US midterm elections 2026 are under way as Americans vote on Tuesday, November 3, to decide who controls Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's second term.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are on the ballot, along with 35 of the 100 Senate seats and 39 governorships. Republicans currently hold the House by 218 seats to 214, with two vacancies, and the Senate by 53 seats to 47. Democrats need a net gain of only a handful of seats to take the House, and four seats to take the Senate outright.
More than 57 million people had already voted before election day, well above the 46 million early votes cast in the 2022 midterms. Final polls put Democrats ahead by around eight to nine points on the generic congressional ballot, and forecasters give them a strong chance in the House, with the Senate rated a toss-up. But no results are known yet, and a forecast is not a result. The first polls close at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, with the last closing at 1 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday in Alaska's western Aleutian Islands.
This report explains what is at stake, which races will decide control, why voters are unhappy about the economy and the cost of living, and what a change in Congress would mean for the president's final two years in office.
All visuals in this video are AI-generated illustrations in a news-footage style. No copyrighted footage is used.
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