2026 United States elections
 | This article documents a current election. Information may change rapidly as the election progresses until official results have been published. Initial news reports may be unreliable, and the last updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. (November 2026) |
| ← 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 → Midterm elections | |
| Election day | November 3 |
|---|---|
| Incumbent president | ▌Donald Trump (R) |
| Next Congress | 120th |
| Senate elections | |
| Overall control | Democratic gain |
| Seats contested | 35 of 100 seats (33 seats of Class II + 2 special elections) |
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| |
| House elections | |
| Overall control | Democratic gain[1] |
| Seats contested | All 435 voting members 5 of 6 non-voting delegates |
 | |
| |
| Gubernatorial elections | |
| Seats contested | 39 (36 states, 3 territories) |
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| |
Elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2026. In these midterm elections, which occurred during the second term of Republican president Donald Trump, all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate were contested to determine the 120th United States Congress. Thirty-nine state and territorial U.S. gubernatorial elections, attorney general elections, and numerous state and local elections are also being contested.
Trump called on Republican-led states to enact rare mid-decade redistricting to boost the party's chances of holding power ahead of expected historical losses for the incumbent party during midterm elections, which prompted reciprocal redistricting. In April 2026, the Supreme Court ruled in Louisiana v. Callais that some parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are unconstitutional. The Trump administration used millions of taxpayer dollars to fund Republican campaign advertisements, though later switched to using money from President Trump's super PAC.
Analysts called the results "generational in scope", a "blue tsunami", "the end of the Trump era", and described Donald Trump's ideology as "an utterly spent political force" in American politics.[2] The results are projected to be the largest majority in the House of Representatives since at least the mid-1990s for either major party, and Republican senate seats in Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina, Kansas, and Texas were replaced with Democrats, the last by double digits.[2] Exit polling indicated that a majority of voters also desired radical or fundamental reforms to the political and economic system of the United States.[3][4] Youth saw the power of large corporations as a serious threat to their long-term financial security, and so too the wealth and power of billionaires.[5]
Background
In the 2024 United States presidential election, Republican nominee Donald Trump defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Key issues shaping the campaign included public concern for the post-pandemic recovery and rising inflation.[8][9]
ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, NBC News, the Associated Press, MS Now and CNN will use the Voter Poll by SSRS to gather voter preferences and opinions for the 2026 elections. From 2018 to 2024, ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN used data from the National Election Pool while the Associated Press and Fox News relied on AP VoteCast.[10][11]
The Republican Party performed worse than expected in the November 2025 general elections. Democratic candidates Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey won their gubernatorial races over their Republican opponents by larger than expected margins. Democrats performed strongly in the concurrent state legislative elections, winning a supermajority in the New Jersey General Assembly and expanding their majority in the Virginia House of Delegates. In New York City, Democrat Zohran Mamdani, a self-identified democratic socialist, was elected mayor in a three-way race against Republican Curtis Sliwa and independent former governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as a moderate relative to Mamdani.[12] The main theme of the elections was the United States affordability crisis.[13]
According to the AP Voter Poll, about four in ten voters said they had voted to express opposition to Trump, compared with fewer than two in ten who said they had voted to express support for him. Roughly four in ten said Trump was not a factor in their voting decision.[14]
2026 election developments and analysis
Finalized new map; Democratic gain expected
Finalized new map; Republican gain expected
New map finalized; later struck down in court
Redistricting challenge rejected by courts
Voluntary redistricting rejected
Voters' views of Trump's presidency will likely be an important factor in the election.[15] During the 2025 off-year elections, exit polls found that many voted in opposition to Trump or said that he was not a factor.[16] Surveys released in late 2025 and early 2026 found that many viewed Trump's handling of the economy and immigration, two issues that propelled him to victory in the 2024 election,[6][17] negatively.[18][19] During elections held in his first term, Trump was on the minds of many who voted.[20][21][22] In September 2026, Trump featured in a two-day midterm convention in Dallas to rally support and raise funds—historically, this type of event is reserved for presidential election years, although the Democratic National Committee had previously held midterm-year party conferences in 1974, 1978, and 1982. Many Republicans on the ballot attended, but many also chose to forego the event, which RNC Chairman Joe Gruters dubbed a "Trump-a-Palooza."[23][24][25]
The outbreak of the 2026 Iran war on February 28 introduced further complications, with rising gasoline prices and other economic challenges emerging as central electoral concerns.[26][27] Analysts argued that gasoline prices represented the most direct channel through which the costs of the Iran war were transmitted to American voters, and that domestic electoral pressure from fuel costs was a primary political driver behind the Trump administration's push toward a ceasefire ahead of the November midterms.[28] Polling released by CNN in the September of 2026 showed that only 26% of voters approved of the Trump administration's handling of Iran.[29] In response to the general unpopularity and economic concerns of the Iran war, several Republican candidates have distanced themselves from Trump and his approach to the war and have called for operations in Iran to end.[30][31] Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer compared the political environment in 2026 to the one in 2006,[32] when dissatisfaction with George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war led to many Democratic victories in the elections that year.[33] Democratic candidates have leveraged the unpopularity of the war as a campaign point.
The nearly seven-month-old war in Iran became a political liability for some Republican candidates ahead of the November midterms. In September 2026, two Republicans in tight Senate races—Mike Rogers of Michigan and Ashley Hinson of Iowa—called for a swift end to the conflict, distancing themselves from President Trump. Hinson, who had voted six times against measures to curb Trump's war powers, said Iowans "shouldn't have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran." Rogers, who had previously backed Trump's strikes, released a campaign ad urging that the war "end and end quickly." The shift came as Trump's approval rating fell to 32%, a career low, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, with Americans souring on both his handling of the economy and the war. Diesel prices reached record highs, a particular concern in Iowa, where agriculture plays an outsized role in the state's economy. Other Republicans also moved to distance themselves: Iowa Representatives Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks reversed their stances and voted to limit Trump's war powers, while Representative Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida warned that Trump's immigration crackdown had gone too far. Democrats characterized the moves as election-year repositioning.[34] By mid-October, the same polling series put Trump's approval at 31%—a record low for either of his terms and a point below where it stood two weeks earlier. The same Reuters/Ipsos survey had Democrats ahead of Republicans 47% to 35% on the generic congressional ballot, a 12-point gap that was the widest of the election cycle.[35]
The administration's immigration policies, including deportations by ICE due to strengthened funding via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, were also scrutinized.[36][37] Polling found that Hispanics, who were considered a key reason for Trump's victory in the 2024 election, overwhelmingly disapproved of Trump and had largely swung back towards Democrats due to economic concerns and dissatisfaction of Trump's handling of immigration and deportation.[38][39][40] An October Reuters/Ipsos poll found that majorities said the cost of living was their top issue for the election and that 76% of Americans blamed Trump's policies for increasing inflation, including 57% of Republicans.[41] Signs of an enthusiasm gap between Republican and Democratic voters were noted by analysts as possibly forecasting a Democratic "blue wave". In September 2026, American political analyst Charlie Cook described this phenomenon as a "red undertow", arguing that anticipated Democratic victories would come not from a rising Democratic tide, but a drowning Trump brand.[42]
A month before the election, polling consistently found that Democratic candidates were leading key races for state governorships and those that would determine control of the Senate, with large swings towards Democratic candidates by independent voters.[43] The New York Times highlighted how Kansas, a state that had not elected a Democratic Senator since the Second World War, had become a competitive battleground amid an unexpected surge of Democratic support deep in Republican territory.