US midterm results early on 4 November showed Democrats ahead in the first counts from the 3 November elections, while control of Congress remained undecided. US midterm results from the Associated Press gave Democrats 28,031,773 votes in House races against 22,258,819 for Republicans, with 25.82 per cent of precincts reporting and an estimated 40.84 per cent of votes counted. Those figures were partial, and they did not by themselves decide which party would hold the House.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships were on the ballot on 3 November. Democrats need a net gain of four Senate seats to take control of a chamber Republicans hold by 53 to 47. Early projections reported by USA Today and Reuters suggested Democrats were favoured to capture the House, but with polls still open in the West at the time of the first counts, and many races uncalled, neither chamber had been decided.
Exit polls in the US midterm results gave an early sense of the mood among voters. Preliminary NBC News and CBS News exit polls put President Donald Trump’s approval rating among midterm voters at 38 per cent, according to reports of the early results. Reports also said voters blamed high prices for much of their dissatisfaction, and that half of voters saw the election as a chance to rebuke the president.
US midterm results in Georgia and Virginia
The first major Senate call of the night went to Democrats in Georgia. Incumbent Senator Jon Ossoff won re-election, defeating Republican Representative Mike Collins, according to projections by NBC News and Decision Desk HQ. Ossoff’s win held a seat Democrats needed to defend before they could look for gains elsewhere.
In Virginia, Senator Mark Warner won re-election, according to Reuters. Warner defeated Republican Bert Mizusawa, and his win gave Democrats another early Senate hold. In New Hampshire, Representative Chris Pappas defeated former Republican Senator John E. Sununu to hold the open Senate seat for Democrats, according to multiple outlets.
Those three holds kept the Democratic path to a Senate majority open, but they did not change the balance of the chamber. Democrats still needed to win seats held by Republicans to reach 51 seats, and the closest battlegrounds were still being counted when the early results were published.
US midterm results in North Carolina and governors
North Carolina produced the first reported Senate flip of the night for Democrats. Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate, defeated Michael Whatley, the candidate backed by Trump, with more than 65 per cent of the vote, according to live reports of the count. That result was described as a large win for Democrats in a state they needed to gain.
US midterm results in governor races also produced early calls in both parties. In New York, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul won re-election by a large margin against Bruce Blakeman, according to CNN. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governor’s race for Democrats. In Florida, Byron Donalds won the governor’s race for Republicans, according to live reports.
In Kentucky, Andy Barr was elected as a Republican senator, and in Oklahoma, Kevin Hern was elected as a Republican senator, according to live reports. Those wins held seats for Republicans and showed that the night was not moving in one direction in every state.
What the US midterm results leave undecided
The largest questions remained open in the early hours of 4 November in India, which was the night of 3 November in the United States. Senate races in Texas, Michigan, Maine, Kansas and Ohio were still uncalled, according to reports of the early US midterm results. House races in many districts were also uncalled, and counting in western states was still under way.
Some US midterm results may take days to resolve, and a small number may go to runoffs. Georgia and Mississippi require a candidate to win an outright majority, and both hold runoffs on 1 December 2026 if no candidate clears 50 per cent. That rule means Senate control could remain uncertain even after most votes are counted.
The new Congress will be sworn in on 3 January 2027. Until the remaining races are called, neither party can claim control of the House or the Senate on the basis of the early counts alone. The early US midterm results point to a stronger Democratic performance than in 2024, but the final balance will depend on the counts still to come.