We have spent a great deal of time wondering how much worse things can get. It would be good to spend some of that time making them better.
The midterm elections are on November 3, 2026. Every seat in the House of Representatives and roughly a third of the Senate are up for election. The country is about to decide who gets to exercise a considerable amount of power over the next two years. We need to pay attention.
We understand the exhaustion. There are days when following politics feels like accepting a personal obligation to be distressed by everything, continuously. We have jobs, people we love, problems that remain inconveniently unresolved while the national ones multiply. Wanting an evening free of it all is perfectly reasonable.
But the decisions continue while we are tired. The people making them do not require our attention to exercise their authority.
These elections give us a chance to elect a Congress willing to challenge Trump. Congress makes laws, controls federal appropriations, and oversees the agencies carrying out an administration’s policies. Those responsibilities can become meaningful restraints when the people holding office are prepared to use them.
Winning will not repair everything. It can change who demands answers, which proposals advance, and how much resistance an abuse of power encounters. That is worth getting out of the house for.
And we would like to win something beyond the pleasure of watching him lose.
We want a government whose work makes ordinary life more possible. We want people to afford care, trust that their rights will survive an election, and disagree without being encouraged to regard one another as enemies. We want public officials who remember that the public includes people who dislike them.
We can ask that of the candidates we support. We should continue asking it after they win.
For now, check your registration and your state’s deadlines at Vote.gov. Registration rules differ, and some deadlines arrive before Election Day. Find your official ballot, learn who is running, and decide when and how you will vote.
Then ask a friend whether they have a plan, too. A practical question may accomplish more than another afternoon spent agreeing that everything is terrible.
We still have a country we care about. We would like a greater say in what happens to it.
Let’s go fucking vote.
