‘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

• 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.

Residents would welcome the development, but the president’s past false promises cast doubt on the proposal

On a Monday afternoon in late September, Donald Trump gathered Iowa Republicans in the Oval Office to make a big announcement: the firm Mesabi Metallics would invest $15bn to make the midwestern state the site of the largest steel mill in the country.

One month later, and just days before the midterm election, word has spread in the small town of Wever, population 142, that the mill will be built somewhere nearby. And that’s been about it – no shovels in the dirt, workers on a job site or machinery on the dirt roads leading down towards the Mississippi River.