2026 midterm elections live updates: Latest news, results, and analysis

For Washington, D.C., voters anxiously awaiting the results of the city’s proposed ban on foie gras, a French delicacy made from the fattened livers of ducks and geese, the New York Times has launched a prediction needle for the initiative.

The proposed ballot initiative would ban the production and sale of foie gras in Washington. The ban has sparked a fierce debate among animal activists, who believe the force-feeding required to produce foie gras is abusive, and restaurant owners who serve the luxury food, as well as producers of foie gras.

The French delicacy is made from specially fattened livers of ducks and geese, in which a tube is used to feed the birds controlled amounts of corn mash or grain.

Polls close in Washington at 8 p.m.

Senior Trump officials discounted the idea that any specific person in President Donald Trump’s political orbit is to blame for Tuesday night’s election results, but rather the ongoing war in Iran.

“Nobody’s to blame. It’s a f****** wave,” a White House aide told the Washington Examiner.

A veteran Republican operative working with Trump’s outside political operation suggested that the media will blame James Blair, Trump’s former White House deputy chief of staff who is leading the outside political operation, but stressed that Tuesday night was “not a matter of the minutiae of political operative decisions.”

“Clearly it is Iran and its consequences,” the operative added.

The Associated Press has called all of Kentucky’s House districts, with Democrat Zach Dembo winning the toss-up 6th Congressional District and all incumbents on the ballot holding their districts.

Dembo garnered 52.7% of the vote compared to Alvarado, who won 43.3% of the vote, according to the Associated Press, which called the race at 10:16 p.m. with 98.3% of the vote.

Dembo’s win marks a major win for Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY), who spent big for the Democratic candidate to flip Rep. Andy Barr’s (R-KY) Lexington district blue.

Trump-endorsed Republican Ed Gallrein also won in northern Kentucky’s 4th District after defeating Trump-foe Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in the district’s primary election. Gallrein defeated Democrat Melissa Claire Strange to head to the House.

Incumbent Reps. James Comer (R-KY), Brett Guthrie (R-KY), Morgan McGarvey (D-KY), and Hal Rogers (R-KY) all won their races to retain their seats in the lower chamber.

Barr also won his Senate race against Democrat Charles Booker, winning 53.71% to Booker’s 44.23%, according to the Associated Press’s call at 9:16 p.m., with 72.6% of the vote counted.

Democratic candidate Annie Andrews has won South Carolina’s Senate race in a shocking flip for the red state, becoming the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the Palmetto State since 1998.

Multiple outlets called the race just after 10 p.m. for Andrews over Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC), who is the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham and was endorsed by Trump.

Fox News reported Andrews at 50.99% of the vote, compared with Darline Graham at 46.87%, as of 10:18 p.m., with 87% of the vote in.

Govs. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), JB Pritzker (D-IL), and Wes Moore (D-MD) joined Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in notching big reelection victories with their party on the cusp of a blue wave.

Each one is a potential, even likely, 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, though Moore and Ossoff have denied interest — we’ll see if that holds now that both men have been safely reelected. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 nominee, is also mulling a run, as is former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has said he won’t run if Harris does.

Ocasio-Cortez, who could also mount a primary challenge against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), has a lot riding on the socialists running for Senate tonight. Angie Nixon, considered the longest shot of the bunch, lost to Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) by a slim margin earlier.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) excoriated Sen. Darline Graham‘s (R-SC) performance in her race against South Carolina Democratic Senate nominee Annie Andrews.

“SC was not going to be FORCED to vote for a PROPPED UP CANDIDATE!!” Norman texted the Washington Examiner.

In a separate text message, the congressman added that Graham’s results were “not shocking!!”

Like Graham, Norman ran to replace the senator’s late brother, Lindsey Graham, permanently in the upper chamber after his unexpected death in July, but the congressman was not endorsed by President Donald Trump.

The senator, who was appointed to the position temporarily after her brother’s death, made multiple missteps during her debate against Norman in their special election primary runoff.

Two House Republicans expressed to the Washington Examiner that Tuesday’s election results represent a catastrophe for the GOP, as Democrats pick up several key House seats in Florida and other races prove closer than expected with ballots still being counted.

Retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told the Washington Examiner the midterm elections look “like a blue wave unfortunately.” Both Bacon and a Texas House Republican, given anonymity to speak candidly, said Tuesday’s election results represent a worst-case scenario for the GOP,

“Trump was on the ballot,” Bacon said.

Bacon told the Washington Examiner that Republicans need to “return to the principles of Ronald Reagan that made us great” and said that Trump has “countered many of Reagan’s values and it hurt us.”

The Texas House Republican, when asked whether Republicans could recover from the losses, offered a succinct response: “lol.”

Socialist Janeese Lewis George clinched victory in the race to be Washington, D.C.’s next mayor, setting up the Democratic Socialists of America party member to lead the district through the remainder of President Donald Trump’s second term.

In deep-blue D.C., Lewis George garnered 84% of the vote compared to her next-closest competitor, independent Rhonda Hamilton, who garnered 10.26% of the vote, according to the Associated Press, which called the race at 9:56 p.m.

Lewis George will replace three-term Mayor Muriel Bowser, who announced she would not seek reelection in 2025. Bowser and Trump have had an up-and-down relationship, but she became much more Trump-friendly during her last two years in office, as she made way for Trump to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department and deploy the National Guard across D.C.

Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) congratulated Sen.-elect Roy Cooper (D-NC) on his election victory Tuesday, welcoming his successor to the Senate.

“Congratulations to our next Senator @RoyCooperNC,” Tillis wrote on X. “I look forward to working with him during the transition. Representing the Old North State in the world’s most deliberative body is an honor of a lifetime and Susan and I wish Roy and Kristin the very best in the years ahead.”

The Associated Press called the race for Cooper at 8:23 p.m., winning 58.8% against Republican nominee Michael Whatley.

Cooper, who served as North Carolina governor from 2017 to 2025, will become the first North Carolina Democrat elected to the Senate since 2008. He previously served four terms as the state’s attorney general and represented North Carolina in its state legislature for 14 years.

Tillis, who opposed a sweeping budget bill central to President Donald Trump’s agenda, announced he would not seek reelection, leaving the seat open in 2026.

The Decision Desk HQ party is taking its data for Kalshi, which seems to be running ahead of other forecasts.

It had Democrats with a greater than 99% chance of taking the Senate, and they are forecast to take 55 seats.

Chris Cillizza is onstage as it calls South Carolina’s Senate race for Annie Andrews. “This is huge,” he says.

The Associated Press and networks have not yet handed the win to Andrews, but all signs are pointing that way.

DETROIT — The atmosphere inside Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers’s watch party has turned increasingly festive as crowds continue to fill the venue.

Cheers erupted among attendees when Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) was declared the winner of the Florida governor’s race. Still, there has been no sign of Rogers himself, though the Washington Examiner is told he and gubernatorial candidate John James are with their families in a suite.

Among those in attendance in the crowd is Lewis Soldatek, who said his family’s military history and concerns about national security shape his political views. Soldatek said his father was a Marine Corps veteran who served during World War II and the Pearl Harbor era.

“We’re fighting it on the shores in the United States of America,” Soldatek said, expressing concern about what he described as the growing influence of communism and socialism.

He also defended higher gas prices as the cost of confronting Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“What’s the cost of freedom? I can pay a little more money to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon,” Soldatek said. He warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten Israel and hold the rest of the world hostage.

Also at the watch party was Michelle Nard, a Republican candidate for the newly drawn state Senate District 10 seat, who described her decision to leave the Democratic Party.

Nard said she became a Republican after feeling increasingly out of step with the Democratic Party, despite having run for office and won twice as a Democrat.

She cited disagreements over religious expression, abortion, and her ability to openly support candidates whose positions she believed better represented her views.

“I never left the Democratic Party,” she told the Washington Examiner. “Their values left me.”

Nard also described America as a melting pot and said freedom should be at the heart of what the country represents.

As the crowd continues to build and the celebrations carry on, attendees are sharing their reasons for supporting the Republican ticket. But the star of the evening still hasn’t shown up.

Polls have closed in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah.

In Nevada, Gov. Joe Lombardo (R-NV) is seeking another term in a state that has become increasingly competitive in presidential and statewide elections. Nevada’s electorate, particularly in the Las Vegas area, will be an important measure of the parties’ ability to turn out voters.

Idaho and Montana do not have Senate seats on the ballot, but each state has two House seats that could help Republicans maintain their advantage. Both states are generally considered safe for the GOP.

Oregon has generally favored Democrats in federal elections, although Republicans remain competitive in parts of eastern and southern Oregon.

In Utah, voters are deciding a slate of federal, state, and local contests in 2026. The state’s four House seats are on the ballot, with Republicans seeking to maintain their strong advantage.

North Carolina’s Democratic Sen.-elect Roy Cooper struck a hopeful tone in his victory speech in Raleigh on Tuesday evening after defeating Republican Michael Whatley.

“At the end of the day, I am still a prisoner of hope,” Cooper said. “I truly believe that our best days lie ahead; that we can make the course correction that our great country so badly needs; that North Carolina and the United States have a future teeming with possibilities.”

Cooper noted in his speech that he hopes to end the war in Iran and make healthcare, housing, gas prices, and groceries more affordable.

“I am determined that no matter the challenges that confront me, I will be an independent voice ready to work with anyone to do what’s right for this amazing state that has given me so much,” Cooper, the Tar Heel State’s former governor, said Tuesday evening.

The White House is apparently feeding its staff Cheesecake Factory at its Election Day watch party as races across the country are called.

Top White House staffer Kaelan Dorr posted a picture of a Cheesecake Factory food wrapper on his X account, with the caption “WH eating good on a big day.”

The Cheesecake Factory was thrust into a national controversy in recent weeks after former President Barack Obama mocked President Donald Trump’s White House renovations, saying that the updates looked like “Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

The jab sparked a back-and-forth between Republicans and Democrats, as Trump’s supporters rallied to defend the president and the restaurant. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent even dined publicly at a Cheesecake Factory near the White House.