You should look at the ballot measures of each state. Ballot measures allow the voters to directly vote on a policy rather than voting on a representative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_ballot_measures

Since this is a midterm election and not a presidential election, there is expected to be less voter turnout. Some people only care to vote for the President. Trump has repeatedly told his followers "Vote like I'm on the ballot". By this, he means that he wants more people who voted for him to show up for this election.

Maybe the ballot measures which are chosen to be on midterm ballots are different in character to ballot measures which appear on presidential election ballots because of the expected voter turnouts.

Aside from gerrymandering, you should look at other historic methods of voter suppression. As example, you should look up the 1965 alabama literacy test. Black people were given tests filled with trick questions and when they failed the test, they would be disqualified from voting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test

The more contemporary example of voter suppression is Voter ID Laws. The United States does not issue Photo IDs to every citizen. The main photo ID system that the United States has is Driver's License. Driver's License. Driver's Licenses were not intended to be a photo ID system and some states require people to have proof of insurance to even get a driver's license.

Several states have passed Voter Photo ID laws. People who will be disenfranchised by Voter ID laws are people who cannot afford to drive or acquire other photo ID and people who have been historically disenfranchised by race.

The purpose of these laws is to disenfranchise people in the same way that literacy tests did. The purpose of the law is to create an arbitrary system for polling station to block voters. The purpose is to give the polling station permission to say "I think your ID is fake" or "I think you stole someone else's ID".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_identification_laws_in_the_United_States

Arguably one of the most relevant topics to US elections right now is influence by Israel. Israel is partly responsible for starting the war against Iran. Israel uses US funding to do a genocide.

Something you should look into is how many states have anti-BDS laws. BDS is an organization that formed in 2005 to promote "Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions" against the state of Israel. Since 2013, 38 states have passed laws against BDS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-BDS_laws#Anti-BDS_laws_in_the_United_States

There is a website called AIPAC tracker. AIPAC is one of the Israeli lobby groups, there are others such as CUFI and DMFI. AIPAC tracker is a website that tracks the amount of funding that Israel lobby groups have contributed to a politician's campaigns. AIPAC tracker also has an endorsement list of candidates that haven't accepted money from Israel lobbies.

http://trackaipac.com/

https://nitter.click/TrackAIPAC

Colorado's governor race is fun. The republicans are running Victor Marx, who's kind of like if James Bond fought paedophiles. He of course is the son of Karl Marx. Karl Marx is the inventor of Cajun Karate. He'd be a perfect representation of the average Colorado republican if he had a cow fucking scandal.

Planet Extra Podcast or PEP: best US political coverage out there. Chas goes without sleep and is obsessed with the true facts, he is indispensable.

WNC has the Jamie Ager running. He's a chill guy from my interactions and my friends interactions with him. Don't think he's super radical or anything, but this is also the district that produced Chuck Edwards and Madison Cawthorne (who I had the pleasure of being in highschool with...)

So really anything is an improvement.

Also NC11 is the textbook example of gerrymandering.

They cracked Buncombe since Asheville is there and it's solidly Democrat. The whole of WNC is basically small cities and towns that are progressive with vast swaths of hollers that are conservative. They carefully draw the districts here so the swing is always 45/55 in favor of the boonies. Then they shut down polling stations near the cities and the conservative incumbents use state funds to bus rural voters to polling stations.

NOTE: The 11th district was re-drawn in 2021.