I'll gather the latest on the state of U.S. politics — pulling current developments from Washington.
As of September 20, 2026, US politics is defined by a Republican trifecta under a second-term President facing low approval ratings heading into high-stakes midterm elections on November 3, 2026:
1. Executive - Second Trump Administration
•Incumbent president is Donald Trump (R) in his second term. The upcoming elections are scheduled to occur during Republican president Donald Trump's second term.
•Highly active executive: President Donald Trump (R) issued six executive orders in August, bringing his second-term total to 277.
•Administration priorities include tariffs, immigration enforcement, and foreign policy:
•The second Trump administration has imposed tariffs on much of the world with the intent to re-industrialize the United States
•Immigration policies, including deportations by ICE due to strengthened funding via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, were also scrutinized
•The outbreak of the 2026 Iran war on February 28 introduced a further complicating factor
The administration is also making a new push to reshape voting maps with a proposal for changes to the 2030 census. The plan, updated September 10, 2026, would affect the population numbers used to determine each state's share of representatives in Congress and votes in the Electoral College.
2. Legislature - Narrow Republican Control of Congress
Control of the 119th Congress (2025-2027) remains Republican but narrow:
•House of Representatives: Republicans holding 220 seats versus Democrats' 212 seats, with 3 vacancies. All 435 House seats will be contested to determine the 120th United States Congress.
•Senate: Republicans have the majority in the Senate with 53 seats to the Democrats' 47 seats, including two independents who caucus with Democrats. 35 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate will be contested plus 39 state and territorial gubernatorial elections.
The 2026 midterms will determine the 120th Congress beginning in January 2027. Elections are scheduled to be held, in large part, on November 3, 2026.
3. Political Climate - Polarization, Shutdowns, Low Approval
Highly polarized and unstable legislative environment:
•Moody's downgraded the US credit rating outlook from "stable" to "negative" due to continued political polarization within the U.S. Congress.
•There have been two record-long government shutdowns in the last year:
•A 43-day shutdown that ended in November. Democrats withheld their votes to pressure Republicans to extend expiring subsidies for health insurance premiums
•The partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from February 14 to April 30, 2026, lasted 76 days and became the longest funding lapse for a single federal department, stemming from a partisan standoff over immigration enforcement reforms
•Congress just eliminated the threat of a politically perilous government shutdown this fall by passing a continuing resolution. The House voted to extend federal spending at current levels through Dec. 11, passing the House 370-48 with bipartisan support after the Senate already passed the measure in August.
Public approval very low for the President and Congress:
•September 2026 average: Approve, 37.7%, Disapprove, 58.8%, Net Approval, -21.1
•The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll puts Trump's approval rating at 33%, with 64% disapproving
•Updated September 16, 2026 net approval of -19.5 is far from popular, down from 48% at inauguration. Independent Approval 34%
•Congressional parties also weak: Over the term of the 119th Congress, Republican approval has fallen from 45% in March 2025 to 36% in September 2026, while Democratic approval has increased from 29% to 36%.
Analysts note rising political tensions are likely to drive unrest in 2026 around three dynamics: the affordability crisis, tensions around federal operations, and intensifying political polarisation.
4. Dominant Issues Heading Into Midterms
Polling shows economic concerns dominate:
•The main theme of the 2025 elections was the United States affordability crisis.
•Affordability, political corruption, and artificial intelligence are top of mind for voters preparing to vote in the Nov. 3 midterm election
•Elliott Morris reported prices/inflation as the top three issue for 53% of voters and jobs/economy at 39% and Fox News' early 2026 poll likewise found the economy "dominates".
•Analysts argued that gasoline prices represented the most direct channel through which the costs of the Iran war were transmitted to American voters, after the war introduced rising gasoline prices and other economic challenges.
Other major flashpoints:
•Healthcare: Expiring subsidies for health insurance premiums was the cause of the 43-day shutdown.
•Immigration: Deportations and ICE tactics are central, with protests and shutdown fights over ICE and CBP oversight reforms.
•Election integrity and voting rights: Federal investigations into the 2020 presidential election including the seizure of approximately 600 boxes of ballots from Fulton County, Georgia . Experts have characterized the investigations as efforts to intimidate election officials and voters ahead of the midterms, while David Becker said the investigations were "about the 2026 and 2028 elections" rather than 2020.
5. Judiciary and Redistricting
The Supreme Court is playing a major role in reshaping the electoral map:
•On April 29, 2026, the United States Supreme Court ruled the federal Voting Rights Act did not require the state of Louisiana to create an additional electoral district where a minority group makes up a majority
•In a 6-3 decision, the Court held that Louisiana's map was a racial gerrymander violating the Equal Protection Clause. The Supreme Court's 29 April ruling declared Louisiana's congressional maps with two majority Black districts to be unconstitutional and guts the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Analysts warned that weakening the VRA could allow Republicans to gain up to twelve seats in the House through redistricting in the Southeast.
6. Electoral Outlook for November 2026
The midterms are widely seen as a referendum on Trump:
•Democrats are currently favored to take control of the House of Representatives in the November 2026 elections, and the possibility is growing that Republicans will lose control of the Senate as well.
•The "midterm law"—the reliable pattern in which the president's party loses seats—combined with Trump's unpopularity and rising costs, makes Republican loss of the House likely, though Senate control is harder to call, though Republicans seem more likely than not to retain it.
•Democrats face significant challenges in winning both chambers, but the House is competitive and Democrats would need a four-seat pickup to flip the Senate from the current Republican edge.
In short, the US as of September 2026 is in a period of divided government within a unified Republican control that is under severe strain: a historically unpopular second-term president governing largely by executive order, a Congress paralyzed by narrow margins and repeated shutdown brinkmanship, a Supreme Court that has curtailed voting rights protections, and an electorate primarily focused on cost-of-living pressures ahead of a highly contentious midterm that will decide whether Democrats regain leverage in Washington in January 2027.