Nov. 5, 2022 US election coverage

As he sets the stage for a 2024 presidential bid, former President Donald Trump stumped largely for himself during a rally meant to boost his hand-picked 2022 candidates in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night.

The trip, three days before Election Day, was designed to help Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is locked in one of the most critical Senate races in the country -- one that could determine control of the body. 

But Trump seemed largely focused on his own political future. He coined a new nickname for his presumed leading 2024 Republican rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, calling him "Ron DeSanctimonious."

The remarks came while Trump used a big screen to put up various polls showing him leading in both the Republican 2024 presidential field, as well as in a potential general election rematch against President Joe Biden in certain states.

The tension between Biden and DeSantis has spilled out into public ahead of a potential 2024 GOP primary contest. On Sunday, Trump will be rallying in the Sunshine State with Sen. Marco Rubio. DeSantis, who is running for reelection, will hold his own, separate events. 

The former president, who is eyeing the two weeks after the midterms to announce a third Presidential run, told the crowd that he promised they would “in the very next very, very, very short period of time … be so happy.” He added that he didn’t want to announce now because he wanted the focus to be on Mastriano and Oz. 

Yet he did not delve into either candidate until an hour into the rally. Trump criticized Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman and said that Oz was “so much better than” retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial. Toomey has also said that the former president should not lead the ticket in 2024. 

Trump called both Mastriano and Oz up to speak. Mastriano praised Trump saying the state needed him, while Oz made a brief appeal to the crowd to get out and vote. In a fumble, Oz told the crowd to contact 10 people Sunday morning before the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers game -- however, the Steelers are on their bye this week and aren’t playing this weekend.

Additionally, Trump slammed comments from Biden on Friday calling for coal plants across the US to be shuttered.

“Biden has resumed the war on coal -- your coal. Yesterday he declared that we’re going to be shutting down coal plants across America. Can you believe this? In favor of highly unreliable wind and solar that cost us a fortune. Most expensive energy you could have -- an outrageous slap in the face to Pennsylvania coal country.”

At one point he asked congressmen in the state to stand and began introducing them -- but then said he didn’t like one of them, so he wasn't going to introduce him.

High school sweethearts Betty and Earl Crowe grew up in North Braddock, Pennsylvania. They met in junior high and have been married 39 years. 

Fentanyl overdoses are a major issue impacting how they will vote in the midterm elections. 

“We actually lost a daughter due to a fentanyl overdose. It got in accidentally with her drugs. We know it wasn’t – she didn’t buy it purposely,” Betty said.

The overdose happened to one of their two daughters, Stephanie, during the coronavirus pandemic. Stephanie died when she was 34 years old.

Their other daughter, Sarah, got the call. 

“She was the face of our business,” Earl said. “We both owned Pepperidge Farm distributorships.”

Betty added, “She lost very many of her friends, and she promised me that she would not be one of those statistics. And she ended up being one of those statistics, and not on purpose.”​

Through tears, Betty explained she talks about what happened to her daughter even though it's hard. 

“I want to help as many people as I can because I don’t want parents to go through what I’m going through. It’s hard and it never gets easier,” Betty said. 

The couple shared how they don’t think the Biden administration is doing enough to address the fentanyl problem in America while they stood in line at former President Donald Trump's rally for Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano, the respective Republican candidates for Senate and governor.

“One of the reasons we’re here is because of fentanyl. No one’s – Joe Biden – no one’s saying they’re going to stop it,” Earl said. “They don't want to acknowledge that there is a big problem.”

The Crowes hope that the Republican ticket in the upcoming midterm election will do something about fentanyl overdoses.

“I’d like to see Doug Mastriano and Mehmet do something about it. At least they don't ignore the problem. They notice a problem, and I honestly believe that they will try to help take care of it,” Earl said.

Betty jumped in, “I think Doctor Oz, especially, you know, as a doctor, he knows, and I think he feels as a person, a doctor.”

Having lived in North Braddock, the Crowes said they know and like the Fettermans personally, but they are voting straight Republican tickets.

"We actually know Gisele Fetterman from the free store in Braddock. We know John. I just don't feel he's the right person at the right time now. It's not his time yet," Betty said. 

“Gisele as a person is a good person, she is a very good-hearted person,” Betty said. “John, I think there are times when he did benefit Braddock, but–”

Earl picked up where Betty left off, “You should take a look at Braddock and take a look at the town.”

“John doesn’t want people to see what Braddock is now,” Betty added, “If he brought Braddock up, then it would be the way it used to be. I remember as a little kid, my mom and my grandmother taking us down there shopping. That was where you spent your weekend, in Braddock.”

Earl said endorsements didn’t weigh heavily in his decision to vote for Mastriano and Oz: “I’m voting for them for what they’re running on,” he said. “But it is good to see Trump again, I’ll say.”

Election officials in Philadelphia on Saturday said more than 3,400 mail-in ballots risk being rejected because of incorrect information, missing dates or missing secrecy envelopes.

Philadelphia City Commissioners’ Chairwoman Lisa Deeley released the affected voters’ names and urged them to take immediate steps to get replacement ballots.

Officials say the numbers of at-risk ballots will grow as more are returned.

The action by Deeley comes after the state Supreme Court on Tuesday barred local election officials from counting ballots with missing or incorrect dates on the return envelope.

A highly competitive US Senate race that could decide control of the chamber is on the ballot in this key swing state, along with a closely watched contest for governor.

“I am extremely disappointed in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision with regard to undated and incorrectly dated ballots,” Deeley said in a Saturday statement. “Handwritten dates are not material and the lack of such a date should not be a reason to disenfranchise a voter.”

Currently, more than 1,800 of the ballots flagged by Philadelphia authorities lack the required dates.

Election officials say their city hall office will be open Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to help voters fix the problem.

Pennsylvania’s requirement that voters sign and provide a handwritten date on their ballot return envelope has been the subject of litigation for months. And on Friday, several Pennsylvania groups, including the state branches of the NAACP and the League of Women Voters, filed a lawsuit in federal court, challenging the state’s plan to not count undated ballots.

The lawsuit calls a missing or incorrect date “a meaningless technicality” and argues that throwing out a ballot on those grounds violates federal civil rights law.

President Joe Biden rallied with former President Barack Obama and top Pennsylvania Democratic candidates in North Philadelphia, where he criticized "mega MAGA Republicans" and touted his bipartisan infrastructure law.

“Elect John Fetterman in the Senate, please. He’ll protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare. And will guarantee that veterans are always cared for. Always, always, always," Biden told a packed crowd at The Liacouras Center on Temple University's campus.

"My objective when I ran for president, was to build an economy from the bottom up and the middle out. It’s a fundamental shift, compared to the Oz and the mega MAGA Republican trickledown economics," Biden said, referring to Fetterman's GOP opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz.

As the crowd booed, the president continued, "No really. This ain’t your father’s Republican Party. This is a different breed of cat. I really mean it. Look, they’re all about the wealthier getting wealthy. And the wealthier staying wealthy. The middle class gets stiffed. The poor get poorer under their policy."

Obama offered a prebuttal to the possibility of Democratic losses.

“I can tell you from experience that midterms matter, a lot,” Obama said, a reference to the 2010 election that saw the GOP retake power in the House of Representatives during his first administration.

“When I was president, I got my butt whupped in midterm elections. I was elected in the midst of a financial crisis and we did the right things to get the economy back on track but it was slow and people were frustrated, just like they are right now.”

Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate, and Josh Shapiro, the nominee for governor, both spoke before Obama at the Saturday night event. Fetterman, who had a stroke in May, joked about appearing on stage just ahead of the former president.

“Let me tell you, anyone in recovery of having a stroke, really, the worst guy you have to go before, Barack Obama coming up has got to be the worst,” Fetterman said to laughs.

Obama’s speech was chock full of praise for Fetterman and Shapiro and disdain for their opponents.

“Josh’s opponent, woof. Oy vey,” Obama said. “He is willing to take the most extreme positions on pretty much everything.”

The former president hit Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano’s position on abortion and recalled that he wore a Confederate war uniform in a photo in a 2013-14 faculty photo at the Army War College.

“Pennsylvania, let’s remember what century it is,” Obama said. “This would be funny, it would be an SNL skit, if it weren’t so serious. You cannot let somebody that detached from reality run your state.”

Obama couldn’t hide his disapproval for Oz.

“Who do you really think knows more about budgets and having to pay the bills, John Fetterman or Dr. Oz? Come on,” Obama said.

“It’s easy to joke about Dr. Oz. I mean, some of these remedies he has pushed on TV… but you know what, that matters because if somebody who knows better, who knows better, is willing to sell snake oil just to make money, than he is going to be willing to do anything or say anything to get elected.”

Obama said Fetterman “is a guy who has been fighting for regular folks his whole life.”

“You can tell, just talk to him. He is just a dude. He is who he says he is. He doesn’t pretend to be somebody else,” Obama said.

And the former president invoked Fetterman’s stroke while complementing the lieutenant governor. 

“He knows what it is like to get knocked down,” Obama said. “But John's stroke didn’t change who he is, it didn’t change what he cares about and it will not change who he fights for when he get to the United States Senate. He will fight for you.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul got a last-minute campaign boost from former President Bill Clinton on Saturday at a rally in Brooklyn -- part of an increased campaign push by the Hochul camp, which is locked in a closer-than-expected race against Republican challenger and current Rep. Lee Zeldin.

“This is serious -- I know the average election rally is just ‘whoop dee doo do vote for me’ but your life is on the line. For young people in the audience, your life is on the line,” Clinton said.

During his speech, Clinton tried to draw a contrast between Democrats and Republicans, saying everything from reproductive rights to climate change and democracy is on the ballot. Clinton also acknowledged the economic headwinds which have become a central focus point in midterm contests across the country.

“Why is this a close race? Because of inflation. Because when the cost of living goes up, it’s unsettling to people,” he said.

New York’s Democratic establishment has been out in force in recent days as the potential of a Zeldin win becomes a plausible scenario in reliably blue New York. Zeldin has been running behind Hochul by single digits according to some polls. The state has not elected a Republican governor in 20 years.

The Zeldin campaign has been largely focused on crime and public safety. Zeldin, who represents parts of Long Island and has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, has promised to do away with cash bail if he’s elected governor and has said he will declare a “crime emergency” in the city to do so.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson on Saturday again cast doubt on Tuesday’s upcoming election results, saying he’s unsure whether there will be “full transparency” in the process.

“I want nothing more than when the polls close, to say, ‘OK, nothing weird happened here. We didn't find a bunch of suspicious activity. Our observers were able to observe, they were given full access,’” Johnson told reporters following a campaign event in Waukeska.

“We want full transparency, full access and if that happens, and that's what needs to happen, then I'll accept the results. But we need that full transparency. I'm not sure we're gonna get it.”

When asked if he’s seen anything that gives him pause about Tuesday’s elections. Johnson pointed to the Milwaukee elections official who was fired and criminally charged this week after allegedly requesting absentee military ballots for fake voters.

“It's very puzzling to me. Are we gonna have a thorough investigation, are we gonna know what that's all about before Election Day?” Johnson said of the case. “I mean my problem is, we're doing everything we can to restore confidence in our election. That's why we recruited so many poll workers, observers. Now we got jurisdictions not letting them observe. I want Democrats to have as many poll workers and observers as well. I want all eyes on the process. So at the end of the night -- I can't explain why Democrats just make it impossible to have confidence in the elections. It’s very tragic. I hate it."

Remember: On Thursday, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson announced that Kimberly Zapata, the deputy director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, allegedly requested military absentee ballots through the state’s MyVote Wisconsin website and sent them to a Republican state lawmaker.

Zapata has since been charged with one felony count of misconduct in public office and three misdemeanor counts of making false statements to obtain or vote through absentee ballots.

CNN asked Johnson on Saturday if he feels better that the election official was caught.

“She got caught by, and being prosecuted by and defended by a bunch of Democrats," he said. “I do not know what's happening. It is the most bizarre story, it’s just suspicious. And we should be doing everything we can to restore confidence. But Democrat leaders, Democratic election officials will not allow it."

First lady Jill Biden campaigned for Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly Saturday, lending her weight to one of the most competitive races in the country three days out from Election Day.

“What you do on Nov. 8 won’t just set the course for the future of Arizona; you’ll decide the future of our county as well,” Biden told a crowd of supporters in Phoenix, Arizona.

President Joe Biden notably bypassed Arizona — a key state with competitive elections — when he spent four days in Western states last month, reflecting the reality of Biden’s unpopularity among Democrats. Kelly’s Republican opponent Blake Masters has sought to tie Kelly to Biden and his administration’s policies and frequently claims Kelly votes in lockstep with Biden.

But on Saturday the First Lady appeared before a crowd of Kelly supporters and focused her pitch on the choice Arizonans have before them — one that she argued was between “two drastically different visions for our country.”

“In one we elect Katie Hobbs as your governor and we send Mark and (Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego) back to Washington to keep building on that historic progress … And in the other vision extremists are putting Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block," the first lady said. "A Republican majority will attack women’s rights and affordable health care. They will once more give the tax cuts to large corporations and the wealthy — that just doesn’t make sense.”

First lady on the campaign trail: Jill Biden has been to several swing states in the last month that her husband has not, including Wisconsin, Georgia, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Arizona.

President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama just took the stage at a packed rally in Philadelphia, where they're hoping to boost support for Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman.

The two men walked out together, waving to the crowd, before standing on stage with Fetterman and gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro. The four raised their arms, hands locked, and then Biden began to speak.

Read more about what this rare joint appearance means for a key Senate race, and potentially the 2024 election, here.

A record number of midterm ballots were cast in Georgia’s early voting period this year, the secretary of state’s office announced Saturday.

“Georgia’s record breaking early turnout concluded with 2,288,889 voters casting their ballot during Early Voting, with 231,063 showing up on Friday, November 4th,” the office said in a press release.

That's fewer people than the nearly 2.7 million who cast early in-person votes for the 2020 election, but a 21% increase over the number of advance ballots cast in person in 2018’s midterm. Friday was the final day of in-person voting in Georgia prior to Election Day next Tuesday.

Remember: The Georgia race is considered to be a critical one for control of the U.S. Senate, with polling showing a neck-and-neck battle between Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

Listen to the CNN Political Briefing podcast for analysis on the political landscape heading into the 2022 midterms.