The 2026 Midterms: What's on the Ballot November 3 and How Control of Congress Is Decided

On Tuesday, November 3, 2026, Americans vote in the first nationwide election of Donald Trump’s second term. Every seat in the House of Representatives is on the ballot, along with 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships. The results will decide whether Republicans keep the unified control of Washington they won in 2024, or whether Democrats gain a check on the president from at least one chamber. This guide explains what is being decided, how the majorities work and what the historical record suggests. Figures are current as of late October 2026 and are drawn from the sources listed at the end.

What Is on the Ballot

Office	Seats on the ballot	What a majority requires
U.S. House	All 435	218 seats
U.S. Senate	35 of 100	51 seats, or 50 plus the vice president’s tie-breaking vote
Governors	36 states, plus 3 territories	Decided state by state

In 26 states, voters choose both a governor and a senator on the same ballot [3].

The Senate: 35 Seats, Two of Them Special

The Senate staggers its terms so that about a third of its seats come up every two years. This year the 33 seats of the Senate’s Class II, whose terms expire in January 2027, are on the regular schedule [4], and two more are special elections: in Florida and Ohio, where Marco Rubio and JD Vance resigned in January 2025 to become secretary of state and vice president. The senators appointed to replace them now have to win the seats outright [1].

Republicans hold the Senate 53–47, counting the two independents, Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucus with Democrats. Democrats would need a net gain of four seats for a majority. A gain of three would produce a 50–50 Senate, and Republicans would keep control through Vice President Vance’s tie-breaking vote [1].

The Senate’s majority matters most for confirmations. Cabinet secretaries, ambassadors and every federal judge, including any Supreme Court nominee, need Senate approval. A Senate controlled by the other party can slow or block a president’s nominees.

The House: All 435 Seats

Every House seat is up every two years. Republicans hold a narrow majority, and Democrats would need a net gain of three seats to take control [1]. The House majority chooses the speaker and every committee chair, which determines which bills reach the floor and which investigations go forward. It also controls the first step in impeachment, and because revenue bills must start in the House, and by tradition spending bills do too, it has a central role in every budget fight. For more on how committees shape what Congress does, see our guide to congressional committees.

The Redistricting Factor

House district lines are normally redrawn once a decade, after the census. This cycle several states redrew them again in mid-decade, and the new maps changed the playing field before a single vote was cast. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Republican-led redraws added an estimated 15 Republican-leaning seats across seven states: Texas (5), Florida (4), Ohio (2), and one each in Alabama, Louisiana, North Carolina and Tennessee. Democratic-led changes added six Democratic-leaning seats, five in California and one in Utah. The net effect is roughly nine seats shifted toward Republicans [1]. That is why a party can win more votes nationwide than in the last election and still gain fewer seats than it would have under the old maps.

What History Says

Midterms are usually hard on the party that holds the White House. Over the last five midterms, the president’s party lost an average of 31 House seats. The largest loss was 63 seats in 2010, under Barack Obama; the smallest was 9 in 2022, under Joe Biden [1]. Turnout is lower than in presidential years: it averaged 43.2% over those five midterms, from a low of 36.7% in 2014 to a high of 50% in 2018 [1].

The national environment in the final weeks favors Democrats. As of October 20, they led the generic congressional ballot by 9 points in a national polling average, and Trump’s net favorability stood at minus 23 [1]. The race is unfolding during the war with Iran, and the national average price of gasoline has risen to $4.28 a gallon from $2.98 on February 28 [1]. Polls are a snapshot, not a forecast, and the redistricting changes described above work in the other direction.

How Voting and Counting Work

Elections are run by the states, not the federal government, so rules on registration deadlines, early voting, mail ballots and identification vary. Forty-seven states allow some form of early or mail-in voting [1]. Official information on registering and voting in each state is available from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission [2] and at vote.gov.

Results also take time. Close races, especially in states that count large numbers of mail ballots, may not be called on election night. In 2024, one California House race was not called until 29 days after Election Day [1]. A delayed call is not evidence of a problem; it is how counting works when every valid ballot must be processed.

What Changes in January

The new Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2027. If Republicans keep both chambers, Trump continues with unified control. If Democrats win the House, they gain the power to set its agenda, issue subpoenas and block legislation, though not to pass bills without the Senate. If they win the Senate, they gain the power to reject the president’s nominees. Divided government has been the norm for most of the past three decades, and it often means fewer major laws and more confrontations over funding.

For a refresher on how the pieces fit together, see our guides to how the U.S. government works, how U.S. elections work and the federal budget process.

Sources

1. Council on Foreign Relations: A dozen numbers that explain the midterms (October 20, 2026)
2. U.S. Election Assistance Commission: Register and vote in your state
3. Ballotpedia: Both gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections are happening in 26 states in 2026
4. U.S. Senate: Class II, senators whose terms expire in 2027