Federal observers, court rulings and newly enacted voting laws
Republican committees and allied super PACs raised more than their Democratic counterparts ahead of the November 3 midterms, while Democratic candidates raised more than Republican candidates in their individual campaigns. Republicans entered the final campaign period with a financial advantage at the party level, especially in Senate contests, where aligned outside groups played a large role. The Republican National Committee, its related congressional committees and allied super PACs, including Trump’s MAGA Inc., raised more than two billion two hundred million dollars. The Democratic National Committee, its committees and aligned groups raised about one billion three hundred million dollars. Democratic candidates collectively raised more than two billion three hundred million dollars in their individual campaigns, compared with about one billion six hundred million dollars for Republican candidates. The Associated Press said candidate money could travel farther than outside spending because candidates received lower advertising rates. Federal election records showed more than eleven billion nine hundred million dollars in total midterm spending, most of it directed to advertising. AdImpact reported that Republicans and their allies spent more than five billion five hundred million dollars on advertising, while Democrats and their allies spent a little more than five billion dollars.
These fundraising totals accompanied different campaign priorities. The Associated Press reported that Democrats centered their attention on Trump’s low approval ratings, public discontent over the war in Iran and purchasing power, while Republicans focused on social issues and made Trump the central figure of the midterms.
The Justice Department announced early Tuesday that it would deploy close to one thousand federal election observers to all 50 states, with many expected in densely populated areas that often lean Democratic, including Detroit, Philadelphia and Fulton County, Georgia. The observation program is not new, but voting-rights organizations raised concerns about federal interference and voter intimidation after the government said law-enforcement officers would participate. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sued after that announcement, and a judge ruled against the organization Monday night after the government said observers would wear civilian clothes, carry no firearms and have no arrest powers at polling places. The judge required observers to follow those restrictions, and the Justice Department said the observers would only supervise the process without interfering in voting.
In a separate Monday-night ruling, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., barred the Trump administration from sending California and Washington election officials additional lists of people alleged not to be citizens. Chutkan said more lists would likely confuse voters and election officials while resources needed to remain focused on administering the election, and she urged the states to invalidate the ballots connected to the challenged records. States and voting-rights organizations had disputed the administration’s assertions and said the lists contained errors. The order added to a series of judicial setbacks for the administration’s efforts to expand federal authority over elections, which are managed by the states.
More than three dozen state election laws approved in Republican-controlled states took effect for the first time this year, many carrying provisions Trump had unsuccessfully sought to pass through Congress, and new requirements for documentary proof of citizenship applied to voter registration. Election officials also moved polling places, opened polls late after a barcode system failed and stored paper ballots in emergency bags as persistent rain, flooding and technical problems disrupted voting in several states.
Voters were choosing House members, senators and governors on November 3, with control of both chambers of Congress in question and consequences for congressional oversight of President Donald Trump during his final two years in office. Democrats need net gains of four Senate seats and three House seats; the Associated Press described both chambers as decided by narrow margins, said one or two seats could tilt the balance, and called the four-seat Senate target difficult because many of the closest races are in historically Republican states.
Control of Congress rests on a narrow map
Midterms usually favor the party that does not hold the White House, although the two most recent cycles produced mixed results. Republicans gained nine House seats and a narrow House majority in 2022 while Democrats retained the Senate and added a seat. During Trump’s first term, Democrats gained a net of 41 House seats and recovered the majority for the first time in eight years, while Republicans added two Senate seats. Some analysts drew parallels with 2006, when high fuel prices and the Iraq War faced President George W. Bush and Republicans; Democrats that year gained 31 House seats and six Senate seats.
Republicans were largely defending the House, including districts Trump won in 2024, sometimes by wide margins. Republicans and allied groups withdrew funding from several House races in October, including contests involving incumbents in Iowa and New Jersey. Trump had urged officials in Texas and Florida to redraw districts early in an effort to create an advantage, though that strategy could still fail. Democrats defended some seats in areas favorable to Trump, while Republicans saw potential gains in districts across the country.
Senate control was at stake in a way few had anticipated. Democrats initially described a narrow path through Alaska, Ohio, Maine and North Carolina. They later added Kansas, Iowa and Texas as plausible opportunities while also seeking to hold Georgia and protect competitive races in Michigan and Minnesota. Many of those states had given Trump double-digit victories a couple of years earlier.
Redistricting changed the boundaries of about one-third of House districts. An Associated Press analysis of the 2024 presidential vote margin before and after the new maps found dramatic changes in many districts’ partisan leanings and demographic composition, but no significant national tilt toward either party.
Before redistricting, only three Republican incumbents represented districts won by Kamala Harris in 2024: retiring Rep. Don Bacon in Nebraska’s 2nd District, Rep. Mike Lawler in New York’s 17th District and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania’s 1st District. Lawler and Fitzpatrick faced closely contested races. Redistricting increased the number of Republican-held districts trending Democratic. Four Republican-held California contests became more favorable to Democrats, and in one of them Rep. Kevin Kiley announced he was leaving the Republican Party to run as an independent. Another Republican-held Utah district leaned more Democratic after legal disputes over the map.
Thirty-six states were holding gubernatorial elections. Across all 50 states, Republicans held 26 governorships and Democrats held 24 before Election Day. Democrats needed to gain two states to secure a majority of state governments for the first time in two decades. They last held the majority in 2006 and lost it four years later. Both parties considered about a dozen races competitive.
Democrats’ best opportunities were in Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Nevada and Ohio, while Kansas offered Republicans their strongest opportunity. Wisconsin and Michigan followed for Republicans because their governors were not seeking reelection. Democrats also saw chances in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma and Nebraska.
New state voting laws take effect as Trump presses for election changes
More than three dozen election laws approved in Republican-controlled states took effect for the first time this year, and many carried provisions Trump had unsuccessfully sought to pass through Congress. State changes included new requirements for documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration. New Hampshire university students could no longer use university identification cards, Iowa voters without identification could no longer rely on another voter to attest for them, and some Mississippi voters could be required to produce a birth certificate or passport for verification.
Naturalized citizens could also arrive at polling places and discover that they had been removed from voter lists because databases used to check citizenship against registration records were not current. Opponents said the restrictions could impede eligible citizens. Republican lawmakers who supported tighter rules, especially voter-identification requirements, said the measures strengthened confidence in elections.
Trump had spent months seeking greater influence over election administration through executive orders, lawsuits and legislative proposals, largely without success. In September, the Supreme Court ended one of his most ambitious efforts, a plan that would have required a sweeping national overhaul of mail voting. He also failed to persuade the Republican-controlled Senate to pass the SAVE America Act, which would have required documentary proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote. His administration’s support for new partisan congressional maps, however, changed the midterm landscape as Republican states adopted maps intended to minimize potential losses.
Local problems and flooding disrupt voting
Broward County polls opened 20 minutes late after a new barcode-based security system failed. Elections Supervisor Joe Scott apologized for the delay, said some voters had left before they could vote and urged them to return. The problem was resolved at 7:20 a.m., and Scott could not estimate how many people had left.
Scott said late state redistricting had caused some voters in the same precinct to receive different ballots. The barcode system was intended to prevent election workers from issuing the wrong ballot. Some voters received an erroneous warning that they had submitted the wrong ballot, but Scott said no one voted with the wrong ballot and the count was unaffected.
Voting continued in Westchester County despite a countywide problem preventing machines from accepting paper ballots. The county election board placed ballots in orange emergency bags while workers resolved the issue and said the ballots would remain secure, under observation and counted.
Voters in Westchester County were choosing between Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and Democrat Cait Conley in a close House race, and both candidates urged voters to remain in line in posts on X. New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office was in contact with state and local election officials. Westchester includes Yonkers and White Plains north of Manhattan along the Hudson River and has more than one million residents.
Persistent rain and flooding moved polling places in Florida. Election authorities relocated 21 sites across eight counties, mainly along the central and southern Atlantic coast, although some inland locations were affected. Officials notified voters by text message and email and posted signs at the original locations.
Some residents said on social media that flooding could prevent voters from reaching the relocated sites. Amy Keith, Common Cause’s state director in Florida, called the morning difficult and urged voters to confirm their locations with election supervisors.
The Navajo Election Administration also moved five polling places, two in Arizona and three in New Mexico. The Navajo Nation surrounds the Four Corners area where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet, which has experienced significant flooding since October. Rivers had overflowed and some residents had been evacuated. The tribe counts more than two hundred ninety-eight thousand members.
Several hundred ballots from South Carolina’s most remote election district, on the state’s southern coast, were expected to be counted more quickly Tuesday night after the local sheriff’s office used a helicopter to reach Daufuskie Island. No bridges connect the island, so election workers previously had to retrieve ballots and equipment by ferry or another vessel, which could delay results by as much as five hours. The Associated Press said one night the district waited into the early morning because the vote courier stopped while the fishing was good.
Economic concerns drive voter sentiment
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, a nonpartisan research and data-analysis organization, found that Americans had been dissatisfied with the country’s direction for several years. In September, about seven in 10 American adults believed the country was headed in the wrong direction, while only about one in four said it was headed in the right direction. Democrats and independents were much more likely than Republicans to express that assessment.
A separate October survey found nearly six in 10 adults were very or somewhat pessimistic about American politics, while about half viewed the future of democracy negatively. Trump’s presidential approval stood at 35% in October, below the 42% recorded shortly after the beginning of his second term. About 70% of Republicans approved, down from 82% early in the term, and his overall rating was slightly below its October 2018 level. AP-NORC also recorded slight declines among Republicans and independents.
Around one-quarter of adults approved of Trump’s management of the economy, down from nearly four in 10 shortly after his second term began. About half of Republicans approved, compared with 78% in March 2025. Only close to two in 10 adults approved of his handling of the cost of living, while around eight in 10 disapproved; approximately six in 10 Republicans also disapproved. Nearly eight in 10 voters identified the economy or cost of living as a leading concern.
The Associated Press reported annual inflation of three point seven percent, above the three percent rate recorded at the beginning of Trump’s second term. It attributed the previous year’s increase to tariffs imposed by the administration and Trump’s decision to start a war with Iran, which raised prices for oil, gasoline and diesel. Food, gasoline and medical costs also increased despite Trump’s promise to reduce prices. Consumer confidence was below levels observed during recent recessions, while unemployment was four point two percent.
Trump, appearing on Fox and Friends on Tuesday morning, forecast that the election results would be better than Republicans thought. He said inflation was resolved and that everything was going well. He did not address price concerns and instead highlighted immigration enforcement and an expanding manufacturing sector. Voters had turned against Democrats over inflation in the previous two elections, complicating Republican defenses of their majorities.
Latino voters could play a decisive role. The Associated Press reported that Latinos contributed to Trump’s 2024 return to the White House, while the Democratic path to a House majority runs through heavily Latino districts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida and Texas. The Texas Senate race could also depend on Latino voters.
An October survey by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about six in 10 Hispanic adults disapproved of Trump’s overall performance and about seven in 10 disapproved of his economic performance. The open question was whether Trump supporters who were dissatisfied would vote for Democrats or abstain.
Patricia Witt, 82, was a registered Democrat and retired information-technology worker in Raleigh, North Carolina. She nevertheless voted for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, whom Trump personally chose, because she wanted to preserve Republican congressional support for Trump and his policies. Witt said she did not want to live through another period when the Senate and House fought Trump rather than representing citizens.
David Kastenberg, a 65-year-old physician in Philadelphia, took the opposite position. He voted for Democratic candidates partly because he was concerned that American democracy was at stake. Kastenberg said he was extremely upset with what was happening in Washington concerning Trump’s policies and wanted to see a change in Congress.
Daryl Compton, a 73-year-old retired UPS worker, attended a Vance rally in Topeka, Kansas, the previous week while wearing a red Make America Great Again cap. Compton cited unauthorized immigration, the economy, national security and Iran as concerns. He said gasoline prices were too high but trusted Trump to lower them and believed prices would fall much more than expected.
Compton was backing Republican Sen. Roger Marshall because a victory by Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton could leave Democrats in control of the Senate. He said he disliked Democrats, described them as more like communists and said he opposed communism.
Battleground candidates test shifting coalitions
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who had held office comfortably since 2014, faced one of his most difficult challenges in state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat, in an election year favorable to her party. The Associated Press described Hinojosa’s path as uphill. High costs and public education entered the contest, but data centers became a major issue because of the large infrastructure required for artificial intelligence.
Democrats and Republicans living near data centers cited the facilities’ heavy consumption of water and electricity. In the prior year, Abbott celebrated Google investments that included data centers, drawing criticism from Hinojosa, who argued the decisions reflected the influence of the wealthiest people on ordinary Texans. Abbott subsequently ordered a pause in data-center permits and said Texans came first.
Massive spending and presidential visits suggested Ohio could become competitive again after years in which its historic bellwether role had been discounted. Republicans might have swept key Senate and gubernatorial contests after Trump’s three consecutive landslide victories in the state, but they entered Election Day in close races against Democratic opponents.
Former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown sought to regain his seat against Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who had been appointed the previous year to the seat previously held by Vice President JD Vance. Trump and Vance campaigned in Ohio during the final weeks, while former President Barack Obama appeared for Democrats.
The Ohio governor’s contest featured Republican biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy against Amy Acton, a physician and former state health director during the COVID-19 pandemic. A Ramaswamy advertisement showing Acton’s mother, with whom she has no relationship, became a national controversy.
Republican Susan Collins sought a sixth Senate term as one of the chamber’s few moderates and the only Republican senator from New England. She had won previous elections narrowly. Democratic challenger Troy Jackson entered the race late after June primary winner Graham Platner withdrew following sexual-assault allegations that Platner denied. Jackson won a special nominating convention in late July.
Jackson portrayed Collins as too close to Trump, while Collins emphasized her willingness to distance herself from the party on key votes. Democrats had sought to unseat Collins from the beginning of the cycle.
Susan Myers, a 60-year-old Falmouth voter, said she was optimistic that Jackson could use anti-Trump sentiment to defeat Collins, but previous election cycles had left her deeply disappointed for ardent Democrats like her. Myers voted early at Falmouth Town Hall and was collecting an absentee ballot for her daughter. She said the intense national attention on Maine felt overwhelming, and the Senate contest was among the year’s most competitive and could decide which party controlled the chamber.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer voted at a Brooklyn school and said he was optimistic that Democrats would win a majority after the polls closed, while cautioning against declaring victory prematurely. He described his mood as an optimism that almost caused nausea.
Schumer predicted Democrat Abdul El-Sayed would defeat Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan even though El-Sayed’s primary rival, Rep. Haley Stevens, had endorsed Rogers. He said Stevens’ endorsement amounted to one vote and that El-Sayed would win because he spoke to issues important to Michigan residents. Schumer recalled that a year earlier nobody believed Democrats could be positioned to recover the Senate, and he attributed the party’s improved competitiveness to an unceasing focus on the erosion of purchasing power and to foreign chaos, including the war in Iran that nobody wants.
Texas offered Democrats their most ambitious Senate attempt in years, although no Democrat had won the seat since 1988. The Associated Press described James Talarico as an articulate candidate facing Republican Ken Paxton, whom it described as burdened by scandals, in a national political environment favorable to Democrats.
Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and state legislator, focused on Texans’ difficulty meeting everyday expenses. He attributed those strains directly to extremely wealthy people corrupting politics and described Paxton as the leading example. Paxton, the state’s longtime attorney general, faced ethical questions that led his own party to pursue an impeachment based on corruption allegations. The state legislature acquitted him.
Paxton repeatedly attacked Talarico’s past declaration that God is not binary and insisted his opponent was too woke for Texas, a term the Associated Press noted conservatives use derogatorily for people with progressive views.
Liz Tabor, 62, and her husband, Mark Bauer, 59, cast early ballots at Buda City Hall, but Tabor made exceptions on her ballot. Tabor declined to vote for Paxton because of his history, including the impeachment effort that ended in acquittal and allegations of extramarital affairs. She also declined to vote for his Democratic opponent, choosing the Libertarian candidate instead. Bauer voted for Paxton because he considered having a Republican senator more important.
The couple had lived in Texas for 26 years, supported Republican border measures and wanted further action in that area.
South Carolina Democrats found renewed hope after the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham. His sister, Darline Graham, won a special Republican primary, and the unexpected change raised the prospect of Democrats ending the state’s 20-year drought of statewide election victories. Even some supporters of Democrat Annie Andrews acknowledged that South Carolina might not be ready to shift despite Democratic gains in neighboring North Carolina and Georgia.
South Carolina had consistently backed Trump, who supported Graham, encouraged her to run and campaigned for her twice. Graham and Andrews accused each other of being unprepared for the Senate.
Immigration and foreign affairs shape the campaign
Immigration remained a vulnerability for Republicans. The Associated Press said Trump’s return to power was fueled in part by border concerns under the Biden administration. Trump reduced unauthorized border crossings to nearly zero, although crossings had already been declining before he took office. His administration then shifted toward deportations inside the United States, producing confrontations involving separated families and masked federal agents who sometimes pursued citizens.
Trump said the United States was not receiving enough migrants from Scandinavian countries and would accept only white South Africans as refugees. The Associated Press reported that two citizens participating in a protest were killed by immigration agents during raids in Minneapolis. Republicans feared losing support in heavily immigrant areas stretching from New Jersey through Florida to Texas, and surveys indicated that more voters rejected Trump’s immigration position than supported it.
While Americans voted, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia would intensify its mass drone and missile attacks against Ukrainian energy facilities that week while international attention focused on the U.S. midterms. In a video message, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s difficulties obtaining air defenses and Patriot missiles would move into the background. Russian ballistic missiles and drones had damaged energy facilities in 10 Ukrainian regions Tuesday as Moscow sought to pressure Kyiv during the winter.
Trump also said the United States would suspend four billion dollars in aid to Israel. In a telephone interview with Fox News Channel, Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had proposed the idea and that they had discussed it for a couple of years. Trump said Israel did not need the assistance, which represented a large cost to the United States, and noted that Democratic candidates, including Abdul El-Sayed, had made the aid an issue. Netanyahu’s office did not immediately comment. The United States had sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel in recent years.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged Trump and party leaders not to manipulate voters with false information while the Iran conflict raised fuel prices. In a Monday interview with commentator Stephen A. Smith, DeSantis said Trump had originally promised not to begin new Middle East wars but was now engaged in a conflict with no end in sight. He said gasoline was more expensive because of the conflict and affected the working class, noted that some Republicans were blaming Joe Biden for the increase and called on the party to be honest.
DeSantis unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and could run again in 2028.
Congressional control could expand oversight
If Republicans lost at least one chamber, Trump would face congressional investigations and a possible impeachment process. Democratic lawmakers said they would use those tools to seek accountability for administration policies, personal benefits and abuses of power, although they described impeachment of Trump as less likely. The party’s left flank was expected to press House leaders to act, while Democrats could instead seek removal of members of Trump’s cabinet. Trump had faced two impeachment processes during his first term and was acquitted by the Senate both times.
A Democratic House majority would control committee chairmanships, larger budgets for staff and resources, and the power to issue subpoenas. Losing the Senate also would reduce Trump’s ability to confirm judicial and executive branch nominees.
Other Election Day developments draw attention
Federal authorities separately accused Robin Martin of Oklahoma of sending hundreds of letters containing white powder to public officials ahead of the 2024 and 2026 elections. An FBI court filing released Tuesday said the substance was yeast or flour, although not every letter had been fully examined. Martin was accused of staging a false alarm and sending threatening communications.
Martin was scheduled to appear in federal court for the first time Tuesday afternoon in Oklahoma City. Online records did not show that he had retained a lawyer who could comment.
Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., also had mayoral candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America. Nithya Raman was challenging Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, whose first term was marked by the devastating Palisades fire. The fire began while Bass was out of the country and caught the fire department unprepared. Raman and Bass were former political allies and progressive Democrats.
In Washington, primary winner Janeese Lewis George was favored to become mayor. Her victory would break a quarter-century of centrist government in the capital and place a Democratic Socialist at the head of a major city government. The organization also includes Katie Wilson, who unexpectedly won control of Seattle’s city government the previous autumn. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, elected in 2025 after promising to transform municipal government and return power to the working class, had established the precedent. Both Los Angeles and Washington were strongly Democratic.
The Associated Press framed the election as a referendum on the second stretch of Trump’s term. Democrats were cautiously optimistic as Republicans spent tens of millions of dollars late in states and districts Trump had won easily two years earlier. Their strategy rested on voters’ belief that Trump had not fulfilled his promise to restrain rising costs and on a perception that he had been more concerned with beautifying the capital than relieving the economic burden at the pump.
Republicans relied on their financial advantage to contain that trend, although they were preparing for a possible House loss and a determined effort to retain the Senate. That scenario had appeared unlikely early in the year because the electoral map was considered mostly favorable to the party. The Associated Press described both chambers as decided by narrow margins and said one or two seats could tilt the balance, while Democrats still needed net gains of four in the Senate and three in the House — a Senate target the AP called difficult because many of the closest races are in historically Republican states. The outcome would determine whether Democrats took one or both chambers, with direct consequences for congressional oversight of Trump during his final two years.