2026 midterm elections live updates: Latest news, results, and analysis
By Washington Examiner Staff
Updated 7:41 am, November 3, 2026
Here's what we're covering
Voters will head to the polls to decide which party controls Congress as well as a number of statewide contests, with all 435 House seats, 35 Senate seats, and 36 governorships up for grabs. Click here to get the key dates and deadlines ahead of Election Day.
As Republicans and Democrats compete for control of the House and Senate, dozens of closely watched races will shape the balance of power in Washington and in state capitals. Click here to read the latest 2026 election coverage from the Washington Examiner.
Trump remains a central factor in the midterm elections. The president’s agenda, approval ratings, and involvement in individual races are expected to play a significant role as Republicans seek to defend their current majorities.
More than 150 ballot measures across 40 states are also on the table in November, with topics including citizenship requirements for voting and voter ID, abortion policy, transgender procedures for minors, and more.
19 hours ago
Former Mike Collins staffer accused of controversial social media posts
Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) speaks at a campaign rally on Oct. 28, 2024, in Atlanta. (Mike Stewart/AP Photo, File)
A former staffer of Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), who is seeking to unseat Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), is being accused of making questionable posts on social media.
Jonathon Hatzistefanou, who now works for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL), made the posts, according to the Washington Post. The outlet linked him to posts stating, “I’d rather be a white supremacist than a degenerate impoverished minority,” that democracy should end and be replaced with authoritarianism, and that Turning Point USA employed too many women, among others.
The development comes after another former staffer for Collins was accused in August of allegedly posting images on social media depicting a swastika and photos of himself in a Ku Klux Klan-style robe. That staffer said his posts were a joke.
Photos: AP Newsroom, Canva; Graphic: Grace Hagerman/Washington Examiner
Good morning from the Washington Examiner’s live blog team. It’s finally Election Day, and control of Congress will be decided.
Sabato’s Crystal Ball, which released its final race ratings yesterday, has both the House and Senate leaning toward Democratic control, with 19 House races rated “likely Democratic” seats, 36 “leans Democratic” seats, 21 “leans Republican,” and 16 “likely Republican” seats on the House map. In the Senate, they expect Democrats to win 53 seats.
But some analysts are concerned all of the Democratic momentum could be another major polling miss, given rural voters’ tendencies not to answer pollsters’ calls.
The Washington Examiner has all the news you need to know. Catch up on the latest, and check back in for results.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) rejected claims that her fiance, Jason Turkish, played a role in her last-minute decision to endorse Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers, calling the speculation sexist.
Stevens, who flipped her endorsement to Rogers over Democratic nominee Abdul el Sayed two days before the midterm elections and left fellow Democrats gobsmacked, addressed the idea proposed by critics that Turkish influenced her decision in a lengthy X post titled “The Decisions We Make.” Her fiance said last week he would not support el Sayed because of his stance on Israel.
“Some critics have also dragged my fiancé into this, suggesting he or others must have made my decision for me,” she said. “Think about what that says. A woman can serve in Congress, run statewide, and fight for her convictions, and still be told that when she makes a choice people dislike, someone else must be pulling the strings.”
“That is sexism dressed up as political analysis,” she continued. “My fiancé has his own views. I have mine. I made this decision, and I am proud of it. Do not question my independence simply because you disagree with my conclusion.”
DETROIT — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) joined Abdul el Sayed on the campaign trail Monday, offering a high-profile progressive endorsement as Democrats rallied around their Senate nominee in the final hours before Michigan voters head to the polls.
The appearance at the Majestic Theatre in downtown Detroit came amid an extraordinary intraparty rupture over Rep. Haley Stevens’s (D-MI) decision to flip her endorsement from el Sayed to Republican Mike Rogers two days before Election Day.
Warren, a longtime progressive ally of el Sayed, cast the Michigan Democrat as a candidate voters could trust to stand up to wealthy interests and corporate lobbying, contrasting his record in public health with the influence of money in Washington.
“I made the decision a long time ago that the guy I trust in a job like this is a guy who spends his time putting glasses on little kids who can’t afford them,” Warren told the crowd of about 1,000 people at the Majestic Theatre. She also praised el Sayed for establishing a program to purchase and cancel uncollectible medical debt.
“A guy who says to the corporate pack, ‘I don’t take your money. I don’t work for you. I don’t work for anyone other than the people of Michigan,’” Warren said. “That’s the guy I trust, and his name is Abdul.”
The U.S. military launched defensive strikes against Iran on Monday night, marking the first attacks in two months on the eve of the midterm elections.
U.S. forces targeted Qeshm Island, which is home to Tehran’s military infrastructure. The specific targets in the strikes were “Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against U.S. assets,” the Associated Pressreported. The latest blitz does not mark the return to war, as multiple reports said the attacks were limited.
The timing of Monday’s military operation contradicts remarks previously made by President Donald Trump. Last month, the president said U.S. officials had been engaged in “productive discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Over the weekend, Trump said the possibility of more strikes following the elections remains on the table, saying that despite previous military action, “we still have to take care of, I would say, one or two sites,” adding that there are plans in place to address the remaining infrastructure.
“We might have to go after Pickaxe [Mountain], but that’s not a big deal,” Trump said in a Monday evening appearance on Fox News, referring to the mountain where U.S. and Israeli officials believe Iran has moved some of its advanced centrifuges and enriched uranium.
The charges involve illegal voting, fraudulent voter registration, and false claims of U.S. citizenship, according to a DOJ press release. Four of those charged were illegal immigrants, while the citizenship status of others was not made immediately clear, meaning they may have been in the country lawfully but not eligible to vote.
The announcement brings the total number of people charged with voting fraud-related offenses since President Donald Trump returned to office to 239, according to the department. The DOJ said it has charged 195 noncitizens across 25 states with illegal voting and registration offenses in the past nine weeks.
Talarico sat down with Steven Bartlett for The Diary of a CEO podcast released Monday and said he would “love” to work with Trump despite the president’s frequent attacks, including coining the candidate “Talafreako.”
“I would love, as the next U.S. senator from Texas, to work with Donald Trump to actually fulfill some of the promise of his political project,” Talarico said. “Because the promise of MAGA was that we were going to transform this government so that it delivered for the people who have been left behind, the people who have been forgotten in this country, and there’s still time to do that.”
The Senate hopeful said he would work with Trump to expand healthcare access, reform education, and housing. On the housing front, Talarico appealed to Trump’s resume, as he built his career as a property developer before entering politics.
“If he wants to tackle the housing problem, Donald Trump is a builder,” he said. “If he wants us to slash the red tape in this country so we could build millions of new homes and ensure everyone in this country has a place to call home, I’m there. I’ll work with them to do it. I would love to do that.”
Election officials in multiple Georgia counties are working to resolve complaints that voters are not receiving their absentee ballots ahead of Election Day, after lawsuits filed by voting groups alleged thousands of ballots never arrived.
In Gwinnett and Cobb counties, officials have said they will contact voters who have not received the absentee ballots they requested after a pair of lawsuits in the past week claimed that nearly 5,000 residents in both counties did not receive their requested absentee ballots. The lawsuit in Cobb County, filed by the left-wing Elias Law Group on behalf of an affected resident, claimed roughly 2,900 voters did not receive their absentee ballots. The county released a statement last week acknowledging that “a limited number of voters who requested an absentee-by-mail ballot may have experienced a delay in receiving their ballot” and pinned the blame on the ballot vendor.
“In order to address the delays caused by the county’s third-party vendor, Cobb BOER, will provide voters whose ballots were issued during that time period (Oct.7 through Oct. 15) an opportunity to request a new absentee ballot to be mailed to them by priority express mail, with a prepaid return priority express envelope,” the county’s statement said.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration’s emergency bid to force California election officials to set aside roughly 20,000 ballots linked to suspected noncitizens, delivering a major setback to the Justice Department one day before the midterm elections.
Just hours after the DOJ filed its emergency petition to the high court, the justices declined to intervene without any noted dissents, leaving intact lower court decisions denying the administration’s request. Federal officials contend the voters’ citizenship must be verified before their ballots are counted, while California officials say the government’s list contains substantial inaccuracies and risks disenfranchising eligible citizens.
Democrats are slated to take control of the House, and control of the Senate is up in the air, according to Cook Political Report’sfinal analysis of the midterm elections.
According to the nonpartisan analyst, Democrats are expected to flip between 15 and 25 seats Tuesday night, meaning the party will have between 230 and 240 seats in the lower chamber, a comfortable majority compared to Republicans’ current standing.
Control of the Senate is less clear, as the pollster predicts Democrats will flip a net of three to six seats, which still leaves room for the GOP to control the upper chamber.
Additionally, the Cook Political Report moved the Michigan Senate race from a “toss-up” to “lean Democrat,” painting optimism for Democrat Abdul el Sayed despite his former primary competitor Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) endorsing Republican Mike Rogers in the eleventh hour. The outlet said Stevens’s move holds little bearing, as recent polls have shown el Sayed with a significant lead over Rogers.
14 hours ago
Troy Jackson says Janet Mills’s and Angus King’s lack of endorsement hasn’t caused ‘any hard feelings’
Maine Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson said there is no bad blood with Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME), who previously sought the nomination, nor his possible colleague Sen. Angus King (I-ME), as both lawmakers have not endorsed the hopeful.
“No, not really,” Jackson said when asked if he was disappointed Mills hadn’t backed him. “I mean, you know, it’d have been fine if she had or not. But I mean, this campaign is about the people of Maine. It’s not about me or Janet. So yeah, that’s fine.”
Jackson said the same could be said for King.
“I don’t have any hard feelings one way or the other,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think the lack of support from lawmakers in the state has hurt his campaign.
A RealClearPoliticspolling average of surveys conducted from Oct. 8 until Nov. 1 found Jackson leading Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) by less than 3 percentage points.
15 hours ago
Trump says GOP gave midterm elections a ‘very strong shot’ in Reflecting Pool speech
President Donald Trump walks from the podium after speaking at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)
President Donald Trump said in his closing message ahead of the midterms that Republicans have given the 2026 elections a “very strong shot.”
“For some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms,” Trump said. “But we gave this a very strong shot.”
The president gave the election-eve speech in front of the newly completed Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. After giving an update on the state of the renovations for much of the speech, Trump then delved into his final message, discussing how his administration has worked to combat fraud and bring down crime rates, while painting the Democrats’ slate as “extreme and dangerous.”
15 hours ago
Ted Cruz warns of ‘rough’ GOP headwinds at Ken Paxton election eve rally
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks at a campaign event for Texas Attorney General and GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxton in Conroe, Texas, on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner)
CONROE, Texas — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned of his own past reelection struggles in a bid Monday to fire up supporters of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on the eve of one of the country’s tightest Senate elections.
In his latest appearance on the campaign trail to stump for the Republican Senate nominee, Cruz characterized the Lone Star State’s battleground contest as not unlike his own narrow 2018 reelection against Democrat Beto O’Rourke. But this time, the Democrat giving Texas Republicans a run for their money is state Rep. James Talarico.
The 2018 races, the midterm cycle under President Donald Trump’s first term that saw the Democrats retake the House, “was the last election we had like this,” Cruz told a couple hundred attendees gathered at an outdoor event space in the Houston suburb of Conroe. “2018 was a rough cycle.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speak at a campaign rally for Paxton’s Senate bid in Conroe, Texas, on Monday, Nov. 2, 2026. (Graeme Jennings/Washington Examiner)
“When the polls closed, I was down 5 [points],” the third-term senator recalled. “We’re at our victory party. A bunch of y’all were there. I tell you, I was back in the war room looking at the screens. And I looked: there were some sphincters that could have turned a lump of coal into a diamond.”
The toss-up seat is among the contests Tuesday that will determine whether Republicans can maintain control of the upper chamber. And Paxton is under no illusions about just how close the results might be.
“Texas, as Ted mentioned, has never been this close to slipping away. We have never been this close to losing everything that we fear: our jobs, our livelihoods, our way of life,” Paxton said. “Every poll shows this is going to come down to the wire.”
16 hours ago
Mike Johnson and Glenn Youngkin team up to stump for Rob Wittman on election eve
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Republican former Gov. Glenn Youngkin brought their GOP star power to Virginia’s 1st Congressional District on Monday to campaign for Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA).
Johnson is making an election-eve blitz to campaign in Virginia for Wittman and Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) in the tight-margin districts in the eastern part of the state.
Wittman is facing a challenge from Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor, while Kiggans is facing Democratic former Rep. Elaine Luria, whom Kiggans previously unseated in Virginia’s 2nd District. The Cook Political Report ranks Wittman’s district as a toss-up and Kiggans’s district as leaning Democrat.
16 hours ago
Anti-abortion group spent $80 million in midterm battleground blitz
An Anti-abortion activist participates in the annual March for Life, in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026, on Capitol Hill, in Washington. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP Photo)
The organization said on Monday that it had met its goal of contacting 10.5 million “persuadable and low-turnout voters” ahead of the Nov. 3 election, including 3.7 million door-to-door visits.
The group contacted voters in key House districts as well as in gubernatorial and Senate races in Iowa, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Montana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Texas, and Arizona.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, SBA’s president, said in a press release her organization reached low-turnout voters “with tested, strategic messages exposing radical Democrats who would impose abortion on demand with no limits through the ninth month in every state.”
“The stakes are higher than ever this cycle, with more than 1.1 million children’s lives lost to abortion in America each year,” Dannefelser said. “The power of the pro-life issue is proven in competitive battlegrounds where tens of thousands of votes can change everything.”
Planned Parenthood Votes, the abortion provider’s super PAC arm, pledged $47 million to the midterm campaign cycle. The group Reproductive Freedom For All pledged to spend $23.5 million.
