Americans voted Tuesday in midterm elections that will determine control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's second term. All 435 House seats are on the ballot, along with 35 Senate seats (33 regular contests and special elections in Florida and Ohio), 39 governorships and thousands of state and local offices and ballot measures on taxes, abortion rights and voting rules. Republicans hold a narrow House majority, and Democrats need a net gain of four seats to take control. In the Senate, Republicans hold 53 seats to 47 for Democrats and their independent allies, and Democrats also need a net gain of four seats for a majority.

History favors the opposition party: the president's party has lost House seats in 18 of the past 20 midterm elections, a 90 percent rate dating to 1946. Trump faces falling poll numbers and pressure from within the Republican Party to end the war with Iran, which began in February when the US and Israel attacked the country. In Michigan's Senate race, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed held a final rally after Rep. Haley Stevens endorsed Republican Mike Rogers, an unexpected development a day earlier.

The administration's election-related actions drew attention on the eve of voting. The Supreme Court rejected the president's effort to target alleged noncitizen voters, a defeat for the administration. The Justice Department said it would send roughly 1,000 election monitors to polling places in all 50 states, compared with 289 in the 2022 midterms and 714 in the 2024 presidential election. Harmeet Dhillon, head of the department's Civil Rights Division, said monitors would also seek to ensure votes were not canceled out by someone who "shouldn't be voting." Federal monitors have been used by both parties' administrations, though Texas, Florida and Missouri tried in 2024 to block Biden administration monitors.

The Iran conflict overlapped with the election. US officials told CBS and NBC that the military carried out limited, defensive strikes on Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, in response to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fire on a US aircraft and ongoing attempts to target shipping and US assets. Iranian state media reported explosions on Qeshm, and the IRGC said it shot down two US MQM-170 drones and a US MQ-9 drone. Officials said the strikes were not a resumption of major combat operations, and the US military did not comment.

Trump said he was in "no rush" to escalate, telling Axios the US had "crippled them financially," though he told Fox News the US might need to target an underground nuclear-linked site known as Pickaxe Mountain. He denied that major strikes would resume after the election, but the Associated Press, citing two regional officials, reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged him in a weekend call to authorize another wave. Iran's chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said "the ball is now in America's court to prevent war," and Qatar said both sides were reviewing mediators' proposals. Iranian negotiators had reportedly discussed reopening the Strait of Hormuz within two days if the US met seven conditions, including lifting a naval blockade.