Voting is under way across the United States on Tuesday in midterm elections that will decide control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump’s second term. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats are contested, and voters in 36 states are also choosing governors.
Republicans go into the day holding both chambers, with a 53 to 47 majority in the Senate and a House majority at the 218 seat threshold. Democrats need a net gain of three seats to take the House and four to take the Senate, where a 50 to 50 tie would be broken by the Republican vice president. More than 51 million people had already voted early or by mail before election day, passing the early vote total recorded in the 2022 midterms.
The outcome will turn on a small number of Senate contests. The final New York Times and Siena polls, covered in Monday’s edition, put Democrats ahead in Texas, Ohio, Michigan and Alaska and effectively tied in Iowa, and the Cook Political Report moved Michigan to lean Democrat in its final rating. Polls close in waves from 6pm Eastern in Indiana and Kentucky to about 1am Eastern in Alaska, and close races, late mail ballots and ranked choice counts in Alaska and Maine could leave control undecided for days.
The vote is the first nationwide test of the Trump administration since it returned to office in January 2025, and markets are watching for a Democratic sweep that would divide government for the rest of the term. Official certification follows weeks after election night in most states, so early projections are not final results.