Eight days before the November 3 midterms, Monday’s state-by-state picture was dominated by weather and the final campaign push, with record king tides flooding parts of Florida, flood warnings still active across the Four Corners region, early-season snow and storms threatening Alaska and the northern Plains, Oregon declaring an emergency after the Bend school shooting, federal voter-fraud charges spanning California, Florida, New York, Nevada and Pennsylvania, Vice President JD Vance rallying in Kansas, early voting underway in many states, and a Sports Equinox night headlined by the World Series in Florida, Monday Night Football in Pennsylvania, and college-football rankings reshaping the SEC and Big Ten races.
- Alabama: Alabama beat Texas A&M 31-20 to move to 6-2 overall and 4-2 in SEC play, avoiding a third straight loss.
- Alaska: Winter weather threatened Alaska with up to 16 inches of snow and wind gusts to 55 mph, with National Weather Service warnings extending into Monday night.
- Alaska: Graphite One won a Defense Logistics Agency award to test materials from its Alaska Graphite Creek deposit for high-temperature defense applications, in partnership with Idaho National Laboratory.
- Arizona: A 16-year-old boy was indicted on attempted murder, aggravated assault and firearm charges after an October 10 shooting involving an off-duty Mesa police officer and a security guard at a Mesa reception hall.
- Arkansas: Arkansas stood at 3-4 overall and 1-3 in SEC play after Week 8, with Missouri at Arkansas among the Week 9 SEC games.
- California: The Justice Department charged 28 alleged noncitizens in California as part of a nationwide case involving 48 alleged noncitizens, including defendants in San Diego County, National City and Daly City accused of fraudulently registering or voting.
- California: Three hikers stranded on an exposed ridgeline near Sierra Buttes in the Tahoe National Forest were rescued by helicopter hoist after a satellite SOS alert on Sunday afternoon.
- Colorado: Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park remained closed on the morning of October 26 due to snow, sleet, freezing temperatures and low visibility, after closing at 5 p.m. on October 23.
- Colorado: Flood warnings remained active in south-central Colorado after up to five inches of rain since October 21 hit the Four Corners region, with roads turned to rivers in parts of Colorado, Utah and Arizona.
- Connecticut: The first brief supporting Connecticut’s ban on modern semiautomatic firearms was filed at the Supreme Court on Monday, arguing in part that the prefatory militia clause of the Second Amendment was now extinct.
- Delaware: Milford’s Lulu M. Ross Elementary School, damaged by a three-alarm fire early Sunday, had no in-person or remote classes from October 26 through October 30, and nearby Mispillion Elementary also had no classes after the fire knocked out fiberoptic connectivity.
- Florida: Record king tides brought flooding to Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach, a high tide at Port Canaveral was the highest non-tropical cyclone-related level since its gauge was established in October 1994, and Miami’s October 25 tide was its fifth highest all-time.
- Florida: Tampa Bay hosted World Series Game 3 on Monday night against Milwaukee, with the Brewers leading 2-0, in the Rays’ first home World Series game since 2008.
- Georgia: Georgia remained No. 1 in the Week 9 247Sports SEC poll after a bye week before facing Florida in Atlanta on October 31, with Kentucky the only other team receiving a first-place vote after beating Vanderbilt 34-17.
- Georgia: Early voting was underway and continued until October 30, with the statewide ballot including governor, U.S. Senate, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general and other offices.
- Idaho: A lawsuit filed October 26 in Canyon County alleged the Proposition 1 campaign and Idaho Democratic Party coordinated to obtain candidate-level television ad rates for ballot-measure ads, seeking an order to pull the ads and return money.
- Idaho: Governor Brad Little announced a financial fraud working group to convene November 17, after Idahoans reported $88.7 million in fraud losses to the FBI in 2025, up 75 percent from 2023.
- Illinois: About 946 pounds of Imperio beef jerky were recalled after production without federal inspection, distributed in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin, with no reported illnesses.
- Indiana: Indiana remained in Big Ten contention at 7-1 overall and 4-1 in conference play after needing overtime to beat Michigan 13-6 on Saturday.
- Iowa: Iowa fell 13-10 at Minnesota, dropping to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in the Big Ten, and was the biggest faller in ESPN’s FPI, dropping 10 spots.
- Kansas: Vice President JD Vance rallied in Topeka on Monday evening for Senator Roger Marshall’s re-election, a week after President Trump campaigned in Kansas for Marshall.
- Kansas: A funeral was held Monday morning in McPherson for six-year-old Cole Adrian, killed nine days earlier when a pickup truck drove onto a Wichita soccer field, with McPherson Public Schools closed for the funeral.
- Kentucky: Kentucky led the SEC standings at 5-1 in conference play and 7-1 overall, on a six-game winning streak, ahead of Georgia at 4-1.
- Louisiana: LSU entered its bye week at 6-2, with a 59.7 percent composite chance of making the College Football Playoff, behind Georgia and Alabama among SEC teams.
- Maine: Monday coverage topics in Maine included Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts ahead of Election Day, the Supreme Court declining to hear a challenge to Maine’s 72-hour gun waiting period, the Collins-Jackson Senate race after their final debate, and Governor Mills ordering flags to half-staff for the third anniversary of the Lewiston mass shooting.
- Maryland: Maryland stood at 2-5 overall and 0-4 in Big Ten play in the updated Big Ten standings after Week 8.
- Massachusetts: Last Ditch, a Greenfield bar known for requiring masks and for controversy after making one night a week mask-optional, announced a soft closing on October 26, with some booked events still taking place through winter.
- Michigan: Michigan stood at 4-3 overall and 1-3 in Big Ten play after Week 8, and was also among the seven states in the Imperio beef jerky recall.
- Minnesota: Minnesota beat Iowa 13-10 to move to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the Big Ten, joining Wisconsin among teams still capable of a championship push.
- Mississippi: Ole Miss fell to 5-2 after losing 34-27 at Texas, while Mississippi State fell out of the top 25 in re-rankings and stood at 4-3.
- Missouri: Missouri stood at 5-2 overall and 2-2 in SEC play, and was also among the 16 states warned about intense thunderstorms on Monday.
- Montana: Montana Governor Greg Gianforte ranked top in the Cato Institute’s freedom study with a 62.31 percent score and an A grade, while Montana also faced early-season snow and dense fog clearing slowly in the southwest on Monday morning.
- Nebraska: Rain spread across Nebraska on Monday, with the first snowflakes of the season in the northwest Sandhills and Panhandle, and Kansas State played Nebraska in a basketball exhibition at 6:30 p.m. CT in Grand Island.
- Nevada: A Filipino woman and lawful permanent resident, Jullie Ann Sumalinog Moore, 44, was charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly voting in Nevada in the November 2, 2024 federal election, as one of 48 noncitizens charged nationally.
- New Hampshire: The Justice Department said it would again send monitors, in plain clothes and without firearms, to polling locations in Manchester and Nashua on November 3, as it did in the September primary with no reported issues.
- New Jersey: Vincent Battiloro, 18, pleaded not guilty in Union County court on Monday to two counts of first-degree murder in the 2025 Cranford deaths of Maria Niotis and Isabella Salas, both 17, with his lawyers indicating a diminished-capacity and insanity defense.
- New Jersey: A woman was critically injured after jumping from a window during an early-morning fire at Cooper River Plaza Apartments in Pennsauken, with firefighters taking about 50 minutes to extinguish a fifth-floor blaze.
- New Jersey: A court on October 26 denied rehearing for a $1 billion pipeline project, leaving New Jersey’s environmental agency to resolve deficiencies in monitoring and adaptive-management protocols for Raritan Bay dredging.
- New Mexico: Flood warnings remained active in central New Mexico after Four Corners rains, and a tornado touched down in Santa Fe on October 24 as part of the same storm system.
- New York: Governor Kathy Hochul was ranked last in the Cato Institute study, while leading Republican Bruce Blakeman by about 55 percent to 41 percent in the governor’s race, with early voting underway.
- New York: Former Yankees star Mark Teixeira, now running for Congress in Texas, endorsed Republican Saritha Komatireddy for New York attorney general against incumbent Letitia James.
- North Carolina: Libertarian state Senate candidate Jonathan D. Miller was taken into custody in Cary on Monday after live-posting an hourslong armed standoff with police, with police confirming his arrest around 3 p.m. at a Glen Echo Lane residence.
- North Carolina: A coastal flood advisory was in effect for Carteret County, with up to one foot of inundation in low-lying shoreline areas and king tides peaking Tuesday and Wednesday.
- North Carolina: Attorney General Jeff Jackson, with the state schools superintendent and 22 other state attorneys general, opposed FCC proposals that could phase out or cut E-Rate internet funding, which delivered $54 million to North Carolina schools and libraries this year.
- North Dakota: North Dakota faced varying chances of early-season snow on Monday, with the Weather Prediction Center identifying south-central North Dakota among areas where snow could accumulate.
- Ohio: Ohio State remained No. 1 in ESPN’s FPI after Week 8 at 28.2, and the Buckeyes return October 31 against USC.
- Ohio: Former Fox Run Center CEO Randall Mackendrick appeared in federal court in Columbus on Monday on child pornography and attempted coercion charges, and federal officials said he was also a suspect in a Perry County rape and kidnapping case.
- Oklahoma: Oklahoma stood at 4-3 overall and 2-2 in SEC play, with an outside shot at the SEC title game if it runs the table and gets help.
- Oregon: Governor Tina Kotek declared a state of emergency on October 26 for the Bend-La Pine School District and High Desert Education Service District to support recovery from the Silver Rail Elementary School shooting, which killed three children and a teacher.
- Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania became the 30th state in the PA Licensure Compact with Governor Josh Shapiro’s signature on HB 1961, aimed at improving rural care access and workforce mobility for nearly 13,000 physician assistants.
- Pennsylvania: Dallas visited Philadelphia for Monday Night Football, with Saquon Barkley active for the Eagles after missing two games with a hamstring injury, as reported earlier today.
- South Carolina: South Carolina beat Tennessee 27-24 to move to 4-3 overall and 2-3 in SEC play, one of two SEC upsets in Week 8.
- South Carolina: Public hearings on the proposed $67 billion NextEra-Dominion merger were announced for November 5 in Aiken, November 12 in Charleston, and November 17 and December 8 in Columbia.
- South Dakota: Huge silver-dollar snowflakes fell across western South Dakota on Monday, with rain spreading statewide and first snow in the northwest, while the Black Hills faced a potentially messy Monday.
- Tennessee: Tennessee dropped four spots in the SEC poll after its 27-24 road loss to South Carolina, falling to 6-2 overall and 3-2 in SEC play.
- Texas: Former Cowboys star Dez Bryant was cited for assault by contact, a Class C misdemeanor, after a confrontation with alleged reckless drivers in Southlake on Sunday, with a court hearing set for November 20.
- Texas: Dallas County early voting ran 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on October 26 through October 30, with the ballot including Texas governor, statewide offices, state legislature and local races.
- Texas: Texas beat Ole Miss 34-27 to move to 5-2 overall and 2-2 in SEC play, one of the SEC’s Week 8 upsets.
- Utah: A Utah couple escaped a massive rockslide below Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon on Friday, with no injuries reported, and the area will remain closed through winter with cleanup in spring.
- Utah: Flood warnings remained active in southeastern Utah as Four Corners floodwaters moved downstream.
- Virginia: In the NextEra-Dominion merger debate, Virginia customers were offered a $10 per month bill credit for four years, compared with $10 for two years in South Carolina, while Virginia’s governor was reported to be demanding $29 per month for four years.
- Washington: Washington was among 16 states warned about intense thunderstorms on Monday, with strong thunder, lightning, heavy rain, wind and large hail possible.
- West Virginia: Little Caesars’ Love Kitchen began five community servings in West Virginia on October 26 in Buckhannon, aiming to serve about 8,000 people and 2,000 pizzas in total, with Mountaineer Food Bank and Facing Hunger Food Bank.
- Wisconsin: Wisconsin beat USC 24-7 to move to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in Big Ten play, joining Minnesota and Northwestern among teams still capable of a championship push.
- Wyoming: Wyoming faced early-season snow on Monday as part of a seven-state winter weather pattern, with up to 16 inches and 55 mph gusts in the broader storm system centered on Alaska.
