Americans vote in midterm elections on Tuesday as control of Congress, 36 governorships and the cost of living dominate the ballot
Voters across the United States head to the polls on Tuesday, 3 November, to decide all 435 House seats, a third of the Senate and 36 governorships in an election widely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s second term.
Americans are voting on Tuesday, 3 November, in midterm elections that will decide control of Congress for the second half of Donald Trump’s presidency, after a campaign dominated by the cost of living, the eight-month war with Iran and deep divisions over the direction of the country. Election Day began at midnight Eastern Time, with the first polling stations due to open in Vermont at 5am Eastern Time, followed by most eastern states between 6am and 7am.
At stake are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, about a third of the 100 seats in the Senate and the governorships of 36 states, along with thousands of state legislative seats and local offices. Trump himself is not on the ballot, but he has repeatedly told supporters to vote as if they were voting for him, and the result will determine whether Republicans keep their narrow majorities in both chambers or Democrats take one or both houses and gain new power to block his legislation and investigate his administration.
Polling hours vary by state and county, because elections in the United States are run locally rather than nationally. Voting starts at 6am Eastern Time in New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut and Kentucky, between 6am and 7am in Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania and New York, at 6:30am in Ohio and North Carolina, and at 7am in Michigan, according to Al Jazeera’s election-day guide. The earliest polls close at 6pm Eastern Time in parts of Indiana and Kentucky, while Alaska is the last state to close, at around 1am Eastern Time on Wednesday, so the national picture will build in waves through the night.
Turnout was already running at a record pace before Election Day itself. The Associated Press reported that more than 57 million ballots had been cast in 47 states and Washington, DC, as of Monday, 2 November, compared with a little under 44.5 million at the same point in the 2022 midterms. Early voting opened in some states as early as mid-September, and experts caution that a strong early vote does not by itself predict the final result, because the partisan mix of early and election-day voters differs from state to state.
The cost of living is the dominant issue for voters, polling consistently shows. The final Reuters/Ipsos poll before the election put Trump’s approval rating at 32%, near his record low, with Democrats leading Republicans 46% to 38% on the generic congressional ballot, and found that 78% of voters rated the rising cost of living as very important, or the most important issue, in deciding their vote. Fuel prices have risen sharply since the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran in February, and that energy shock has fused a foreign war with household budgets in a way that is unusual for a midterm election.
The Iran war is the second defining issue of the campaign. Trump said on Monday that an agreement with Tehran “could happen” and that he was not considering striking Iran immediately after the elections, while Vice President JD Vance said Washington had made “some progress” towards a negotiated settlement. At the same time, the United States carried out limited strikes on Iran’s Qeshm Island on Monday, according to reports citing US officials, a reminder that diplomacy and combat are running in parallel on the eve of the vote. Voters will also weigh immigration, healthcare costs, artificial intelligence and questions about American democracy, with Gallup finding the economy, healthcare and Iran among the issues most often rated extremely important.
Several individual races will be watched closely as early indicators of the national mood. In Ohio, Indian American Vivek Ramaswamy is locked in a keen contest for governor with Democratic nominee Amy Acton, while Democrats suffered an eleventh-hour setback when Congresswoman Haley Stevens of Michigan crossed over to the Republican side on Sunday, breaking ranks with Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who could become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. About 210 million Americans are registered to vote, with California holding the largest electorate at 23.2 million, followed by Texas at 17.4 million and Florida at 13.6 million.
Weather has already disrupted voting preparations in parts of the country. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in seven counties — Brevard, DeSoto, Hardee, Highlands, Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie — after days of heavy rain flooded roads and neighbourhoods, with up to 20 inches of rain reported in parts of Brevard County. The emergency order allows local election supervisors to designate substitute polling places where flooding makes the original sites unusable, and voters in affected areas have been urged to check with their local supervisor of elections before travelling. Separately, historic flooding across the Southwest has already forced the relocation of a voting centre in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
The final days of the campaign were marked by sharp warnings from both sides. Trump closed his campaign on Monday at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC, acknowledging the historical pattern against sitting presidents in midterms but insisting his party had given the contest “a very strong shot”. Democrats, meanwhile, have argued that a House majority would give them the power to check the president, while Trump has warned supporters that Democrats could seek to impeach him for a third time if they win control of Congress, and has said he would become “Mr Veto” and block Democratic legislation until the other side negotiates.
What happens next will unfold through Tuesday night and into Wednesday, with the first results arriving as the earliest polls close and close races potentially taking days to resolve as mail-in ballots are counted. A Democratic House majority would reshape the second half of Trump’s term, limiting what legislation can pass and opening new investigations, while a Republican hold in both chambers would preserve his legislative path. Either way, Tuesday’s vote is the first nationwide test of the president’s second term — and, with record early turnout already banked, the verdict will be delivered by an electorate that polling suggests is voting above all on what life costs, and on a war that has reached directly into household budgets.
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