Fox News Bets on an AI Chatbot for Election Night 2026

Fox News will debut an AI-powered election chatbot on the Fox News App for the 2026 midterm elections, letting users ask questions about individual races and get answers drawn directly from Fox News reporting. The announcement came from Douglas Rohrbeck, the network's evp of Washington news and politics, in the latest installment of TVNewser's AskNewser series — and it frames how three networks plan to fight for audiences on a night that polls suggest could deliver a blue wave.

Rohrbeck said Fox is making "a significant investment in augmented reality, data-driven graphics, and artificial intelligence to make election coverage more informative, interactive, and accessible." Enhanced AR on television will visualize county-level voting shifts and track the path to control of Congress in real time. The chatbot, paired with interactive maps and new engagement features, reflects "how we're thinking about the future of news consumption," he said.

ABC is betting on scale. Political director Averi Harper said ABC's new Voter Poll will produce data from every state with a Senate or gubernatorial race — 45 statewide polls in total — while the national sample will run roughly three times the size of the 2024 National Exit Poll. ABC will deploy a dozen reporting teams across key states on election night, broadcasting from a redesigned election headquarters featuring two studios and more than 151 million LED pixels.

A second ABC tool, Vote Shift, will show viewers in real time how counties and states are voting compared with the 2024 presidential election. "That gives us an extraordinary opportunity to understand what motivated voters and how different communities cast their ballots," Harper said.

What makes this midterm different to cover?

All three executives pointed to the absence of a single presidential race driving the national conversation. Harper said ABC is tracking how affordability, immigration, and the war with Iran are shaping voter decisions, and that midterm coverage requires reporters to "connect the dots" between individual communities and the national picture.

NewsNation political editor Chris Stirewalt put it in turnout terms. Midterms draw far fewer voters than presidential years, he said, so "figuring out winners and losers depends as much on who isn't voting as on how people are voting. Missing voters are just as much a part of the story as the ones who show up."

What's the big unknown on election night?

Harper flagged the composition of the electorate — who shows up and who skips. She pointed to significant 2024 shifts among Latino voters and younger voters, and said ABC is watching whether Democratic enthusiasm translates into battleground turnout, and whether Republicans can mobilize their coalition without Donald Trump on the ballot.

Stirewalt was blunter. "We know the polls will be wrong, but we don't know by how much or in what direction," he said, arguing every outlet needs "enough humility" to accept that Democrats may overperform, Republicans may again beat polling, or the polls may be "right on the money." Rohrbeck emphasized flexibility, citing correspondents positioned nationwide and production capacity to pivot as results develop.

How will each network stand apart?

• ABC: a dozen field teams, 45 statewide polls, Vote Shift, and a two-studio, 151-million-LED-pixel headquarters.
• Fox News: Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum anchor one newsgathering operation feeding TV, streaming, digital, audio and social — no longer a TV broadcast repurposed elsewhere.
• NewsNation: an "NFL RedZone-style approach" following races as they unfold with Decision Desk HQ, with what Stirewalt called "independent race calling so that there's no funny business."

NewsNation's overhauled New York studio uses floor panels for data visualization, with Connell McShane playing, in Stirewalt's words, "the Pat Summerall to my John Madden."

When will viewers know who controls Congress?

Stirewalt offered the only concrete timing: strong directional signals could appear in the 7 p.m. hour, a House call could plausibly come in the 9 p.m. hour, and a tight Senate could resolve "in the wee hours, or it could be in a week." Harper and Rohrbeck both declined to race the clock. "Our priority is accuracy over speed," Harper said; Rohrbeck's Fox News Decision Desk will project "when the data supports them."

With polling pointing to a possible referendum on Trump's presidency — and a real chance the polls miss — the networks that win election night will be the ones built to pivot, not the ones built around a forecast.

By James Calloway