Like It Or Not: November 03, 2026

Um Welcome in. After months of campaigning, political ads and ballots cast, it all comes down to tonight. This is Fox 5 Live, the midterm elections 2026, also streaming on Fox Local. I'm Jim Locke. And I'm Rita Morago. It is 7 o'clock in the east where polls just closed in Virginia, but voting continues tonight in Maryland and in D.C. Polls there are set to close in less than an hour at 8 p.m. But before the polls can close, everybody in line still needs to cast their ballot. Let's give you a live look right now at a polling site. We're going to go to Maryland right now. This is the Laurel Beltsville Senior Activity Center. And by the way, some early problems. We've been told that there were ballot shortages there. Nationwide, all eyes on several key Senate and House seats to determine who will control Congress. All 435 House seats are on the ballot and 35 Senate seats as well. We have crews out all across our region tonight. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, we have you covered. Fox 5 Chief Legal Correspondent Katie Barlow is tracking the results of several ballot referendums. Tom Fitzgerald has his eyes on some key congressional races. And Sidney Pershing is live on Capitol Hill. Tracking the impact it will have in Congress. But let's begin tonight in the Commonwealth where polls just closed. Fox 5's Josh Rosenthal live at Senator Mark Warner's campaign headquarters as he seeks to win re-election. Josh, good evening. Good evening. Well, guys, we are at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center. I can tell you people are already very excited here at this watch party. And with polls closing at 7 o'clock in Virginia, I think it's safe to say they're about to get even more excited. A number of candidates on the ballot here tonight. Senator Mark Warner, you can see the setup for him. Also, a very special guest we've got here, Representative Don Beyer, who's on the ballot himself. Sir, I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're probably feeling pretty good about your own race right now. I am, but, you know, 30 seconds after 7 o'clock, AP just called the race from our corner. Oh, they just called it? Just called it while you were speaking, yeah. You're breaking some news here on Fox 5 DC, sir. Yeah, so it's good. They haven't called our races yet, but we're down to it. I'd say you're probably one of the next ones in the hopper. How are you feeling? That was a quick race. Why do you think it came so quickly? Well, I think there's just enormous pushback with what's happened the last two years because of our current president's leadership. Overwhelmingly, people are concerned about prices, affordability, gasoline, groceries, interest rates on the home. And there's also an enormous increasing concern about corruption. Sadly, we're seeing corruption like we've never seen before. A president that makes almost $1.4 billion in his first... So Americans don't like that. They want political leaders to be above board, clean, doing it for the right reasons. You've been around for a long time. You've seen a lot of midterm elections. Can you remember one quite like this? And if not, why? I can't for a Democrat ever. You know, we did take the House back in 2018, but we didn't know. We didn't think we necessarily would. Here now we have like 47 races that we think we can actually win, which is remarkably high. As I say, the president's pretty unpopular, especially here in Virginia. And, you know, the president's made I made this race about him. Probably not good political strategy. So I'm going to point it out today. They've had a lot of money, almost an infinite amount of money. But the only message has been Donald Trump. And that has not worked, whereas we've run on affordability and corruption, AI safety, on things that make a difference in people's lives. We talked about how unique this midterm election has been. Representative Beyer and I were talking before we went on air here. You were saying that you were door-knocking today, I believe, trying to find voters. Give the viewers that story, because I thought this was interesting. Well, this is over the weekend, too. We found that all the people at Storstein.com were under 25. And it turns out most of them were the kids of the adults that lived at home. Mom and dad had voted. Grandparents had voted. They were off at school or they moved to Salt Lake City. We didn't pick up a lot of votes. You had trouble finding people who had not voted because so many people voted early this time around in Virginia. Josh, we have it on our phones. It says already voted, already voted. So you don't knock on those doors because it doesn't serve any purpose. I'm sure people were happy to see you nonetheless, Representative Beyer. One more for you. I'm going to put you on the spot. Long night ahead. How are you feeling about the Senate? Well, optimistic. I mean, a week's a long time in politics. We don't know what's going to happen. Increasingly, the polls are not trustworthy. It's interesting. I was talking to the CEO of Kelsey today, who said the 75% chance that we'll take back the Senate. And those are from not polled people, but people who are investing money all over the country and what they think will happen. So I'm optimistic. It'd be great to have both houses. We will still have President Trump. We're going to have to find a way to resist him where we must. Sir, can't thank you enough for your time. We really appreciate it. Thank you, John. Good luck with the rest of the night tonight. I'm sure we'll see you around. And for the people at home, just take a look up here. You can see the podium is all set up. We are expecting, I believe it's five, six speakers. I got the list. Lots of high-profile Virginia elected officials. We'll bring portions of that to you live. We're expecting it to start. It's all very fluid, but likely sometime in the next 30 or so minutes. For now, guys, back to you. Yeah, and once again, this is, Mark Warner has said, this would be his last term in the U.S. Senate after one term as governor and several terms in the U.S. Senate, but one more six-year term for Senator Warner. Josh Rosenthal for us tonight there. Meanwhile, voters in Maryland and Virginia deciding on several ballot referendums today, weighing in on everything from redistricting to abortion and same-sex marriage. Let's bring in Katie Barlow. She continues our team coverage tonight. So we have these ballot questions all across the country. These are some pretty heady issues that Virginians had to determine this year. That's right. In fact, all three questions on the ballot in Virginia, and let's start there since the polls just closed there, are all important, all high-profile issues. We'll start with abortion. After the Supreme Court... overturned the constitutional right to abortion in its landmark decision in Dobbs back in 2022. Recall the court said they're returning the controversial issue back to the states and back to the states it went. Since then, state lawmakers have passed restrictive abortion bans, but some states have chosen to enshrine the right to choose to have an abortion in the state constitution. In fact, just last year, Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed the Reproductive Freedom Proclamation into law, enshrining the right to abortion into Maryland's constitution after three quarters of the voters supported the measure there in 2024. Today, Virginians will decide whether to allow women to choose to have an abortion up until the third trimester. The constitutional amendment that is on the ballot would allow for some restrictions on the procedure in the third trimester, except when the patient's health is at risk or the pregnancy cannot survive. We're also looking at. Marriage equality, another issue that comes straight from the Supreme Court, of course, in their landmark decision back in 2015 in Obergefell, the Supreme Court upheld the right to same-sex marriage. And in Virginia, there is still a ban on the books. So right now, it is technically banned. That ban is unconstitutional. It can't be enforced because the Supreme Court has upheld same-sex marriage. But should the Supreme Court decide to overrule itself like it did in Dobbs, then this would become what I like to call a zombie law where it's been on the books but it's not been enforced can't be enforced be right to kind of take that issue off the books. Should that happen in the future and then finally Virginians are going to decide whether they're going to empower people who have been convicted of felonies the right to vote after they have been released. From their prison time in Maryland, felons who have been convicted can vote after they have finished their prison time. So long as that felony is not related to buying or selling votes. And along with the right to vote comes the right to serve on a jury, the right to be a notary public and then the right to run for public office. And this is one of those issues that states across the country have been grappling with what to do with felons who have been released from prison. Should they have certain constitutional rights back, like the right to vote? To vote, the right to carry a gun, these have worked their way through the courts as well. But tonight, Virginians will decide for themselves how they'll put it in the state constitution. All right, Katie, thank you. Let's move on to Fox 5's Tom Fitzgerald. He's tracking the latest results on those congressional races. Fitz is in studio with us now. Fitz? Hey, guys, good evening. Now, remember, in order to take the House, the Democrats need to hold on to all the seats they have and then flip three seats. They could do all of this tonight in just Virginia. Let's look at a couple of key races, as they say, and the sound of music start at the very beginning. This is the 2nd District of Virginia. Now, this pits... Republican incumbent Jen Kiggans against former Congressman Elaine Luria. Let's move on to the 7th District. This is a hot one. This is Eugene Vindman trying to seek re-election now in the 7th District. That pits him up against Doug Olivet. Now, we'll move down to the 5th District. Another former Virginia congressman, a Democrat, trying to get back in. This is in the 5th District. Tom Perriello against Republican Congressman John McGuire. Then we move down. To the first congressional district, this is veteran Republican Congressman Rob Wittman. He's being taken on this year by Shannon Taylor. And then the race we just talked live with Congressman Don Beyer, that is Virginia's 8th District. Beyer is expected to do well tonight as he faces Toby Sabato. He is the Republican candidate in that race, guys. Fitz, we're waiting for those congressional races to come in. We're also keeping our eyes on how they're going to affect the balance of power in Congress. Let's go out to Fox 5's Sydney Persing, live on the Hill as we speak. Sydney. This is exactly what you could really call go time now. Polls started to close across the country just over an hour ago. As you heard there, the AP has already started to call some races. We'll get into that in just a moment. But first, we know that all eyes across the country and really eyes across the world, they are all here on Capitol Hill tonight. We know what happens in these midterms with the balance of power doesn't just have national implications, but also real foreign policy implications. So there are a lot of people all across the world who are waiting and watching tonight as these results come in. Let's talk about the polls. As we've talked to you tonight, we obviously know that polling has widely favored Democrats to have a successful night. I can tell you that congressional Democrats are cautiously optimistic as they wait for these numbers to come in. They believe they'll have a good night. They're hoping to have a great or even historic night. But congressional Republicans, they've really pushed back over the last several days and weeks on those numbers, arguing polling is an imperfect science and that Republicans are very often underrepresented in polling. So as far as how accurate those numbers are, we're going to have to wait and see. And we're probably going to have a pretty good idea here soon. So let's pull up these graphics. Start with the House of Representatives, as you mentioned, 435 seats up for grabs tonight. As those races come in, as they're called by the AP, you're going to see them update here. So as you can see right now, the AP has called three races for Democrats, one for Republicans. The magic number tonight, that's 218 in the House. And polls, again, have widely favored Republicans, or excuse me, Democrats to succeed there. Now you're looking at that graphic for the Senate. 35 called for Democrats, 31 for Republicans. We know Republicans came in with the night with 31 and 35 for Democrats. So tonight, so far, the AP has just called that one race in favor of Democrats, as you heard there, Senator Mark Warner. We're going to continue to watch those closely. Important to note, though, before we move on from the Senate, Democrats really need a 51-seat majority. If it's a 50-50 tie, we know Vice President J.D. Vance, he has that tie-breaking vote. I want to move on to the president now for a moment. He believes this is the most important midterm election of our lifetime, and he really almost preemptively tried to get ahead of a potential loss, pointing to the fact that historically the party in power in the White House loses the midterms and said Republicans, they tried their best. But we know certainly President Trump does not want Republicans to lose tonight. He's rallied all across the country over the last month, probably will remember that he even promised Americans $5,000 each if Republicans held on to control of Congress. He, by the way, made some big news today on Election Day, saying this morning he'd be cutting off billions of dollars in aid to Israel by the end of the year. President Trump said Israel just doesn't need it anymore, but he also said he wants to take that talking point away from Democrats, so that certainly is relevant. Again, watching very big races here tonight, Ohio. Michigan, Alaska, Texas, just to name a few. Again, Democrats don't just want a good night. They are hoping for a historic night. We know that if Adam Hamilton, for example, wins in Kansas, he'd be the first Democrat to be elected to a Senate seat there in 94 years. Hakeem Jeffries, if he is eventually elected Speaker of the House, he would be the first Black Speaker of the House in American history. So a lot of eyes on what happens here in the Capitol tonight. We're going to continue to monitor those races as they're called by the Associated Press. And as soon as we have updates for you, we're going to bring them to you live on. On air and online. Jim Marina. Sydney, thank you. Much more to come here on election night. Our panel in studio standing by to help digest the results as they come in. Stay with our election night coverage right here on Fox 5. And about 15 minutes ago, the polls closed in Virginia. We're awaiting those results, but obviously there's a lot at stake. We're bringing back our political panel here, joining us at 7 o'clock, Republican political strategist and founder of Proactive Strategies, Mark Serrano, and Democratic political strategist and senior partner in Reed Smith, A. Scott Bolden, both of them with me. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us here. As we continue this conversation, obviously looking at the Commonwealth, there are three districts that are hard at play right now for the House, and we want to walk through them right now. We know, of course, on the Senate side first, the Democratic Senator Mark Warner. Mark Warner has won reelection, defeating Republican challenger, Burton Issaawa. No surprise there. Right. We can agree on that. Oh, no. We can agree on that one? All right, let's get to the House races. Those are the ones that really have the balance of power right now in question as we look across the country. But in Virginia, these three districts are incredibly important. The Democrats now looking to flip some of these seats, especially as we start to look at District 1 here, which is a toss-up at this point. We've got the Republican incumbent, Robert Wittman, looking to keep his seat. He is running up against that Democrat, Shannon Taylor. Cook Political right now has this one rated as a toss-up. So, you know, within the margin of error here, what do we make of this? He's going to hold on to this one. It's going to be a little bit tougher for Democrats to take the House. It's easy for them if they take that seat. But I think Wittman's going to hang on to that one. Because this is one of those things, right, where you start to see, like, this red mirage, right? If you would see, like, potential here for the Republican, but then eventually the Democrats start succeeding, you don't see that happening. You think right now this is solid Republican. What do you see? I think anything is possible. Donald Trump is on the ballot. People are hurting. Affordability is real. And as a result, the possibility of a blue wave, not just in Virginia and flipping these seats, people are hurting economically. We'll have to see. But if those seats flip... That could be a bellwether for what's to come down the line. Affordability has been a huge part of the Commonwealth conversation. We have seen even the executive there take a hit on their approval numbers for the governor, for Abigail Spanberger. And this may be a reflection, potentially, of how the Commonwealth is doing with this toss-up, which is District Two, a major battleground district. It is heavy military electorate here. You've got the Republican incumbent, Jen Kiggans, also looking to stay in office. She's running against that former Democratic congresswoman, Elaine Luria. A rematch from 2020. 22, when Kiggans beat Luria to flip that seat red, Luria looking to get her old seat back and Sabato's Crystal Ball down the University of Virginia has this race as a lean Democrat favoring Luria. Mark, where do you stand on this one? Because this one's really important. Look, this is a very marginal seat when you win by less than 5%, which the incumbent did two years ago. You're, you know, you're at risk. So, look, she can pull it out. If she does, it's going to be a great night for Republicans. But that is a very, very tough time. tough seat right there. Scott keeps talking about a blue wave, but I told him to keep his surfboard at home because there's no wave tonight. There might be a puddle. So you think the polls, I mean, they oversample Democrats. We know this time and time again, and especially in this last 10 years where Trump has been to one degree or another part of the referendum here. We have seen that the polls have not always been right. Well, and also cost of living in Virginia, excuse me, utility bills. All right. That's a problem that the incumbent governor has not tackled by any stretch of the imagination. I get those utility bills. I've seen them go up by double. Yeah. And they've got problems in Virginia because of it. Yeah. But at the same time, these are red districts that shouldn't even be in competition. I believe this is R plus three. So it's really. I mean, you can call it red, but... It's close, but the Republicans don't have a message to run on when it comes to affordability, tariffs, the Iran war. They can do culture wars and they can do social issues, but that's not enough when you have an angry electorate. And we know 70% of Americans are angry right now. And I got to tell you, what's going to turn those districts, Democrat or anywhere else in this country, are going to be what the independents are going to do. Are the independents going to fall to the Democrats or fall to Trump, who's allegedly on the ballot? Which one are they going to fall to? The other real difference makers here. But Mark and I, we can go back and forth. The agenda is investigation. We're going to have much more time here to discuss this as we start to get in those results. And now we're only 20 minutes into the polls closing in Virginia, Jim. Yes, and here we are. By the way, the district choosing a new mayor tonight for the first time in 12 years. Shireen Rajee is live in southeast where Janice Lewis-George's supporters are gathering tonight in honor of the council member. That's right, Jim. We're at Sycamore and Oak here in Southeast for Denise Lewis-George's election night watch party. It's just about starting to get underway. And it's interesting that she chose Ward 8 as her celebratory night here. Not only is this venue iconic and special to the people and community here in the district, but also Ward 8 has dealt with affordability issues and economic opportunity issues for a long time. Two areas that she campaigned heavily on. And tonight, no matter how you look at it, This will be historic because she will, essentially, she's the overwhelming favorite to become the district's first new mayor in nearly 12 years. Janice Lewis-George is facing two opponents tonight, independent Rhonda Hamilton and Robert Gross of the D.C. Statehood Green Party. But the big political upset actually happened back in June when Lewis-George defeated Kenan McDuffie, the candidate endorsed by outgoing mayor Muriel Bowser in the Democratic primary. And what makes this race particularly interesting isn't just who's likely to win, it's who's What that victory could mean for the city. Lewis George is a self-described democratic socialist promising a very different approach to governing with big plans to make D.C. more affordable, build tens of thousands of new homes, expand access to child care. But those promises come with some real challenges. The city is facing a difficult financial outlook right now. Developers are raising concerns about investing here. And then there's, of course, President Trump, who has threatened greater federal control over the districts. Earlier, we spoke to the candidate as she cast her vote. Here's what she had to say about working with President Trump. Everything is just about building the relationships that are necessary to fight for D.C. every single day. And again, I've always been clear that I'm really willing to work with anyone for the benefit of D.C. residents. That includes this president and this administration. To me, it's just about being strategic and working with your partners and finding the things we do agree on and double down on those things. And again, we're less than an hour away before those polls close. We'll be watching as those results come in and bring it to you live, guys. All right, Shireen, thank you. Shireen, thank you. We have more election night coverage coming up in two minutes. Don't go anywhere. We're about a half hour away right now from polls closing in D.C. and in Maryland. And much like D.C., the primaries have really solidified the general election. But that referendum on, of course, redistricting in that first congressional district has been much of the talk for the state. But, of course, Governor Westmore looking for a second term. It is a rematch tonight between he and Republican Dan Cox. A UMBC poll showing Cox. I was down there by 51% to 24%, so I'm at Bash Live in Baltimore now with the latest. Hey, Homa. Hey guys, good evening. We're on M&T Bank Exchange at Governor Westmore's election night party. They just opened the doors half an hour ago, and already it is packed, showing how much support he has here in Maryland, hoping to secure another four years serving this state. Now, we talked to him this morning. We also talked to his Republican opponent, Dan Cox. Both of them agree that affordability, that is what matters most to everyone across the state right now. But their solutions on how to handle that, that is where they are differing. You've got Dan Cox saying that Governor Moore's policies, his record on taxes, that is driving people and businesses out of the state, where Governor Moore says he wants to move away from the reliance we have on the federal government, federal dollars, federal spending, and focus on job creation here in Maryland. Let me bring in one of Governor Moore's supporters here. Thank you so much for joining us. What makes you confident in electing him for another four years? Well, I think Governor Moore is a wonderful leader, and the family is great. And I think us Marylanders will really achieve a lot of success by voting for him. I did, and I come tonight to cheer him on for Marylanders, for all of us to be successful. in the coming years. 8 o'clock up. Governor Moore is expecting to be celebrating fairly soon after that, so we'll bring you live updates all night long. For now, Jim Marina from Baltimore. That's why. All right. And we want to take a quick look now at the balance of power in Congress. There have been some seats called, but no flips so far. Of course, the House with a razor thin majority for Republicans on the Senate side right now, the only race called on the Senate side in Virginia in favor of Senator Mark Warner, who will be serving his fourth and what he has said would be his final term defeating Bert Misuzawa in a race that many people widely expected the former governor turn senator to not have a difficult issue with. He hasn't had many difficult re-elections in recent years. You look at the Senate, obviously a lot of talk, but we're going to be watching on Alaska this night, which is four hours behind us, and it's going to be a long one for that. Yeah, we're going to have you covered over on Fox Local. Chris Smith is going to pick up our coverage in just a moment. All right, like Lionel Richie says, all night long here on Fox 5.