Morning Edition is hitting the road to find out what voters actually care about before November. Six states, four weeks out, and five reporters covering races that could decide control of Congress. The goal is simple: hear voters talk about why they pick the candidates they do.
The latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll shows registered voters favor Democrats for Congress over Republicans by 12 percentage points. More than 4 in 10 voters say their vote for Congress is a vote against President Trump, compared with about a quarter who say they are voting to support him.
The States on the Road
Steve Inskeep is reporting from North Carolina and Georgia. North Carolina has an open Senate seat and newly redrawn congressional districts. Georgia has competitive Senate and governor races after several elections where voters backed candidates from both parties.
Michel Martin is headed to Ohio and Michigan. Ohio has competitive governor and Senate races against a backdrop of economic anxiety. Springfield, Ohio, will examine how the end of temporary protected status for Haitians affects a community where Haitian immigrants make up a significant share of the population.
Leila Fadel is reporting from Maine, where a Senate race could determine control of the chamber. Republican Sen. Susan Collins is running against Democrat Troy Jackson.
A Martínez is heading to Texas, where Republicans are testing recent gains among Latino voters. Five Texas congressional districts were redrawn to favor the Republican Party, including three with more Latino voters.
The Key Questions
The poll numbers show a national picture. But the states on the road are testing something narrower:
- North Carolina: open Senate seat, new district lines
- Georgia: competitive Senate and governor races
- Ohio: governor and Senate races, economic anxiety
- Michigan: young voter turnout after Gaza
- Texas: recent gains among Latino voters
What Michigan’s 2024 Turnout Actually Showed
Michigan saw a sharp increase in young-voter turnout in 2024 amid anger over the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza, particularly in Michigan’s Arab American communities. The question now is whether those shifts seen in 2024 are carrying into the midterms.
The source does not say the energy carried over into the midterms or that races followed it. What it does show is that young voters turned out in larger numbers than usual in 2024, driven by anger over the war in Gaza. Whether that energy has persisted through this year’s campaigns is what Martin will be looking at.
The Reporting Order
Maine coverage airs today, Oct. 6. Texas is up next on Oct. 13, followed by North Carolina and Georgia, then Ohio and Michigan.
Voter sentiment can shift fast between now and November.
The midterms are four weeks away. The polls are one snapshot. The voters are the real story.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs voters telling reporters why they pick candidates, and is against treating politics as a horse race between two machines that both gather power. The Morning Edition road trip is doing the work the paper wants done: listening to voters explain their choices rather than chasing the latest poll numbers.
This is a direct approach. It puts the individual voter at the center of the story, not the machine behind the candidate. The poll numbers tell one story — Democrats favored over Republicans by 12 points, more than 4 in 10 voters saying their vote for Congress is a vote against President Trump — but the road trip is testing something narrower, state by state, race by race.
The paper would want more of this kind of reporting. It wants candidates judged issue by issue against its north star of individual freedom, small business, and no concentrations of power, not weighed against a rival machine’s latest move. Voters should expect more of this approach in the weeks ahead, as the reporting order moves from Maine to Texas, then North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, and Michigan.
Source material: “What voters in 6 key states could tell us about the 2026 midterms,” NPR.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.