Election season is known for fiery policy exchanges and personal attacks, but November’s midterms have been marked by notable moments that have been criticized for going beyond the pale. From a controversial campaign ad in Ohio to a candidate telling his opponent to “shut up” on the debate stage, closely contested battleground races have become…
AI Brief
Your highlights
This is a modal window.
Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.
End of dialog window.
Election season is known for fiery policy exchanges and personal attacks, but November’s midterms have been marked by notable moments that have been criticized for going beyond the pale.
From a controversial campaign ad in Ohio to a candidate telling his opponent to “shut up” on the debate stage, closely contested battleground races have become ripe territory for a wave of vicious attacks on candidates’ characters.
Here are seven notable attacks from this election cycle.
Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy made headlines after his campaign released an advertisement featuring his opponent’s estranged mother.
In the video, Democratic candidate Amy Acton’s biological mother, Donna Arthur, called her daughter a “liar” and urged Ohioans to vote against her this November.
Philip Stearns, Acton’s brother, slammed the video as a “despicable low” for Ramaswamy’s campaign. The Democratic nominee previously disclosed in a 2019 interview that she suffered sexual abuse from her stepfather after her parents separated and that her mother stood by her abuser.
Ramaswamy’s campaign stood by the video amid criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, including Ohio Sen. Jon Husted and South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace.
President Trump, meanwhile, doubled down in his support for Ramaswamy and the add, saying the Republican “should keep it up” while criticizing Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R) call to take it down.
Vice President Vance also defended the GOP candidate at a press conference last week.
“I have to admit that I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America,” he said.
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff has repeatedly called his opponent, GOP Rep. Mike Collins (Ga.), a “bigot” over past social media posts made by the congressman and his staff and family members.
On the debate stage in Atlanta earlier this month, Ossoff claimed Collins “hired half the Third Reich” to his congressional office and accused him of platforming “neo-Nazi content online.”
The Georgia Republican has faced scrutiny over social media posts made by his son-in-law and a former staffer that contained antisemitic messages.
The GOP senator responded to a moderator’s question about his son-in-law’s posts, saying he “condemned racism, anti-Semitism, hate.”
“I don’t care where the source is, and I tell him that too,” Collins said. “It’s wrong.”
Additionally, Ossoff and other Democrats have raised concerns with Collins’ own digital footprint, including a video he reshared from the University of Mississippi’s campus in 2024, which showed a Black woman surrounded by white students who are mimicking ape-like motions and making monkey sounds.
Collins captioned the post, “Ole Miss taking care of business.” He later acknowledged the video displayed “potentially inappropriate behavior that none of us should seek to glorify.”
“If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery, Mike Collins would be grabbing a billy club,” the Georgia senator said on the debate stage.
Texas Senate nominee James Talarico (D) has been the subject of a series of attacks from the GOP regarding his masculinity and past veganism with nicknames like “low T Talarico” and “Tofu Talarico.”
Trump aide Stephen Miller suggested the Texas Democrat was transgender in a May social media post, while Vice President JD Vance insinuated the candidate was gay.
Vance made the remark in response to a rallygoer at a recent political event in Tyler, Texas.
“I love you too, sir. In a totally platonic way, to be clear. I’m the Vice President, not James Talarico,” he said.
While some Democrats have bristled at the many monikers the president has bestowed upon political adversaries, Talarico embraced Trump’s “Talafreako” brand.
“I call him Talafreako … because he is,” the president told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham. “He’s a freaky guy. He’s got something wrong with him.”
The Texas Democrat turned the viral attack into a fundraising opportunity, selling shirts on his campaign website that say, “I’m a Talafreako.”
“We’re grateful for the president for the nickname,” Talarico said to Jimmy Kimmel, telling the late-night host that the shirts were the “fastest selling item” on his campaign site.
Tensions boiled over at the Maine Senate debate on Oct. 15 when Democratic candidate Troy Jackson told his opponent, GOP incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, to “shut up.”
After an anti-data center protester interrupted the Republican lawmaker’s remarks, Collins suggested the heckler was “obviously one of Troy’s supporters.”
“Oh, shut up. I don’t even know that kid,” Jackson replied.
Maine’s Republican Party condemned the comment as “unacceptable behavior.” Collins told Fox News’s Sean Hannity the comment “didn’t surprise me,” referencing a 40-year-old allegation that Jackson pushed his longtime romantic partner, which both he and his partner have denied.
The Democrat doubled down on his comment when asked by CNN’s Dana Bash whether he regretted it.
“No, you know, she said that it was a Troy supporter. I mean, she accused me of setting that up. I had no idea who it was,” he said, adding he refused to be “accused of things like that.”
Trump repeatedly used an anti-transgender slur in a Truth Social post earlier this month to describe the Democratic candidate in South Carolina’s closely-contested Senate race.
Pediatrician Annie Andrews is challenging Sen. Darline Graham (R-S. C.), the president’s pick in this midterm contest.
In his post, the president praised Graham as a “High Quality person” before adding that her opponent was “not,” using the anti-transgender slur that rhymes with Andrews’s first name.
Trump went on to claim, without evidence, that the Democratic candidate was “in favor of Transgender for Everyone.”
Andrews brushed off the attack and said she was focused on lowering costs in the state in a statement to The Hill at the time.
“If you care more about your bills than the politics in Washington, this campaign is for you,” she said.
The Republican nominee in Michigan’s tight Senate race, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), has repeatedly attempted to tie his Muslim opponent, Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Rogers has pointed to political donations to El-Sayed’s campaign from individuals connected to this Islamist group and claimed the Democrat has “pledged his support” to the organization, which the Trump administration designated as a terrorist group last year.
The Michigan-born Democrat has disavowed the group and said he was “proud to be an American” when asked about Rogers’s accusations during a Wednesday debate.
“I’m proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray,” he continued. “And the question that you would ask that, I think, is actually really quite shameful.”
Additionally, Rogers drew criticism after he appeared to suggest during another debate earlier this month that El-Sayed could have terrorist relatives when discussing his position on guardrails for Flock cameras.
“Those programs were really, really important in catching people who were suspected … of committing a terrorist act, that’s really, really important,” Roger said. “And why would that bother you? Well, if someone in your family that might be on —”
El-Sayed cut him off, interjecting: “Go ahead and say it. You’ve been tiptoeing around it the whole time, just say it.”
Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens received a swarm of online mockery for a viral pep talk she gave to supporters ahead of Michigan’s Senate primary earlier this year.
Her opponent, El-Sayed, also faced accusations of sexism after he suggested in an interview with Semafor that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a major donor to Stevens’s campaign, should “find some way to teach her how to string together two coherent sentences.”
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who is retiring from the contested Senate seat, accused supporters of El-Sayed who attacked the House Democrat’s appearance and voice of taking the “low road.” Peters backed Stevens in the Democratic primary.
In July, El-Sayed urged his supporters to “focus on the issues” in a statement shared on social media.
“It’s become impossible to ignore the way that people online make fun of my opponent for things that have nothing to do with her policies or politics,” he wrote. “It’s unkind and unhelpful. If you support me, please stop.”
El-Sayed went on to clinch the Democratic nomination in this race, with Stevens throwing her support behind him.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.