USAupdated 1h ago3 min read
Archive photo · 2 June 2025Donald Trump Closes Kansas Rally as U.S. Midterms Vote Counting Begins in Indiana and Kentucky
19 Western Mainstream4 Local Western1 Latin American2 Other source typesPhoto: Daniel Torok / US federal government, Public domain · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
First polls closed in Indiana and Kentucky; vote counting has begun nationwide. Results will determine control of the House and Senate for Trump’s term.
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26 outlets told this the same way.
Midterms begin, Trump vows
Donald Trump told reporters at Salina airport in Kansas that “This is it.” and added “Tonight it ends.” as he closed the last rally of his campaign for the midterms. The White House prepared a reception planned at 7:00 p.m., and Donald Trump said on Truth Social that he was monitoring the “preliminary” election on Fox News without commenting on the state of the vote. The midterms were set to renew the House of Representatives and to decide 35 of the 100 Senate seats, with the Democratic opposition hoping to win a majority in the House and to gain control of the Senate.
“The first polling places will close at midnight, French time.”
The first polling places closed in parts of Indiana and Kentucky, and the earliest closures were described as happening at 18:00 Eastern Time, which was given as 00:00 on Wednesday in peninsular Spain. The ABC live coverage framed the election as a verdict on the presidency of Republican Donald Trump, while it also noted that the Parliament of Greenland gave the “green light” to a security agreement with the United States on the same day.
Voting problems and observers
The Department of Justice deployed nearly 1,000 election observers in the fifty American states, and the deployment was described as raising concerns about potential voter intimidation. California Governor Gavin Newsom warned that he would locate, detain, and prosecute any agent who appears at voting centers without authorization to interfere in the elections, after ICE warned on Tuesday that “If you vote illegally, we will find you.” In Westchester County, New York, a programming error prevented scanners from reading ballots in 332 polling places across more than 40 municipalities, and County official Ken Jenkins cited up to 250,000 ballots affected.
Republican Representative Mike Lawler told journalists that emergency ballots would be collected by election officials from both parties and transported tonight under police escort to a counting location. CNN’s live updates also described early voter polling as showing that “Almost two thirds (65%) of voters say President Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions in the US,” according to the first wave of data from the midterms voter poll.
Control of Congress at stake
The election night was framed around control of Congress, with the House contest described as renewing all 435 seats and the Senate contest described as renewing 35 of its 100 seats. The BFM coverage said Democrats must flip at least three Republican seats in the House of Representatives and four Republican seats in the Senate to regain control, while it also described the first polling stations in Indiana and Kentucky closing at midnight French time. El País reported that 435 seats were at stake in the House of Representatives and that voting was underway as the United States played for control of Congress, with the Alaska race not beginning its recount until later.
“The Democrats must flip at least three Republican seats in the House of Representatives, and four Republican seats in the Senate.”
CNN’s voter poll coverage said roughly 6 in 10 voters nationally disapprove of Trump’s job performance, with about half saying they disapprove strongly, and it also reported that around two-thirds said he had worsened economic conditions. El Confidencial described the uncertainty of the night as it tracked closures beginning at midnight in peninsular Spain and said that results could take hours and possibly several days, as it prepared to follow the count across multiple states.