Americans Vote for Control of Congress in Midterms After Record Early Turnout

Voters across the United States went to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 3, to decide which party will control Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term, after an early-voting period that set a record for a midterm election. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 of the 100 Senate seats and 36 governorships are on the ballot, along with thousands of state and local contests.

The first polling places opened at 5 a.m. ET in Vermont, followed at 6 a.m. ET by Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Virginia, according to CBS News. The first polls close at 6 p.m. ET in the Eastern time zone portions of Indiana and Kentucky, and the last polls, in Alaska's westernmost time zone, close at 1 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Nov. 4, according to Ballotpedia, which is tracking 44,443 races.

The math for control of Congress

Republicans hold narrow majorities in both chambers. In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana leads a conference of 218 Republicans, plus Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, who filed for reelection without party affiliation but generally supports the speaker on the floor, ABC News reported. Democrats hold 214 seats, and two seats are vacant. Democrats need a net gain of three seats to reach the 218 needed for a majority and give Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries a chance at the speaker's gavel.

In the Senate, Republicans hold a 53-47 majority, with two independents caucusing with Democrats. Of the 35 seats up this year, including special elections in Florida and Ohio, Republicans are defending 22 and Democrats 13, according to Ballotpedia. Because Vice President JD Vance can break tie votes, Majority Leader John Thune's Republicans could suffer a net loss of three seats and keep control, while Democrats led by Chuck Schumer need a net gain of four seats to flip the chamber, ABC News reported.

In its Election Day overview, NPR reported that Democrats are favored to win the House and that, in the Senate, "the outcome is anyone's guess." NPR said Democrats are favored to flip one Senate seat, North Carolina, while the remaining competitive races are either toss-ups or lean slightly Republican, and that apart from Maine, the five toss-up seats held by Republicans are in states Trump won by double digits in 2024.

Among the closely watched Senate contests, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is seeking a sixth term against Democrat Troy Jackson; in Ohio, Republican Sen. Jon Husted, appointed in 2025 after Vance left the seat, faces Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown; and in North Carolina, Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper faces former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, NBC News reported. In Michigan, Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed, endorsed Republican nominee Mike Rogers on Sunday. Stevens called the move "a decision of conscience" in a post on X, NBC News reported.

A record early vote

As polls opened, 58,677,062 votes had already been cast as of 11:30 p.m. ET Monday, including 31,897,521 in-person early votes and 26,779,541 mail ballots, according to University of Florida Election Lab data cited by the BBC. Election Lab figures show that, even adjusted for population growth, early turnout this cycle passed that of 2022 and 2018, The Washington Sun reported. Texas alone recorded 7.7 million early ballots, nearly matching the state's entire 2022 vote.

Analysts cautioned that a record early vote does not guarantee record overall turnout or predict results. "It's not the case that you can just copy and paste these results into what you're going to see in the end," Christopher Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University, told The Washington Sun. "If we don't see Republicans get engaged at the same level as the other groups," said Michael McDonald, who runs the Election Lab, "then we may fall short of that 2018 election."

Monitors, weather and the backdrop

The Justice Department is sending a record number of election monitors to polling places in all 50 states, NBC News reported. Harmeet Dhillon, head of the department's Civil Rights Division, has said the monitors would also seek to ensure that votes were not canceled out by someone who "shouldn't be voting." On Friday, U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson ordered the administration to halt a pressure campaign against election officials, writing that the actions were "likely to have the effect of interfering with election administration and disenfranchising lawful voters," Democracy Now! reported.

Severe weather also disrupted plans in several regions. At least 18 polling locations were moved across seven Florida counties after flash flooding on Monday and into Tuesday morning, and severe storms moved across Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas overnight, NBC News reported.

Voters have said the cost of living is their top concern, and the war with Iran has also shaped the campaign, the BBC reported. On Monday, the U.S. carried out what officials described as limited strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Trump led a series of tele-rallies for Republican candidates and was expected to spend Election Day in Washington before attending a watch party at the White House, according to NBC News.

When results may be known

Results will begin arriving after 6 p.m. ET, but the BBC noted that early returns come from races considered safe, and that in 2022 control of Congress was still unsettled on Nov. 9, the day after the election. NPR reported that in many places results will not be known on election night, and that with many close races, counting could take days or even weeks.