U.S. Midterm Elections 2026 LIVE: Trump says midterm results will be ‘better than you think’

Polls opened on Tuesday (November 3, 2026) in the U.S. midterm elections, starting with Vermont and several other East Coast States, including New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Kentucky. The vote will decide how much power President Donald Trump has for the rest of his term.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 of the 100 Senate seats, and governorships in 36 States are up for election, with about 210 million people registered to vote. Mr. Trump’s Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress.

Democrats need to flip enough seats to win a majority in at least one, which would limit what Mr. Trump can pass in the second half of his presidency. Pollsters expect tough Senate contests for Republicans in Iowa, Kansas and Ohio, while Texas and Michigan are expected to lean towards Democrats.

Early voting is on pace to eclipse that of the last midterms, and Democrats appear more enthusiastic than Republicans in opinion polls. On the final day of campaigning, Mr. Trump called the country “booming.” The Supreme Court rejected his push to have thousands of disputed mail-in ballots in California set aside, and Michigan’s Senate race was shaken when Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers over her party’s nominee, Abdul El-Sayed.

More than three dozen voting laws passed in Republican-controlled states are taking effect for the first time this year, many of them containing elements of proposals that Trump tried unsuccessfully to get through Congress.

At the state level, the changes include new requirements to show proof of citizenship. College students in New Hampshire won’t be using college IDs. Iowa voters without ID can’t count on other voters to vouch for them, and some voters in Mississippi might need birth certificates or passports for verification.

Naturalized citizens might get to polling places and learn they’ve been purged because databases used to check their citizenship against voter registration lists are outdated. A state-by-state guide to when polls close in the 2026 US midterm elections, key races to watch and when vote counts may be completed.

Voters in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., are considering candidates for mayor aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America. If Nithya Raman captures the mayoralty in LA and Janeese Lewis George wins in Washington, the two cities would follow New York’s lead, where democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor in 2025 after promising to transform city government to restore power to the working class.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday (November 3, 2026), that Republicans would perform “better than you think” in the midterm elections. He declared that “inflation is solved” and “everything’s going good”, despite continued voter concerns over the cost of groceries, fuel and healthcare.

Inflation is running at 3.7% annually, up from 3% when Mr. Trump began his second term. In an interview with Fox & Friends, Mr. Trump did not address concerns over prices, instead highlighting immigration enforcement and expanding US manufacturing.

Democrat James Talarico is making an ambitious bid to win a Texas Senate seat for his party for the first time since 1988. He is challenging Republican Ken Paxton, whose record has been marked by ethical questions and a statehouse impeachment over corruption allegations.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said higher fuel prices are linked to the conflict in Iran and urged Republicans to be honest with voters. He said blaming former President Joe Biden for the increase would amount to “gaslighting” working-class people.

Republican Sen. Roger Marshall faces an unusually strong challenge from Democrat Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor who has made affordability a key issue. A Democrat has not won a Senate race in Kansas in 94 years, and the contest has set a state record for campaign advertising spending.

Susan Myers (60), a voter in Falmouth, said she is hopeful that Democrat Troy Jackson can defeat Republican Sen. Susan Collins, but wary after recent disappointments.