Americans Vote in Midterms With Control of Congress at Stake
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Americans go to the polls on Tuesday in midterm elections that decide control of both chambers of Congress, 36 governorships and thousands of state and local offices, and that will shape the final two years of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Every seat in the 435-member House is contested. Republicans hold 218 seats and Democrats 214, with vacancies, so Democrats need a net gain of four to take the chamber. In the Senate, where about a third of the 100 seats are up, Republicans hold 53 and Democrats 47, the latter group including two independents who caucus with them. Democrats again need a net gain of four; a 50-50 split would leave Vice-President J. D. Vance holding the tie-breaking vote.
More than 100 million people are expected to vote if turnout matches the 2022 midterms. A record $3.8 billion had been spent on political advertising by October 12, according to Reuters figures cited by the South China Morning Post.
The economy has dominated the closing weeks. A New York Federal Reserve study found tariffs had contributed 2.9 percentage points to goods price inflation by February 2026, and that without them goods prices would have fallen slightly. “For many voters, the economy is now synonymous with inflation, as rising prices outweigh job reports, housing affordability and stock market performance,” Francis Généreux, lead economist at Desjardins Group, wrote in a note to clients.
The contests are administered by more than 10,000 separate voting jurisdictions under state and often local rules, counted by the Associated Press. Mr Trump has asserted without evidence that mail voting enables fraud, and his administration’s effort to force California to set aside ballots from alleged noncitizens failed in the Supreme Court on Monday.
Results may not be known on election night. News organisations and state officials have cautioned that close races, particularly those decided by mail ballots counted over several days, could remain uncalled late into the week.
The Senate race in Michigan, where a defection by a defeated Democratic candidate has thrown the contest into dispute, is among those that may decide control of the chamber.