The 2026 US midterm elections are being held on November 3, with results coming in state by state. The vote, taking place during Donald Trump’s second term, will determine the makeup of the 120th Congress: all 435 House seats and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats are contested, and 39 states and territories are electing governors and attorneys general, along with a long list of state and local offices. For readers following US politics, the midterm elections are more than a tally of seats for the two parties — they are a nationwide test of Trump’s second-term policy agenda.
Inflation and the Iran war drive voter anger
Heading into the election, an affordability crisis has kept simmering, with high inflation pushing up the price of gasoline, health care and food — the costs voters feel most directly. At the same time, the Trump administration’s war with Iran, deteriorating relations with some traditional allies, its alliance with Silicon Valley and its push to build artificial intelligence data centers have drawn backlash from different groups. Together, these issues left the races uncertain well before polls closed.
A fight over the rules of the election
This year’s rules have drawn unusual attention. Trump has called on Republican-led states to carry out mid-decade redistricting — a rare move — to improve the party’s chances of holding Congress. In April 2026, the Supreme Court ruled parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act unconstitutional, further changing the legal framework for elections. The Trump administration has also been accused of using millions of taxpayer dollars to fund Republican campaign ads, and federal agents have gone to residents’ homes to ask about citizenship and voting history. The practices have fueled disputes over election integrity.
The map: red states, blue states and battlegrounds
By partisan voting index (PVI), the Senate seats up this year fall into several groups. Red states include Alaska (R+6), Florida (R+5), Indiana (R+9), Iowa (R+6), Kansas (R+8), Ohio (R+5), South Carolina (R+8) and Texas (R+6). Battlegrounds include Arizona (R+2), Georgia (R+1), Michigan (EVEN), Nevada (R+1), North Carolina (R+1), Pennsylvania (R+1) and Wisconsin (EVEN). Blue states include Maine (D+4), Minnesota (D+3) and New Hampshire (D+2). For easy tracking, election coverage usually labels a race with a state abbreviation plus the office — TX-Sen for the Texas Senate race, PA-Gov for the Pennsylvania governor’s race, NY-19 for New York’s 19th Congressional District. D and R stand for Democrat and Republican; R+24 means Republicans lead by 24 points; flip means a seat changes hands; call means a winner has been declared.
What the results will shape
The outcome will directly affect the pace of the legislative agenda and the political landscape ahead of the 2028 presidential election. Inflation, military action abroad, tech regulation and election rules are all issues the new Congress cannot avoid. Counting is still under way, and margins in some key battleground districts may be narrow, with final results awaiting the full count. For ordinary readers, the more important signal than any single race is the balance of power between the parties in state legislatures — which often shapes local policy for years to come.
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