Election Day 2026 has finally arrived, bringing with it the merciful end of polls and predictions being presented as “news.” Back in the late 1990s, when I was an assistant national editor at The Washington Times, I sort of assigned myself to be the weekly poll aggregator during election season. This was before Real Clear Politics had become the one-stop source for election polls. It was also pre-Google, when scouring the Internet was done with search engines like Dogpile and others whose names I can’t recall. Each week, using the crude tools available, I would gather up every relevant poll I could find online and compile the results for a graphic that would run in the main news section.
Having been an accumulator of polling data through multiple election cycles, I learned a lot about the variation in quality, and became quite skeptical of polls in general. The fact that deliberate frauds have recently been revealed in the polling racket should serve as an exclamation mark on warnings about the reliability of these numbers. The best way to respond to any election prediction is always, “We’ll see.”
It’s amazing to me that there are people all over X/Twitter giving their analysis of the election before a single vote has been counted: “Trump is to blame for this disaster” is a typical reaction based on a Republican Doomsday reading of the polls, which might be valid, but we don’t know yet. All things considered, with the price of gasoline somewhere around $4 a gallon, it’s difficult to see Republicans maintaining their slim majority in the House, but it’s less likely Republicans will also lose control of the Senate. Whatever happens in the midterms, of course, President Trump still holds the veto pen, which would prevent a Democratic majority from just willy-nilly enacting their agenda — two years of D.C. stalemate, which isn’t much different than what’s been happening the past few years.
“We’ll see” — is it really possible that Texas, a state Trump won by a margin of almost 14 points, will elect James Talarico to the Senate? That would be crazy, and while Trump just barely carried Michigan, I am still doubtful that they will send Abdul El Sayed to the Senate. It would be a tsunami if Democrats win Senate seats in reliably “red” states like Kansas, Ohio and Iowa, but we won’t know until they count the votes, so it’s best not to offer analysis of why such an outcome happened until it actually happens, which I hope it won’t.
At some point, you need to get in touch with your inner Stoic, to seek calm amid the gibbering madness, to stop being a wired-in political junkie before it drives you bonkers. People are out there losing their minds over this election, and I refuse to surrender to the insanity. Even if the very worst-case scenario develops, the American Republic has survived crises before, and the worst collective errors of the electorate (e.g., the Obama presidency) at least have the beneficial effect of inspiring more determined opposition.
Be patient. Be calm. Be courageous. “Never take counsel of your fears.”
