What we learned from the heated mid-term debates in the US Senate
As the Nov. 3 election approaches and both parties battle for control of Congress, some clear themes have emerged.
The candidates running in next month's midterm elections for the U.S. Senate have entered the debate stage over the past few weeks — with some heated exchanges and sharp personal attacks.
As the Nov. 3 election approaches and the parties battle for control of Congress, some clear themes have emerged, particularly in some tight Senate races.
1. Not all Republicans are behind Trump
Republicans running for office face the same question they've been asked in polls since 2016: How aligned are they with President Donald Trump?
Conservatives who have challenged the president in the past have generally not fared well with voters.
The president has seen low approval ratings in recent months, with polls showing voters are mostly concerned about the cost of living and high fuel prices.
Maine Republican Susan Collins, who is running for a sixth term in the Senate and has repeatedly split from Trump, has again distanced herself from the president.
"I voted with President Biden 91 percent of the time," Collins said at a debate last week.
"The fact is, this year alone, in this Congress alone, I voted against President Trump 137 times," he said.
Collins is running against Democrat Troy Jackson, the former president of the Maine Senate. A New York Times/Sinai University poll from mid-September shows Collins leading the race by 3%, while others show Jackson leading.
Elsewhere, some Republican candidates are choosing to distance themselves from the specific policy decisions of the Trump administration while pledging allegiance to Trump himself.
Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, traditionally a Republican stronghold, is facing a tougher-than-expected challenge in the Senate race.
He is running against Democrat Josh Turk, and some polls show him with a slight lead.
Hinson didn't go as far as Collins-Maine in his break with Trump, but he did fall out with the president on some policy points.
During an Oct. 13 debate with Turk, Hinson was asked about the Trump administration's deal with Russia to import 300,000 tons to the United States, followed by several other shipments.
The Republican candidate did not mince his words: "We need to lower the price of gasoline in this country, we need to lower the price of diesel, but I don't think we need to make a deal with Russia to do that."
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As they have argued in recent weeks, the candidates have not shied away from launching detailed personal attacks against their opponents.
The race for Michigan's vacant Senate seat — between challengers Abdul-Sayed, a Democrat, and Mike Rogers, a Republican — has seen its share.
Rogers, a former congressman supported by Trump, asked during a debate if anyone was a Muslim. His opponent's family might be on a "watch list."
Al-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim member of the US Senate, was strongly pushed back.
He called the Republican a "puppet for the Trump administration" and said he was "weak, cowardly [and] he won't go down until his poll numbers drop."
On Thursday, when a protester interrupted the Maine debate between Jackson and Collins, he suggested that the interrupter was related to his opponent.
Jackson then told Collins, "Oh shut up, I don't even know that kid."
In South Georgia, more personal attacks were exchanged between incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Trump-backed Republican Rep. Mike Collins.
What began as an exchange in which Ossoff accused Collins of taking money from Georgians to data center developers quickly escalated into insults that included Ossoff calling Collins a "bigot" who "hired half of the Third Reich."
Incendiary social media posts from Collins' son-in-law, David Alan Shear II, have become a bone of contention in the race.
In one of his posts, Scheer blamed "Israel and Zionist Jews" for policies that he said are meant to "undermine the nature of white and Christian America."
Collins defended himself by accusing Ossoff of being "crazy."
The Republican said: "I have condemned racism, anti-Semitism, hatred; I don't care where it comes from.
3. Some candidates skip the debate altogether
There are 35 Senate seats, an ABC News analysis showed, with no debates scheduled between the major candidates this November.
The lack of debate in one race has surprised many observers: the Texas race between Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and Ken Paxton, a Republican and former state attorney general.
Polls in the typically Republican state suggest Talarico could pull off a surprise victory. If he succeeds, he could hand Democrats control of the US Senate by flipping one of the four seats they need to form a majority.
Talarico has accepted four debate invitations from different news networks. Meanwhile, Paxton has not accepted any of those invitations.
In July, Paxton's campaign spokesman told the media that he would debate Talarico. But since then, the campaign and Paxton have been tight-lipped. Trump, who endorsed Paxton in the Republican primary, has even asked the candidates to debate.
"One thing about not being there is that you're missing an opportunity to make your case, and instead, what you're doing is giving your opponent the ability and the opportunity to make you look as negative as possible," Peter Trumbore, a political science professor at the University of Auckland, told the BBC's US partner CBS News last month.
As the midterm race heats up, anti-Muslim rhetoric is on the rise in Michigan's Senate debates.