Updated November 3, 2026 at 8:54 PM EST
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• Hour-by-hour guide: How to watch election night
• 6 things to watch for to see which party might control Congress
• Be patient! It's going to take a while to know who won in some races
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As results come in from the midterm elections, Democrats have picked up one Senate seat, with key battleground races yet to be called.
Democrat Roy Cooper has won North Carolina's Senate race, defeating Republican Michael Whatley. Cooper, a former Democratic governor, was expected to win the race against the former RNC chairman and Trump ally. The election was held for a seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.
Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control of the Senate. Votes are still being counted in six Senate races considered to be toss-ups.
Early in the evening, the Associated Press called the Georgia Senate race for incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. That race was considered a likely win for Democrats. Democrat Chris Pappas also won New Hampshire's open Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Jeanne Shaheen.
Currently, Republicans have a four-seat majority in the House, with 218 seats to Democrats' 214. That means Dems only need to flip three seats to take control of the chamber. They went into the night favored to win the House, with election analysis firm the Cook Political Report saying they were likely to flip between 15 and 25 seats.
The Senate is more complicated. Republicans currently have a six-seat majority there, meaning Democrats need to gain four seats to take control. Six Senate seats were considered toss-ups going into Election Night.
This voting season, President Trump had a fast-paced rally schedule through swing states and some red states, trying to drum up votes for Republican candidates who appeared to be in danger of losing. His central message was an instruction to GOP voters: "Pretend I'm on the ballot."
It's unclear, however, how much that directive might help or hurt Republicans. Trump is not only the leader of the party but has reshaped it, with legions of loyal fans who may be motivated to turn out by a Trump visit.
However, the president's approval rating has slid steadily during this term. Many polls show it below 40%, which puts it in historic territory. According to Gallup, George W. Bush in 2006 had the worst pre-election approval rating since 1946, at 37%.
Trump fares particularly badly on the economy. Roughly two-thirds of Americans said that Trump was to blame for higher-than-usual prices, according to a September AP-NORC poll.
And while presidents generally can neither be directly blamed or credited for the economy's performance, many higher prices are directly affected by Trump's policies — including tariffs and a war in Iran that made gas, diesel, and fertilizer more expensive.
Americans cast more than 60 million early votes ahead of Election Day, both by mail and early in-person voting. That's 15 million more early votes than were cast in 2022, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab. Many experts wonder if this year's total turnout may end up being the highest ever for a midterm election.
Early voting tallies showed that Democrats solidly outvoted Republicans in the days ahead of Election Day. Fully 43% of early votes came from Democrats in states with party registration data, compared to 31% that came from Republicans. However, the GOP votes overwhelmingly in person on Election Day.
As of early Tuesday evening, voting seemed to be going smoothly nationwide with only a few accounts of problems. Some polling places in Florida, for example, were closed for flooding. The highest-profile issue was in Westchester County, N.Y., which includes part of one of the most competitive congressional districts in the country.
As soon as polls opened there, it became clear there was a problem with the ballot scanners. As a result, voters filled out paper ballots for officials to scan later.
That led to high-profile Republicans sowing doubt in the election results. Katie Miller, a conservative podcaster and the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, posted on social media: "This is how the left steals elections." And Claudia Tenney, a Republican member of Congress from New York, posted: "The Democrats in NY will do anything and everything to cheat." However, Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, who represents the district, told CNN that "There's no shenanigans going on here."
Trump has also been sowing distrust for months. In July, President Trump made a primetime speech saying — without evidence — that American elections are vulnerable to being "rigged and stolen," and in his speeches he has continually repeated the lie that he won the 2020 presidential election.
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—Domenico Montanaro and Miles Parks contributed to this report.
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