Welcome to From the Politics Desk, a daily newsletter bringing you the latest reporting and analysis from the NBC News Politics team on the White House, Capitol Hill and the election campaign. In today’s edition, Jonathan Allen delves into Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Plus, Allan Smith rounds up Republican battleground candidates who are distancing themselves from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. – Adam Wollner Why AOC was in a deep red part of Michigan Analysis by Jonathan AllenRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign pivot with Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed today was about much more than a push on Election Day in November. It was also about all the subsequent election days. As the leader of the socialist-inspired wing of the Democratic Party, and who is weighing a run for president, Ocasio-Cortez is eager to find evidence for the case that progressives are just as good as centrists at persuading undecided voters to choose Democrats… maybe even better. It’s a counterintuitive argument and is central to the left’s strategy for winning primaries, including the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028. In elections with higher turnout, partisan voters often reject more liberal candidates, at least in part, because they believe those candidates would lose to Republicans in the general election. The left hopes that an El-Sayed victory will persuade the broader Democratic Party to reverse that behavior. “What we do is break the entire political calculus in America, period,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a fundraiser in New York this month. “Because if you can win, if Abdul can win at Michigan, anyone can win anywhere.” For AOC and El-Sayed today, anywhere was Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The 320-mile-wide rural swath, most of which is closer to Duluth, Minnesota, than Detroit, has long been an emblem of rural Republican strength. By campaigning there, El-Sayed and Ocasio-Cortez want to show that they are reaching voters in the red zone and then that they managed to gain followers. But while UP votes reliably Republican nationally, there are plenty of progressive voters. In areas dominated by one party, often people who remain in the other party are committed to ideological orthodoxy. El-Sayed did well in the Upper Peninsula in her primary, defeating centrist Democrat Haley Stevens in all three counties AOC was scheduled to visit today. Without converting a single Republican, you should be able to expect tens of thousands of votes from the region. Kamala Harris even won one of the counties AOC traveled to: Marquette, 20,866 to 17,459. El-Sayed may sweep away some undecided UP voters, but the real value of AOC’s presence is attracting as many Democrats as possible. If he can do that, the left will argue that his candidates are a better bet for the party in the general election. In fact, they are already starting to defend that argument before the votes come. Some Republicans in key races break with Trump over tariffs By Allan Smith In a handful of battleground races, Republican candidates are trying to distance themselves from one of President Donald Trump’s signature policy initiatives: tariffs. The Senate candidates in the battleground are Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, former Sen. John Sununu in New Hampshire and former Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan. Rep. John James of Michigan and Pennsylvania State Treasurer Stacy Garrity have also highlighted their disagreements with Trump’s tariff policies in their gubernatorial races. “So of course no one, I don’t think, agrees with the president 100% of the time,” Garrity said in a debate last week when asked about specific areas of disagreement with Trump. “In fact, who agrees with anyone 100% of the time? And tariffs would be a perfect example. While some tariffs have helped manufacturers, others have not.” What makes the divisions over tariffs interesting is that they are occurring primarily in states (Michigan and Pennsylvania) that were supposed to reap some of the biggest benefits from those policies through the return of manufacturing jobs. Read more →🗞️ Other top news today🔎 Suspicious letters: Federal authorities are investigating letters containing suspicious substances that were sent to “several addresses throughout the country, including several congressional offices.” Read more →🗳️ Voting Watch: This week, election officials across the country went to great lengths to publicly debunk years-old conspiracy theories that have circulated online about election workers writing on ballots. Read more →💲 Full of cash: Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico’s campaign says it raised $64 million in the third quarter of 2026, a staggering haul that would set a record. Read more → 🔵 2028 Outlook: Leading in polls for his re-election bid, Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is receiving presidential buzz. But if Republicans win the governor’s race, they would have the power to take his Senate seat. Read more →➡️ Iowa’s ‘cancer crisis’: Cancer rates are rising in Iowa despite falling elsewhere, and candidates in both parties talk about agricultural contaminants. Read more →🛣️ Trump on the trail: Trump supporters said the economic resurgence Trump touted at a rally in Montana is not the reality they are living. At a rally in Arizona, he said that government officials who leak information to the media “should be shot.” 🚫 On second thought: Trump said the administration will not livestream the execution by firing squad of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, canceling a plan Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last week. Read more →⚖️ Technically speaking: White House press secretary Katie Zacharia failed the California bar exam when she took it after graduating from law school, according to a senior administration official. The official argued that technically Zacharia could be considered a “lawyer,” although not a lawyer. Read more →That’s all from Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Lauren Zola. If you have comments, whether you like it or not, email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com. And if you’re a fan, share it with everyone and anyone. You can register here.
