the counties most affected by Hurricane Helene flexibility to change polling places, schedules and other aspects of voting.

Elections infrastructure and postal service in 13 counties “remains severely disrupted” due to the storm’s damage, the election board’s general counsel, Paul Cox, said at a meeting Monday. Cox explained that the resolution requires county election boards vote on how to implement the permitted changes.

The resolution allows for those counties to add or remove early voting sites, adjust the schedules for those sites, permit displaced voters to drop off absentee ballots at another county boards of election where they have relocated and further empowers “multipartisan assistance teams” to help voters with absentee ballots, among other measures, Cox said.

Karen Bell, the executive director of the elections board, said all county offices are now open in North Carolina, though she said challenges persist.

“Many of the counties still are facing personal struggles, working in our county offices in these affected counties without power or water in their homes still, maybe even having difficulty with cell service,” Bell said.

Bell said the state remains committed to open early voting on October 17, as planned.

“It may look a little different in these affected counties, but we fully intend to offer early voting,” she said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz marked the one year anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel on Monday by reaffirming Israel’s right to self-defense in the wake of the attacks while reiterating his call for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that would ensure Israel’s security and grant Palestinian people “their right to dignity, freedom, and self-determination.”

The Democratic vice presidential candidate also strongly condemned the Hamas attacks and expressed solidarity with American Jews in the wake of the attack in a statement released by the campaign.

“Today, I join Vice President Harris, President Biden, and all Americans to again condemn Hamas’s brutality and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and to the safety and security of the American Jewish community,” Walz said in the statement.

“Our prayers are with the loved ones of the victims as we mark one year since the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. The people of Israel must never again face the terror that Hamas caused on October 7,” he added.

Walz met with families of Americans held hostage by Hamas last month.

The Arts District, along the French Broad River, in Asheville, North Carolina, begins clean up during the aftermath of flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Helene.

Despite the devastation left by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, the local official in charge of elections in the Asheville area reassured citizens Monday that Buncombe County is prepared to move forward with voting in the 2024 election.

The county elections office doesn’t have running water, but it has power, and Duncan said the office would be open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time. She encouraged volunteer poll workers to contact the office.

“Our office and equipment were spared. We’re working with our emergency team and the State Board of Elections to strategize and modify plans,” Duncan said. “We are assessing what voting locations are available.”

Early voting begins in North Carolina on October 17, and absentee by mail is happening now.

Absentee voting is available to any North Carolinian but must be requested by October 29.

Visit CNN’s voter handbook to see how to vote in your area.

A Metrobus approaches a bus shelter at 18th and K St's NW where a poster and electronic billboard displays the current US national debt on August 8 in Washington, DC.

Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are rolling out ever-growing lists of promises to voters — from making housing and health care more affordable to supporting manufacturers to providing tax relief to millions of Americans.

But those proposals come with hefty price tags, and the candidates have not laid out how they would fully cover the costs, a new analysis has found. As a result, the national debt would soar by trillions of dollars more regardless of who wins the election, further compounding the country’s fiscal problems.

Harris’ plan would boost the debt by $3.5 trillion over the next decade, while Trump’s platform would cause it to spike by $7.5 trillion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s report, released Monday.

The priciest item in the vice president’s platform is extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions for those making less than $400,000 a year — which would cost $3 trillion, according to the committee. The law’s individual income and estate tax provisions are expiring at the end of 2025.

That’s followed by expanding the child tax credit and earned income tax credit, which come with a $1.4 trillion price tag, and extending the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, which adds $550 billion.

Trump wants to extend nearly all the provisions of the 2017 tax cuts law, one of the signature achievements in his first term. But he would add to the price tag with certain other measures, such as eliminating the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions and restoring companies’ ability to immediately deduct investments in equipment and research. Altogether, this would cost nearly $5.4 trillion.

Trump has also promised to end taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits, as well as reduce the corporate tax rate to 15% for domestic manufacturers. These measures would reduce revenue by $3.8 trillion.

Read more here about he proposals.

Former President Donald Trump said Monday, the anniversary of the October 7 attacks against Israel, that he thought he should get “100% of the Jewish vote” and argued, “nobody’s done more for the Jewish people than I have.”

Trump called in to the radio show “Sid & Friends” in the morning and again claimed the attacks “would’ve never happened” if he were president.

“Nobody’s done more for the Jewish people than I have. Nobody’s done more for Israel as a president, maybe beyond being a president,” Trump said.

Trump said of he thought in Israel, “I could run for prime minister, although Bibi’s doing a lot better right now, I think he’s doing pretty good, maybe not.”

Trump also said Monday he thought Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “not listening at all” to Biden, as the president counsels Israel to take a proportional response to Iran launching ballistic missiles at Israel and not strike Iran’s nuclear sites.

“What you have to do with them is sort of listen to it, because you always have to listen to a president, and then you have to do whatever you want,” Trump said in an interview with Hugh Hewitt as he again criticized Biden’s position that Israel shouldn’t strike the nuclear sites.

Trump said he thought Netanyahu, “was held up a little bit because psychologically, you know, you have a president, he probably maybe would’ve been further along, but he’s pretty far along. He’s not listening at all, you know that, they don’t even speak.”

This post has been updated with more of Trump’s remarks.

The afternoon sun shines on the US Supreme Court on August 25, in Washington, DC.

The Supreme Court returns to its bench Monday with an agenda that includes cases on guns, pornography and transgender medical care, as the justices brace for a slew of last-minute election fights and a new presidential administration that could drag the court deeper into politics.

Of the 40 appeals the high court has agreed to decide so far, only a handful are the kind of screaming political controversies that dominated its caseload in recent years. While the lineup may allow the justices to keep their heads down for now, there are signs the relative calm may be short-lived.

A contested election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump could thrust the 6-3 conservative majority into a political maelstrom at a moment when polls show trust in the court near record lows. A new president could reshuffle the cases already granted. And Trump is all but guaranteed to resurface at the Supreme Court in coming weeks to clarify the sweeping criminal immunity the court bestowed on him in July.

All of that will be on the minds of the nine justices when they take their seats Monday for their first oral arguments of a new term that will run until next summer.

“As matters stand now, this feels like the court is keeping its powder dry in case the election explodes,” Carter Phillips, a veteran Supreme Court litigator, told CNN early last week. “Not a lot of cases and very few high-profile ones.”

Read more about the Supreme Court’s coming workload here.

RIPON, WISCONSIN - OCTOBER 3: Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a rally at Ripon College on October 3 in Ripon, Wisconsin.

Vice President Kamala Harris will mark Monday’s one-year anniversary of the October 7 attacks in Israel at her Naval Observatory residence, where, along with second gentleman Doug Emhoff, she’ll plant a memorial tree, according to a White House official.

Second families have traditionally planted trees on the grounds of the vice president’s residence. Monday’s planting of a pomegranate tree — which, among other things, represents hope and righteousness in Judaism — will mark the first for Harris and Emhoff while they’ve been at the residence, according to the official.

The escalating violence in the Middle East has been one of the thorniest issues for Harris as she’s taken over the Democratic ticket this year. Arab American advocates and leaders have pushed for the vice president to distance herself from President Joe Biden’s Israel policy, including during a meeting in Michigan on Friday.

Harris has maintained that Israel has a right to defend itself while also acknowledging the heightened emotions surrounding the humanitarian crisis in the region.

She’s also previously spotlighted the violence that unfolded on October 7. In June, she hosted a White House event focused in part on the Israel-Hamas war as part of an effort to highlight conflict-related sexual violence.

Harris and Emhoff, who is Jewish, are also expected to deliver remarks to reporters Monday. The vice president will reflect on October 7 and reaffirm her commitment to the security of Israel and of the Jewish people, the official said.

Sen. JD Vance speaks during a campaign event in Lindale, Georgia on Friday.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris has pursued policies that have prolonged Israel’s war on Hamas and criticized her inability to call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a close ally of the United States.

“If you actually want peace in the region, if you want to preserve civilian life. And most importantly, if you want to enable Israel to build the kind of long-term security for itself in the region, then you have to support policies that will get the war over as quickly as possible,” Vance told Fox News.

“On things like holding back precision guided weapons that would both destroy Hamas, the bad guys, but also minimize civilian casualties, Kamala Harris has sort of been at the forefront of threatening to stab our allies in the back, and because of it, we have a war that has gone on for much longer than it should have,” he continued.

Vance said he believed the conflict would have been over “months ago” if the Israelis were able to “do what they do best,” but instead Iran is emboldened and encouraged by the “weak leadership” of the vice president.

Harris told “60 Minutes” the US and Netanyahu have “an important alliance,” but would not call him a close ally.

Harris and Biden released statements this morning commemorating the anniversary of the October 7 attack and reiterated their support of Israel, even as they called for a ceasefire and hostage deal to end the fighting in Gaza, and a diplomatic solution to Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah.

Vice President Kamala Harris discussed how she plans to fund her economic plan, which includes adding tax relief for small businesses and a tax proposal that’s meant to target the wealthy.

Pushed by journalist Bill Whitaker on how her economic agenda would be funded, Harris pointed to hiking taxes for big corporations and wealthier Americans. Harris announced last month that she would raise the long-term capital gains tax rate to 28%, up from the current 20%, for those who earn $1 million or more.

Harris’ proposals would require congressional approval, which would be a significant hurdle if Capitol Hill remains as divided as it is currently.

Harris’ plan, which she refers to as an “Opportunity Economy,” also includes a federal price ban on price gouging, an expansion of the child tax credit, housing support, affordable healthcare and cutting taxes on tips.

With four weeks and a day to go before votes are counted, Democrats continue to lead Republicans in overall advertising for the presidential race, though the contest is closer in the swing states.

In the first week of the final month, North Carolina is emerging as a top battleground; and looking ahead, Republicans have seized a narrow lead in future bookings in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, both campaigns are shifting the issues they are highlighting in their ads.

During the first week of October (October 1 – October 7), Democrats spent a total of $75.6 million on ads, while Republicans spent about $46.2 million, according to AdImpact data, for a total of more than $121 million in presidential ad spending in just seven days, including the campaigns and their allies.

It was closer across only the battlegrounds, with Democrats leading by about $53.8 million to $43 million, with the party’s overall lead padded by about $22 million on national ads and digital ads not in the swing states.

It’s the final month of the 2024 presidential election, an affair that has felt bonkers for months.

Americans witnessed the sitting Democratic president drop out of the race, the Republican nominee narrowly escape assassination attempts and the rise of the first woman of color on a national ticket.

Where are the candidates spending money?

Money isn’t everything in politics, but it’s certainly not nothing. Where the campaigns — and the super PACs that support them — spend funds is, if nothing else, a good indicator of where they see opportunity.

CNN’s David Wright who tracks spending, has noted how the Harris campaign focused her spending in the first week of October on the critical “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Trump has been looking to the Sun Belt, but also spent the most on ads in Pennsylvania, proving it’s a linchpin to both sides’ strategies.

How are the two sides getting out the vote?

The policy proposals have been rolled out, and the candidates have tried to define each other. Now it’s time to get voters to the polls or the mailbox.

Voting early and by mail is already underway in much of the country, although early voting is not expected to reach the same level as it did in the Covid-19 pandemic election of 2020. Trump remains a mail-voting skeptic, but Republicans are embracing the practice in key states this year in an effort to keep pace with Democrats.

Who is on the campaign trail?

Harris has supporters to the left and supporters to the right, from popular high-profile Democrats like former President Barack Obama to disaffected anti-Trump Republicans like former Rep. Liz Cheney.

Trump will get bold-face support from the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, but overall has fewer surrogates to turn to.

Read more here on what to watch for.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the press after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Vice President's ceremonial office at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, on July 25.

Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden marked one year since the deadly October 7 attacks in Israel with statements commemorating the “solemn” anniversary and calling for a ceasefire and hostage deal.

“We will not stop working to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza that brings the hostages home, allows for a surge in humanitarian aid to ease the suffering on the ground, assures Israel’s security, and ends this war. Israelis and Palestinians alike deserve to live in security, dignity, and peace,” Biden wrote in a written statement.

He also said: “On this solemn anniversary, let us bear witness to the unspeakable brutality of the October 7th attacks but also to the beauty of the lives that were stolen that day.”

Harris and Biden also both called for a diplomatic solution amid the now-expanding war between Hezbollah and Israel. And both leaders reiterated US support for Israel’s right to defend itself in the face of attacks by Iran.

And the vice president said she is “devastated” by the loss and pain felt since the October 7 attack, which launched the war in Gaza.

“We will not forget, and we will not lose faith. And in honor of all those souls we lost on October 7, we must never lose sight of the dream of peace, dignity, and security for all,” she wrote.

The campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump made strategic adjustments to the content of their TV advertisements between August and September, a CNN analysis of ad tracking data shows, amid a contentious fight to define the transformed race for the White House.

Emphasis of key issues, including abortion, immigration and crime, shifted, with the Harris campaign moving away from defensive ads that stressed the vice president’s law enforcement background, and the Trump campaign leaning into economic appeals – the top issue for voters in this election.

The ad tracking firm AdImpact catalogs the issues that are referenced in broadcast TV campaign ads and tracks the amount of money behind those spots. Comparing changes over the past two months illustrates how each campaign is tailoring its message, and it shows the share of campaign resources spent highlighting various issues.

Keep reading here about the candidates’ ad spending and see below how they compare.

Today marks one year since Hamas launched deadly attacks in Israel, and the 2024 candidates are commemorating the day with a series of events.

Former President Donald Trump will be hosting a remembrance event at 6:30 p.m. ET at the Trump National Doral this evening in Florida, where “Jewish community leaders will gather to honor the 1,200 lives lost after being taken hostage and killed on that fateful morning one year ago. “The event will also remember the victims of antisemitic violence that has continued to afflict communities worldwide since that tragic day,” according to the former president’s campaign website.

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is set to speak at a memorial rally and march in Washington, DC.

Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff will plant a memorial tree and deliver remarks at 4 p.m. ET on the grounds of the vice president’s residence in Washington, DC.

At 8 p.m. ET, CBS’ “60 Minutes” will air a primetime special featuring a taped interview with Harris.

After rushing to comfort Israel as it grieved the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, President Joe Biden last year pledged America would stand with the country in its dark days and the good ones he insisted would come.

At the time, no one knew the international and domestic political consequences of his promise. An ensuing war has proved the existential role the US plays in Israel’s survival but also severely strained the alliance. It has also exposed and widened some of America’s most profound political divides ahead of an already tumultuous election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump next month.

The October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, which killed 1,200 people, did not just transform the Middle East’s strategic balance as Israel confronted Hamas, then Hezbollah, and traded fire with their sponsor, its archenemy, Iran. Like the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Hamas horror set off a chain of events that affected countless lives, unleashing political disturbances thousands of miles away.

Militarily, the United States and its allies have twice staged unprecedented operations to protect Israel from a barrage of missiles and drones from Iran. The US has also repeatedly bombed Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen who have launched attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea in the wake of October 7. Amid fears in Washington of a full-on Middle East war, the vulnerability of US troops in the region was tragically driven home in January when three US service personnel were killed in an attack on a base in Jordan.

At home, the fallout of the Hamas attacks has coincided with the toxic politics of a presidential election year. Campus protests underscored the splits in the Democratic Party, which soon saw unprecedented political upheaval with Biden abandoning his reelection bid and backing Harris just months before the election. In the new race between Harris and Trump, events in the Middle East continue to set off reverberations that could influence the outcome of the election. A horrifying wave of antisemitism, meanwhile, has left many Jews wondering whether they are safe in America.

Read Collinson’s full analysis on how the attacks have shaped US politics.