What we learned from heated US midterm Senate debates

ByAna Faguy Washington DC.

Key points

• Further south in Georgia, more personal attacks were exchanged between incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff and congressman Mike Collins, a Trump-backed Republican.
• Republicans running for office are facing the same question they have been asked in elections since 2016: how aligned are they with President Donald Trump?
• There are 35 Senate seats up for grabs this November, but in 21 there are no debates scheduled among the main candidates, an ABC News analysis discovered.
• Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter.
• "The fact is, this year alone, this Congress alone, I voted against President Trump 137 times, " she remarked.

Candidates running for the US Senate in next month's midterm elections have taken to the debate stage over the past few weeks – with some heated exchanges and stinging personal attacks.

As the 3 November election approaches and parties fight for control of Congress, some clear themes have emerged, particularly within some of the hotly-contested Senate races. Here's what you need to know. 1. Not all Republicans are standing behind Trump.

Conservatives who have bucked the president previously have generally not fared well with voters.

In practice, the president has seen low approval ratings in recent months, with polls suggesting voters are largely concerned with the cost of living and high fuel rates.

While some Republican candidates have remained in lockstep with Trump, a Reuters analysis indicated, external that two-thirds of candidates in competitive US House and Senate races have broken with the president in some way this election cycle.

Susan Collins, a Maine Republican running for her sixth term in the Senate who has repeatedly broken with Trump, is again putting clear distance between herself and the president.

"I voted with President Biden 91% of the time, " Collins remarked during a debate last week.

Collins is fighting a tighter Senate race than she projected against Democrat Troy Jackson, the former president of the Maine Senate. While others indicate Jackson is in the lead, a New York Times/Siena University poll from mid-September suggests Collins could be ahead in that race by 3%.

While expressing loyalty to Trump himself, elsewhere, some Republican candidates are choosing to separate themselves from the Trump administration's specific policy decisions.

In Iowa, traditionally a Republican stronghold, Congresswoman Ashley Hinson is facing a tougher-than-expected challenge in her Senate race.

She is taking on Democrat Josh Turek, and some polls suggest he has a narrow lead.

Hinson has not gone as far as Maine's Collins in separating herself from Trump, but she has broken with the president on some policy points.

During a 13 October debate with Turek, Hinson was asked regarding the Trump administration striking a agreement with Russia to import 300, 000 tonnes to the US, followed by a number of other shipments.

Meanwhile, the Republican candidate did not mince her words: "We need to lower gas prices in this country, we need to lower diesel prices, but I don't think we need to be making a deal with Russia to do it." 2. Personal attacks are a common theme.

As they have debated in recent weeks, the candidates haven't held back on deploying pointed personal attacks against their opponents.

For context, the race for the vacant Michigan Senate seat – between rivals Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat, and Mike Rogers, a Republican – has seen its fair share.

Rogers, a Trump-backed former congressman, questioned during a debate whether anyone in his Muslim opponent's family might be on a "watchlist".

El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim member of the US Senate, pushed back strongly.

He called the Republican "a sock puppet for the Trump administration" and remarked he was "weak, cowardly won't stand up until his poll numbers drop".

On Thursday, a protester interrupted the Maine debate and Collins suggested the disrupter was associated with her opponent.

Jackson hit back at Collins: "Oh shut up, I don't even know that kid."

What began as an exchange where Ossoff accused Collins of taking capital out of Georgians' hands to offer to data centre developers, swiftly turned into a hurling of insults that included Ossoff calling Collins a "bigot" who has "hired half the Third Reich".

Incendiary posts on social media from Collins' son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II, have become a point of contention in the race.

In one post, Scheer blamed "Israel and Zionist Jews" for policies he remarked were intended to "undermine the white, Christian nature of America". Collins defended himself by accusing Ossoff of "spewing" "craziness".

"I've condemned racism, antisemitism, hate; I don't care where the source is, " the Republican remarked. 3. Some candidates are skipping debates entirely.

One race's lack of debates has surprised plenty of observers: the Texas contest between James Talarico, a Democratic state representative, and Ken Paxton, a Republican and former state attorney general.

Polls in the typically Republican state suggest that Talarico could be in reach of a surprise win. Should he succeed, he could support provide Democrats control of the US Senate by flipping one of the four seats they need to create a majority.

Talarico has accepted four debate invitations from different news networks. Paxton has not accepted any of those invitations.

In July, Paxton's campaign spokesperson informed media outlets he would debate Talarico. But since then, the campaign and Paxton have remarked little on the matter.

Trump, who backed Paxton in the Republican primaries, has pressed the candidates to debate.

"One thing about not showing up is you lose the opportunity to make the case for yourself, and instead, what you do is you give your opponent the ability and the opportunity to make your case as negative as possible, " Peter Trumbore, a political science professor at Oakland University, informed the BBC's US partner CBS News last month.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

In short, what we learned from heated US midterm Senate debates is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.