Siena College

Let's get more now from Ruth Gelnick, New York Times polling editor.

Her primary responsibility is working on the New York Times-Siena College poll.

She's contributing today to their deep dive data analysis of the election results called Times Voter Trends.

Ruth, thanks so much for joining us.

And we're seeing that particularly with young men.

Before you go...

I want to ask you something in your role with the New York Times-Siena College poll.

One of the storylines this week is that the polls generally—I'm not singling out Times-Siena.

Professor Lawless, let's bring you into the conversation.

The polling, the final polling from New York Times and Siena College had shown strength for Democrats in the lead up to the election.

It seems like the polling was right this time around.

What is the message that voters sent to Washington last night?

All right.

The New York Times, Siena University poll.

El Saeed is up plus 11 points at this particular moment in the polls.

The Texas Senate seat, James Telerico, who beat out Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic nomination of that party, is going up against Ken Paxton.

In a post on the social platform X, the Cook Political Report said it was issuing its final Senate ratings of the 2026 midterm cycle and that the Michigan Senate race moves from toss-up to lean Democrat.

A final set of polls from the New York Times and Siena University published on Sunday put Democratic candidates ahead in five of seven key battleground contests, including Texas and Kansas, where voters have not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1988 and 1932, respectively.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed raised over $2.4 million on Sunday in the final sprint to the general election, his campaign announced.

The record haul was powered by an average contribution of $36.74 from more than 65,000 donors.

Ask what Republicans could expect from the midterms Cook didn't mince words.

how about an ass whooping he replied it's more than a beating it's a hell of a beating there's no putting a smiley face on this thing he added cook now sees democrats gaining five seats in the senate giving them a 52 seat majority that is a significant upgrade from his earlier estimate of two or three pickups and he said that the eventual total could climb to 53 or 54 which sounds a lot better to me He pointed to polling from the New York Times and Siena College showing Democratic candidates ahead in seven competitive Senate races, including Texas, where James Tallarico is leading Republican Ken Paxton by five to seven points, despite the state historically being safe GOP territory.

So this is incredible news, and it's not just a one-off.

This is what we are seeing from forecasters all across the country.

Yes, exactly.

And last year, a New York Times-Siena University poll found that 64% of Americans believe that the political system is too politically divided to solve the nation's problems.

And this is up 22% over the number of Americans who agreed with that statement in 2020.

Now, I'm a very stubborn person, and I always think that if someone doesn't like division, they are more than welcome to agree with me, and that heals the divide.

Dog, who has served as the university's live mascot for nearly five years, is training his replacement before he retires.

Baloo is a St. Bernard who became the live mascot of Siena University in New York back in 2021.

He's become a familiar face at basketball games and events, posing for hundreds of photographs with students and fans.

Now with Baloo approaching his seventh birthday, the university has now introduced three-month-old baby Baloo, another St. Bernard that is being trained to take over the role next year.