Six minutes of news from around the nation.

Trump hits the campaign trail hoping to energize Republican voters, a new calendar could make New Mexico a big player on the national political stage, and Catholic college students say Gen Z is motivated to vote.

TRANSCRIPT

The Public News Service Daily Newscast for October 19th, 2026.

I'm Mary Sherman.

President Donald Trump is hitting the campaign trail this week, hoping to energize Republican voters ahead of the midterm elections.

Trump heads to Kansas today with stops planned in North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa, Florida, and Georgia, all states he won in 2024.

At his rallies, Trump is urging supporters to vote as though his name were on the ballot, hoping to turn out voters who often stay home when he's not running.

Historically, New Mexico has had one of the nation's latest primary election dates, but a big change is coming in 2028.

We get the story from Roz Brown.

Political parties use primaries to determine which candidates will run for their state's partisan offices in the general election.

Over the summer, the Democratic National Committee adopted a new calendar, moving New Mexico's primary from the first Tuesday in June to February 15th.

Democratic Party of New Mexico Chair Sarah Adelson was instrumental in leading the effort.

She believes New Mexico deserves to be a player on the national political stage.

For a long time, I think New Mexico was an afterthought to the presidential primaries.

And I have seen New Mexico be so late in the primaries.

A lot of times voters said, who cares by now?

To like, oh my goodness, how exciting.

And now to Ohio, where across college campuses, a nonpartisan campaign rooted in the Catholic social justice tradition aims to get out the vote in the 2026 midterm election.

Students at Jesuit universities in particular feel a moral obligation to be civically engaged and participate in democratic systems, says Chase Tuller, a senior at John Carroll University, and to follow with the network advocates for Catholic social justice.

He says the See, Love, Vote campaign is resonating with students working multiple jobs while going to school and still unable to make ends meet.

Young people are especially eager to vote in this midterm and make their voices heard because we're experiencing firsthand how the high cost of living is hitting us hard.

Michigan families could see major changes in their energy bills depending on the policies adopted by the state's next governor.

Crystal Blair reports.

A new analysis finds that expanding clean energy programs and requiring data centers to cover their own electricity costs could save the average household more than $600 through 2040.

However, the study shows that repealing the state's 2023 clean energy laws could cost households more than $2,000 over the same period.

Jonah Faberman with Greenline Insights, the group that made these estimates, explains the competing approaches.

Data center cost protection, that's being discussed right now.

Clean energy is being discussed.

And on one side, you have a continuation of that, and on the other, you have full reverse course.

Those who support repealing Michigan's clean energy mandates argue that the requirements are driving up electricity costs and making power less affordable.

This is Public News Service.

Kentucky's data center tax break, previously estimated to cost $15 million a year, could quickly cost the state more than $1 billion in lost revenue, according to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy.

Nadia Ramlagan reports.

Some Kentucky lawmakers are considering expanding incentives for data centers.

In Owen County, local resident Mike Haynes says concerned citizens want the county to implement a moratorium on building data centers. given the county's lack of zoning regulations and permits.

They're going to start construction or they're going to get these tax breaks.

And in the six to seven years that it takes to get one of these things up and running, at any point, they could just say, nah, we don't need it and walk away.

No data center has yet been awarded a tax break by the Cabinet for Economic Development.

In 2024, the Kentucky General Assembly created a sales tax exemption for data centers located in Jefferson County.

The next year, the bill was expanded to cover the entire state.

Electric vehicles are growing in popularity, but concerns remain among consumers over costs and accessible charging stations.

A poll by the Zero Emission Transportation Association finds more than half of Americans have a very positive or somewhat positive view of electric vehicles.

Across many demographics, positive attitudes towards electric vehicles are growing.

Corey Cantor with the Zero Emission Transportation Association says the positive views on electric vehicles bode well for the future of the market.

That's five times as many people as buy EVs today who are already positive on electric vehicles before the market addresses many of the challenges.

So I think that's really good news as we kind of reset and look at where the market is following this kind of yearlong retrenchment on the federal policy side.

The city of Boston will roll out a new fleet of battery-operated trains in 2030, but it remains to be seen if the technology can handle the daily commute.

The MBTA will run seven trains on the Fairmount line, each with four cars, to help boost the frequency of stops along the route and save more than 17,000 tons of climate-altering emissions each year.

Albert Charella, a professor of history at Kennesaw State University, says cities worldwide have long viewed electrification as a way to improve efficiency and provide cleaner air for riders underground.

People get infatuated with technological advancements and they tend to believe that these are cure-alls, that these are things that have extraordinary, almost unlimited potential.

The new trains will run for 50 miles on a single charge and will test whether the MBTA can electrify the route without installing miles of overhead wires.

This story is based on original reporting by Benton Graham with Grist.

I'm Katherine Carley.

I'm Mary Sherman for Public News Service.

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