Midterms November 3: Tight Polls in Key Races Will Decide Control of the Senate

Voters will go to the polls on November 3 in midterm elections that will decide control of Congress for the last two years of President Donald Trump's term. All 435 House seats and 35 of the Senate's 100 seats are on the ballot. Republicans hold 53 Senate seats, Democrats 45 and two independents allied with Democrats, so Democrats need a net gain of four seats for a majority. Polls show tight races in a handful of states, making the outcome hard to call. In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed led Republican Mike Rogers 51.4 percent to 45.1 percent in a Detroit News/WDIV-TV survey for retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters's seat. In Maine, a Marist poll had Democrat Troy Jackson ahead of Republican Senator Susan Collins 49 to 47 percent. In Texas, a Univision/YouGov poll showed Democratic state lawmaker James Talarico leading Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton 50 to 45 percent for retiring Senator John Cornyn's seat.

The Daily Mail, the right-leaning outlet, frames the contest around Republican defense. It notes the party's trifecta in Washington, polling that has favored Democrats, and Trump's own doubts about whether conservative voters will turn out when he is not on the ballot. It also reports that Donalds and Hinson are distancing themselves from him, but that Republicans lead in fundraising. The Washington Post, on the left, headlines seven races that will decide the Senate and stresses that tight polls make a winner hard to predict. TRT World, the alternative outlet, differs by giving the seat math and race-by-race poll numbers, including El-Sayed possibly becoming the first Muslim senator. Both the Post and the Mail treat control as unresolved.