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Democrats regained control of both chambers of Congress on Tuesday, dealing a decisive blow to Republican control in Washington and opening the way to a new era of legislative opposition to President Donald Trump.
The midterm elections channeled deep voter frustration over high prices, the war in Iran, and concerns about government corruption. Democrats swept their rivals across the country, flipping states that had been in Republican hands for decades and where Trump had won by double-digit margins just two years ago.
This includes the surprising victory of James Talarico for the Senate in Texas, where no Democrat had won a statewide office in more than 30 years, and the triumph of Annie Andrews over Senator Darline Graham in South Carolina. Trump had given his full endorsement to both Republican candidates.
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In Michigan, progressive Abdul El-Sayed—part of a group of left-leaning candidates who won Democratic primaries this cycle—defeated Republican Mike Rogers. Even Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a veteran survivor of difficult elections, lost to Democrat Troy Jackson.
The results marked the total collapse of the coalition that returned Trump to the White House two years ago, with young people and Latinos drifting away from Republicans, according to the AP Voter Poll. Only about a third of Hispanic voters said they supported the Republican in their local races for the U.S. House of Representatives.
The results were a hard blow for Trump, who visited nearly two dozen states over the last month in an offensive meant to mobilize Republicans, but failed to prevent the debacle.
The results will reshape the remainder of Trump's term
Although the president has shown an ability to overcome attempts to contain him, Democratic control of Congress will profoundly reshape his final two years in office and obstruct his legislative agenda.
Democrats have signaled they will use their position in Congress to ensure the final leg of Trump's term includes a series of investigations into senior members of his administration and more intense scrutiny of how he has enriched his family. Impeachment proceedings against Trump and his administration officials are not ruled out. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and tech mogul Elon Musk, a former senior Trump advisor, are among the potential targets for investigations.
In victory celebrations Tuesday night, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the result a “generational reshuffling of the Senate map.” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries noted that “the American people are crying out for transformative change.”
Trump was quick to wash his hands of his party's defeats, posting on his social network—even before polls closed on the West Coast—that he was not on the ballot, even though he spent weeks asking voters to act as if he were. He promised he would use his veto power to block the Democratic agenda, sharing an image of a red hat with the word “veto” emblazoned on it in the style of his signature “Make America Great Again” campaign item.
In a late-night phone interview with Fox News, Trump said he did not consider the elections a personal defeat. Voters, he claimed, “didn't like the candidates.”
Democrats had prepared for Trump to try to undermine the results again if they won, after he warned that non-citizens would vote in droves and filed lawsuits in Alaska and California. Instead, in comments to Fox, he said he would accept them.
Despite the results, Senate Majority Leader John Thune wrote on X that “Senate Republicans will not sit idly by while the far-left, socialist wing of the Democratic Party tries to undo everything we have done.” He said they would work with Trump “to stop the worst impulses of Democratic extremism.”
Democrats charted an exceptional path to victory in the Senate
Midterm elections are usually difficult for the president’s party, but Republicans expected their Senate majority to be safe. Yet, Democrats mobilized in some of the most conservative states in the country.
Josh Turek defeated Representative Ashley Hinson in Iowa and Adam Hamilton unseated Senator Roger Marshall in Kansas, becoming the state’s first Democratic senator since 1932. The cascade of stunning Democratic victories included Talarico over Ken Paxton in Texas, Andrews over Graham in South Carolina, Sherrod Brown beating Senator Jon Husted in Ohio, and Roy Cooper taking a vacant seat in North Carolina.
Trump played an outsized role in the Texas, North Carolina, and South Carolina races. He endorsed Paxton and helped him defeat incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the Texas primary, even though Republican officials warned his efforts could be costly. He harshly criticized North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who opted not to seek reelection. He also supported Graham, despite internal doubts that he was the right candidate to replace his brother, who died unexpectedly earlier this year.
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Less surprising was Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff winning reelection in Georgia by defeating Representative Mike Collins. Representative Chris Pappas also won a Senate race in New Hampshire, after beating former Senator John Sununu to replace outgoing Democrat Jeanne Shaheen.
Other key battlegrounds include Alaska, where the Trump administration filed a lawsuit to block the certification of Senate results if incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan loses, citing the presence of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot. In the Mississippi Senate race, it was still too early to project a winner.
In the House of Representatives, Democrats pushed into territory won by Trump to defeat his preferred candidates and win even in some of the reddest states. There were multiple Democratic gains in Iowa, Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania, and new Democratic seats in Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Utah. In Iowa, which had an all-Republican congressional delegation before the elections, there will now be three Democrats.
Republicans spent the final leg of the campaign pumping tens of millions of dollars into states and districts Trump won easily just two years ago, and the president campaigned in some of the reddest states. But even the Republicans' funding advantage did not stem the Democratic tide.
“I was not on the ballot and if I had been, we would have won by a lot!” Trump wrote on his social network.
The electorate is frustrated and unhappy
Voters arrived on Tuesday in a bad mood, highly unhappy with the country's direction and pessimistic about the future, according to The AP Voter Poll.
The vast majority of Americans feel frustrated with the current situation in the country. About three-quarters of voters say they feel “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the country’s current trajectory. Dissatisfaction was particularly high in Democratic states, but even in Republican-led entities, a large portion of voters were at least “dissatisfied.”
The economy contributed to Trump’s return to the White House. But the poll revealed that approximately three-quarters of voters claim the economy “is not so good” or is “poor.” About 8 in 10 note that inflation has caused “severe” or “moderate” financial hardship in their households.
Government corruption was also a key issue for voters. Approximately half cited it, along with the cost of living, as “crucial” to their vote for Congress, higher than those concerned about immigration enforcement policies, the war with Iran, and data centers for AI. About 6 in 10 voters said Trump prioritizes his own interests over those of the country.
Despite its relative advantage on these issues, the Democratic Party is not much more popular among voters. Just under half of voters have a “somewhat” or “very” favorable view of the Democratic Party, while about 40% view the Republican Party positively.
Republicans had tried to defy historical precedent—almost always the president’s party loses seats in midterms—with an aggressive redistricting effort aimed at creating a more favorable electoral map. But in Florida and Texas, where Republicans hoped to add up to nine seats, the plan seemed to fall short, with Democrats winning target districts.
Democrats dominate gubernatorial races
Beyond Washington, 36 states are electing governors. Democrats Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania, JB Pritzker in Illinois, Wes Moore in Maryland, Maura Healey in Massachusetts, and Kathy Hochul in New York won reelection. In a surprising result in Texas, Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who was seeking a third term.
In Ohio, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy lost to Democrat Amy Acton after his campaign faced criticism for an ad featuring Acton's estranged mother, who lost custody of the politician decades ago after her husband, Acton's stepfather, was accused of raping her as a child.
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms of Georgia will be the first Black female governor in the history of any state. In neighboring Florida, Byron Donalds became the first Black Republican in the country to be elected governor.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who is in a position to make history as the first Black Speaker of the House if his party sweeps into power, has outlined a 100-day agenda focused on lowering the cost of living and aggressive oversight of the Trump administration.
A particularly strong performance by Democrats would also provide momentum to the party’s group of potential presidential candidates. It could also complicate the paths of Vice President JD Vance and other Republicans who may look to translate their loyalty to the president into political momentum.
[Publicidad]