2026 Elections

The 2026 U.S. midterm elections will take place on Nov. 3, 2026. All 435 House seats and 33 Senate seats are up for election.

Want to Protect the Vote? Become a Poll Worker

PUBLISHED 8/13/2026 by

For months now, hundreds of active and caring friends and supporters have been writing and calling us with a version of the same question: In addition to sending money, what else can I actually do?

Here’s one suggestion—and it may be the most useful thing you can do between now and Tuesday, Nov. 3: Show up as a poll worker, and get your friends to show up too.

We’ll keep calling out this war on women. But calling it out is not the same as helping to end it. The voter standing in a four-hour line in a shuttered-precinct district does not need our concern. She needs someone at the check-in table who showed up.

Let that someone be you—and your friends.

A Midterm Liability for Republicans: Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ Is Deeply Unpopular

PUBLISHED 8/11/2026 by

It’s been over a year since President Donald Trump signed the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill (HR 1) into law—a sweeping 2025 budget-reconciliation package that extends and expands tax cuts, funds defense and immigration enforcement, cuts or restructures major safety-net programs, rolls back some clean-energy spending, and raises the federal debt limit.

Trump and congressional Republicans promised the bill would provide economic relief for American families. New polling suggests the legislation has failed to win over the public, with many voters saying the law has done little to improve their financial situations, while others remain unsure what the bill does at all. 

According to a recent poll, the legislation remains broadly unpopular, despite months of Republican messaging promoting its economic benefits.

How Can We Get More Young People to Vote? Start Registering Them in High School

PUBLISHED 8/9/2026 by

This year, about 4 million Americans will turn 18, just in time to vote in November’s midterms. However, fewer than 30 percent of newly eligible young voters are currently registered to vote—half the number of students who go to college—and that percentage is only going down. In 2024, by comparison, 44 percent of U.S. 18-year-olds were registered, compared to approximately 75 percent over voters aged 45 and up.

For midterm elections in particular, not much more than a quarter of eligible 18-year-olds vote—meaning about 2 million young people are missing the chance to let their voices be heard.

A common refrain from some is that the younger half of Gen Z isn’t interested in voting or politics, but the data doesn’t back this up. According to research from The Civics Center, among 18-year-olds who are registered, voter turnout is high. More than 75 percent of registered young voters 18 through 24 have turned out to vote in every presidential election going back to 2004—suggesting the issue isn’t with young voters themselves but how they’re (not) being registered.

“Young people are told so frequently, ‘Your vote doesn’t matter, what you say doesn’t matter,’” Laura Brill, The Civics Center’s founder and CEO, told Ms. “And these things have a negative impact, because actually young people probably do know that they matter, and we don’t want to have a future where people are just feeling cynical and as if they’re intentionally being left out of the process.”

The Voting Rights Act Turns 61 as New Threats to the Ballot Box Mount

PUBLISHED 8/5/2026 by

This year’s midterm elections have the power to dramatically alter representation in the current Republican-leaning Congress: All 435 congressional seats in the U.S. House are up for grabs, as is two-thirds of the Senate. Public health, women’s health, abortion access, the cost of living, healthcare affordability, immigration justice and a host of other issues hang in the balance.

However, the Trump administration is working to quietly disrupt voting this November, from firing the remaining U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) members, to continuing to challenge the legality of mail-in ballots and lobby the Supreme Court to do Trump’s bidding—part of an ongoing effort to expand federal control over election administration ahead of the midterms.

“There’s just this onslaught that’s coming from the administration itself, and then the judiciary,” Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters, told Ms. “I don’t think it gives people a lot of confidence that [the Supreme Court justices] understand how important voting rights are … You can see the erosion on the Court as they move toward supporting the administration more and moving away from public discourse and public opinion.”

Thursday, Aug. 6, will mark the 61st anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, first passed in 1965 under President Lyndon B. Johnson to prohibit racial discrimination in voting. Congress passed the VRA in order to end post-Civil War and Jim Crow-era voter disenfranchisement, especially in southern states, by prohibiting “literacy tests,” mass voter challenges and other techniques states were using to stop Black Americans from voting.

On Saturday, Aug. 8, the League of Women Voters is leading a nationwide “Unite and Rise for Voting Rights” Day of Action to commemorate the VRA’s anniversary and call attention to SCOTUS’ attempt to decimate it. The Day of Action will also bring together League of Women Voters chapters and partner organizations across the country to lead hundreds of events with the goal of mobilizing voters before November’s midterms.

The Day of Action is part of the League’s Unite and Rise 8.5 initiative, started in 2025, which hopes to engage 8.5 million U.S. voters before November’s midterms—10 percent of the 89.2 million who did not vote in the 2024 presidential election.

And on the VRA’s anniversary on Thursday, Aug. 6, the League will host a virtual rally.

War on Women Report: Hegseth Blocks Promotions of Women in Navy; Trump Finally Pays E. Jean Carroll; Colorado Police Pray With Abortion Clinic Harassers

PUBLISHED 7/31/2026 by and

MAGA Republicans are back in the White House, and Project 2025 is their guide: the right-wing plan to turn back the clock on women’s rights, remove abortion access, and force women into roles as wives and mothers in the “ideal, natural family structure.”

We know an empowered female electorate is essential to democracy. That’s why day after day, we stay vigilant in our goals to dismantle patriarchy at every turn. We are watching, and we refuse to go back. This is the War on Women Report.

Since our last report:
—Celebrity women are 3.5 times more likely than men to be deepfaked.
—The Department of Health and Human Services abruptly canceled $68 million in federal grants under the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.
—Planned Parenthood clinics regained access to millions of dollars in essential federal funding. The temporary ban was originally approved in July 2025 as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The denial of federal funding over the past year forced Planned Parenthood to close nearly 30 health centers nationwide, impacting roughly 40,000 patients. Despite regaining an estimated $800 million in annual federal funding, ongoing financial uncertainty at both the state and federal levels means the shuttered clinics will not reopen.
—Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner has suspended his campaign after a former girlfriend accused him of raping her nearly five years ago.
—For the first time in a decade, no active-duty women naval officers will be promoted to admiral this year.
—Police officers in Boulder, Colo., were photographed pausing to pray with antiabortion protestors harassing the RISE Collective, an all-trimester abortion clinic, after concerned RISE Collective staff alerted the police of the protestors’ presence.
—Abortion-rights organizers in Idaho have been working to collect signatures for a proposed ballot measure that would restore abortion rights in the state, revoking Idaho’s total ban. On July 2, volunteers gathered in Boise to turn in over 110,000 signatures they collected for the initiative (called the Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act). About one-quarter are from registered Republicans, demonstrating support for abortion rights is widespread even in deep red states.

… and more.

A Jim Crow-Era Voter Suppression Tool Is Back: Mass Voter Challenges

PUBLISHED 7/27/2026 by

In March 2025, two members of the DOGE team communicated with a political advocacy group that was seeking to “find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain States.” The group was trying to match Social Security records with copies of voter files that it had acquired. One of the DOGE team members even signed a “Voter Data Agreement” with the group. While it’s still unclear whether DOGE members shared any personal Social Security data, the revelation raised a scary prospect: The federal government might collaborate with election deniers seeking to block American voters from the ballot box.

Most states have laws that allow voters to challenge other voters’ eligibility. Baseless mass challenges to hundreds or thousands of voters at a time are a growing problem. They threaten voters. They swamp overburdened election officials with unnecessary work. And they fuel mistrust in our elections.

‘Hands Off Ohio!’: FBI Raid of Voting Rights Group Raises Alarms Over Voter Intimidation

PUBLISHED 7/7/2026 by

On the morning of June 11, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Cleveland offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC), a grassroots pro-democracy organization focused on registration, civic engagement and community organizing for marginalized communities.  

According to reports, agents seized documents and computer files and questioned staff members for several hours. Investigators also contacted employees and community leaders at their homes, workplaces and schools. While some agents reportedly carried subpoenas and asked questions related to voter fraud, officials have not publicly explained the specific focus of the investigation.  

The mission of the OOC is to build power among everyday Ohioans through racial, social and economic justice organizing. In the aftermath of the raid, many local leaders and voting rights advocates expressed concern that the investigation could discourage voter registration and civic participation ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Trump Escalates Pressure to Pass the SAVE America Act Before Senate Recess

PUBLISHED 7/6/2026 by | UPDATED 7/28/2026 at 8:11 A.M. PT

President Donald Trump is pressuring Senate Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act before lawmakers leave for their August recess, even calling on them to abolish the filibuster if necessary.

Despite the pressure, Republicans still don’t have the votes to move the legislation forward. But after four failed attempts in two years, they’re once again looking for a legislative vehicle to make it law.

About 80 percent of women who marry change their last names, meaning millions could be forced to produce additional paperwork to prove both their identity and citizenship before registering to vote or updating their registration. Students, military families, naturalized citizens, voters with disabilities, Americans who have recently moved, and trans Americans who have changed their names would also face new barriers to casting a ballot. And all of it is aimed at solving a problem that election officials and researchers have repeatedly found is extraordinarily rare.

Once voters understand those consequences, support for the legislation drops sharply. Polling shows that while “proof of citizenship” sounds popular in theory, support falls into net opposition once Americans learn that many eligible voters would need to track down documents like passports or birth certificates just to register or update their voter registration.

Nevertheless, Republicans continue searching for a path to enact the SAVE America Act. Will millions of eligible Americans, especially women, soon face new obstacles to exercising their fundamental right to vote?

This story is updated regularly as Congress and the Trump administration continue efforts to enact the SAVE America Act.

Trump Holds Housing Aid Hostage to Force GOP Support for Voting Restrictions

PUBLISHED 6/27/2026 by

This week, Trump cancelled a planned signing ceremony for the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act—which would help address the worsening housing affordability crisis—and said he won’t sign it unless Republicans in the Senate vote to pass the SAVE America Act. If you recall, the SAVE Act would implement sweeping voting restrictions, including necessitating proof of citizenship to vote, and in doing so, make it much more difficult for millions of women who changed their name at marriage to vote.

His fixation on the SAVE America Act isn’t about safeguarding the elections for Americans—it’s about rigging the elections to ensure a Republican win, by suppressing the votes of those who disagree.