What November 3 Decides
On November 3, 2026, voters will fill 36 governor seats, 35 U.S. Senate seats, and all 435 House seats. Thousands of state legislative positions are also on the ballot. Nineteen governor seats are open: 15 incumbents are term-limited, three are not running and one lost a primary (Ballotpedia).
Eleven senators are not running again (Ballotpedia). Ballot measures in at least seven states will test abortion rights and direct democracy.
This is not a normal midterm. The outcomes will determine whether Medicaid covers 5 million people or cuts them and whether state AGs keep suing the federal government or stop. In at least three states, voters will decide whether they retain the power to pass ballot measures at all.
36 governor seats, 35 Senate seats, all 435 House seats, and thousands of state legislative positions on one ballot. Nineteen governor seats are open.
Governor Races
36 seats on the ballot. Nineteen are open. The governors elected this November serve through 2030, controlling vetoes and redistricting.
Open Seats and Incumbents Seeking Reelection
Major open seats with national implications
U.S. Senate Races
Republicans hold 53 seats. Democrats hold 45, and two independents caucus with them (Ballotpedia). The margin controls judicial confirmations and whether AG lawsuits have sympathetic judges.
Incumbents and Special Elections
Open Seats
Attorney General Races
AGs have filed 100+ multistate lawsuits against federal policies since 2025. Thirty AG seats are on the ballot, and in 10 of them the incumbent is not running (Ballotpedia). These are the races that decide whether states fight federal overreach or cooperate with it.
Ballot Measures
Voters have used ballot measures to protect abortion rights in seven states since Dobbs. Three states are trying to make that impossible.
State Legislatures
Two states where the map changed everything.
Why These Races Matter
Governors: Kansas Governor Kelly vetoed 11 anti-abortion bills. Her successor faces the same bills on day one. Wisconsin’s Evers vetoed voucher expansions and Medicaid cuts. Florida hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since 1994.
Ohio’s next governor enforces the abortion rights amendment voters passed in 2023. These governors serve through 2030, controlling redistricting and veto power.
Senate: Democrats are defending open seats in Michigan, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Illinois. They’re targeting North Carolina (Tillis retiring, Cooper running) and Ohio (Brown comeback). The margin decides who confirms the next Supreme Court justice.
AGs: The most underpriced fight on the ballot. Arizona’s Kris Mayes won by 280 votes and has filed 41 lawsuits against the administration. Texas’s AG seat is open for the first time since 2014.
At least 10 new AGs will be elected. The multistate litigation coalition that blocks federal overreach depends on who holds these offices.
Ballot measures: Legislatures in Missouri, South Dakota, and North Dakota placed supermajority requirements on the ballot. If those pass, citizen-initiated amendments become functionally impossible in the states where they matter most.
What You Can Do Before August
- Check your registration now. Primaries in Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, and other states happen on August 4. You cannot vote if you are not registered.
- Know your primary candidates. Governor and AG nominees are decided in the primary. In many states, the primary is the real contest.
- Talk to one person who skips midterms. In the 2022 midterms, 52.2% of voting-age citizens voted (Census Bureau), compared with 65.3% in the 2024 presidential election (Census Bureau). That gap is where policy gets decided.
- Follow the AG races. They get almost no media coverage but control whether your state fights federal overreach or cooperates with it.
Correction, October 14, 2026: An earlier version of this brief counted 34 Senate races; there are 35, including special elections in Florida and Ohio. It said Arizona’s governor seat was open because Katie Hobbs is term-limited; Hobbs is running for a second term. It listed Amy Klobuchar as Minnesota’s retiring senator; the retiring senator is Tina Smith, and Klobuchar is running for governor.
It said Democrats hold 46 Senate seats; they hold 45, with two independents caucusing with them. It put Ohio’s abortion rights amendment in 2022; voters passed it in 2023.
It gave Paxton’s runoff win as 62-38; it was 63.8% to 36.2%. It said at least 11 new AGs will be elected; 10 AG incumbents are not running.
The brief also carried race ratings from the Cook Political Report, NPR and CBS News. Resist Now does not publish election forecasts, so they were removed, and the tables now list each race’s nominees (Ballotpedia).
Correction, October 15, 2026: An earlier version of this brief said turnout drops 20-30% in non-presidential years, without a source. Census Bureau surveys found 52.2% of voting-age citizens voted in 2022 and 65.3% in 2024 (Census Bureau, 2022; 2024). It also called both Wisconsin legislative chambers competitive, a forecast Resist Now does not publish; the row now gives each chamber’s current split and the seats on the ballot.
Sources
- Ballotpedia: 2026 U.S. Senate Elections Overview
- Ballotpedia: 2026 Gubernatorial Elections
- Ballotpedia: 2026 Attorney General Elections
- Ballotpedia: Ohio Gubernatorial Election, 2026
- StateNews: Sherrod Brown Running to Reclaim Ohio Senate Seat in 2026
- NPR: 2026 Midterm Elections and Senate Control Analysis