Thirty-eight percent. That’s Trump’s approval in CBS News exit polls, and midterm election night is only getting started. CBS says that is on pace to be the lowest for any president in a midterm.
What the midterm exit polls say
Polls began closing at 6 p.m. ET in eastern parts of Indiana and Kentucky. Everything on the ballot is up for grabs: all 435 House seats, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships. The rest of both states close an hour later, and most of Alaska finishes at 1 a.m. ET. Voters in other time zones can check our guide to poll closing times by state.
NBC’s early exit polls tell the same story, with 62% of voters saying they disapprove of Trump. A separate CNN exit poll found about 60% disapprove, including roughly one-fifth of his 2024 voters. Those are different polls with different questions, so don’t blend them into one number. They all point the same direction, though.
CBS says 38% is lower than Trump’s own first-term midterm figure and lower than George W. Bush’s in 2006. Exit polls are early and preliminary, so treat them as a snapshot, not a final score.
The issue driving midterms Tuesday night: your wallet
Here’s the thing. The top issue is not a debate on cable news. It’s the price of groceries, gas and rent. In the CNN exit poll, about 90% called cost of living a crucial or major factor in their vote. About 75% say they are dissatisfied with the country’s direction.
NBC’s numbers are just as blunt. Only 25% call the economy excellent or good, while 75% call it not so good or poor. And according to CNBC, 87% of voters are somewhat or very concerned about the cost of gas. When nearly everyone worries about the same bill, incumbents tend to feel it.
Immigration is a factor too. NBC’s exit poll found more than half of voters say Trump’s immigration enforcement has gone too far.
First calls and the Westchester scanner mess on election night 2026
CBS projected Sen. Mark Warner to hold his seat in Virginia. CBS also called the Georgia Senate race for Democrat Jon Ossoff within 40 minutes of polls closing. We have not seen AP’s calls on either race yet. Treat both as CBS projections until the AP weighs in. CNBC says House control “leans” Democratic, which is a projection, not a result.
Election Day was not perfectly smooth. In Westchester County, New York, voting machines could not scan Election Day paper ballots. The state Board of Elections blamed an update to the county’s election programming, which came after crews prepared the equipment. (A software update that lands after the prep work is a very bureaucratic way to ruin a Tuesday.)
County Executive Ken Jenkins said up to 250,000 ballots were affected across more than 332 polling locations. He added that voters in line by 9 p.m. ET will still be able to vote. Workers reportedly collected paper ballots in emergency bags for counting. No source says any votes were lost.
Fox also reports misleading texts about polling-place changes in Georgia. We found no details on where they came from or how widely they spread.
So was it a “day of voting chaos,” as one tabloid put it? Not quite. The problems look local. NBC’s exit poll found voters largely trust that officials are running the election fairly and accurately.
What happens next as midterm election night rolls on
The big wave comes at 8 p.m. ET. That is when the largest group of states closes, including competitive Senate races in Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Florida and South Carolina. Pennsylvania has more highly competitive House races than any other state. Those races should help decide who controls the House. For the full picture of what’s at stake, see our look at who gets Congress.
History isn’t on the president’s side. According to Brookings, the president’s party has lost House seats in 20 of the last 22 midterms since 1938. Approval strongly predicts the size of the swing.
Trump has already told voters what he’d do if Democrats win. In a CBS phone interview, he said: “I have the ultimate power — it’s called ‘veto.'” He also told CBS he plans to use “tremendous” executive power to constrain Democrats if they flip Congress.
For readers, that points to divided government, more gridlock and a lot of executive-power fights, at least by his own telling. The real answer comes sometime after the last polls close in Alaska, so keep the coffee handy.
