What voters are most concerned about heading into midterms and Jack Smith faces Senate GOP on Trump Jan. 6 probe

Justine Goode / NBC News; Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleSept. 29, 2026, 7:21 AM EDTBy Kaylah JacksonIn today’s newsletter: Three NBC News reporters hit the road for a six-day trip to discover what’s on voters’ minds. The attorney for a former Cornell University student says law enforcement and the school failed to protect her after she raised allegations of sexual assault. And Jack Smith faces questions on his handling of the investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Frank V Thorp for NBC NewsAmericans are frustrated with the direction the country is headed as the midterm elections approach — an atmosphere that typically blows up on the party in power. They’re angry about rising prices, ballooning interest rates and foreign wars. They are afraid that AI will automate many jobs while driving up utility prices.

So, NBC News took a road trip — over the course of six days and eight stops, three reporters hit some of the most competitive congressional districts to find out what’s driving people’s votes ahead of November. This “Drive to Decision Day” covered one-third of the most closely contested House races in the nation and two key Senate races.

Read the full story about our August road trip and watch the NBC News Reports documentary.

Add to GoogleCornell University alleged fraternity rape investigation reopened02:09The attorney representing a former Cornell University student who said she was raped in 2024 and pressured to take ketamine, accused law enforcement and the school of failing his client.

The former student alleges that Chi Phi fraternity brothers sexually assaulted her and that one sent a message encouraging other members to participate in the attack. The fraternity chapter was subsequently barred from campus, but no one was criminally charged.

Thomas P. Giuffra says his client went to the university’s police department after the alleged attack but did not speak with anyone beyond the first person who took her report. Officers failed to follow up on key pieces of evidence, including the group chat.

Cornell has pushed back on the suggestion that those involved in the incident faced few consequences at the time, saying the Title IX proceedings resulted in a range of sanctions, including expulsions and suspensions.

The civil suit has prompted Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten to reopen the case and consider whether to bring charges related to the allegations. He promised to pursue any new evidence “zealously.”

Former special counsel Jack Smith testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 22, 2026. Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images fileFormer special counsel Jack Smith will testify today before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his handling of the investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results leading up to the Jan. 6 attacks.

Smith has said he believes a jury would have convicted Trump in the election case had it gone to trial and dismissed notions he was “influenced or directed by the Biden administration.”

Smith, along with other FBI and Justice Department officials, has faced criticism by the president’s allies in the Senate over involvement in past Trump investigations.

Last year, the administration launched a so-called grand conspiracy investigation to examine actions taken by federal law enforcement individuals dating back to 2016, which would fall outside the typical five-year statute of limitations for most federal crimes.

Add to GoogleOnly woman on Tennessee's death row asks U.S. Supreme Court for last minute stay on execution03:36Tennessee is set to execute 50-year-old Christa Pike on Wednesday by lethal injection — the first time in more than 200 years that a state will put a woman to death, according to historical records.

Knoxville police say in 1995, then 18-year-old Pike and others lured a classmate, Colleen Slemmer, to an abandoned steam plant, attacked her and fatally beat her. The case gained traction after investigators said it was tied to the occult because of a pentagram found carved in Slemmer’s chest.

Pike’s lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to halt the execution, saying she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from sexual abuse during her childhood.

Tennessee corrections officials say they would try to fulfill certain requests made by Pike, including using female guards to transfer her and the use of an all-female execution team.

Pike, who has been on the state’s death row for over three decades, doesn’t dispute her role in the killing. In a letter to NBC News, she said that she is at peace whether her clemency is granted, saying, “I am only nervous about the process.”

Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-Calif., rallies on Aug. 24, 2026 with Asian American, tribal leaders and other community members in opposition to the planned closure of the NARA facility in San Bruno, Calif.The Office of Rep. Kevin MullinA family friend from the San Francisco Bay Area, where I grew up, asked if I had heard about the plan to shut down a National Archives facility there and move thousands of historical records important to the Asian American community out of California.

It wasn’t on my radar. So during a recent trip, I sat down with Rep. Kevin Mullin, a Democrat who’s been leading the fight against the move, and a local genealogist who frequently does research there.

They told me the facility houses old immigration, court and other records stored there from the 1898 Chinese Exclusion Act, Angel Island Immigration Station and the Japanese American incarceration during WWII. There are even documents from the Supreme Court’s landmark Wong Kim Ark decision, which established that a child born to foreign parents on U.S. soil is an American citizen.

The National Archives and Records Administration has said the closure of this facility and others will reduce the agency’s real estate footprint and save money as it moves to digitize records. But opponents argue it’s critical that descendants of people who are in these records have access to them, and that many of these AAPI families still live nearby in the Bay Area or California.

It’s a fascinating issue, and one that I plan to continue to watch.

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Kaylah Jackson is a platforms editor for NBC News, based in Los Angeles.