What is being decided in the midterms and why do they matter?
David Smith
The US Congress has two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Both must approve federal legislation before it can become law and both play important roles in overseeing the executive branch.
The House is elected every two years, meaning all 435 voting seats are contested at every congressional election. The Senate has 100 members serving staggered six-year terms, so roughly a third of its seats are up for election every two years.
This year’s ballot includes:
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Republicans are defending a narrow majority, with Democrats needing a net gain of four seats to take control.
35 seats in the Senate. Thirty-three seats are up in regular elections, along with two special elections in Florida and Ohio to fill the remainder of terms that were vacated early. Republicans currently hold 53 seats, against 47 held by Democrats and independents who caucus with them. Democrats need to gain four seats to secure a majority.
39 governorships. Voters will choose governors in 36 states and three US territories.
Thousands of state legislative seats, as well as local offices, judicial contests and ballot measures on issues including taxes, abortion rights and voting rules.
The elections for Congress will determine which party controls Congress for the final two years of Trump’s second term. The governorships and state legislative contests will shape policymaking closer to home, from education and reproductive rights to taxation and the administration of elections.
The midterms have a long history of punishing the occupant of the White House. The president’s party has lost House seats in 18 of the past 20 midterm elections, a 90% rate of loss that stretches back to 1946.
Key events
‘Call me senator after tomorrow’: Democrat Abdul El-Sayed mocks Trump in final rally – video
Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed, mocked Donald Trump and rallied supporters alongside senator Elizabeth Warren in Detroit, in a final push for votes before Tuesday’s midterm elections. Progressive El-Sayed is seeking to hold an open seat for Democrats against Republican Mike Rogers, who received a last-minute endorsement from Democratic congresswoman Haley Stevens.
Robert Tait
In Portland, Maine
A leading abortion rights group has endorsed Troy Jackson, the Democratic Senate candidate for Maine, while attacking the record of his Republican opponent, Senator Susan Collins.
Mini Timmaraju, president of the advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All, hailed Jackson – who was formerly an opponent of abortion – for “evolving” on the issue at a last-minute canvassing event in Scarborough. At the same time, she attacked Collins for trying to depict herself as “pro-choice”, saying she had voted to confirm the conservative US Supreme Court justice, Samuel Alito, who was the author of the 2022 court ruling that overturned the historic Roe versus Wade decision that guaranteed the right to an abortion. Jackson has repeatedly criticised Collins’ 2018 vote to confirm another conservative justice, Brett Kavanaugh, who subsequently voted to overturn Roe v Wade.
Timmaraju said Jackson’s election was vital to counteract a Trump administration plan to be “hand-off on abortion post-midterms” that she said would make it easer to dismantle state protections.
“We know the Trump administration has plans for a few weeks from now to reverse on abortion, to make it harder to get,” she said. “If we do not put Troy Jackson in the Senate, we won’t have that protection in Maine, where so many Mainers get access to abortion through the mail, through Telehealth.
“There are so many ways to ban abortion, by going around the states, and that is what the Trump administration is extremely interested in.”
Robert Tait
In Portland, Maine
Doug Emerson, a self-described activist, parked his car, festooned with slogans protesting the Trump administration’s policies, outside the office of Senator Susan Collins in Portland, Maine’s biggest city.
Emerson said he wanted to bring the attention of Maine voters to what he described as Collins’ tacit collusion with Donald Trump’s most extreme actions, despite her image as a moderate, independent-minded Republican cultivated over five terms as the state’s senator.
“We can’t change things unless we alter the demographics of the current Congress,” said Emerson. “I’m not sure Mainers are paying close enough attention.”
Richard Luscombe
Astronauts For America, an alliance of more than 100 former Nasa explorers, has written an election day open letter to US voters reminding them of the importance of their vote in defending constitutional principles against threats to democracy.
“Federal authority is not a license for any president or federal agency to take over state election administration,” the letter, also signed by ther non-partisan, pro-democracy groups National Security Leaders for America and Leadership Now, said.
“Regardless of political party or personal beliefs, every American should be able to trust that elections are conducted according to the law, every lawful vote is counted, and the results are determined through established legal procedures – not political pressure or the arbitrary exercise of power.”
The letter is a thinly-veiled attack on Donald Trump’s efforts to interfere in election machinery, such as his failed attempts to segregate ballots in California, and block certification in the Alaska US Senate race.
Astronauts For America, which includes astronauts from almost every generation of US spaceflight from Apollo to the space shuttle, recently completed a nationwide tour of college campuses urging young and first-time voters to ensure their voices are heard.
What early races could indicate a blue wave? Here’s where were watching.
As polls begin to close on election night, some early House and Senate races could indicate which way the election is trending – whether Democrats are set for the blowout they’re hoping for, or whether Republicans will defy the polls and hold onto control of Congress.
There’s a strong possibility we won’t have an idea which party will come out on top until tomorrow or later this week. But these states might provide some early signs:
An issue with ballot scanners in Westchester County, New York – part of the state’s competitive 17th Congressional district – has snarled voting on Tuesday morning.
“My office is monitoring this issue with scanners in Westchester and is in touch with the state and local Boards of Elections as they work on a solution,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement posted to social media. “Westchester voters can still safely fill out and turn in their ballots at their polling locations. Your votes will count.”
The race for NY-17 pits Mike Lawler, a moderate Republican incumbent, against Democratic nominee Cait Conley. It’s one of the most closely-watched races in the country, and a potential measure of whether moderate Republicans, like Lawler, who have broken with Trump on occasion can overcome an unpopular president.
Both Lawler and Conley posted statements to social media urging voters to stay in line, assuring them the issue would be sorted out and every vote would be counted.
“The Polls are open and operational, and every vote cast will be counted,” Conley wrote. “Please stay in line and have your voice heard as they work to resolve the issue.”
George Chidi
Thirty three people lined up at Roswell Library at 7am, waiting for the polls to open in a well-contested district in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. Jim Shannon, a small business owner, found himself at the wrong precinct.
“The idea that I’ve voted here every time … maybe they think they can discourage people. I don’t know,” he said. Shannon is a political conservative who voted for Rep. Mike Collins for the US Senate and Rick Jackson for governor.
“I believe the government needs to hire forensic accountants and go through every agency and find the waste, because taxpayers are paying for all of this.”
On 5 November, Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland will join our global editor Devika Bhat and the Edward Orsborn Professor of US Politics & Political History, Prof Adam Smith, in London, along with Mary Trump, clinical psychologist, author, and political commentator, Washington bureau chief David Smith and leading US commentator Tara Setmayer live from the US.
They will discuss the election results and their implications for Trump’s future, the US and global politics. You can book tickets – in person or livestream.
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires as Americans cast their votes in the midterm elections, an effective referendum on Donald Trump’s presidency that will determine control of Congress:
As we have been reporting, the first results are expected after 18.00 EST (15.00 PST or 23.00 GMT), although these won’t tell us the national picture. You can keep an eye on our live tracker to keep up with the latest results when they come through:
Supreme court rules against Trump over bid to force California to set aside ballots
Nick Robins-Early
The supreme court on Monday ruled against the Trump administration and its attempts to force California election officials to segregate and not count ballots from people that the justice department claims are non-citizens.
The ruling follows several lower courts siding with California officials, who argued the federal government was seeking to interfere in state elections.
The court did not issue an explanation for its ruling, which is customary in cases that come to it on an emergency basis. There were no noted dissents from the justices.
California and the Trump administration have been in a legal standoff over the past few weeks following the justice department’s claim that 20,000 non-citizens were on the state’s voter rolls.
The DoJ delivered a USB drive to Los Angeles and Sacramento election officials in mid-October with the names, giving only 48 hours for officials to review the list and threatening to sue if the ballots were not sequestered until those listed could verify their citizenship. Election officials refused, leading to a series of courtroom battles.
You can read more here:
The justice department has shared a list of 126 jurisdictions across the country to which election monitors have been sent. In a press release this morning, the DoJ said the monitors will be deployed to all 50 states for the first time in what the department described as its “largest monitoring effort in history”.
As my colleague Sam Levine notes in this story, the DoJ has aggressively inserted itself into the midterm elections in the contest’s final weeks, shattering the department’s longstanding practice of political neutrality.
The midterms are occurring amid uncertainty about whether Trump, who still refuses to acknowledge his 2020 presidential election loss, will accept the results if they do not go the Republicans’ way, as many polls predict they won’t do.
He has urged Republicans to “nationalize” voting, pressed for restrictions on mail-in ballots and deployed federal law enforcement to pursue discredited fraud claims. At a Republican Party convention in September, the deeply unpopular president called on supporters to “cheat like hell” whether they’re “registered or not”.
For a special episode of Politics Weekly America, Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland is joined by Alexandra Petri, a staff writer from the Atlantic, about this election cycle’s most effective ad campaigns, surprising alliances and embarrassing gaffes. You can listen to it in full here:
In Florida, 18 polling sites have been moved due to flooding, according to the secretary of state’s office. The affected counties are Brevard, Highlands, Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach and St. Lucie. The alternative polling sites include community centers, a council chambers, a town hall and a church. The announcement was made before polls opened in Florida at 7am ET on Tuesday morning.
“For the safety and security of our election workers and the voters of Brevard, it is necessary to relocate a couple of precinct polling locations due to these unprecedented circumstances,” Tim Bobanic, Brevard County supervisor of elections, was quoted as having said in a statement.
The state’s governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for several counties on Monday after heavy rain turned roads into rivers and submerged cars.
In Florida, progressive Democrat Angie Nixon is hoping to pull off an upset and unseat Republican incumbent Ashley Moody in one of two special elections this cycle.
Another interesting race to watch is that of Republican lawmaker Maria Elvira Salazar, who faces a challenge from Democrat Eliott Rodriguez, a former television news anchor.
Salazar, whose district has a large Latino population, including Miami’s historic Little Havana neighbourhood, made headlines earlier this month when she warned Trump that his hardline immigration enforcement policies had gone too far.
