Live Updates: Midterm voters go to the polls on Election Day

2026 ELECTION COVERAGE: Watch Live | Poll Closing Times | All Live Results | Live Updates | Live Fact Check

Election Day is here. Voters nationwide will decide control of the U.S. House and Senate. Democrats must flip four seats in the Senate and three seats in the House to wrest control of the chambers from Republicans. Control of Congress would give Democrats a way to push back against President Donald Trump’s agenda during the final two years of his term. The battle for control is playing out mostly in states and districts Trump previously won by wide margins.

WATCH LIVE: Election night 2026 PBS News special coverage

All eyes are on Senate contests in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas, while House battlegrounds are scattered across the country.

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Democrats have homed in on Trump’s poor approval rating, public dissatisfaction with the war in Iran and affordability concerns. Republicans have focused on social issues, while Trump has made himself the central character of the midterms.

Here’s the latest.

2:59 p.m. EST

3 NASA astronauts cast ballots from the space station

Astronaut Anil Menon’s sleeping compartment aboard the International Space Station doubled as his voting booth. Menon said in a brief video posted via X on Tuesday that he used his computer to fill out and submit an electronic ballot to Harris County, Texas. Crewmates Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney did the same.

Harris County is home to NASA’s Johnson Space Center and Mission Control.

U.S. astronauts have been voting in space since 1997.

Values motivate Texas voters — but for different candidates

In the Dallas suburbs, two voters say Christian values factored into their votes.

James Bender said he wants the country to get back to an identity rooted in Judeo-Christian values.

He said he respected Talarico’s religious roots and faith but said, “At the end of the day, I just, I don’t agree with him.”

Bender, 47, said he wasn’t voting for Paxton’s character as much as the policies he’d try to enact if elected.

Paxton has faced a string of legal and ethical problems and allegations of marital infidelity.

April Vindiola said those issues made Paxton a “no” for her. She said a candidate’s morals and values are important.

“I’ve been following Talarico for quite some time,” Vindiola said. “I think whenever I’ve heard him speak … it resonates with me what his beliefs are.”

Republican governor hopeful to voters in liberal California: ‘Just try it!’

The last time California elected a Republican to statewide office, George W. Bush was president, entertainer James Brown was still alive and the second “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie was the biggest film of the year.

Republican Steve Hilton is trying to defy those odds and end his party’s 16-year drought in a state with 4.5 million more registered Democratic voters than Republicans.

He’s tried to win over Californians who rarely vote Republican by repeating the motto “Just try it!”; blaming Democratic leadership for the state’s high cost of living; and releasing splashy ads, sometimes using AI to mock his Democratic rival, Xavier Becerra.

Becerra, meanwhile, has campaigned on a promise to uphold the state’s status as a liberal counterweight to Trump’s policies. He’s tried to tie Hilton to Trump, who endorsed him in the primary.

California billionaire tax proposal tests voters’ appetite to ‘tax the rich’

The ballot measure, known as Proposition 40, has racked up support from progressives like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has framed it as a monumental step toward reining in deep wealth inequality, while also drawing criticism from Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats, who say it will trigger wealthy people to flee the state.

The ballot fight has also been defined by the copious amount of money tech moguls and venture capitalists have poured into it. Google co-founder Sergey Brin alone has donated more than $100 million to a political committee working to defeat the proposal.

The first-in-the-nation measure would levy a one-time, 5% tax on the wealth of Californians whose net worth exceeds $1 billion. Most of the money would be used to backfill federal funding cuts to healthcare, while 10% would go toward education and food assistance programs.

In Virginia, a retiree says Trump has ‘done a great job’

Joni Borrell, 67, and her father, Herman Jamerson, 91, described themselves as solidly Republican. They voted that way a week before Election Day, casting ballots in Henrico, Virginia, for GOP Rep. Rob Wittman and Bert Mizusawa, the Republican mounting a long-shot bid against Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Warner.

Jamerson, a retired plumbing contractor, said he thinks the president has “done a great job” so far this term.

“He’s for the common person. To me, that’s his biggest success. I mean, he looks out for the little guy, just the average person,” Jamerson said.

As for Trump and the economy, Jamerson added: “Well, he ain’t done yet, that’s the thing. And it was in such a mess.”

Borrell, a retired nurse who now works with youth camps, said her strong objections to Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger factored into her vote. Keeping Republicans in control of Washington would help preserve some “balance,” she said.

Missouri could undo its amendment protecting the right to abortion

Abortion is on the ballot in four states including Missouri, where voters are being asked to erase the constitutional right to abortion they adopted two years ago.

The Republican-dominated state legislature advanced the measure, which also would write into the state constitution a ban on much gender-affirming healthcare for transgender minors.

Conservative Idaho’s question would remove a ban if it were adopted.

A measure in Nevada would ensure access until at least fetal viability and one in Virginia would create a right to abortion for the first two trimesters of pregnancy.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and allowed enforcement of state abortion bans, abortion-rights supporters have prevailed on 14 of the 17 ballot measures across the U.S.

2:23 p.m. EST

Trump is miffed about reaction to his Reflecting Pool speech

Trump spent part of Election Day complaining about reaction to his Monday speech at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, criticizing a news outlet and a Democratic congressman.

Trump spoke in great detail on social media about his upgrades to infrastructure and plumbing at the Reflecting Pool, devoting more time to that project than to Republican candidates he hopes will help the party retain control of Congress.

WATCH: Trump officially reopens Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on eve of midterm elections

Trump ripped the Daily Mail for describing the speech as a “final midterms speech.” He said his rallies Sunday in Iowa and Kansas were meant to close out the campaign.

He also went after Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., who on social media shared an edited clip of Trump suggesting he might rename the iconic spot on the National Mall the “Trump Reflecting Pool.”

Trump followed up by saying he was joking.

“I said, very clearly, ‘I’m joking,'” he wrote.

What is The Voter Poll and when will we start to get results?

Later tonight, we’ll start sharing data from The AP Voter Poll, a large survey of verified voters conducted for The Associated Press and the major broadcast news networks.

It’s a high-quality preelection survey of voters merged with the best practices of the historic exit poll, which major broadcasters have relied on for decades. Reflecting the complexity of American elections, it uses a combination of methods to find voters no matter how they cast a ballot, whether early, by mail or on Election Day.

We’ll start sharing data around 5 p.m. EST.

Oklahoma City man charged with mailing letters with nonhazardous powder to officials before the election
An Oklahoma City man is charged with sending hundreds of letters containing nonhazardous white powder to public officials ahead of the 2024 and 2026 elections.

The powders turned out to be yeast or flour, though not all letters have been fully tested, the FBI said in a court filing.

Robin Martin is charged with conveying a hoax and mailing threatening communications. He was in custody, and online records didn’t list an attorney who could comment on his behalf. He is expected to make an appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City.

Authorities said last month that they were investigating suspicious letters mailed to congressional and election offices nationwide and urged recipients to treat the mailings as “potentially hazardous.”

Some letters bore ominous messages that could only be read under ultraviolet light. The sender wrote a return address as “U.S.T.E.A., United States Traitor Elimination Army, Takoma Park, MD.”

Texas voters offer two takes on Talarico

Outside an early voting site in Dripping Springs, Texas, 25-year-old Ian Brown said he had just voted for a straight Republican ticket.

He referenced some of Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico’s past statements about God and gender, which Republican Ken Paxton has highlighted in attack ads.

“He claims he’s Christian, but he says you know there’s multiple genders. That’s not even biblically accurate,” Brown said.

The self-described Republican Libertarian said he thinks Trump is “the best thing for our country right now.”

Sofia Sites, meanwhile, voted for the first time this election and supported Democrats.

Sites, 21, has a transgender sibling, and Talarico’s stance on transgender and LGBTQ+ rights was something that drew her to him, she said.

“There’s no perfect politician; there’s no one I like to bow down to,” Sites said. “I just think that I’m wanting to see more empathy.

Voting machine programming blamed for election issues in a New York county

The vote-counting issues bedeviling Westchester County stem from a program update that happened after polling equipment was initially prepared and tested, according to the state Board of Elections.

A change in an unnamed local race required an update that wasn’t made to machines in other counties, the board said. As a result, those tabulators were unable to recognize completed Election Day ballots.

State officials said they’re working with their counterparts in Westchester County to restore ballot-scanning capability to at least one vote-counting machine at every polling location. Voting continues through established emergency ballot procedures.

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins vowed to launch a bipartisan investigation into what he called a “debacle.”

Arizona voter hopes to see a ‘more conservative’ government after the election

John Shaw of Phoenix said he showed up to the polls on Tuesday to support “American values” and “patriotic things.”

Shaw, who declined to say which candidates he picked, said he hoped to see government “be a little more conservative” and to see “less government” overall after the election.

Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is seeking a second term but faces a challenge from Republican Rep. Andy Biggs. Voters will also decide a full slate of contests, including congressional and state legislative races that could shift the balance of power both in Washington and in the state government.

While there were long lines at Shaw’s polling place, he said it was still exciting to talk to fellow voters.

Democrats make push in Alaska Senate, gubernatorial races

Alaska voters last elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2008 and as governor in 1998. But Democrats are making strong pushes in both races ahead of the ranked choice general election.

In the Senate race, two-term Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan has gotten support from Trump and Vance as he seeks to fend off Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman. Peltola finished first in August’s open primary.

Two other candidates, including another Dan Sullivan, also are running but have done almost no campaigning. Trump has directed the Justice Department to investigate the presence of another candidate with the same name as the incumbent, even calling for Peltola’s prosecution. He also continued voicing his opposition to the state’s use of ranked voting.

State Republican leaders have long expressed skepticism about ranked voting but encouraged voters to rank the Republicans. Many Republicans see the strategy as essential to winning the governor’s race, featuring Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and three Republicans, including Trump-backed Bernadette Wilson.

1:27 p.m. EST

Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff seeks a second term against GOP Rep. Mike Collins

A year ago, Ossoff was considered Democrats’ most vulnerable incumbent. The campaign hasn’t turned out that way.

Ossoff had no primary opposition, and he quickly became a fundraising machine, exciting Democrats nationally with his broadsides against Trump. He collected at least $109 million, tops among all Senate candidates.

Republicans had an extended primary battle. Rep. Mike Collins, a self-declared “MAGA warrior” who echoes Trump’s 2020 election denial, received the president’s late endorsement and defeated Derek Dooley.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the Republican whom GOP leaders wanted to run, backed Dooley and spent the spring telling voters Collins couldn’t win in November.

Collins struggled to hit the $10 million fundraising mark, and he was dogged by questions about an unresolved House ethics investigation and his ties to white nationalists.

Ossoff is trying to capitalize on Election Day as some Democrats openly hope he runs for president in 2028.

2 states could ban transgender girls from girls’ sports

Voters in reliably Democratic Colorado and Washington are deciding on ballot measures that would ban transgender girls from girls’ sports competitions.

Both supporters and opponents say that if one or both are adopted, it could open the door to further measures in Democratic-led states in coming elections.

Similar measures are on the ballot in Arizona, where voters are being asked to apply an existing ban to private schools, and in Nebraska, where a measure would add an existing ban in state law to the state constitution.

Every state where both the legislature and governor’s office are held by Republicans has already passed a law like this. But no state has done it through a ballot question so far.

The votes come at a time when a growing number of Democratic politicians are saying transgender girls shouldn’t be allowed to play girls’ sports.

1:10 p.m. EST

Vance’s Election Day message makes misleading claims about tax cuts

Vice President Vance Campaigns In New York And Ohio For Republican Candidates

Vice President JD Vance speak during a campaign rally ahead of the midterm elections at Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport in Swanton, Ohio, on Nov. 2, 2026. Photo by Tom Brenner/ Pool via Reuters

In a post on X, the vice president sought to remind voters about the Trump administration’s effort to cut taxes over the past year and a half.

“We ended taxes on overtime. We ended taxes on tips. We ended taxes on Social Security,” Vance wrote on the social media platform.

But the changes made by the wide-ranging tax law enacted by Trump are not that clear-cut.

More than 40 states have not implemented the federal law ending taxes on tips, meaning workers who receive a federal tax deduction for tips or overtime still will owe state taxes on those earnings.

As for taxes on Social Security, the legislation targeted seniors’ income with a temporary benefit, not just Social Security.

12:57 p.m. EST

Data center backlash may be a potent election issue

Opposition to data centers in communities across the U.S. has snowballed from a local issue into a midterm election weapon in statewide races from Texas to Ohio to Florida amid the artificial intelligence revolution.

Candidates spent millions to paint their opponents as data center patsies — giving them nicknames like “Data Nate” — as onetime data center boosters worked to distance themselves or get tough on the industry.

They had an ally: Trump urged communities to accept data centers, as the industry spent millions to boost its image.

Meanwhile, the issue crossed traditional ideological boundaries.

Labor unions became allies of tech giants, as they scrambled to build the behemoth projects.

Clean energy advocates became staunch critics of data centers, as energy-hungry server warehouses set off the biggest-ever construction boom of natural gas-fired power plants. Ranchers and farmers worried about water shortages or losing agricultural land.

Pennsylvania man says he voted to stop Trump

Kim Dean, 74, is a Democrat who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 but says he’s never voted strictly for Democrats — until this year.

Dean has a long list of grievances about how Trump has governed: the way U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “running around” and deporting people, the president “tearing down” the White House, the war in Iran, the way Trump “berates” people.

“A lot of this stuff, I just don’t agree with it. It just don’t make sense to me,” the retired steel worker from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said after dropping off his mail ballot.

“I’ll be honest with you, I would have voted for Pepe the dog this year, you know what I mean? To try to get this administration changed. Yes, I’m voting against the whole administration.”

Aided by Trump’s super PAC, Republicans outraised Democrats

If Republicans lose ground in Congress, it won’t be because they didn’t have more money than Democrats.

Republicans have held a financial advantage leading up to the midterm elections, owing to GOP-aligned outside groups’ outsized role, notably in Senate races.

Combined, the Republican National Committee, its related congressional committees and corresponding super PACs, including Trump’s MAGA Inc., raised more than $2.2 billion, compared with about $1.3 billion for the Democratic National Committee and its aligned committees and groups.

Democratic candidates, however, have outraised Republicans in their individual races, more than $2.3 billion to about $1.6 billion. That money goes further than super PAC dollars because candidates get lower advertising rates.

The two sides have spent an astronomical amount on the midterm campaigns — more than $11.9 billion, according to Federal Election Commission records. The vast majority of spending has been on advertising: Republicans and allied groups have spent more than $5.5 billion while Democrats and allied groups have spent a little more than $5 billion, according to the media-tracking firm AdImpact.

Man charged with mailing hundreds of letters containing powder to officials ahead of the election

Federal authorities have charged an Oklahoma man with sending hundreds of letters containing nonhazardous white powder to public officials ahead of the 2024 and 2026 elections.

The powders turned out to be yeast or flour, though not all letters have been fully tested, the FBI said in a court filing made public Tuesday.

Robin Martin is charged with conveying a hoax and mailing threatening communications. Martin was expected to make his initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon in Oklahoma City. Online records do not list an attorney to comment on his behalf.

Democrats aim to capture a majority of governors’ offices for first time since 2006

If they pull it off, it would be the first time in two decades that Democrats hold a majority of the governors’ offices.

All told, 36 states will elect a governor on Nov. 3. Heading into the elections, Republicans held a 26-24 majority. Democrats need to pick up two more states to capture a majority. Democrats last gained a majority in 2006 and lost it four years later.

The parties see about a dozen races as competitive.

Democrats’ best opportunities to pick up a governor’s office are in Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Nevada and Ohio.

Republicans’ best opportunity to capture an executive suite is in Kansas.

Next on the GOP’s list are Wisconsin’s and Michigan’s open governor’s offices.

Democrats think they have a chance in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and Nebraska.

12:06 p.m. EST

Helicopter to help South Carolina island count votes faster

Several hundred ballots from South Carolina’s most remote precinct should be counted a lot faster Tuesday night thanks to the local sheriff’s office helicopter.

LIVE RESULTS: South Carolina Senate midterm election

There are no bridges to Daufuskie Island on the far southern coast of the state. In previous elections, voting officials had to collect ballots and other equipment and wait for the regular ferry schedule or another boat, which could delay results for five hours.

There are stories of one night the Daufuskie Island precinct left everyone waiting until the early morning hours because the person bringing the votes back stopped because the fishing was good.

11:42 a.m. EST

For some voters, Trump is either doing the right thing or he’s a threat to democracy

Patricia Witt, 82, is a registered Democrat in Raleigh, North Carolina. But the retired information technology worker voted for Trump’s handpicked Senate candidate, Republican Michael Whatley, because she wants to maintain GOP support in Congress for Trump and his policies.

“And I do not want to go through what we went through before with the Senate and the House fighting against the man, rather than fighting for what they should be doing — representing us as citizens,” she said.

An Amish voter at Salisbury Township Municipal Building during the midterm elections in Gap, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 3, 2026. Photo by Eric Lee/ Reuters

But David Kastenberg, 65, a physician living in Philadelphia, wants the opposite. He said he voted for Democratic candidates in part over concerns that American democracy is at stake.

“I’m extremely upset with what’s happening in Washington with President Trump’s policies,” he said. “And I want to see Congress change.”

LA, DC could follow NY with democratic socialist mayors

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.

Both cities are heavily Democratic.

Raman is trying to oust Mayor Karen Bass, who’s fighting to keep her job after a rough first term that included the deadly Palisades Fire, which ignited when she was out of the country and caught the fire department unprepared. The former political allies are progressive Democrats.

In Washington, Lewis George is favored after winning the Democratic primary. Her victory would signal a break with a quarter-century of centrist governance in Washington. It would place her in the vanguard of democratic socialists that also includes Katie Wilson, who won an upset victory to lead Seattle last fall.

Kansas voter trusts Trump will bring fuel prices down

Daryl Compton, a 73-year-old retired UPS worker, attended a rally in Topeka, Kansas, last week headlined by Vice President Vance wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap.

Compton said he’s concerned about illegal immigration, the economy and national security, particularly the threat posed by Iran.

He also said fuel prices are too high, “but I put my trust in Trump that they are going to come down.”

LIVE RESULTS: Kansas Senate midterm election

“And I think they’ll come down a lot further than we even expect,” he said.

Compton said he’s motivated to vote for Republican Sen. Roger Marshall because if Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton wins, that could put Democrats in charge of the Senate.

“I don’t like Democrats,” he said. “They’re basically not Democrats. They are more like Communists, and I’m against Communism.”

Voting in one Florida county delayed due to bar code issue as polls open

Voting was delayed for 20 minutes at voting sites across Broward County as polls opened because a new safety feature malfunctioned, officials said.

During a news conference, Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott apologized to voters who had to wait and said some left before they were able to vote. The problem was solved by 7:20 a.m., and Scott encouraged those who left to return. He did not have an estimate of how many voters left.

Scott said the state’s late redistricting meant some people within the same precinct voted on different ballots, and the new bar code feature was meant to ensure poll workers did not give people the wrong one.

Some people received an error message that they were voting on the wrong ballot, but they were not, Scott said.

“Nobody voted on the wrong ballot,” Scott said. “None of the counts were impacted.”

Millions of voters face new laws at ballot box

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.

Opponents say the restrictions make it harder for eligible voters to vote. Republican lawmakers who support the tighter voting laws, especially around voter ID, say they help build trust in elections.

The Texas governor’s race has focused on a new lightning rod: data centers

A campaign sign for Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa near a polling station during the midterm elections, on Election Day, in Austin, Texas, Nov. 3, 2026. Photo by Mike Segar/ Reuters

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has comfortably held the governor’s mansion since 2014, is in one of his tougher fights. He faces Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa in an election year favoring her party.

The race, still an uphill slog for Hinojosa, has revolved around the standard concerns of high costs and public education, but the hulking structures that power artificial intelligence butted in. Data centers have drawn bipartisan anger from Americans who live by them and concerns that the buildings guzzle too much water and electricity.

Last year, Abbott celebrated Google’s investments partly to build data centers in the state. Hinojosa hammered him for it, arguing that it represented the influence of wealthy people over everyday Texans. The governor has since shifted his position, ordering the pause of data center permits and saying, “Texans come first.”

11:11 a.m. EST

Flooding prompts relocation of some polling places in Florida

Some voters in Florida were being directed to cast their ballots in new places on Tuesday after their polling sites were relocated due to continued rain and flooding.

Florida elections officials said 21 polling places in eight counties were moved. The relocations were mostly along the central and southern Atlantic coast, with some inland counties included. County officials said they notified voters by text and email, and signs were posted at voting locations directing people to the new sites.

Some residents expressed frustration and concern on social media that some voters may not be able to get to the polls because of flooding.

Amy Keith, the Florida state director for Common Cause, said the flooding is a big issue.

“Today it has already been a pretty challenging morning,” she said, urging voters to double-check their voting locations with election supervisors.

Schumer says he’s ‘nauseously optimistic’

After casting his vote at a Brooklyn school, Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer said he was optimistic that when polls close, “there will be a new Democratic majority in the United States Senate.”

“We don’t want to count our chickens before they hatch. So I’d characterize our mood as nauseously optimistic,” Schumer said.

He predicted that Democrat Abdul El-Sayed would win the U.S. Senate race in Michigan, despite the decision by his former primary opponent, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, to endorse Republican Mike Rogers.

WATCH LIVE: House Democratic Leader Jeffries holds Election Day news conference

“She’s one vote,” Schumer said. “He’s going to win tonight because he’s talking about what Michiganders care about.”

Schumer said that a year ago, no one thought the Democrats might be in a position to retake the Senate. But he credited the party’s “relentless” focus on affordability and “chaos overseas in a war with Iran that nobody wants” with making Democrats more competitive.

A look at recent midterm election results

Midterm elections generally favor the party that doesn’t hold the White House, but the two most recent cycles generated a mixed result.

When Joe Biden was president, Republicans won control of the House in 2022, picking up nine seats and assuming a slim majority. But Democrats maintained control of the Senate and even picked up a seat in the chamber.

A similar dynamic occurred during Trump’s first term, though the gains were much larger for Democrats in the House. They netted 40 seats in the 2018 midterms and took the majority for the first time in eight years. Still, Republicans expanded their Senate majority by two seats.

Some analysts see similarities between this midterm political environment and that of 2006, when President George W. Bush and Republicans faced headwinds from high fuel prices and the war in Iraq. That year, Democrats added 30 House seats and six Senate seats to take the majority in both chambers.

10:36 a.m. EST

Massive spending and presidential visits signal Ohio is back in play

After years of having its storied bellwether status written off, Ohio is competitive again.

Republicans should have run away with critical contests for U.S. Senate and governor, based on Trump’s three consecutive sweeping victories in the state. Instead, they headed into Election Day in close contests with their Democratic rivals.

WATCH: Campaigns spend big to sway voters with increasingly personal attack ads

Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown has mounted a comeback bid against Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, appointed last year to the seat formerly held by Vice President JD Vance. Both Trump and Vance visited Ohio in the campaign’s closing weeks to rally voters, as did former President Barack Obama for Democrats.

The governor’s contest pits Republican biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy against Democrat Dr. Amy Acton, the state’s former COVID-era health director.

An ad Ramaswamy ran featuring Acton’s estranged mother became a flashpoint in the race and across the U.S.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy warns of massive Russian strikes as the world focuses on U.S. midterms

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russia will step up massive drone and missile strikes on his country’s energy facilities this week while international attention is focused on the U.S. midterm elections.

“The world will be watching the American midterms, and what is happening here in Ukraine, along with our difficulties with air defense and Patriot missiles, will be overlooked,” he said in an evening video post.

Russian ballistic missiles and drones damaged energy facilities in 10 Ukrainian regions Tuesday — part of a campaign by Moscow to pressure Kyiv over the winter months.

General mood of the country from AP-NORC polling

Americans have been in a sour mood about the country’s direction for several years, according to AP-NORC polling.

About 7 in 10 U.S. adults say the country is heading in the wrong direction, according to AP-NORC polling from September. Only about one-quarter of U.S. adults say things are headed in the “right direction.” Democrats and independents are much likelier than Republicans to say things are not going the right way.

Roughly 6 in 10 U.S. adults say they are feeling “very” or “somewhat” pessimistic about the state of politics in this country, according to an AP-NORC poll from October. About half are feeling negatively about the future of democracy in the U.S.

U.S. will halt $4B in aid to Israel as ally shifts to buying military hardware, Trump says

The Republican president told Fox News Channel during an Election Day telephone interview that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had approached him about the idea and that they have been talking about it for a couple of years.

Trump said Israel doesn’t need the aid and that it’s a lot of money for the U.S. to spend. But Trump also said the aid had become a Democratic talking point for candidates such as Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

“We give them $4 billion of things and money, and they don’t need it,” Trump said.

Netanyahu’s office had no immediate comment.

The United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel over the past few years.

Trump has spent months trying to overhaul how U.S. elections work, without much success

This year’s midterm elections are being run by state and local officials, in much the way they’ve always done it — but that’s not for lack of trying by Trump.

The Republican president has been trying to expand his influence over the way U.S. elections operate ever since returning to office, largely unsuccessfully, through executive action, lawsuits and legislation.

The Supreme Court in September closed the chapter on one of his boldest efforts — a plan that would have demanded a dramatic overhaul of the nation’s mail voting processes. Trump also failed this year to coerce the Republican-led Senate to pass his SAVE America Act, which would have required documentary proof of citizenship for anyone registering to vote.

Still, some of his administration’s efforts have succeeded in reshaping the midterms, including a redistricting push that convinced multiple Republican-led states to pass partisan congressional maps to minimize potential losses.

Trump says midterm results will be ‘better than you think’

Trump says Tuesday’s midterm results will be “better than you think” for Republicans, declaring that “inflation is solved” and “everything’s going good.”

Trump’s closing day message conflicts with frustration many voters are feeling with the economy, as the cost of groceries, gas and healthcare has climbed despite the president’s promise to bring down prices.

Inflation is running at 3.7% annually, up from 3% when Trump’s second term started.

Trump didn’t acknowledge concerns about prices in his Tuesday morning interview with “Fox and Friends.” Instead, he touted his administration’s immigration enforcement and said U.S. manufacturing was expanding.

“I think the results are going to be better than you think,” he said.

Talarico takes Democrats’ biggest swing in years at winning Texas

Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988, but the party is brimming with hope that it has the perfect storm to do so this year: a well-spoken candidate in James Talarico, an opponent saddled with scandals in Republican Ken Paxton, and an election favoring Democrats nationwide.

Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and state lawmaker, has focused on Texans’ struggles against everyday costs, which he squarely blames on uber-wealthy people corrupting politics. Paxton, Talarico argues, is the flag-bearer of that corruption.

LIVE FACT CHECK: Election Day 2026

Paxton is the Lone Star State’s longtime attorney general and conservative culture warrior. He’s lived under a cloud of ethical questions, which led to his own party impeaching him on corruption allegations in the statehouse. Paxton has repeatedly hammered Talarico on his past statements, including “God is nonbinary,” insisting that he’s too “woke” for Texas.

Voting continues in suburban county outside New York City, despite machine issue

Voters in Westchester County continue to cast ballots at polling locations despite a countywide issue with machines that aren’t accepting paper ballots.

The Westchester County Board of Elections said ballots are being placed in designated orange emergency ballot bags as they resolve the issue. The board said the ballots would remain secure and monitored and would be counted.

Some voters in the county are deciding a competitive U.S. House race between Rep. Mike Lawler and his Democratic opponent, Cait Conley. Both candidates posted statements on X, urging voters to stay in line.

State Attorney General Letitia James said her office is in contact with state and local election officials.

The county includes the cities of Yonkers and White Plains. It is located north of Manhattan along the Hudson River and has more than 1 million residents.

Paxton’s past split this Texas couple’s vote

Liz Tabor, 62, and her husband, Mark Bauer, 59, cast their early vote for Republicans at Buda City Hall in Texas, though Tabor’s GOP ticket had a few exceptions.

“I did not vote for Paxton,” she said of the Republican Senate candidate, who was impeached by his own party but acquitted and has faced allegations of extramarital affairs. “I just can’t. There’s so much with his past.”

“It’s an accumulation of his shady behavior,” she added.

LIVE RESULTS: Texas Senate midterm election

She didn’t vote for his Democratic rival, though, either. She instead opted for the Libertarian candidate.

Bauer voted for Paxton, saying it was more important to have a Republican in office.

The two have lived in Texas for 26 years and said that what Republicans have done at the border is a good thing, and that they hoped to see more of it.

The nation’s longest Senate winning streak is at stake in Kansas

Jonathan, 4, watches as his mom votes at a polling station during the midterm elections on Election Day in Overland Park, Kansas, on Nov. 3, 2026. Photo by Nathan Howard/ Reuters

Sen. Roger Marshall is trying to fend off an unusually strong challenge from Democratic megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton in a race that’s generated a Kansas record for spending on advertising.

A Democrat hasn’t won a Senate race in the state in 94 years.

But Marshall is seeking a second term at a moment of deep frustration with Trump’s handling of the economy, and Hamilton made affordability a key issue while positioning himself as a moderate who could work with Republican colleagues in Washington.

Hamilton is the founder and senior pastor of the Kansas City-area Church of the Resurrection. With 25,000 members, it’s the nation’s largest United Methodist congregation.

DeSantis urges Trump, Republicans not to ‘gaslight’ voters

In a Monday interview with commentator Stephen A. Smith, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Trump originally promised not to start new wars in the Middle East, but is currently in an “open-ended” conflict in Iran, which has driven up fuel prices.

DeSantis said some Republicans have tried to blame former President Joe Biden for the higher prices, but he urged them to be honest.

LIVE RESULTS: Florida Senate midterm election

“Gas is higher and it hurts people, working-class people,” he said. “And it’s higher because of this conflict. That’s just a fact. If you can’t admit that to voters, then you’re gaslighting them and they’re not going to listen to you on other things.”

DeSantis unsuccessfully competed with Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination and could run again in 2028.

Sen. Susan Collins tries to keep her seat while fending off Troy Jackson

Collins is running for her sixth term on a pledge to continue serving Maine as one of the few remaining moderates in the Senate.

The Republican faces a challenge from Democrat Troy Jackson, who entered the race late. Jackson has tried to paint Collins as too close to Trump, while Collins has touted her willingness to break from the rest of the Republican Party on key votes.

Collins is the only Republican senator from New England, and she has triumphed in previous tough elections.

This time, Democrats focused on unseating her from the beginning, but the party’s June primary winner, Graham Platner, withdrew from the race after facing sexual assault allegations that he denied.

Jackson became the new nominee after winning a special nominating convention in late July.

Justice Department dispatches 1,000 election monitors to the polls

The Justice Department announced early Tuesday that it is sending roughly 1,000 federal election monitors to all 50 states to observe Election Day voting.

Many are expected in populated areas that tend to vote for Democrats. They include past hot spots for election tensions, like Detroit, Philadelphia and Georgia’s Fulton County.

The monitoring program isn’t new, but it has faced criticism from voting rights groups concerned about federal interference and voter intimidation.

The NAACP sued after the department said it would include law enforcement officers in the program, but a judge ruled against the group overnight, arguing the government had made it clear that monitors would be in plainclothes, would not carry firearms and wouldn’t have the power to make arrests at poll sites.

The Justice Department has said its monitors will observe and will not interfere with voting.

House races playing out deep in Trump country

People leave a polling station at a town hall during the midterm elections, in Bramwell, West Virginia, on Nov. 3, 2026. Photo by Marcus Constantino/ Reuters

A campaign sign for Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa near a polling station during the US midterm elections, on Election Day, in Austin, Texas, US, November 3, 2026. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Republicans are mostly on defense in the battle for control of the U.S. House.

Most of the top battlegrounds are districts Trump won in 2024, sometimes by a lot.

Republicans and allied groups pulled spending from several House races in October, shifting, for example, away from GOP incumbents in Iowa and New Jersey.

At Trump’s urging, Republicans in states including Texas and Florida tried to give themselves a boost with early redistricting, but that may turn out to be a flop.

Democrats are defending a handful of seats in Trump country as well, and there are pockets of potential GOP upside around the country.

The AP has a detailed rundown of the House districts in play and the fight for the majority.

Senate control up for grabs in states Trump carried

Control of the Senate hangs in the balance in a way few could have foreseen.

Originally, Democrats believed they only had a narrow path to the majority, and their plan required flipping seats in Alaska, Ohio, Maine and North Carolina.

However, the map has shifted, and Democrats believe they have a shot at Texas, Kansas and Iowa as well.

Many of these are states Trump won by double-digit margins two years ago.

Democrats need to play defense as well. Although they’re expected to hold Georgia, they also need to lock down Michigan and Minnesota.

In Maine, a voter feels ‘the weight of the world’

In Falmouth, Maine, 60-year-old Susan Myers said she’s optimistic that Senate candidate Troy Jackson can take advantage of anti-Trump sentiment and defeat longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. She’s also aware of how recent elections have gone for diehard Democrats like herself.

“I’m hopeful. I feel like there’s been so much disappointment these last few election cycles that I don’t want to get my hopes up,” she said.

LIVE RESULTS: Maine Senate midterm election

Myers voted early at Falmouth Town Hall and was picking up an absentee ballot for her daughter.

She said so much national attention on Maine this election has been overwhelming. The Senate race is one of this year’s most competitive and could decide which party controls the chamber.

“It feels a little bit like we have the weight of the world on our shoulders,” Myers said.

Latinos form a crucial bloc of swing voters

Latinos helped return Trump to the White House in 2024. Now they’re poised to play an outsized role in the midterms.

The path to a U.S. House majority runs through heavily Latino districts in states such as Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida and Texas. The front-line Senate race in Texas likewise could hinge on Latinos.

About 6 in 10 Hispanic adults disapprove of Trump’s handling of the presidency, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from October. About 7 in 10 disapprove of his performance on the economy.

One key factor will be how effective Democrats have been at making the case for themselves. Will disaffected Trump supporters vote for Democrats, or just sit out the midterms?

In Michigan’s Senate race, history and control of the chamber are on the line

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is seeking to become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. Republican Mike Rogers wants to be the first member of his party to win a Michigan Senate race in more than three decades.

The contest to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is among a handful that could determine which party controls the Senate.

Although Michigan Democrats have been successful in recent midterm elections, Trump carried the battleground state in two of his three campaigns. That divided political landscape helped set the stage for one of the most bitter and contentious Senate races of the cycle.

El-Sayed has accused Rogers of being a “puppet” for Trump. Rogers has accused El-Sayed of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, while Trump has falsely called the Democrat a “jihadist.”

Progressives are hoping an El-Sayed victory will signal their agenda can resonate in a battleground state ahead of the next presidential election.

Millions of Americans will be voting in new congressional districts

Mid-decade redistricting shook up the House map ahead of the midterms, changing the boundaries of around one-third of congressional districts.

The AP analyzed each district’s 2024 presidential vote margin before and after redistricting and found that while many individual districts saw dramatic shifts in partisanship and demographic makeup, the national U.S. House map did not shift significantly toward either party.

Learn more about how redistricting shaped the 2026 midterm elections and see how your district boundaries changed in this map.

Midterm results will chart the course of Trump’s final two years

Trump is staring down twin threats from Capitol Hill for his last two years as president if his party loses at least one chamber in Tuesday’s midterms: investigations and impeachment.

Democratic lawmakers are eager to exercise oversight, with senior officials long telegraphing how they would go after an administration they believe has escaped accountability for policies, personal profits and abuses of power.

The majority party controls gavels on powerful House committees, which come with larger staff budgets and more expansive resources, including subpoena powers.

Less certain are prospects for impeaching Trump, although House Democratic leaders will almost certainly come under pressure from their left flank to do so. Rather than Trump, who was impeached twice during his first term but acquitted by the Senate both times, Democrats may instead try to impeach Cabinet officials.

If Republicans lose the Senate, Trump’s ability to push his judicial and executive branch nominees through to confirmation will also be severely weakened.

Races for Senate, governor in Iowa are open for the first time since 1968

Iowa’s top of the ticket is up for grabs after Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Joni Ernst opted out of reelection bids.

Republicans control state government and comprise the entirety of Iowa’s federal delegation. But the openings have given Democrats opportunities to win over voters who may want a new direction amid high grocery and gas prices, manufacturing job losses, a crippled agricultural economy and growing cancer rates.

In the governor’s race, Rob Sand, the state auditor and only Democrat in statewide elected office, faces Republican Zach Lahn, a political newcomer who stunned even members of his own party when he won the primary over a Trump-endorsed congressman.

Democrat Josh Turek and Republican Ashley Hinson are competing for a U.S. Senate seat. Hinson, a congresswoman endorsed by Trump, has tried to assure voters she will push back when his policies are wrong for Iowa. Turek, a state lawmaker, was endorsed by Barack Obama, the last Democrat seeking federal office to win Iowa before Trump won the last three presidential elections.

Judge blocks Trump administration from sending lists of alleged noncitizen voters

A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration must stop sending voter lists of alleged noncitizens to election officials, as it has done in California and Washington state, while urging the states to set aside those ballots.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., said in her decision late Monday that more voter data transmissions would likely confuse voters and election officials at a time when election resources need to be focused on administering the midterms.

States and voting rights groups have pushed back on the administration’s claims and said the lists are riddled with errors.

The decision is one in a string of court losses for the administration in its efforts to expand federal authority over elections, which are run by the states.

Southwest flooding forces the Navajo Nation to change some Election Day voting plans

The Navajo Election Administration says it has altered five polling locations — two in Arizona and three in New Mexico.

The tribe’s reservation surrounds the Four Corners Monument, where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet. The area has seen major flooding since October, with rivers overflowing their banks and some residents having to evacuate.

The tribe says it has more than 298,000 members.

GOP loses immigration advantage

Trump roared back to power due to the Biden administration’s border troubles. He cut illegal crossings of the border, which were already plummeting, to close to zero.

That’s when the trouble started.

The president turned to the trickier task of deporting people in the U.S. illegally from the interior. Soon the main image of illegal immigration wasn’t desperate people crossing the border, but mothers screaming as they were torn from their children, or masked federal agents chasing people — sometimes citizens — through streets.

Trump openly bemoaned how the U.S. didn’t get enough migrants from Scandinavian countries and only accepted white South Africans into the country as refugees. And then two citizen protesters were shot and killed by immigration agents during the administration’s raids on Minneapolis.

Now the GOP fears it will especially lose ground in immigrant-rich areas running from New Jersey to Florida to Texas. And polls show more voters oppose Trump on immigration than support him.

Democrats are hopeful — but not optimistic — in South Carolina

Lindsey Graham’s sudden death left South Carolina Republicans scrambling to pick a new nominee in a special primary, which his sister, Darline Graham, ultimately won.

The switch-up left the state’s Democrats with renewed hope they could break a 20-year drought on winning a statewide race.

But even some of Democratic nominee Annie Andrews’ supporters acknowledge their state might not yet be ready to go blue, despite Democrats’ advances in neighboring North Carolina and Georgia.

South Carolina has consistently backed Trump, who endorsed Graham, urged her to run and has stumped twice for her in the state.

Graham and Andrews have portrayed each other as ill-prepared for the role.

Latest views on Trump from AP-NORC polling

Trump might not be on the ballot, but Americans are very unhappy with his performance so far in his second term.

Only about one-third of U.S. adults, 35%, approve of how Trump is handling the presidency, according to AP-NORC polling from October.

Trump’s approval tends to stay within a fairly narrow range, but the most recent measure is below where his overall approval stood shortly after he started his second term, when 42% of U.S. adults approved of how he was handling the presidency.

He’s seen modest declines in approval among Republicans and independents. About 70% of Republicans approve of how Trump is handling the presidency, down from 82% at the start of his term.

Trump’s current approval rating is slightly below where it stood in October 2018.

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