Press and Media
Updated October 19, 2026
Votewiser is a free, nonpartisan reference for the 2026 U.S. congressional elections: one page for every sitting senator and representative, every House district and state, and every 2026 candidate we list. There are no accounts, no paywall and no campaign advertising. This page is for reporters, editors and producers — what the data is, where it comes from, how often it changes, and whom to write to.
- 539 sitting members of Congress: 100 senators, 433 representatives, 5 delegates and 1 resident commissioner (2 House seats vacant).
- 1,752 candidates in 2026 U.S. House and Senate races, with each state’s primary outcomes marked as they are recorded.
- 441 district pages (all 435 House districts, DC and the five territories) and 50 state pages, each with a narrated video profile.
- A ZIP-code lookup on the home page, and a mobile version served automatically at
votewiser.com/m. - General election: Tuesday, November 3, 2026.
What is on the site
- Member pages (example): official website, official and campaign social-media accounts, press releases, committee assignments, sponsored legislation, terms in office, latest news and a district map.
- District pages (example): the sitting member, every listed 2026 candidate with their primary outcome, Census figures for the district, and its narrated video profile.
- State pages (example): the full delegation, with district maps and each district’s 2026 field.
- 2026 candidates (example state listing, all states): a page per candidate with party, photo, campaign website and social accounts. Primary winners and those advancing to the general election are marked.
- ZIP lookup: type a ZIP code to reach the district page with its representative, both senators and the 2026 candidates. ZIP codes that cross a district line get a chooser instead of a guess.
Where the data comes from, and how often it changes
| Data | Source | Updated |
|---|---|---|
| Members of Congress | Names, party, seat, terms and official websites from the Library of Congress’s congress.gov API. | In full refresh cycles; most recent October 17, 2026. |
| Sponsored legislation | congress.gov API, each member’s bills and resolutions with their introduction dates. | Each refresh cycle; most recent October 17, 2026. |
| Committee assignments | The public congress-legislators dataset. | Checked each refresh cycle. |
| Press releases | Each member’s own official House or Senate website. | Each refresh cycle. |
| Latest news | Headlines and links to published news articles about each member and district, gathered automatically. | Nightly. |
| Social-media accounts | Members’ official websites, the congress-legislators social-media file, and candidates’ campaign websites. | Each refresh cycle and on correction. |
| 2026 candidates | Ballotpedia’s 2026 race pages and the candidates’ own campaign websites. | As candidates file, withdraw or are nominated. |
| Primary outcomes | Entered by hand from each state’s reported primary results. | After each state’s primary; general-election winners will be marked the same way. |
| District maps | U.S. Census Bureau congressional-district boundaries; for the ten states that redrew their House maps for 2026, each state’s enacted-plan GIS data. | Redrawn-state maps re-rendered August 29, 2026. |
| Census figures | U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2023 1-year data profiles (tables DP02–DP05). | With the Census Bureau’s releases. |
| ZIP lookup | Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas matched to district boundaries, including the enacted 2026 maps. | When a district map changes. |
| Video profiles | Built from the pages above plus researched local facts, each with a cited source and checked before the video is made. Presented by Herbie, a cartoon owl, with a synthetic (text-to-speech) voice. | One per district, state and territory; on our YouTube channel. |
Each page’s footer shows the date it was last regenerated.
Method and limits
- Same terms for everyone. Every member and candidate uses the same page template regardless of party. Candidates in a race are ordered winner first, then those advancing, then the rest, alphabetically within each group. Nothing is ranked, scored or endorsed.
- ZIP codes are not districts. The lookup works from Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas; where a ZIP code spans more than one district, the reader chooses.
- Redrawn states. In the ten states that redrew for 2026, the maps show the lines used for the 2026 election, while the Census figures still describe the previous lines — no Census release covers the new districts yet.
- Primary outcomes are entered by hand. If a candidate is missing or an outcome is wrong, tell us and we will correct it; corrections are applied on identical terms for every candidate.
Screenshots
Captured October 19, 2026. You may publish these with credit to Votewiser.com. Photographs of members and candidates shown on the pages belong to their owners.
Describing and citing Votewiser
Votewiser — Free, nonpartisan lookup of every U.S. senator, representative and 2026 congressional candidate: contacts, socials, committees, press, district maps, ZIP search.
https://votewiser.com/
Votewiser. Votewiser, 2026, https://votewiser.com/. Accessed [date]. Librarians and teachers: see Votewiser for Libraries and Educators.
Independence
Votewiser is an independent voter-education project. It is not affiliated with, funded by, or endorsed by any government body, political party, campaign or candidate, and it endorses no one. It accepts no campaign advertising. More in About Us.
Contact
Press questions and corrections: [email protected]
See also our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.