By Nathan Layne, Joseph Ax and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff
DETROIT, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The first results in the US midterm elections began trickling in on Tuesday evening, but the question of whether Democrats can wrest control of Congress from Donald Trump's Republicans was likely still hours away from a definitive answer.
As of 7:30 p.m. ET (0030 GMT), US media outlets had projected winners in a handful of House races after polls closed in 10 states, with voting still under way across much of the country. None of the winners were among the roughly four dozen contests expected to be decisive in the House, where Democrats need to net three seats for a majority.
In the US Senate, where at least nine races are seen as competitive, Democrats won the first of 35 seats up for grabs on Tuesday, with US Senator Mark Warner winning reelection in Virginia as expected. Democrats need to net four seats to win control of that chamber.
Democrats were favored to win the House, while the Senate battle was unfolding across several closely contested states, as millions of Americans cast ballots in an election widely seen as a referendum on the first two years of President Trump's second term. Trump himself told his supporters to "pretend I'm on the ballot."
History is against Republicans: The sitting president's party has lost ground in Congress in all but two midterms since World War Two. Trump's approval rating is hovering near his career lows, with voters frustrated by war with Iran, higher fuel prices and wider affordability concerns.
According to exit polls conducted by SSRS on behalf of a consortium of US media outlets including major television networks and the Associated Press, half of voters said they saw the 2026 midterm elections as an opportunity to rebuke the president, and three-quarters said they are "angry" or "dissatisfied" with the way the country is headed.
In addition, 70% of voters surveyed said they want Congress to provide more checks and balances on the president.
Led by Trump, Republicans have portrayed Democratic candidates as radical, un-American and even communist, labels Democrats flatly reject.
The president has sought to energize his base with more than two dozen campaign rallies since the start of October, most in states he easily won in 2024, underscoring Republicans' defensive posture.
Opinion polls show voters are most concerned about affordability and disapprove of Trump's handling of the issue. His tariffs on imports, many of which the courts threw out, and his decision to attack Iran in February raised prices for consumers.
TRUMP DEPLOYS ELECTION MONITORS
There are 47 US House races widely seen as competitive, according to a Reuters analysis of the leading election forecasters. If the other contests all proceed as predicted, Democrats would need to win only 13 of those races to secure a majority.
But Democrats have little margin for error in the Senate. The party must defend all of its current seats while winning at least two states that voted for Trump by a double-digit margin two years ago, such as Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.
Opinion polls show Democrats either narrowly leading or within striking distance in all of those states.
Legal observers and Democrats have warned that Trump, who has long falsely claimed that US elections are rigged, may attempt to challenge Tuesday's results if Republicans lose.
The US Justice Department said it had deployed 1,000 election monitors and observers to all 50 states in what it called the largest Election Day monitoring effort in history.
Democrats criticized the plan as potential voter intimidation. In roughly two-thirds of the jurisdictions the department listed, voters supported Democrat Kamala Harris over Trump in the 2024 presidential election, a Reuters analysis found.
ELECTION INTRIGUE IN ALASKA
A New York Times report upended the Alaska Senate race when it reported that the campaign of Democratic candidate Mary Peltola, 53, helped recruit a third candidate to run as an independent who shares the first and last name of her Republican opponent, Dan Sullivan, 61.
Peltola has denied involvement. Trump's Justice Department has launched a criminal probe into the allegations and filed a lawsuit to block certification of the election results, though a judge dismissed the latter effort.
Supporters of the incumbent Sullivan said they were not confused by the presence of two Dan Sullivans on the ballot.
"They make it pretty obvious: It says 'incumbent' after his name," said Jake Wesley, 27, who grew up in Anchorage and is now stationed there in the US Air Force. In recent days, Trump has complained repeatedly that voters may not know the meaning of the word.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Detroit, Joseph Ax and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff in Washington; Additional reporting by Dan Catchpole, Ashraf Fahim, Arafat Barbakh, David Morgan, Mike Spector, Bianca Flowers, Pete Eisler, Doina Chiacu and Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Joseph Ax and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Howard Goller)
