American voters head to polls today for midterms amid heated race for Congress

Voters in the United States head to the polls today, Tuesday, to cast their ballots in the congressional midterm elections, a contest seen as a popular test of President Donald Trump’s second term, while electoral indicators point to opportunities for the Democratic Party to regain control of one or both chambers of Congress.

The parties are competing for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, for 35 of the 100 Senate seats, and for governorships in 36 states. According to circulating figures, Democrats need to gain three seats in the House and a net four seats in the Senate to seize the majority in both chambers.

If Democrats retake the House, they would gain broad influence over the federal budget and legislative oversight, while Republicans losing their majority in one or both chambers would create difficulties for the Trump administration in advancing its legislative priorities during the remaining two years of his term.

The elections are taking place against economic pressures affecting voters; despite Trump’s pledge to lower prices if he returns to the White House for a second term, inflation, tariffs and rising fuel costs driven by the conflict in the Middle East have increased the cost-of-living burden.

Republicans respond to criticism by insisting that Trump administration policies, including tax cuts and tougher immigration measures, will benefit Americans, and they portray Democratic candidates as adopting extreme left-wing positions. Some Republican supporters are relying on higher turnout among the party’s voters on Election Day and on the possibility that the gap between election results and opinion polls may be limited.

In his last campaign appearance before the vote, Trump did not devote his speech to the economy as voters expected and instead focused much of it on the project to renovate the Reflecting Pool in Washington. He said the current elections are “the most important midterm elections in our lives.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer described the president’s remarks as “a pathetic valedictory message.”

At the Senate level, the parties are contesting seats in conservative-leaning states such as Kansas, Texas, Iowa, Ohio and Alaska, at a time when Republicans currently hold a 53-seat majority to 47 for the Democrats. Democrats hope to make inroads by winning seats in states like Texas and Kansas, while they face challenges defending their own seats in other states.

In Michigan, Democratic Representative Haley Stevens last Sunday announced her support for Republican candidate Mike Rogers against Abdul El-Sayed, who defeated her in the Democratic primary; Trump welcomed the move.

In a reading of forecasts, Decision Desk HQ projected Democrats would win a Senate majority of 52 seats to 48 for Republicans, along with an expected control of the House with an estimated 241 seats to 194.

The campaign saw widespread early voting, with around 57 million people casting ballots before Election Day, a record figure, while spending on political advertising exceeded $11 billion. Large sums were also pumped in by backers of the Republican Party, including billionaire Elon Musk, to support the party’s campaign efforts.

Attention extends beyond vote tallies to the positions of the parties and certification procedures, amid questions about the possibility of Republican challenges if they lose control of Congress. In this context, the Justice Department brought a suit that might have disrupted certification of the Alaska Senate results if Republican Senator Dan Sullivan had lost by a slim margin, but a court ruled to reject the effort on the eve of the elections.

The U.S. Supreme Court also rejected an emergency request to force the state of California to cancel mail ballots for more than 20,000 people on the basis of citizenship-related claims.

In a podcast interview before the vote, Trump threatened to use his presidential powers to confront Democrats if Republicans lost control of Congress, saying he would veto what they put forward, and that the two sides, he said, would then have to negotiate and strike deals.