The successful Democratic contender for a Michigan Senate seat parried the many insinuations lobbed by Republicans

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Abdul El-Sayed said he did not expect to be “a main character of this midterms”, but the first Muslim elected to the US Senate in history will take his seat in January after a vitriolic campaign that cast him as the central villain of the president and his party.

By October he told the Associated Press he was “not shying away” from those rightwing fixations. “What are you implying?” El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, replied when a town hall attender asked if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, in a now-viral exchange.

‘It’s the disregard for the rule of law. It just seems like they’re thumbing their nose at it’

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In the battleground state of Maine, Todd Cox, 63, has supported the state’s incumbent Republican senator Susan Collins not once, but twice, in previous elections. Not this time.

On Tuesday, Cox, a technology professional, cast his vote for Collins’s Democratic challenger, Troy Jackson – driven not by pressing local issues, but broader concern “for the direction the country is going in”, he said.

Control of the Senate and House of Representatives, both currently held by the Republicans, is at stake

• US midterms 2026 live – latest updates

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Americans are heading to the polls today in US midterm elections widely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s second presidency and a chance for opponents to rein in his untrammeled power.

At stake is control of the US Senate and House of Representatives, both currently held by Republicans, and in recent days, the two parties have scrambled to deliver their final pitches to voters. Additionally, there are elections for governor in 36 states, as well for state legislatures, sheriff’s offices, and on the approval of ballot initiatives nationwide.

The issue runs through almost every twist and turn and has come to define the congresswoman’s political persona

For Haley Stevens, the road from Democratic Senate candidate to campaigning alongside a Republican she once called a rubber stamp for Donald Trump has been remarkably short – and the issue running through almost every twist and turn has been Israel.

Having failed to stop Abdul El-Sayed in the primary, Stevens chose to back Republican Mike Rogers on Sunday, a candidate who she previously warned would enable Trump’s agenda – apparently because the Democrat who won refuses to share her position on Israel.