UNDERSTAND · THE 2026 MIDTERMS
Two years into every presidential term, Americans elect the whole House of Representatives and a third of the Senate. Here is what is at stake on 3 November 2026, how each chamber works, what it takes to control it and how the vote itself happens.
WHAT IS ON THE BALLOT
Midterms fall in the middle of a president's four-year term, so the president is not on the ballot. Every one of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives is, because House terms last two years; so are 35 of the 100 Senate seats: the 33 whose six-year terms end in January 2027, plus special elections in Ohio and Florida to finish terms left open when JD Vance became vice president and Marco Rubio secretary of state.
The same ballot also elects 36 governors, most state legislators and many local officials and ballot measures. This site follows Congress: who will control the House and the Senate from January 2027.
CONGRESS
CONTROL
Move the sliders: how many seats does each party need?
Republican majority: Democrats need 3 more
Republican majority: Democrats need 4 more
Half of 435 plus one. The majority elects the Speaker, chairs every committee and decides which bills reach the floor.
51 senators, or 50 plus the vice president's tie-breaking vote. With JD Vance in that chair, Democrats need 51 seats; Republicans control the chamber with 50.
Most bills need 60 votes in the Senate to close debate. Budget reconciliation and the confirmation of judges and officials need only a simple majority.
Independents count with the party they caucus with: Angus King and Bernie Sanders sit with the Democrats. In Nebraska and South Dakota, where the main challengers in 2026 are independents, the site reads them as the non-Republican side. See who is favoured to control each chamber →
THE SENATE
The Constitution split the first senators into three classes so that the Senate would never be renewed all at once. Each class is up every six years, in turn. Both senators of a state are always in different classes, so a state never elects both in the same regular election.
Class II: the 33 seats last elected in 2020, plus two class III specials (Ohio and Florida).
Up that yearSpecial electionNot up
When a seat falls vacant, most states let the governor appoint a senator until a special election; that is how Ashley Moody (Florida) and Jon Husted (Ohio) took their seats. A House vacancy is only ever filled by a special election.
MIDTERMS AND PRESIDENTIAL YEARS
MidtermPresidential
Seat change from the previous election.
Midterm turnout runs 15 to 20 points below a presidential year: 44% on average in the last four midterms against 62% in the presidential elections. Those who do vote tend to be older, more educated and, above all, more motivated, and dissatisfaction is a strong motive.
That is one reason the president's party almost always loses ground: since the Second World War it has gained House seats in a midterm only twice, in 1998 and 2002. In 2026 the president's party is the Republican Party.
THE VOTE
Every state except North Dakota requires registering first; about twenty let voters register on election day itself. In many states registering also means choosing a party, which decides which primary you can vote in.
Most states open in-person early voting weeks before the election, and all allow mail ballots, some to anyone and some only with an excuse. A few, such as California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, mail a ballot to every voter.
Polls open on Tuesday 3 November; each state sets its hours and its ID rules. The ballot is long: Congress, governor, state and local offices and ballot measures, all on the same sheet.
Results come in from the evening of the 3rd, state by state as polls close. Where many vote by mail, as in California, the count can take days or weeks: a race is called when the remaining ballots cannot change the winner, not when the count ends.
Counties and then states certify the official results during November and December, after audits and, where the margin is tiny, recounts.
The new Congress takes office at noon on 3 January 2027.
SPECIAL RULES AND THE CALENDAR
In most states each party picks its candidate in a primary during the spring and summer. Closed primaries are only for the party's registered voters; open ones let anyone choose either ballot.
California and Washington hold one primary for everyone; the two leading candidates advance, even if both are from the same party.
Maine and Alaska let voters rank candidates; if nobody passes 50%, the last is eliminated and their ballots move to the next choice. Alaska sends the top four of a single primary to that final round.
Georgia requires a majority: if nobody reaches 50% on 3 November, the top two meet on 1 December. Louisiana's House races in 2026 are a single all-party vote with a 12 December runoff.
Sources: U.S. Constitution (Article I, 17th and 20th Amendments); U.S. Senate and House of Representatives; National Conference of State Legislatures for registration and voting rules; turnout from the United States Elections Project as compiled on the History page.