Voters across the United States cast ballots on Tuesday in midterm elections that will determine control of the House and Senate for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 seats in the Senate were on the ballot, including special elections for the seats vacated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. Voters in 36 states also chose governors, according to the Associated Press and the U.S. Senate.
Democratic leaders and nonpartisan analysts said the party was positioned to flip the House based on pre-election forecasts. Control of the Senate remained competitive in battleground races including Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Maine, and Alaska, according to Reuters and the Cook Political Report. Republican officials said the party was defending seats largely on favorable terrain and pointed to the narrow majorities it held entering the day.
Public statements from election officials and organizations tracking Associated Press results did not confirm final control of either chamber as of early evening. The large majority of House and Senate races remained uncalled, and additional mail-in and provisional ballots were still to be counted in close contests.
In the 2022 midterms, the president’s party lost seats in the House while retaining a Senate majority, a pattern consistent with most midterm cycles in recent decades, according to historical tallies from the House Clerk and Senate.
A majority in either chamber would allow the winning party to set the legislative agenda and conduct oversight for the final two years of Trump’s term. Any bill would still require presidential signature or a two-thirds override, and most Senate legislation needs 60 votes to advance, according to the constitutional framework and longstanding Senate rules.
SOURCES: Associated Press, Reuters, U.S. Senate, Office of the Clerk of the House, Cook Political Report, The Guardian, The Economist, CNBC, The Washington Post.
