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THE CANDIDATE

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United States Senate

The upper chamber of Congress, with 100 senators on six-year terms — and the 2026 Senate elections deciding the Class 2 third of those seats.

About the office

The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the U.S. Congress, with 100 senators — two from each of the 50 states[3] — and the 2026 Senate elections will decide the Class 2 third of the chamber.[2] The office is established by Article I, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution.[1]

Senators serve six-year terms, with one-third of the chamber up for election every two years.[2] The 2026 Senate elections cover roughly one-third of the seats (the Class 2 class); voters in those states will choose a senator. There is no constitutional limit on the number of terms a senator may serve.

The Constitution requires senators to be at least 30 years old, U.S. citizens for at least nine years, and residents of the state they represent.[1] Vacancies are filled either by a special election or, in most states, by a temporary appointment from the governor pending the next general election.[3]

The Senate shares legislative authority with the House of Representatives — both chambers must pass identical text before a bill can be sent to the President. The Senate also has unique constitutional roles: it confirms federal judges and senior executive-branch nominees, ratifies treaties by a two-thirds vote, and serves as the trial body in impeachment proceedings.[1]

Sources

  1. [1]https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-1/#article-1-section-3U.S. Constitution / Congress.gov · retrieved 2026-05-23
  2. [2]https://www.senate.gov/about/origins-foundations/electing-appointing-senators/three-classes-of-senators.htmSenate.gov · retrieved 2026-05-23
  3. [3]https://www.senate.gov/senators/Senate.gov · retrieved 2026-05-23

Key facts

Term length
6 years
Seats per state
2 (100 total)
Election cadence
One-third of seats every 2 years
Constitutional basis
Article I, §3
Minimum age
30 years
Citizenship
U.S. citizen for 9+ years

Issues this office shapes

A non-exhaustive set of policy areas that recur in u.s. senate legislation, oversight, or platforms. Read the neutral explainer for each.

2026 cycle directory

See all 2026 U.S. Senate candidates

Every federally-filed candidate, sourced from the FEC and ordered alphabetically — never by editorial preference.

Sources & provenance

Every quantitative or attributable claim above carries a per-section [N] marker that resolves to the corresponding URL below. Each entry records the upstream provider, the canonical URL, and the timestamp at which the underlying source was retrieved.

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