Early voters in Potomac, Md., on Oct. 25. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski/ AFP/Getty Images)

(Countdown above in EDT)

Key races checkup

Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., has one big advantage over his opponent, Democratic challenger Kathy Manning: The 13th District’s map was intentionally drawn to privilege Republicans. Budd defended gerrymandering, saying that unless the Supreme Court says otherwise, “it is constitutional to politically gerrymander.” Gerrymandering, which has helped Democrats in the past, is more likely to help Republicans this time because the GOP controlled the redistricting process in more states after the 2010 census. (Read more.)

Two-term Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., is spending much of her reelection campaign’s final stretch stumping in and around heavily Republican Webster County, which President Trump won by nearly 80 percent of the vote two years ago. Her campaign’s message emphasizes her record of holding 52 town hall meetings over the last year “in every corner of Missouri,” even the parts where people “don’t like me very much.” McCaskill’s opponent, Republican Josh Hawley, portrays her as a “party-line liberal” out of step with Missouri values. The race could play a role in determining which party controls the Senate. (Read more.)

Air Force veteran MJ Hegar’s slick campaign video about her life turned her into a Democratic star, but the nationwide enthusiasm for her candidacy is not translating into crossover support in Texas’s deep-red 31st district. Despite a massive spending advantage — she raised $3.4 million to his $1.5 million — Hegar has fallen behind Rep. John Carter by a widening margin. Unless there’s a major reversal, it’s looking more and more like Carter will hold on to his seat. (Read more.)

Must-reads

At a rally bolstering Republican midterm candidates in North Carolina, Trump had to moderate his usual bombastic and angry tone following a week marred by politically motivated violence. Trump had to strike an unusual balance between urging civility and indulging his audience’s desire to boo the press and chant “CNN sucks!” (Read more.)

Story continues

Early voting returns show that the Republican and Democratic bases are extremely engaged and demonstrating an enthusiasm that could result in the highest midterm election turnout in decades. This higher turnout makes it more difficult to predict whether Republicans can defend their control of Congress. (Read more.)

The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group, released a report showing that far-right extremists have escalated anti-Semitic harassment against Jewish journalists and political candidates ahead of next month’s midterm elections. The report concluded that both robot and human-run accounts were responsible for anti-Semitic tweets. (Read more.)

Trump suggested that the dangerous packages sent to prominent Democrats and critics of his administration were hurting Republicans’ prospects in the midterm elections. “Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this ‘Bomb’ stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows – news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!” Trump tweeted. (Read more.)

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Scorecard sources:

Generic ballot: FiveThirtyEight

Right track/wrong track: Gallup

Trump approval: FiveThirtyEight

At-risk seats in the Senate: Cook Political Report

At-risk seats in the House: Cook Political Report

Read more Yahoo News midterms coverage: