New York’s 5th Congressional District House Race 2026

Residents of a Bayside, Queens neighborhood say they have spent years trying to remove a man believed to be occupying a vacant home without permission. The house belonged to longtime resident Richard Klibschon, who died in 2018 without children or immediate heirs, leaving the property empty. Neighbors say a man moved in more than two years ago, identified in a letter to their congressman as Vernon Glass, who was previously convicted in a 2018 Nassau County case involving taking over a vacant home and collecting rent from tenants. A separate 2024 lawsuit accused Glass and another woman of forcibly entering a Flushing property, though it was dropped after the homeowners' house went into foreclosure.

The bank handling the Bayside home's mortgage says it cannot remove the occupant until foreclosure concludes. A Public Administrator has since been appointed through Queens Surrogate's Court to manage the deceased owner's estate and pursue eviction; a July court hearing on the matter went unattended by the occupant. Rep. Tom Suozzi has pressed for a resolution, calling the situation a quality-of-life crisis for the neighborhood, though it remains outside federal jurisdiction.

Virginia's 1st and 5th congressional districts have drawn roughly $1.1 million in combined trading on Kalshi and Polymarket, the most activity among the state's House races, as both could factor into control of Congress. In the 5th District, Republican Rep. John McGuire is favored over Democrat Tom Perriello. In the 1st District, Democrat Shannon Taylor is favored to flip the seat held by Republican Rep. Rob Wittman. A third race, the 2nd District rematch between Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans and Democrat Elaine Luria, has also seen heavy betting, with markets strongly favoring Luria.

More broadly, prediction markets favor Democrats to retake the House and give them an edge in the Senate, with over $165 million traded on House control and $99 million on the Senate across both platforms.

Democratic Rep. Janelle Bynum debated Republican challenger Patti Adair, a Deschutes County commissioner, in a televised matchup for Oregon's 5th Congressional District, broadcast on KTVZ 21 and livestreamed at KTVZ.com. The forum was moderated by news anchor Lee Anderson, with a panel including KTVZ political reporter Spencer Sacks and Aaron Switzer, founder of Bend-based alternative weekly The Source.

Bynum, serving her first term in Congress after four terms in the Oregon House, flipped the seat from Republican control in 2024, defeating Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who later became U.S. Labor secretary under President Trump, by a 2.7-point margin — the closest race in Oregon that cycle. She was the first Black Oregonian elected to Congress. Despite that narrow win, the Cook Political Report now rates the seat "solid Democratic." Bynum has significantly outraised her opponent, collecting about $3.76 million through June 30 compared to Adair's $423,921, making her the top fundraiser among Oregon's congressional delegation.

Several New York Democrats running in competitive House races are putting distance between themselves and Gov. Kathy Hochul weeks before Election Day. Rep. Tom Suozzi skipped a Hochul campaign stop on Long Island, citing a scheduling conflict, while Rep. Laura Gillen attended. In New York's 17th District, challenger Cait Conley was caught on video agreeing with GOP Rep. Mike Lawler that "Hochul has got to go," later calling Hochul to smooth things over. Blake Gendebien, running in the 21st District, declined to say if he'd support Hochul. Recent Siena polling shows Hochul's favorability underwater and her lead over Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman narrowing in suburban and upstate areas, reviving concerns about coattail effects seen in 2022.

New York Democrats have filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections alleging that President Trump's August 14 visit to a Nassau County police training facility improperly used public resources to boost Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman's campaign. State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs argues that Blakeman, as Nassau County Executive, deployed county funds, facilities and law enforcement personnel to stage what amounted to a partisan rally at the county-owned David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence.

At the event, billed by the White House as a crime-statistics announcement, Trump, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, and GOP congressional candidates praised Blakeman and criticized Democratic rivals, with Trump predicting Blakeman would win. Jacobs wants the state board to assess whether the resources used constitute an improper in-kind campaign contribution and to consider penalties. Blakeman's campaign dismissed the complaint and blamed Gov. Kathy Hochul. A separate Hatch Act complaint against Blanche, filed by watchdog group Public Citizen, was rejected as baseless by the Justice Department.

Democratic candidates in Nassau County, New York, held a news conference in Garden City accusing the New York State Republican Party of distributing campaign mailers with false and misleading claims less than three weeks before Election Day. Hempstead Town supervisor candidate Joe Scianablo and others said the mailers were designed to divide voters.

Specific complaints included a mailer that accused Sean McCarthy, a Port Washington police commissioner and candidate, of funding an "anti-American antisemitic agenda." Assembly candidate Kim Keiserman said she received a similarly misleading mailer. Assembly candidate Dean Tarulli objected to a mailer pairing his photo with Mayor Zohran Mamdani's under the word "insane," alongside quotes he said were falsely attributed to him rather than commentator Hasan Piker.

The state GOP defended the mailers, arguing Democrats have failed to distance themselves from Mamdani and Piker's rhetoric. Democratic Party chair Jay Jacobs called the attacks guilt-by-association with no factual basis. Democrats said they sent a cease-and-desist letter, while some voters said they were simply disregarding the mailers.

With early voting in its final week, Rep. Jahana Hayes and Republican challenger Chris Shea, a firefighter, are making closing arguments in Connecticut's 5th District, widely seen as the state's closest congressional race. Shea wants to extend federal tax breaks on overtime pay and state/local tax deductions set to expire in 2028, and cites a campaign poll showing a six-point gap. Hayes, seeking a fifth term, disputes that the race is close, says the poll figures are unverified elsewhere, and is campaigning on reversing Trump administration cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Independent write-in candidate Jonathan Debarros, who lost the GOP primary to Shea, is also on the ballot.

A new Newsday/Siena University poll finds Long Islanders narrowly opposed to New York's Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, which bars local law enforcement from entering cooperation agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The poll found 51% opposed and 45% in support, with responses split sharply along party lines: 75% of Democrats back the law while 74% of Republicans oppose it. Independents lean against it, 57% to 38%.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the law earlier this year, prompting Nassau County to end its ICE agreements in August and 15 upstate sheriffs to sue over the measure. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican challenging Hochul in November, has criticized the law and says the county still plans to join the sheriffs' lawsuit. Siena pollster Don Levy said the Long Island numbers, weaker in support than statewide polling, could give Blakeman an opening on the issue. The law restricts civil immigration enforcement cooperation but does not bar police from working with ICE on criminal matters.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued Rensselaer County and Sheriff Kyle Bourgault after they became the sole holdouts defying the state's Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, which bans local law enforcement agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The suit, filed in state Supreme Court, seeks a court order voiding Rensselaer's 287(g) agreement. It came a day after Bourgault and 14 other New York sheriffs filed a federal lawsuit arguing the state law is an unconstitutional overreach; a federal judge has set a September 9 deadline for the state to respond to their request for a restraining order. Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin vowed to fight the suit in court.

Nassau County, along with Broome and Cattaraugus, previously terminated its ICE partnership after subpoenas from James's office, with Nassau Executive Bruce Blakeman calling the law "bad and dangerous" but agreeing to comply. Governor Kathy Hochul has defended the law while saying the state still cooperates with ICE on deporting convicted criminals.