Election night 2026: Poll closing times and what to watch, hour by hour
Republicans are at risk of losing control of Congress. Democrats sense momentum that goes beyond the anti-incumbent mood typical of a midterm year. The results that come in after polls close Tuesday will help determine what President Donald Trump’s final two years in the White House look like.
Trump looms large over many of this year’s contests, especially after he and his party used a midterm convention in September to focus national attention on him. Democrats, who are in the minority in both chambers of Congress, are well positioned to win back the House. Their path to flipping the Senate is more complicated.
Republicans hold the House by just a few seats and the Senate by a more comfortable 53-47 margin. The size of Democrats’ gains, and how much power they will wield for the rest of Trump’s term, depends on how they fare in red states and in congressional districts Trump won. Here’s what to watch as polls close.
7 p.m. Eastern: Last polls close in six states
Voting ends in Georgia and South Carolina, both home to closely watched Senate races. Competitive House races in Kentucky, where some polls start closing at 6 p.m., and Virginia should also offer early, though far from definitive, clues about whether Democrats can compete in parts of the country Trump won.
In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is well positioned to win re-election despite running in a state Trump carried two years ago. His Republican challenger, Rep. Mike Collins, was seen as a problematic nominee for the GOP even before he won the primary.
In South Carolina, Republicans are working to elect Sen. Darline Graham to a full
Do Maryland’s political leaders serve Maryland? Post-gubernatorial debate town hall
With elections just week’s away, Maryland’s gubernatorial debate between Democratic incumbent Governor Wes Moore and Republican challenger Dan Cox took place on Oct. 6. In a special, post-debate Town Hall—hosted on Oct. 7 at the The Real News Network studio in Baltimore and co-organized by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle—TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez moderates a panel discussion about the bankruptcy of politics-as-usual and the need for building “grassroots governing power” today. Panelists include: Charly Carter, political strategist and founder of Step Up Maryland and Step Up to Lead; Dayvon Love, LBS Director of Public Policy; and Andy Ellis, Green Party candidate for Governor of Maryland.
Credits:
Studio Production / Post-Production: Cameron Granadino, David Hebden
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Maximillian Alvarez:
So we’re here at the Real News Network Studio in Baltimore, and I am really grateful to be sitting here with an incredible panel of folks who are going to help us think through and respond to the Maryland gubernatorial debate that we watched yesterday, October 6th, between Democratic incumbent Governor Wes Moore and Republican candidate Dan Cox. So a lot of us watched that debate either live or afterwards. There was a lot to be furious about. There was a lot to think about in terms of like, okay, these are the candidates we have on offer, but also these are the things that our political parties think are important to us. And so I think a big way that we’re going to address tonight’s discussion is by talking about the issues and voices and perspectives that were not represented on that debate stage
Billionaires Captured Ohio’s Supreme Court. Now They Want a Fully GOP Court.
Since mid-October, two right-wing super PACs have spent untold sums on ads portraying two of the four candidates running for seats on the Ohio Supreme Court as soft on crime. This campaign against judicial candidates supported by Democrats is a tried-and-true element of the attack playbook for special interests seeking to undermine judges that might hold corporations accountable.
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El-Sayed Didn’t Fall for Anti-Trans “Gotcha” Moment in “60 Minutes” Interview
Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, has long been a vocal ally to transgender people. In the 2026 midterms, he has not wavered in that support, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars in attack ads, much of which has been focused on transgender people, that have poured into this year’s elections from the Republican Party and, even at times…
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Supreme Court quickly rejects Trump DOJ request to intervene on California ballots
The Supreme Court on Monday denied the Trump administration’s bid to sequester mail ballots from California voters whom the federal government claimed it had “identified as likely noncitizens.”
The rejection came in an unexplained order without any justices noting dissent. That is not unusual for emergency litigation. But a notable aspect of this rejection of the administration is how quickly it came from the full court and without the court even calling for a response from the opposing party first.
The Department of Justice turned to the high court after a divided appellate panel refused to order the Democratic-led state to separate out more than 20,000 ballots and establish a process to verify the citizenship status of those voters before counting them.
The two panel judges in the majority were appointees of Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. They said the state already had a verification process and that the DOJ was trying to subvert the constitutional system for how elections are conducted. The majority also raised concerns about disenfranchising lawful voters while questioning the reliability of the government’s data.
The dissenting panel judge, also a Trump appointee, said the DOJ only sought “modest” relief that “would not cancel any vote but would allow time to verify the eligibility of suspected noncitizens.”
In its Supreme Court application Monday, the DOJ leaned on that dissent from Judge Patrick Bumatay, who has been floated as a potential high court pick if Trump makes another appointment during his second term. Whether he has an opportunity to do so hinges, in part, on the Senate’s composition after the Election Day results are tallied.
The DOJ quoted Bumatay in support