The Latest: Many states deciding control of the Senate are seeing a big boost in early voting

Voter turnout is soaring compared with the last midterm election in many of the states that are expected to decide control of the U.S. Senate, according to an Associated Press analysis of early voting two weeks before Election Day. Advocates for greater voter identification requirements are pursuing a new approach in some states: a mandate to place driver’s license or partial Social Security numbers on mail-in ballots.

Variations of the voter ID proposals are being decided in the midterm elections in California, Colorado and Nevada — three states where conservative activists collected petition signatures to bypass Democratic-led legislatures and place the issue directly before voters. The Trump administration moved Wednesday to end its legal fight to overhaul a popular student loan forgiveness program. The Department of Justice appealed after federal judges ruled in June in favor of advocates who said the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program risked becoming a tool for political retribution.

But it dropped two appeals Wednesday in single-sentence joint agreements, which stipulated that each side would pay its own fees. Here’s the latest: Ashley Hinson shows Republicans’ midterm balancing act as Trump heads to Iowa to boost turnout Iowa’s Republican nominee for U.S. Senate is navigating a tricky political landscape.

Ashley Hinson promises to support Trump when it benefits Iowa but also vows to push back when necessary. Although many Republicans are walking a political tightrope in this year’s midterm elections, Hinson’s balancing act is more challenging than most. Iowans have been hamstrung by manufacturing job losses, healthcare clinic closures and shrunken farm profits since Trump returned to the White House, but Hinson is also relying on the president’s loyalists to show up for her.

On Thursday, Hinson will join Trump for a rally in Sioux City, which is in Iowa’s conservative northwest corner. The visit to safe territory is geared toward boosting turnout even as it ties her more tightly to an unpopular president. Trump is expected to visit the state again Nov.

He is “anxious for Iowans to hear his message before they vote,” Iowa Republican Party Chair Jeff Kaufmann said in announcing the president’s schedule.