Midterm elections live updates: Trump cancels weekend rallies in Iowa and Kansas

Democratic Alaska Senate candidate Mary Peltola is reacting to the New York Times story that reported alleged efforts by some members of her campaign to recruit a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan.

"This is just another distraction. It's another diversion. Every day, it's some new, you know, 'look over here' moment," Peltola said at a campaign event on Wednesday.

"This is all stuff to get subscriptions. Nobody at the New York Times cares about affordability in Alaska," Peltola added later.

The Times report said it relied on 12 sources, text messages and documents that allegedly showed members of Peltola's campaign, lawyers for Peltola, and senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) pushing to find a spoiler candidate who could potentially siphon votes from Sen. Sullivan and benefit Peltola.

Peltola's campaign said it "has no involvement with either Sullivan campaign."

-ABC News' Emily Chang

The Republican National Committee confirmed Thursday that planned rallies in Kansas on Saturday Iowa on Sunday with President Donald Trump will no longer be happening, with the president instead "expected to participate" in a large number of tele-rallies by phone.

Both Iowa and Kansas are hosting competitive races for governor and Senate. Trump has rallied in person in both states in the last month.

Trump said he canceled the Kansas rally because incumbent GOP Sen. Roger Marshall is “doing very well,” and said that he would instead campaign for the senator remotely.

The president's political operation MAGA, Inc., announced Thursday night that it will host tele-rallies with Trump for candidates in more than 15 states over the coming days.

-ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr and Oren Oppenheim

Ohio Republican governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy indicated Thursday that his controversial campaign ad featuring his Democratic opponent Amy Acton's estranged mother calling her a liar is no longer running, saying it had "ran to completion."

"It ran to completion, and we've put up four other ads," Ramaswamy told reporters. "But what I will say is, for all of the discussion around thirty-second ads, I would love, even for this final close, for this campaign to really be about policy, about are we going to do to fight for Ohioans."

The ad drew bipartisan backlash after its release. Acton says her mother stood by the man who was criminally charged with sexually abusing her as a child. Acton said she hasn't seen her mother since she was 12 years old.

In a statement, Acton's campaign said, "Vivek Ramaswamy should never have run his despicable ad in the first place, and it's totally unsurprising that he took it off the air in the most cowardly way possible, without even the hint of an apology to Dr. Acton, her family, or to the people of Ohio."

-ABC News' Catherine Bouvet, Oren Oppenheim and Diana Paulsen

With less than one week to go before the midterm elections, soaring electricity bills have become a hot topic on the campaign trail.

Over the past year, residential electricity costs have spiked approximately 5% nationwide, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

An ABC News analysis found that in the top 10 states where electric bills have increased the most, five are home to competitive races for the U.S. Senate.

Read more.

-ABC News' Elizabeth Schulze