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

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’ Democratic challenger Troy Jackson – driven not by pressing local issues, but broader concern “for the direction the country is going in”, he said.

Midterms didn’t appear to have huge impact, though predicted wins for Democrats could mean more regulation

US tech stocks made a recovery on Tuesday afternoon after a selloff spooked investors over AI spending.

Tuesday’s midterm elections didn’t appear to have a huge impact on Wall Street, though investors are predicting Democrats get at least a majority in the House and potentially gain seats in the Senate, which could lead to more AI regulation.

The US has been voting for senators, members of the House of Representatives and state governors in the midterm elections. Here are the results in full

• US midterm elections 2026 live: Americans go to the polls in referendum on Trump’s agenda

The US legislature, Congress, has two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The president has spewed vulgar and hateful rhetoric even as he reveals his disdain for his followers

Far from veering off his track, Trump in his ceaselessly vile midterm campaign statements has attained an optimal level of Trumpism. He has distilled the raw elements of misogyny, racism and nativism to the purified essence of his political philosophy.

The Republican candidates and his vice-president have followed him down the trail of “defining deviancy down”, as explained by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in his essay in The American Scholar in 1993, about lowering the bar to make abnormal criminal behavior seem normal, coping through denial of its obvious presence, and through that process trivializing “the manifest decline of American civic life”.

Playwright Richard Nelson’s acclaimed Rhinebeck Panorama series returns for another timely look at the fictional Apple family living in a divided America

Richard Nelson learned a great lesson, cliched as it is, late in his writing career: the thing you toss off without overthinking can end up being some of your life’s greatest work. In the program notes for We’ll See, the latest in what has become a 12-play series, he admits he used to view the plays as “disposable, because of their being tied to a given time and place”.

Every November from 2010–2013, Nelson checked in on the fictional Apple family in upstate New York during elections and important national anniversaries, with each play set on the day of its premiere and mostly starring the same cast. (We’ll See, which opens this week at the Public Theater, sees them awaiting the results of the midterm elections.)

First polls will close in Kentucky and Indiana; control of Congress at stake as key states including Florida, Georgia, Michigan, and North Carolina see record turnout

• Track live results from all 50 states

• The key races to watch

• What time do the polls close?

It has just gone past 06:30 in North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia where polls have now opened.

Here are some of the key voter issues shaping the US midterm elections:

The economy: Despite Trump’s 2024 campaign pledge to tackle affordability issues, the economy consistently ranks as voters’ top concern.

Iran: Trump’s decision to go to war with the Tehran regime has exacerbated economic worries. Iran’s retaliatory decision to close the strait of Hormuz has driven up gasoline prices for US motorists. It also represents a breach of his pledge to end the US’s supposed addiction to “forever wars”.

Immigration: Enforcement and closing the border remains a signature issue for Trump. He repeatedly boasts of the impact of his closure of the southern border as one of his biggest achievements, making comparisons with the performance of Joe Biden.

AI and datacenters: AI has emerged as a key campaign issue, with surveys showing a majority of voters holding negative views on it, even as Trump champions its development and attempts to rename it “super intelligence”.

Reports have suggested a vulnerable president could start a new bombing campaign. But that wouldn’t bring a deal any closer

Will Donald Trump decide to resume a large-scale war against Iran after the US midterm elections?

That question has loomed over the campaign for weeks, as officials leaked plans for a new round of joint US-Israeli military strikes that would target Iran’s underground nuclear facilities, missile arsenals and civilian infrastructure.

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

Here’s an hour-by-hour rundown of when polls close around the US, and some of the key races taking place

• US politics live – latest updates

In the 2026 US midterm cycle, there are 35 Senate seats up for election, 36 governors’ races and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives up for grabs. There are also several ballot measures across the country on issues ranging from election administration to abortion access.

Democrats are looking to reclaim control of both chambers of Congress. They’ll need to gain four seats in the Senate to secure a 51-seat majority, and win at least 218 seats to take back the House.

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

• US politics live – latest updates

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.

Around the world, virtues such as compassion and kindness are gathering dust, like old hymn books in a long-deserted church

Towards the end of the summer, the Tory-Reform defector Robert Jenrick authored an op-ed piece for the Daily Telegraph about the seemingly impossible economics of rising benefits bills because of mental ill-health. In his capacity as Reform’s Treasury spokesman, his task was to big up its plans to cut 25% of so-called welfare spending by 2030, and thereby tackle what he called the state’s “suicidal empathy”.

Straight away, I wondered where this most opportunistic politician had borrowed that phrase from, and instantly found out: a book with the same title, published this year by the Canadian academic Gad Saad, whom the dust jacket describes as having particular expertise in “the use of evolutionary psychology in marketing and consumer behaviour”. It comes with an endorsement from Elon Musk. “Western civilisation is doomed unless the core weakness of suicidal empathy is recognised and actions are taken that are hard but necessary for survival,” says the world’s richest man. “All of Gad’s books, including this one, are great.”

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

• US midterm elections 2026: latest updates

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.

Democrats and Republicans have scrambled in recent days to deliver their final pitches to voters with control of the US Senate and House of Representatives – both currently held by the Republicans – at stake.

Justice department had ordered state to segregate and not count 20,000 ballots from people it claims are non-citizens

• US midterms – live updates

The supreme court on Monday ruled against the Trump administration and its attempts to force California election officials to segregate and not count ballots from people that the justice department claims are non-citizens. The ruling follows several lower courts siding with California officials, who argued the federal government was seeking to interfere in state elections.

The court did not issue an explanation for its ruling, which is customary in cases that come to it on an emergency basis. There were no noted dissents from the justices.

US president shares delayed results of chaotic renovation on DC site as Americans prepare to head to the polls

Donald Trump unveiled the delayed results of his $14m renovation of Washington DC’s Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool in what is expected to be his final press conference before voters head to the polls for the midterm elections.

On the eve of a consequential election day, with polls indicating that most voters feel the US president has grown too focused on building projects in the nation’s capital, he stood in front of the newly opened reflecting pool to discuss – in detail – changes to the pool’s pipe, the grass surrounding the area and granite.