Election 2026 live updates: Americans cast their votes

Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said he's optimistic about his chances of winning Tuesday.

"I feel good because all of the evidence suggests that we actually built the whole issue we want to build. Some of us believe in trust in science and evidence. Some people just do vibes," he told reporters at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor campus, adding that "time will tell."

El-Sayed also said he was preparing for potential challenges to the election.

"We're bracing for all outcomes, but we're hoping that this outcome is decisive in a way that it can't be challenged by somebody who had bad faith in fear about democracy," he said.

-ABC News' Diana Paulsen

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged Republicans not to dismiss voters' concerns surrounding rising costs affected by the war in Iran.

In an interview with Stephen A. Smith, DeSantis said some Republicans are "gaslighting" Americans by not being honest that the war is leading to higher prices.

"We have some of our voters who've checked out because they're like 'I didn't want any more Middle East wars' and now we're doing it," DeSantis said.

"[W]e just got to be honest. Gas is higher. It hurts people, working-class people, and it's higher because of this conflict," DeSantis further said. "That's just a fact. If you can't admit that to voters, then you're gaslighting them, and they're not going to listen to you on other things."

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie and Victor Oquendo

Both of New Hampshire’s candidates for U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday in the Granite State, then spoke to reporters about some of their closing arguments in the race for a Democratic-held seat that Democrats feel they must hold.

Republican candidate and former Sen. John Sununu, after voting in Rye, New Hampshire, emphasized that he’d be willing to take on President Donald Trump.

“And if you want someone who's going to stand up to their party or the president when they're wrong, that's exactly the way I've led before in the Senate… it's the New Hampshire way to be strong and independent, and that's the kind of a senator I'll be, someone who just focuses on standing up for the people of New Hampshire every single day," Sununu said.

Meanwhile, Democratic candidate and state Rep. Chris Pappas, after voting in Manchester on Tuesday, told reporters, “Today should be about how we restore the purpose of American democracy and get back to working on the issues that people care about.”

Pappas also emphasized what he framed as the stakes of the race.

“This is going to be determinative of whether we can turn the page from this era and restore checks and balances in Washington, or whether we're going to go down the same path that just isn't working out well for people and is raising costs. So I think people are going to choose change," Pappas said.

-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim

The Justice Department in recent days has continued moving at an aggressive clip in ramping up its criminal investigation into the Alaska U.S. Senate race, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News, with prosecutors now in the process of issuing more than 100 subpoenas and at least twenty letters alerting individuals that they are targets of the probe.

The investigation began accelerating last week after The New York Times detailed alleged efforts by Democrats and some in Democratic candidate Mary Peltola's campaign to recruit Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher, to be on the ballot with incumbent Republican Dan S. Sullivan.

The target letters are being issued to Democrats whom investigators believe were involved in the recruitment effort.

A DOJ spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

-ABC News' Pierre Thomas, Alexander Mallin, Luke Barr and Katherine Faulders