US voters head to polls as midterms test Trump’s presidency

Voters across the United States are heading to polling places for the 2026 midterm elections, a contest that will determine the balance of power in Congress. President Donald Trump is not on the ballot, but NPR’s coverage presents the election as a test of how voters view his presidency and of the choices they make in congressional races. NPR’s Election Day photo report shows people across the country going to the polls to cast their ballots.

The report, illustrated by photographs credited to Tyrone Turner, gives a nationwide visual account of voting but does not provide results, turnout figures or projections. A separate NPR report follows a group of swing voters in one final assessment before Election Day. The voters featured had all supported Trump in the presidential election.

They were asked to rate his presidency and decide which candidates to support in races in which Trump himself was absent from the ballot. That distinction is central to the reports. The election is not a presidential vote, yet the choices of these voters are being considered alongside their views of the president.

NPR’s headline describes their assessments of the country as “messy”, “divided” and “scary”, but the supplied material does not give individual responses or identify the candidates they ultimately supported. The two reports also differ in emphasis. The photographic dispatch records voting as it takes place in communities around the country, while the voter report concentrates on political judgement: whether people who backed Trump will continue to support candidates associated with him or make different choices in congressional contests.

The supplied material does not state which party currently controls either chamber, list the races being watched or provide early returns. It therefore establishes the scale and political setting of Election Day without indicating who is ahead or whether control of Congress has changed. The election’s significance lies in the number of congressional seats being contested and in the fact that voters are choosing lawmakers rather than a president.

Those votes will shape the political environment for the remainder of Trump’s term, but the reports provided here do not describe the likely legislative consequences of any particular result. NPR’s coverage captures two sides of the day: participation and evaluation. One report depicts voters carrying out the act of voting; the other examines how a set of Trump supporters assesses the country and the president before making decisions in down-ballot races.

With polls open and millions of ballots being cast, the immediate verified development is that Americans are voting. Any conclusion about the outcome, the future composition of Congress or the degree to which Trump’s supporters remain aligned with his political allies would require results or further voter responses not included in the supplied reports.