The Associated Press spoke with UCLA law professor Rick Hasen about the aftermath of the 2026 midterm elections and whether President Donald Trump might challenge the results following significant Republican losses. Hasen said the decisive outcome left Trump with little opportunity to contest the broader results, although some individual election disputes could continue. Read more about UCLA in today’s New York Times, USA Today and other outlets.
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More highlights from UCLA in the News: November 4, 2026
Our democracy was hanging by a thread. Here’s the real reason it held | Slate
(Commentary by UCLA’s Rick Hasen.) Despite legitimate fears that the forces behind Jan. 6 would do their utmost to manipulate our elections, it was clear by Tuesday night that the just-concluded U.S. midterms survived President Donald Trump’s relentless attacks. Now, the morning after, there is every reason to believe that U.S. Senate and House winners will be able to peaceably assume office in January, with Democrats regaining control of both houses. There were no ICE agents at polls, Department of Justice officials challenging voters, or federal agents forcing state and local election officials to set aside ballots from alleged noncitizens.
That vaunted Republican money advantage? It went poof | New York Times
“There are some election years where just the conditions are middling, and then you know the electioneering can make the difference,” said [UCLA’s] Lynn Vavreck, a political scientist who has written extensively about the impact of advertising. But in a terribly difficult economic environment like this one? “You’re not going to advertise your way out of that,” she said.
Angry voters usher in beginning of the end to the Trump era | New York Times
Lynn Vavreck, a professor of American politics and public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the most important factor in the election was sky-high gas prices so it may not follow that the country’s political character has profoundly changed. “It doesn’t mean the MAGA coalition is crumbling,” she said.
Haley Stevens, her fiance and the sexism debate unfolding online | USA Today
Juliet Williams, a gender studies professor at UCLA, said it’s “totally sexist and unnecessary for legitimate critics to be focusing on the influence of the fiance.” “I would like to see Stevens rightly standing up to those sexist criticisms and calling out the quickness with which people fall back on demeaning and disrespectful explanations,” she said.
Election Day comes to a close | LAist
“Yes, both Senate, the House. These exceeded the numbers people projected. But you really didn’t have to look further than the speech that the president gave up at the Reflecting Pond, talking about concrete repairs, pipes, and algae to know that he had dragged this party down. This was a complete rejection of what Trump has done the last two years,” said UCLA’s Matt Baretto.
How Gina Hinojosa captured Texas | New York Times
In 2024, there were 6.3 million eligible Latino voters in Texas, up from three million in 2000, according to the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute.
