Photo: Wikimedia Commons (public domain). File photo of the U.S. Capitol, not a photo of election night.
Democrats took an early lead as results poured in from the 2026 United States midterm elections on Tuesday night, winning the first major Senate calls of the evening and showing early strength in House races that will decide control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's second term.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships were on the ballot. Democrats need a net gain of four Senate seats to take control of a chamber Republicans currently hold 53-47, and early projections suggested they were favoured to capture the House — though with polls still open in the West and many races uncalled, control of either chamber was far from decided when the first results arrived.
Ossoff holds Georgia in the night's first major call
The first significant race call of the night went to Democrats. Incumbent Senator Jon Ossoff won re-election in Georgia, defeating Republican Representative Mike Collins, according to projections by NBC News and Decision Desk HQ. Republicans had viewed Georgia as one of their best chances to flip a Democratic-held seat, but Ossoff pulled away in polls as the campaign became a referendum on Trump.
Ossoff, 39, the youngest member of the Senate, first won the seat in a 2021 runoff. His victory denied Republicans a pickup they had counted on in their fight to hold the Senate.
Pappas makes history in New Hampshire
Democrats also held the open New Hampshire Senate seat, where Representative Chris Pappas defeated former Republican Senator John E. Sununu, multiple outlets projected. Pappas will become the first openly gay man to serve in the U.S. Senate.
The seat opened with the retirement of Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen. National Republicans had invested heavily in the race, and polls had shown a single-digit contest all year, but Pappas, who had consistently won the historically purple 1st Congressional District, held it for Democrats.
In Virginia, Senator Mark Warner won re-election as expected, giving Democrats another early Senate hold, Reuters reported. In Florida, despite a Republican-led redraw of district lines, Democrats held several seats, including Representative Jared Moskowitz's 25th District and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz's new 20th District seat.
Affordability dominated voters' minds
Early exit polling pointed to the issue driving the night: the cost of living. Preliminary NBC News and CBS News exit polls put Trump's approval rating among midterm voters at 38 percent. Voters repeatedly cited gas prices, groceries and rent as their top concerns, with diesel prices nearly doubling since the war with Iran began weighing heavily on truck drivers and commuters alike.
Markets reacted nervously as the early results came in. S&P 500 futures slid 0.5 percent and Nasdaq futures fell 0.9 percent, while the dollar softened, Reuters reported, as investors waited to learn whether Democrats would wrest control of Congress from Trump's Republicans.
Trump himself spent the evening at the White House watching returns — and venting about the coverage. In a series of social media posts he lashed out at Fox News, saying he had stopped watching in disgust and complaining that the network gave too much time to Democrats.
With western states still voting and the closest Senate battlegrounds — including Texas, Michigan, Maine, Kansas and Ohio — still uncalled, the night's biggest questions remained open: not just who wins individual races, but whether the early Democratic momentum holds into a change of control in Washington.
Sources: USA TODAY live election coverage, November 3, 2026; Reuters, November 4, 2026; NBC News and Decision Desk HQ projections as reported by USA TODAY and Reuters. Results are early projections and remain subject to change as counting continues.