Midterm Elections 2026: Trump Faces a Verdict With Control of Congress at Stake

American voters deliver their verdict Tuesday on the first two years of President Donald Trump's second term, with control of Congress at stake in the midterm elections. Polls and nonpartisan analysts favor Democrats to wrest the House of Representatives from Republicans, Reuters reported Tuesday, while control of the Senate — being fought across nearly ten closely contested statewide races, most of them in Republican strongholds — remains uncertain.

The arithmetic is tight in both chambers. All 435 House seats and 35 of the Senate's 100 seats are up for election, and Democrats must flip at least three House seats and four Senate seats to win a majority in each. Reuters counted 47 House races as widely competitive and calculated that, if the other contests go as forecast, Democrats would need to win only about a dozen of them to secure the House. Three dozen governors' races also take place Tuesday, alongside thousands of state legislative contests and ballot measures.

History and mood both lean against the president's party: it has lost ground in Congress in all but two midterm elections since World War Two, and Reuters reported Trump's approval rating hovering near his all-time lows, dragged down by deep voter frustration over the war with Iran and the resulting rise in fuel prices. Trump has answered with more than two dozen campaign rallies since the start of October, telling supporters on Monday in Washington that the election is a referendum on his presidency.

For Tallahassee, the national verdict lands at local polling places: Leon County's polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at each voter's assigned place, per the Supervisor of Elections, and anyone in line at 7 p.m. is allowed to vote. Florida's early reporting — its polls close at 7 p.m. across most of the state — will give the country one of its first hard reads on which way the night is going.