Election Day 2026: Trump Faces a Midterm Verdict With Control of Congress at Stake

American voters will deliver a verdict Tuesday on the first two years of President Donald Trump's second term, with polls and nonpartisan analysts favoring Democrats to wrest the House from Republicans while control of the Senate remains uncertain, Reuters reported in its Election Day file, read in full this run.

All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for election, along with 35 of the Senate's 100 seats, though most contests are not considered competitive, Reuters reported. Democrats must flip at least three House seats and four Senate seats to win a majority in each chamber. The battle for the Senate is unfolding across nearly 10 closely contested statewide races, most in Republican strongholds, and Democrats must defend every current seat — including a tight race in Michigan — while winning at least two states Trump carried by double digits in 2024, among them Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.

History is against Trump's Republicans: the sitting president's party has lost ground in Congress in all but two midterm elections since World War Two, Reuters reported. Trump's approval rating is hovering near his all-time lows, dragged down by deep voter frustration over the war with Iran and the resulting rise in fuel prices, and polls show voters most concerned about affordability. Trump has held more than two dozen campaign rallies since the start of October and has told supporters repeatedly to "pretend I'm on the ballot," Reuters reported.

Three dozen governors' races also take place Tuesday, along with thousands of state-level legislative contests and ballot measures, Reuters reported. In New Jersey, polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Essex County voters are deciding the races this station has covered through the early-vote period, including Cory Booker's bid for a third Senate term and the NJ-10 rematch between LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco.