US midterms results 2026 LIVE updates: First Senate flip in North Carolina as Democrats also take Georgia, New Hampshire, ahead in Florida, Texas; Trump, Republicans under threat in both House and Senate

Welcome to our live coverage of the US midterm elections, where several critical races could have major consequences for US politics and Donald Trump’s presidency.

As polls begin to close, here’s what you need to know:

• Voting has now ended in several US states, with polls in Texas and most Midwest states closing at 9pm Eastern time (1pm AEDT), and in Alaska and on the West Coast closing at midnight Eastern (4pm AEDT).
• Exit polls suggest a bad night for Trump and the Republican Party, our correspondent Michael Koziol says, with AP and CNN polls finding some 75 per cent of voters “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the way the country is going.
• Earlier polls and nonpartisan analysts say that Democrats are likely to wrest control of the House of Representatives from the Republicans.
• Control of the Senate remains uncertain, with some polls predicting a “blue wave” and others suggesting a tight contest.
• All 435 seats in the US House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, and several governorships are up for grabs tonight.

Read more on US politics:

• Referendum on Trump: How the midterm elections work
• The key races: These are the contests to watch on election day
• Inside story: Behind the Democrats’ embarrassing Michigan meltdown
• Blue wave: Trump accused of misreading the mood of Americans

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Polls have closed in the key battleground states of Georgia, South and North Carolina, with Ohio and West Virginia to follow as voters flocked to have their say at the midterm election.

Incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff is going head-to-head with Republican Representative Mike Collins, as he seeks a second term in Georgia. Ossoff and Collins have engaged in fierce jousting ahead.

Meanwhile, the gubernatorial race in the peach state is being fought between Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, and Republican Rick Jackson. If successful, Bottoms would be the first black female governor of Georgia.

The turnout at the polling booths has been uncharacteristically high, with more than 59 million people having voted so far, according to an Associated Press analysis.

The US has no immediate plans to strike Iran, President Donald Trump has told the Financial Times.

In an interview with the FT on Election Day, Trump suggested he was content with the state of the stand-off with Iran.

“We seem to be getting everything we want,” Trump said in the six-minute telephone interview.

Reuters

From Abdul El-Sayed’s headline showdown in Michigan to unexpectedly tight races in red states such as Texas and Kansas, we track all the key races live as polls begin to close.

Follow them live here.

Donald Trump was watching Fox News’ election coverage earlier, but says he has tuned out due to his hatred of co-anchor Jessica Tarlov, one of the network’s few progressive voices.

“Watching the Pre-Election Results on FoxNews, but I can’t stand Jessica Tarlov’s voice – DUMB AS A ROCK, but it’s the voice that gets me,” the US president wrote on Truth Social.

“Have to go somewhere else until that LOSER is off the air – I’ll be back later!”

Trump then texted another Fox anchor, late-night host Greg Gutfeld, with a disparaging message about Tarlov, which Gutfeld read out on the air.

A man who was pardoned by President Donald Trump after pleading guilty to a charge related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has been arrested and charged with threatening judges who presided over cases concerning the riot.

Cleveland Meredith, 58, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Atlanta, and made public on Monday, with making a threat to execute judges who presided over January 6-related cases.

“ALL J6 Federal JUDGES will be EXECUTED!” Meredith wrote in a post on Facebook in April, according to the complaint.

In seeking Meredith’s detention, prosecutors said in a filing that the resident of Sautee Nacoochee, Georgia, had in recent weeks “posted several threatening and concerning messages calling for violence following the midterm elections”.

As polls begin to close, some of the exit surveys published by the major US news networks spell bad news for Donald Trump and the Republicans.

Polling stations began to close in Indiana and Kentucky at 6pm on Tuesday (10am AEDT) and will close in another half-dozen states in about an hour, but remain open for hours yet in most states.

AP and CNN polls found about 75 per cent of voters were “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the way the country is going.

That is a fairly devastating number. Broadly speaking, there are few better barometers for how a governing party will perform than overall sentiment about whether the country is going in the right or wrong direction.

The Democrats appear to have flipped their first seat in the 2026 midterms – but it won’t count towards the 218 seats they need for a majority in the House of Representatives.

Unofficial partial results from the US Pacific territory of Guam showed the island’s former attorney -general Alicia Anne Garrido Limtiaco ahead of Republican incumbent James Moylan, according to Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal, citing the Guam Electoral Commission.

Newsweek said the initial figures suggested a divided result in Guam, rather than an across-the-board swing toward either party.

Guam – a few thousand kilometres north of Australia – has been a US territory since 1898.

It is represented in the House by a non-voting delegate, who takes part in committees and debates, but cannot vote on the passage of legislation. It does not have a senator.

Washington: Voters are in the mood for change, according to the AP Voter Poll, which found that about three-quarters of voters say they feel “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the way things are going in the country today.

Most appear to blame the Trump administration for high costs. About six in 10 say higher-than-usual prices are “more because of Trump’s policies” rather than “more because of factors outside Trump’s control”.

The AP Voter Poll, an expansive survey of the electorate, suggests most are deeply unhappy with Trump, with roughly six in 10 saying they disapprove of how he’s handling the presidency.

The survey reflects deep unhappiness with the president and Congress. About six in 10 voters disapprove of how Trump is handling the presidency, while about three-quarters of voters disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job.

Washington: The Justice Department has escalated its investigation over an Alaska Senate candidate who shares a name with the Republican incumbent, issuing a letter to a prominent Democratic attorney in Washington and others that they may be targets of the criminal inquiry, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT).

Meanwhile, incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan said there were going to be “thousands of Alaskans who throw away their vote” because of confusion over the second unaffiliated Dan Sullivan on the ballot, CNN reported.

Speaking in Anchorage after casting his vote at the Alaska Zoo, he described it as “the biggest election scandal and the biggest cheating scandal in Alaskan history”.

But he said he would accept the result of the election, even if he loses, “once every legal vote is counted and certified”.

Federal immigration officials took to social media on Election Day to warn against illegal voting by non-citizens.

In a message on X, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement wrote: “If you vote illegally, we will find you. We will track you down, arrest you, and prosecute you. There will be no escape.”

The agency did not return messages seeking comment about the post. Throughout Tuesday, it also posted about arrests of non-citizens accused of voting.

While that has been a major emphasis for the agency this year, the number of arrests and earlier investigations in the states demonstrate the problem is rare.