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

The Senate Leadership Fund, the premier GOP political action committee, released two advertisements Monday targeting Maine Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson’s voting record in the state legislature and a previous arrest.

“It’s a crisis in Maine,” one ad begins. “A housing shortage, costs soaring. Troy Jackson’s solution? A $27 million luxury hotel for politicians. Instead of helping us, Troy Jackson helped himself.”

Another ad released Monday frames Jackson as violent, claiming female colleagues said Jackson pounded on desks, threw a bottle, and punched a man. The previous scandals have been brought up in the race before, and Jackson has disputed the idea that he was violent.

“Jackson voted to let child sex offenders live near playgrounds and schools three separate times,” the ad said. “Jackson also voted for shorter prison sentences for repeat child sex offenders, repeat sex offenders. Extremists demanded it, and Jackson did it.”

The ad dump comes as President Donald Trump’s midterm tour begins, but Maine has been left off the itinerary as Republican Sen. Susan Collins faces one of the toughest elections of her career. Trump and Collins have a love-hate relationship, often clashing on several policy decisions, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement deployments, so it would make sense she would want to keep him at arm’s length.

Republican candidate Michael Alfonso, the son-in-law of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, is set to become the youngest member of Congress at age 26 after he won his House race in Wisconsin.

Alfonso, who ran for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District, beat his Democratic opponent by just over 12 points late Tuesday. The Associated Press called the race at 11:02 p.m.

Trump said Republicans are not performing well in the midterm elections because he wasn’t on the ballot this year.

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” he posted on Truth Social.

In the months leading up to the election, the president told Republican voters to pretend he was on the ballot in an effort to boost turnout at polling locations.

So far, the election results aren’t boding well for Republicans as Democrats gain more seats in the House and Senate races. It remains to be seen if Republicans will lose both chambers of Congress.

Polls have closed in California and Washington state.

In California, polls closed at 11 p.m. Eastern. The governor’s race has attracted national attention, with Republican Steve Hilton — who has received Trump’s endorsement — facing Democrat Xavier Becerra. All 52 of California’s House seats are also on the ballot, making the state a major factor in the national fight for control of the chamber. Democrats are seeking to defend their advantage.

In Washington, voters are deciding congressional races and a slate of statewide and local contests. The state’s 10 House seats are part of the nationwide battle for control of the chamber, with Democrats looking to defend their advantage in a state that has consistently favored the party in federal elections. Republicans are seeking opportunities in more competitive districts, particularly outside the Seattle metropolitan area.

Washington does not have a Senate contest this cycle, leaving congressional races and state-level offices as the primary focus for election watchers.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) warned Republicans to “lawyer up” Tuesday as Democrats moved closer to reclaiming the House majority, setting the stage for an aggressive oversight campaign targeting the Trump administration and its allies.

Garcia, elected by House Democrats to lead the Oversight and Government Reform Committee as its ranking member over the summer, is seeking reelection against Republican Brian Burley in California’s 42nd Congressional District. Polls close at 11 p.m. Eastern.

Democrats have won 126 House seats so far, flipping districts in New Jersey, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.

If Democrats take control, their investigations could reach across the Trump administration, with War Secretary Pete Hegseth among the most immediate targets. Democrats have discussed impeachment proceedings against Hegseth, with Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) calling his removal a top priority.

Other possible targets include Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the administration’s handling of the Epstein files, and the business dealings of Trump and his family. Democrats are also expected to pursue restrictions on stock trading by government officials.

The anticipated investigations would extend beyond federal agencies to private-sector figures with ties to the administration.

Senior Trump officials discounted the idea that any specific person in the president’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***ing 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 the next mayor of the District of Columbia, 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 Washington, 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 the district.

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.