2026 U.S. House Elections

Unlike the Senate, where only a third of seats are contested in any cycle, every House seat is on the ballot every two years. Whichever party wins at least 218 of the 435 seats controls the chamber — and with it the Speaker's gavel, committee chairs, and the House's half of the legislative agenda.

2026 is a midterm election: the presidency is not on the ballot. Historically, the president's party has usually lost ground in the House at midterms, though the size of the swing varies widely from cycle to cycle and there have been exceptions. That tendency is context, not a prediction — we don't forecast outcomes. You can see how past midterms actually played out in the historical results below.

The generic congressional ballot is a national poll question that asks voters which party's candidate they would support for the U.S. House — without naming any candidate. It doesn't map cleanly onto seats, because House elections are 435 separate district contests, but it is the most common single barometer of the national political environment.

Where we stand: Decision Labs has not yet collected any generic-ballot polling for the 2026 cycle. We only publish polls that pass our validation rules, and none have been ingested so far. When they are, the average will appear here and on the national polling page.