Midterm elections preview: How might this year’s vote change Washington?

November 1, 2026 / 9:15 AM EST / CBS News

Every four years, we get to choose our own president. But every two years, we have other elections, where we choose all 435 members of the House of Representatives, and a third of our Senators, and a whole lot of governors.

This is a midterm elections year, our chance to steer the direction of the country.

"These are historically viewed as referenda on the job performance of a president," said New Yorker politics columnist Susan Glasser. She believes Tuesday's elections will be historic in a long list of ways.

First, there's the matter of the president's steadily sinking popularity. "The president is the most unpopular American president in the history of modern polling going into a midterm election," Glasser said.

The main reason is the price of everything. "People are so angry," Glasser said. "It's symbolized in how much money they're paying to put gas in their cars at the pump, or how much money they're paying for groceries. But it's obviously much, much broader than that."

Another historic factor: The number of political ads. "This will be a record-breaking year basically any way you slice it," said Wesleyan University…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/