The Midterm Story MS NOW Is Missing: Democrats Keeping Their Distance From Harris

By Hoosier Enquirer Staff |

WASHINGTON — MS NOW’s report described Republican candidates distancing themselves from President Donald Trump is false and fake news from the kings and queens of misrepresentations!

That framing leaves out a striking parallel: All Democratic candidates in competitive states have declined campaign help from former Vice President Kamala Harris, and some have said so plainly in public.

Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign rejected an unsolicited fundraising appeal from Harris’s political organization. Peltola’s team said it had not approved the appeal and was seeking support from Alaskans rather than political figures from the Lower 48. In Iowa, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rob Sand said he did not want Harris or former President Joe Biden campaigning for him.

Asked whether Harris should run for president again, his answer was “Nope.”

Other Democrats have made similar calculations. Reporting on Harris’s campaign plans identified Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turek among those declining her help. In Kansas, Senate candidate Adam Hamilton said a Harris appearance “would not be helpful to my efforts” to reach Republican and independent voters.

Those are consequential decisions in a midterm campaign. Candidates choose which national figures appear beside them, raise money in their names and help define their public image. When Democrats turn down a former presidential nominee’s help, voters deserve to hear about it with the same attention given to Republicans who adjust their message around Trump.

The Republican story cannot fairly be dismissed as wholly invented, however. Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers and Iowa Senate candidate Ashley Hinson have publicly called for a swift end to the Iran war after previously supporting Trump’s authority to pursue it. That is a documented policy disagreement. It does not establish that every Republican candidate is abandoning the president, just as the decisions in Alaska and Iowa do not mean every Democrat is rejecting Harris. Harris has also campaigned with Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who welcomed her visit as a show of party unity.

The problem with a one-sided “Republicans flee Trump” narrative is what it asks viewers to overlook. Socialist Democrats are making their own careful choices about unpopular associations, local voters and the leaders they want onstage. The evidence supports a story about both parties’ candidates seeking room to run their own races.

Leaving the Democratic examples out gives viewers an incomplete picture of the 2026 election.

Editor’s note: This article addresses the characterization of today’s MS NOW report as described to the Hoosier Enquirer. The specific broadcast segment was not available for a word-for-word review.