Voters across the country are deciding control of the U.S. House and Senate in the 2026 midterm elections. Democrat Roy Cooper won North Carolina’s Senate race, the first Democratic pickup of the night, and Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff was reelected in Georgia, another top battleground. Republicans fell short in their attempt to pick up a Senate seat in New Hampshire, while Democrats were unsuccessful in Florida.

Democrats need a net gain of three more seats to take the majority. All eyes are on Senate contests in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas.

Two House Democrats in Florida survived the GOP’s attempt to flip their seats through redistricting. Democrats flipped a GOP-held House seat in North Carolina, the first to change parties. President Donald Trump won the district by nearly 10 points in 2024.

The battle for control is playing out mostly in areas Trump previously won by wide margins. But high costs are weighing heavily on many Americans’ minds, according to The AP Voter Poll, and most voters appear to blame Trump’s administration and want Congress to impose more checks on him.

Here's the latest:

Democrats flip New Jersey House seat held by Republican Tom Kean

Democrat Rebecca Bennett, a former Navy helicopter pilot, has defeated two-term Rep. Tom Kean, who missed four months of votes in Washington this year as he underwent treatment for depression, a diagnosis he did not disclose until his return.

Kean represents a battleground district that includes Trump’s Bedminster golf club. His great-grandfather was a senator, his grandfather was a congressman and his father is the former two-term Gov. Tom Kean Sr.

The seat has changed hands in the two most recent midterm election cycles, so it was automatically viewed as a competitive race going into this year.

Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz says Florida Republican gerrymandering backfired

Republicans tried to tilt four more House seats to the GOP in Trump’s adopted home state. Moskowitz was among their targets, but the Democratic congressman decided to run anyway in one of the redrawn districts.

“I’ve worked across the aisle. I’ve delivered results for my community, and they spent $26 million trying to beat me,” he said after his victory in Florida’s 25th District. “They lit that money on fire tonight.”

Moskowitz said voters in his new district, like those nationwide, were most concerned about the economy and their ability to afford a good quality of life. But he said the redistricting and concerns about Trump’s business dealings angered voters, too.

He said Democrats, should they control Capitol Hill in January, must use their power to address affordability but also to hold the Trump administration accountable.

What to watch for after polls close at 10 pm ET

Polls close at 10 p.m. in Montana, Nevada and Utah, with some polls closing in the eastern portions of Idaho and Oregon.

Key contests to watch in this hour include U.S. House races in Montana, Nevada and Utah and congressional and gubernatorial races in Arizona, where polls close at 9 p.m. but results are held until 10 p.m.

Abdul El-Sayed’s supporters rally in downtown Detroit

The crowd at a watch party hosted by the state’s Democratic Party listened to music spun by a DJ underneath colorful lights as they watched election results roll in from around the U.S.

Democratic leaders in the state, including Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, spoke from a podium flanked by American and Michigan flags.

Attendee Sarah Karim came from Seattle to canvass for El-Sayed, who is friends with her husband after they attended the University of Michigan together, she said.

“This race also represents something really powerful nationwide,” Karim said. “We feel the effect of it in the Pacific Northwest because of what Abdul is representing.”

Energy buzzes through House Democrats’ election watch party

Democratic volunteers and staff are crowding the room for an election night watch party in Washington.

Cheers erupt when Democratic candidates for House, Senate and gubernatorial races flash on the TV screens.

“America is alive and well!” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted on social media.

Democrat Juliana Stratton vows to fight for progressive agenda as Illinois senator

Stratton, the current lieutenant governor, told supporters at her victory party that she “won’t be sitting back and listening quietly when I get to Washington.”

Stratton says she will fight “loudly” for affordable healthcare, reproductive freedom, workers’ rights, voting rights and for working families.

“Working families have been left to pick up the tab for the wealthy and well-connected while the crook in the Oval Office enriches himself and his allies,” she said.

Stratton supports Medicare for all, a $25 minimum wage and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Stratton defeated Republican Don Tracy, the former state Republican Party chair. She’s replacing retiring Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin.

Maryland voters pass Democratic-backed redistricting amendment

A constitutional amendment passed Tuesday could pave the way for Democratic lawmakers to redraw Maryland’s congressional districts ahead of the 2028 election.

Supporters of the amendment touted it as a way to fight back against Trump’s push to reshape U.S. House districts in Republican-led states to the party’s advantage. Democratic former President Barack Obama was among those backing the ballot measure.

The amendment undercuts a 2022 court ruling that struck down a previous Democratic redistricting plan as “extreme partisan gerrymandering.” The judge in that case said a constitutional provision requiring compact districts that respect “natural boundaries” applied to congressional districts.

The newly approved amendment applies those parameters only to state legislative districts — allowing greater leeway to manipulate the boundaries for U.S. House districts.

Moody calls her Senate win in Florida a victory of freedom over socialism

In a victory speech, the Republican noted that “throughout this campaign, I said that this election would come down to freedom versus socialism. Well, Florida chose freedom.”

She added, “We are the beating heart of freedom, not only for the United States of America, but indeed the rest of the world.”

Moody defeated Democrat Angie Nixon to hang on to the job she was first appointed to in 2025, when Marco Rubio was chosen to be Trump’s secretary of state.

Nixon is a longtime labor organizer who recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America. She championed policies like universal healthcare and childcare and has been an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy and the war in Gaza.

Democrat Keisha Bottoms wins election for governor in Georgia

Bottoms is the first Black woman elected governor of any state. She also is the first former Atlanta mayor to be elected Georgia governor and the first Democrat to win the state’s highest office since 1998. Bottoms previously worked in President Joe Biden’s administration.

She defeated Republican Rick Jackson, a healthcare tycoon who tapped his personal fortune for his campaign.

Democrats flip longtime target North Carolina

Roy Cooper won decisively, holding a double-digit lead in the Senate race at the time of the call. Cooper expanded on his margins in his two gubernatorial victories. He won by 0.2 and 4.5 percentage points in 2016 and 2020, respectively.

Democrats had targeted the seat after Trump won the state by less than four points in each of the last three presidential elections.

Abortion rights amendment passes in Virginia

Voters have approved a ballot measure that creates a “ fundamental right to reproductive freedom ” in the Virginia Constitution.

The amendment passed Tuesday ensures abortions can occur during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. It allows government regulations during the third trimester while still ensuring that abortions can be carried out to protect the life and health of pregnant women. The amendment also creates a right to contraception and fertility care, among other things.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a nationwide right to abortion in 2022, opening the way for states to create their own policies. Since then, voters in more than one-fifth of the states have passed ballot measures protecting abortion rights.

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani says Democrats’ work begins now

“Together we have an opportunity, my friends, to prove that Democrats can deliver. To provide an alternative to the hollow promises and the lasting betrayals of the right,” he said at an election watch party in Manhattan.

Mamdani, who took office this year, was on stage delivering a speech just as AP called the New York governor’s race for Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“The work that we began here on the streets of New York City is being carried forward tonight all across our country,” he said.

Capito is first West Virginia Republican elected to 3 straight US Senate terms in more than a century

Shelley Moore Capito said she was humbled after becoming the first West Virginia Republican to be elected to three consecutive terms in the U.S. Senate in more than a century.

“From the beginning, this campaign has been focused on listening to West Virginians about the concerns most important to them and coming together to bring those voices to Washington,” Capito said in a statement. “That mission will never change, and I am more energized than ever to continue delivering for our state.”

Capito defeated Democrat Rachel Fetty Anderson.

Trump watches election returns from the White House

Trump gathered with political advisers and members of his Cabinet in the East Room of the White House to watch election returns come in, the White House said.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said earlier Tuesday that he planned to attend the reception. Burgum was with the president when he delivered his final message to voters from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where Trump spoke at length on the renovation work he and Burgum have completed in the nation’s capital.

Earlier in the evening, Trump complained on Truth Social about Fox News, saying the network was spending “too much time” covering Democrats.

North Carolina’s Roy Cooper nods to Democratic flip of Senate seat

The former two-term governor told cheering supporters that he spoke to Republican Michael Whatley and said his opponent acknowledged the result.

“Thank you for everything you did to take this United States Senate seat back for the people of North Carolina,” Cooper said.

He also promised to be an “independent voice” for the state.

Cooper said the campaign was about standing up for people who felt crushed by Trump’s tariffs and the cost of fuel and fertilizer “because of this never-ending war.”

Democrats score their first US House flip in North Carolina

Democrats have picked up their first Republican-held House seat of the night in western North Carolina.

Democrat Jamie Ager has won an open seat resulting from the retirement of Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards, who was censured by the House this year for engaging in inappropriate conduct toward two young female staffers in his office.

Democrats were hoping Ager’s farming background would appeal to rural voters in the district. He defeated Republican Jennifer Balkcom, a state legislator.

JB Pritzker says his reelection as Illinois governor shows hope is winning out over fear

“It looks like maybe, just maybe, something is stirring in the conscience of America,” Pritzker told his supporters after winning election to a third term. He’s the first Democrat elected to a third term as governor in Illinois.

Pritzker is considered a potential Democratic candidate for president in 2028.

“We climbed one mountain tonight,” Pritzker said. “But we are sitting at the base of another.”

Pritzker defeated Republican Darren Bailey, a former state lawmaker.

Mike Collins says result not ‘what we wanted’

The Republican acknowledged the result in the Georgia Senate race in a brief speech to his supporters.

“The results may not be what we wanted tonight, but y’all, that’s OK. I’m going to continue to serve,” he said.

Collins, a current House member, praised Trump, calling it an honor and privilege to serve under him.

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff won the seat.

Cooper supporters cheer former governor’s Senate win

Supporters erupted into cheers, hugs and chants when they learned the former governor had won election to the U.S. Senate representing North Carolina.

A crowd gathered in a downtown Raleigh hotel ballroom Tuesday night, where music was thumping and CNN played on a big screen. When the news of Cooper’s victory appeared, the crowd exploded and began chanting, “Cooper! Cooper!”

Anderson Clayton, who leads North Carolina’s Democratic Party, said Cooper’s decades in elected office made him an especially strong candidate.

“He’s woven into the fabric of North Carolina,” she said.

By electing Cooper, North Carolina voters chose “competence over chaos,” Democratic Gov. Josh Stein said in a speech shortly after the race was called.

Cooper defeated Republican Michael Whatley.

Sununu says ‘it’s not our night’

The Republican says he had a great message and vision but came up short in his New Hampshire Senate race against Democrat Chris Pappas.

“This has been an incredible campaign, but it is not our night. I called Chris to congratulate him a few minutes ago. He ran a good race. More importantly, we ran a good race,” John E. Sununu told supporters.

Pappas, who is in his fourth term in the U.S. House, will replace retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a three-term Democrat who ousted Sununu in 2008.

Pappas says ‘New Hampshire showed up today’

Pappas says his U.S. Senate victory in New Hampshire is proof that Washington needs a “new generation at the table to fix things.”

“This has been a long campaign against the backdrop of chaos, corruption and costs coming out of Washington,” Pappas told supporters in Manchester. “New Hampshire showed up today, you spoke up today, you said in a resounding voice that New Hampshire needs a course correction. Washington needs a new generation at the table to fix things.”

Pappas’ win blocks a path for GOP Senate gains

Democrat Chris Pappas in New Hampshire has blocked an opportunity for Republicans to gain a seat as they try to hold onto their Senate majority.

Pappas, a four-term House member, had called his Republican opponent John Sununu, a former U.S. senator, “the wrong Sununu” in a reference to the popular former Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. Republicans thought the race could work as a check against potential Democratic gains.

With New Hampshire and Georgia staying in Democratic hands, Republicans now look to Michigan for a pickup, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is competing with Republican Mike Rogers.

Pappas is also the first openly gay man elected to the U.S. Senate.

Juliana Stratton makes history with Black women in the Senate

Illinois Democrat Stratton’s election marks the first time in history three Black women will be in office at the same time in the U.S. Senate. She’ll join two other Black Democratic women — Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, who were not up this election cycle.

Sen. Jon Ossoff supporters erupt in cheers

Ossoff’s supporters who’d gathered Tuesday night at a downtown Atlanta hotel erupted in cheers, hugged and kissed when television screens around the room showed Ossoff had won.

Ossoff is expected to address the crowd later in the evening.

Many of the supporters said Ossoff represented an important generational shift for their party.

“He’s bringing in a lot of young voters and that is what we need right now to get the young voters on the right way of life, showing them which way to go,” said Jennifer Gray, 63, a retired IRS employee. “Ossoff, he talks to them. And because he’s younger, they’re listening to him.”

Young voters move away from GOP, many voters driven by opposition to Trump: Early election takeaways

Voters are in the mood for change, according to The AP Voter Poll, which found that roughly three-quarters of voters say they feel “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the way things are going in the country today. Young voters in particular appear to have shifted dramatically away from the GOP after Trump made inroads with this group in 2024.

The AP Voter Poll indicates a substantial shift in young people moving away from Republicans. Voters under 30 were about evenly split between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris two years ago. But in this election, about 7 in 10 voters in that same age group nationally say they supported the Democratic House candidate in their area.

Young voters only make up about 10% of the electorate, according to the poll, which limits the impact of the shift. But it nonetheless makes it harder for the GOP to win.

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Republicans once saw Georgia seat as within reach, until Ossoff surged

Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff’s reelection blocks a targeted effort by Republicans to pick up a Senate seat.

The Democrat’s victory over Republican Mike Collins is a notable turnabout from last year, when Republicans were optimistic about the state, given that Trump carried it narrowly in the 2024 presidential race.

Instead, Ossoff dominated in fundraising throughout the campaign. Republican groups supporting Collins pulled back their spending in mid-October, signaling the race was likely lost.

Democrats’ hope of gaining the majority is premised on holding seats in Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire.

What to watch for after polls close at 8 pm ET

The 8 p.m. hour is primetime on election night, with polls fully or partially closing in almost half the states, including key states like Florida, Maine, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Polls close at 8:30 p.m. in Arkansas.

Florida tends to have one of the faster counts in this time slot, since results in most of the state start releasing in the 7 p.m. hour. In 2024, the Florida vote count was 90% complete by 8:07 p.m.

The 2024 vote counts in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania reached the halfway mark at 10:12 p.m. They reached 90% at 12:48 a.m. in Pennsylvania and 1:42 a.m. in New Hampshire. Maine didn’t reach the halfway mark in 2024 until 12:54 a.m.

Polls in almost all of Michigan and Texas close at 8 p.m., including in the states’ most competitive congressional districts, but no statewide winners will be declared until the final polls have closed at 9 p.m.

Some key contests to watch in this hour are U.S. Senate races in Florida, Maine and New Hampshire; gubernatorial races in Florida and Pennsylvania; and U.S. House races in Alabama, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Black voter turnout appears robust on Election Day, voter coalition says

LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the voting rights group Black Voters Matter, said turnout in some states seemed to rival that of 2008, when Democrat Barack Obama was running for president for the first time.

She and others said turnout appeared particularly high in Michigan and Mississippi.

Brown, speaking during a media briefing organized by the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said her organization had more than 2,000 poll observers in several states. They reported no “widescale issues” for voters, she said.

Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the coalition, said the group has extended its monitoring efforts beyond Election Day — through vote counting, certifications and even winners’ inaugurations.

“As those of us who believe that this democracy is for all people, we have to also stand in the gap,” she said.

AP Voter Poll: Voters show unhappiness with Trump’s health care policies

Most voters say Trump’s policies made the health and well-being of people in the U.S. worse.

About 2 in 10 say Trump’s policies have improved health and well-being, while 2 in 10 don’t see an impact.

Relatively few voters, about 1 in 10, say health care is the top issue facing the country.

But about half of voters say the president’s policies have made access to health care and the cost of health care worse.

Many Democratic candidates made health care a major issue in their campaigns. In Senate-battleground Michigan, Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed centered his campaign on universal health care.

About 6 in 10 voters say they want the federal government to have a larger role in getting Americans health care.