November’s Congressional Elections Will Help Shape the Next Chapter of the American Experiment

Over the coming months, I will organize four events hosted by TEPAV on the November 2026 U.S. congressional elections. This article is the first step in that journey.

American midterm elections are often viewed through the urgency of the moment and tend to serve as a referendum on the sitting president and the direction of the country. That can make the president’s party more vulnerable as voters judge whether campaign promises have been kept and what course they want for the remaining two years of the presidential term. But unlike in a parliamentary system, congressional elections are not simply a vote of confidence in the government. Candidates, their personalities, local standing, campaign strategies, fundraising and the particular concerns of their constituencies all play a decisive role. 

But this election requires a longer view.

Before asking whether Republicans will retain their majority in Congress, or whether Democrats will take control of the House, the Senate, or both, we should begin with more fundamental questions: 

• What were these institutions created to do? 

• What kind of political system were they intended to preserve? 

• What happens when the balance between them shifts?

• And, most importantly, what is Congress expected to do when presidential power expands? 

The purpose of this series of articles—and of the four events that will follow—is not simply to follow another American election campaign. It is to use this election as an opportunity to think together about the condition of the American experiment: about liberty and power, representation and accountability, institutions and political norms, and ultimately about the state of American democracy itself.

You may read note from here.