President claimed to have ushered in a ‘golden age’ even as prices soared and war dragged on – and midterm voters did not buy his looking-glass narrative

A new “golden age of America” is under way, Donald Trump repeatedly declared in his final pitch to voters before the US midterm elections.

The war in Iran was not really a war, because “we’ve done very little fighting”, the US president stressed. The stock market had hit 88 all-time highs. “They’re saying,” he said, that on his watch the US has become “the hottest country anywhere in the world”.

Democrats of all stripes declared victory on Tuesday night in clearest sign yet voters have had enough of Trumpism

No single Democratic coalition can claim victory after Tuesday’s resounding midterm results – all parts of the Democratic coalition can.

Their wins were so sweeping, so resounding, that factional divisions fail to explain them. This year, the most important thing Democrats had to be to win was, simply, not Republicans.

Pastor clinches victory over incumbent Roger Marshall in state that emerged as unexpected battleground this year

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Adam Hamilton has clinched a historic victory in the US Senate race in Kansas, fueling the country’s Democratic takeover of Congress as voters in key battleground states expressed frustration with Donald Trump. It’s the first time a Democrat has been elected to represent Kansas in the Senate since 1932.

With his victory speech, Hamilton, a longtime pastor, transformed a crowded hotel ballroom into his own congregation, his podium into a pulpit. Speaking at a hotel in Overland Park, he recited Bible passages and the parable of Good Samaritan in his address.

‘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.

Affordability and small businesses’ economic woes feature heavily in the House race for Wisconsin’s third district

After 18 years in business, Erin Klaus is closing her storefront, a handmade artisan market in downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin, at the end of the year.

She opened Tangled Up in Hue amid a recession, during a time when downtown was “kind of a ghost town”, weathering construction and the pandemic. But the current economic crisis proved too much. She’s seen a downward trend in sales for two years, and was dipping into her own pocket from her other job, as the executive director of business non-profit Downtown Eau Claire Inc, to pay staff.

The 2026 US midterm elections feature firebrand progressives trying to stake out new territory, moderate Republicans struggling in the shadow of Donald Trump, and a host of scandals that have made races closer than they should be.

These candidates could shape not only power in Washington, but public and political understanding of what works – and wins votes – in different places across the country. Can a Democrat win in red Kansas? Could Texas finally flip away from Republicans? Will abuse allegations or absenteeism tank incumbents? How important is capturing online attention?

And how can Republicans run away from Trump, their party’s leader, and modern architect, as his popularity wanes?

The lessons learned – and the candidates who teach them – will play into the 2028 presidential election and alter the makeup of Congress at a critical time for both parties

Everything you need to know about how winners are called, how states count ballots and Trump’s election denialism

There’s no simple answer as to when US voters will know the results of the midterms.

Elections are managed locally throughout the US, and it’s different in each state. Sometimes, if a race isn’t close, there’s a near-instantaneous sense of who won. In more contested races, it can take many hours, days or even weeks.

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

• US midterms 2026 live – latest updates

• Track live results from all 50 states

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.

Millions will vote to decide which party controls Congress – which will have a huge impact on Trump’s final years in office

US voters will soon deliver a national verdict on the second presidency of Donald Trump. On 3 November, millions of Americans will vote in midterm elections to decide control of the House of Representatives and Senate, as well as the governorships in 36 states and state legislatures across the country. The results could have a huge impact on Trump’s final two years in office.

Our reporters have interviewed nine voters across the country and the political spectrum about extremism in US politics, their confidence in the US voting system, what they hope Congress will tackle first and their views of the president’s secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth.

James O’Keefe and Cam Higby claim they were trying to show vulnerabilities in allowing a voter to vouch for others

Two rightwing influencers have been charged with felonies in Minneapolis over attempts in the state’s election primary to disguise themselves in what they called “Muslim garb” and claim they were local voters.

James O’Keefe and Cam Higby went to polling places in Minnesota during the state’s August primary in an attempt to show vulnerabilities in the practice of “vouching”, where a registered voter from the same precinct can vouch for another voter’s eligibility.