The most common question pollsters hear around election time is “Who’s going to win?” A close second this year was “Are the polls going to be wrong again?”

Votes are still being counted, but two conclusions seem clear: Preelection polls captured the direction of this year’s election while generally understating the size of Democrats’ advantage.

Polls consistently documented the electorate’s dark mood this year, including deep dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump, even among some of his 2024 voters. That frustration was particularly focused on his economic policies.

Polls also consistently identified a wide enthusiasm gap, with Democratic supporters more interested, engaged and likely to show up to vote than Republican supporters. Indeed, Democratic supporters were also more likely to take preelection surveys, as a number of our colleagues reported.

In the end, polls found more than enough opportunities for Democratic pickups in the Senate to win a majority in the chamber, and they indicated a likely Democratic takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives. But the polling understated the size of the eventual Democratic victory in many of the major statewide races (Georgia and Texas, in particular), as well as in the overall House vote.

This analysis compares final 2026 preelection polling averages with unofficial vote counts in 27 U.S. Senate and governor races and an estimate of votes cast for U.S. House of Representatives.

Pew Research Center does research to help the public, media and decision-makers understand important topics.

We pulled polling averages from three sources: RealClearPolitics , Silver Bulletin and FiftyPlusOne .

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