The 2026 midterms, as the polls model them
Weighted averages of 2,706 polls, corrected for each pollster's measured lean, blended with partisanship, incumbency, and fundraising, and given the uncertainty that 2,313 past races say they deserve. How it works.
- SenateDemocrats win control: 66%
- HouseDemocrats win control: 84%
- GovernorsDemocratic governors: 26.7 of 50
Senate
All races →If the polls overstate Democrats the way they did in 2016–24 (about 2.2 points here): Democrats 38%, Republicans 62%. If they miss the other way by as much: Democrats 87%, Republicans 13%.
House
All races →If the polls overstate Democrats the way they did in 2016–24 (about 1.6 points here): Democrats 67%, Republicans 33%. If they miss the other way by as much: Democrats 93%, Republicans 7%.
Governors
All races →If the polls overstate Democrats the way they did in 2016–24 (about 5.8 points here): 21.3 Democratic governors. If they miss the other way by as much: 32.0 Democratic governors.
Democrats are favored to take the House and are slight favorites in a Senate fight that is close to a coin flip. The model gives them an 80% chance of a House majority against 20% for Republicans, with the simulations averaging 227 seats, 218 needed, and a 90% range of 209 to 247 that still contains defeat. The Senate is close to a toss-up: 54% Democratic control, 46% Republican, with the simulations averaging 50.2 seats from 47 now and a 90% range of 46 to 54. The party with more seats organizes the chamber, and the vice president only breaks ties, so Democrats need 51 seats, or 50 if an unaligned independent holds a seat Republicans would otherwise have. In 8% of simulations Democrats get control that way, most often through Dan Osborn in Nebraska; in 9% Republicans keep it only on the vice president's tie-breaking vote. Democratic governorships average 26.3, up from 24, in a range of 21 to 32.
Six or seven races decide the Senate. North Carolina (Roy Cooper at 90%) and Maine (Troy Jackson at 71%) are the likelier Democratic pickups, and Michigan (Abdul El-Sayed at 69%) is the least secure seat Democrats already hold. The fight sits in Texas, where James Talarico projects at D+1.1 and 58%, and Ohio's special, where Sherrod Brown projects at D+1.0 and 57%. In both, polls are better for Democrats than fundamentals: Texas polls average D+2.6 against fundamentals of R+3.7, Ohio D+2.9 against R+3.2. The model weights polls at 76% and 68% there, so the projection lands closer to the polls without fully believing them. Alaska (Mary Peltola, 42%) and Iowa (39%) lean the other way. Nebraska's non-Republican is independent Dan Osborn, at 44% on six polls.
The scenarios matter more than the headline. If polls overstate Democrats as they did on average from 2016 through 2024, Senate control odds fall to 27% and House odds to 59%. A miss of the same size in the other direction, as in the 2025 governor's races, puts them at 80% and 92%. The headline numbers assume no direction to the error. That assumption is doing most of the work.
The generic ballot
Asked which party they want in Congress, voters favor Democrats by 7.5 points in our average of 477 polls. Since 1998 that question has overstated Democrats by about 2.2 points at this stage, so the model reads the national environment as D+5.4, give or take 2.7.
14 Senate races in play
Each row is one race: the dot is the projected margin, the bar holds half of simulated outcomes, and the line holds nine in ten. The hollow diamond is where the polls alone sit, and the heavy rule is the line for control: Democrats need every race above it. Shown: races where each party has at least a 1-in-20 chance; the rest are on the full Senate page.
21 governor's races in play
Governor's races lean far less on partisanship than Senate races do, so the fundamentals get little weight here and unpolled races carry wide intervals. All 36 races.
The 41 closest districts
Most districts have no public polls, so House projections lean on district partisanship, incumbency, fundraising, and the national environment, with district polls blended in where they exist. All 435 districts.
Latest polls
The newest race polls in the database. See all of them, including the generic ballot.
| Dates | Race | Pollster | Sample | Dem. | Rep. | As published | Adjusted | Share of average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 8–9 | Michigan Governor Jocelyn Benson v. John James | Wedgewood Polls | 607 LV | 55 | 45 | D+10 | D+10.2 moved 0.2 toward D | 6.9% | source |
| Oct 1–9 | Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs v. Andy Biggs | Equis Research | 1,214 RV | 49 | 43 | D+6 | D+6.0 | 10% | source |
| Oct 8–9 | Michigan Senate Abdul El-Sayed v. Mike Rogers | Wedgewood Polls | 607 LV | 53 | 47 | D+6 | D+6.2 moved 0.2 toward D | 4.6% | source |
| Oct 5–8 | Maine Senate Troy Jackson v. Susan Collins | Rasmussen Reports | 804 LV | 49 | 47 | D+2 | D+2.2 moved 0.2 toward D | 7.1% | source |
| Oct 6–8 | Texas Senate James Talarico v. Ken Paxton | Trafalgar GroupREP.-ALIGNED | 1,086 LV | 47 | 44 | D+3 | D+6.0 moved 3.0 toward D | 5.8% | source |
| Oct 1–7 | California’s 48th District Marni von Wilpert v. Jim Desmond | SurveyUSA for KGTV (San Diego); The San Diego Union-Tribune | 518 LV | 47 | 38 | D+9 | D+8.8 moved 0.2 toward R | 69% | source |
| Oct 2–7 | Minnesota Governor Amy Klobuchar v. Lisa Demuth | Morning Consult | 1,000 RV | 48 | 39 | D+9 | D+8.7 moved 0.3 toward R | 19% | source |
| Oct 5–7 | Florida Senate (special) Angie Nixon v. Ashley Moody | St. Pete Polls for Florida Politics | 836 LV | 45 | 47 | R+2 | R+2.5 moved 0.5 toward R | 13% | source |
| Oct 2–7 | Minnesota Senate Peggy Flanagan v. Michele Tafoya | Morning Consult | 1,000 RV | 45 | 41 | D+4 | D+3.7 moved 0.3 toward R | 7.2% | source |
| Oct 5–7 | Florida Governor David Jolly v. Byron Donalds | St. Pete Polls for Florida Politics | 836 LV | 45 | 45 | Even | R+0.5 moved 0.5 toward R | 14% | source |
| Oct 5–7 | Minnesota Senate Peggy Flanagan v. Michele Tafoya | Rasmussen Reports | 856 LV | 48 | 45 | D+3 | D+3.2 moved 0.2 toward D | 13% | source |
| Oct 5–6 | Iowa Senate Josh Turek v. Ashley Hinson | Emerson College for Nexstar Media Group | 650 LV | 45 | 47 | R+2 | R+1.7 moved 0.3 toward D | 9.0% | source |
LV: likely voters. RV: registered voters. A: all adults. “Adjusted” is the published margin after removing the sponsor shift and the pollster’s measured house effect; the small print says how far that moved the poll. Dem.-aligned and Rep.-aligned mark polls paid for by a party, a campaign, or an allied group, or taken by a firm whose published work is mostly for one side. They are shifted by the average lean of such polls, then counted at full weight.