The Latest: Democrats win US House, cementing control over Congress
Democrats have won control of Congress in Tuesday’s 2026 midterm elections in a widespread repudiation of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, a drubbing that reached deep into reliable GOP territory.
Democrats won at least seven Senate seats in ruby-red states and battlegrounds alike: Kansas, which hasn’t elected a Democratic senator in nearly a century, Iowa, Texas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina. In the House, Democrats flipped districts that voted for Trump by as much as 18 points in 2024.
Democrats Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, Amy Acton in Ohio, Rod Sand in Iowa and Gina Hinojosa in Texas won races for governor, flipping GOP-held offices.
While Trump urged voters to pretend he was on the ballot, most appear to blame his administration for high costs and want Congress to impose more checks on him, according to The AP Voter Poll. Trump tried to shift the blame away from himself during a Fox News interview that aired early Wednesday, saying Democrats “did a good job” in their campaigns and blaming GOP candidates for losses.
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Flanagan will become the first Native American female U.S. senator following her win over Republican former NFL sideline reporter Michele Tafoya.
Flanagan, an ally of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and current Minnesota lieutenant governor, told her supporters, “It is time for new voices to shake up our party and take back our nation.”
She said, “The powerful better listen” following broad Democratic wins.
“We took on our own party, and we are the ones who are going to shake up the status quo,” she said. “We’re going to change the hell out of the system and finally make it work for us.”
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed took the stage early Wednesday to declare victory over Republican Mike Rogers in the state’s open Senate race. The AP has not yet called the race.
El-Sayed, who would become the first Muslim senator, declared to the Detroit crowd: “We did it.”
“I am so proud and honored to stand here as your senator-elect,” El-Sayed said.
A Democratic surge has swept the party into control of the North Carolina House.
“Thank you, North Carolina. I can’t wait to get to work,” Democratic House Minority Leader Robert Reives II said in a speech Tuesday night.
The Democratic legislative victories could give greater power to Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who has clashed with the Republican-led Legislature during his first term.
Stein has vetoed 18 bills since last year. But Republican majorities gained the support of at least one Democrat to override a dozen of those, including measures supporting school choice programs and limiting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Heading into Election Day, Republicans had held 71 of the 120 House seats.
Jeffries faces a vote of his colleagues when the new Democratic-controlled Congress convenes Jan. 3. If nominated and elected, as expected, it would be the first time a Black lawmaker has grasped the powerful House speaker’s gavel, a job second in line to the president and the only leadership position in Congress mandated by the U.S. Constitution.
His rise to the speakership at the nation’s domed Capitol, which enslaved African Americans helped build, would be a milestone more than 150 years in the making, tracing an arc of history that began when the first Black American was elected to the U.S. House in the turbulent era of Reconstruction after the Civil War.
Jeffries would wield the gavel at a time when many of the landmark gains of the 20th century Civil Rights era are being challenged anew, often by the Trump administration.
Democrats have won control of the U.S. House in addition to the U.S. Senate, delivering a shockingly decisive rebuke of Republican governance in Washington and ushering in a new era of congressional resistance to Trump.
The midterm elections Tuesday channeled voters’ deep frustrations over high prices, the Iran war and concerns over government corruption. Democrats routed their rivals across the map, from Texas to Iowa to New Hampshire, including states Trump won by double digits just two years ago.
Democratic control will profoundly reshape Trump’s final two years in office and likely hamstring his agenda.
In an upset that many analysts did not see coming, Democratic nominee J.D. Ford has defeated three-term Rep. Victoria Spartz in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District.
The Democratic pickup comes in a district that Trump won by nearly 17 percentage points two years ago.
Ford is the first openly gay member of the Indiana General Assembly. Spartz is the first and only Ukrainian-born member of Congress.
The defeat demonstrates the Democratic Party’s success this election cycle breaking through not just in the nation’s traditional battleground districts, but in several deep red ones as well.
Incumbent Sen. Susan Collins conceded earlier to Jackson, ending her run for a sixth term.
Democrats considered defeating Collins as key to winning control of the U.S. Senate, and she was one of Republicans’ most threatened incumbents this year.
Jackson, a former state legislative leader, replaced Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee after Platner dropped out while facing an allegation of sexual assault, which he denied.
Turek, a Democrat who flipped Iowa’s Republican-held Senate seat, celebrated the win that seemed far-fetched in the state Trump won by 13 percentage points just two years ago.
“They told me it was impossible to win this Senate race, but tonight, Iowa, we have once again proved that the impossible is possible,” Turek said.
Turek will replace retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst and is among the seat-flipping Democrats ushering in a new majority in the chamber. Turek, who campaigned on rooting out corruption, said he’d be accountable to all Iowans.
“My political North Star has always been about what is best for the people, not about party,” he said.
A proposal to enhance California’s voter identification requirements had been placed on the ballot after a conservative group gathered thousands of petition signatures. But voters in the Democratic-led state rejected the proposed constitutional amendment Tuesday.
Opponents campaigned against it by linking the measure to Trump, who’s advocated unsuccessfully for a voter photo ID requirement at the national level.
The California measure would have required a government-issued ID to vote in person or the last four digits of that identification number to vote by mail in California. The vast majority of California’s ballots are cast by mail.
That line made the crowd shout with joy, but to Talarico it wasn’t about a party victory — even as Democrats tout his Senate win in the Republican state.
“We are tired of being told to hate each other,” he told a crowd, who yelled in agreement. “We didn’t win this race by alienating our neighbors or shaming our neighbors.”
His campaign, he said, is changing the game to a “politics of love.”
“This win is for every Texan who has ever wondered if anyone is ever listening,” he said. “I heard you. We heard you. And tonight, the world hears you.”
Klobuchar, who’s been in the U.S. Senate for 20 years, said in her victory speech that she’s focused on being a “transformative governor” for Minnesota.
“I am not interested in moving Minnesota to the left or the right; I want to move us forward,” she said.
She pledged to audit state government and invest in new technology to detect and deter fraud.
“We are going to speed up government, rebuild trust and work for you,” Klobuchar said. “Spoiler alert: you may not like every single thing I do.”
Klobuchar also said she was “not going to be a rubber stamp for Donald Trump. And I will do my job without fear or favor. I will govern for Minnesotans and nobody else.”
Trump has congratulated Democrats for their string of victories but maintains that the midterm elections are not a referendum on him.
“The Democrats did a good job. They fought hard,” he said in a phone interview with Fox News.
Several Trump-backed candidates lost in places that he won easily in 2024. But he blamed the candidates themselves, not policies of his that voters have looked on unfavorably, like the economy and Iran war.
“I don’t view it as a hit on me,” he said. “We’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency.”
The Associated Press has not yet called the race.
Jackson is a former Maine Senate president who took over as the Democratic nominee in July after primary winner Graham Platner dropped out. He was tasked with defeating the longtime incumbent after a chaotic primary season that left the Democrats in disarray and briefly without a candidate.
Democrats had seen the race as a top opportunity to flip a Republican-held seat. Maine has supported Democrats for president since 1992, and Collins was running for reelection at a moment when President Trump is deeply unpopular.
Zach Lahn said his defeat to Democrat Rob Sand in the Iowa governor’s race sends a message to corporate interests, career politicians and lobbyists.
“America is at a crossroads,” he said. “The fight is just beginning right now.”
Lahn called on his supporters to “protect this state,” coming after Sand became the first Democrat elected governor in the state in two decades.
He said he spoke to Sand and that he’d keep him in his prayers.
“I wish him well in this,” he said.
Iowa had an all-Republican congressional delegation going into the election. Democrats have now picked up three of the state’s four House seats.
In the 1st Congressional District, Christina Bohannan defeated Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. About 800 votes separated them two years ago, even though Trump comfortably carried the district, setting the stage for Bohannan to win on her third try for the seat.
Democrat Sarah Trone Garriott, a state senator and a Lutheran minister, defeated Zach Nunn in the state’s 3rd Congressional District.
And finally, Democratic candidate Lindsay James, a chaplain, defeated Republican Joe Mitchell in an open seat in the state’s 2nd Congressional District. The move by Rep. Ashley Hinson to run for the Senate had left the opening.
Both parties invested heavily in a state where farmers are dealing with headwinds from high gas prices and retaliatory tariffs.
Republican control of the Wisconsin Legislature has come to an end in at least one chamber.
Democrats won control of the state Senate on Tuesday and were making gains in the Assembly.
Democrats haven’t fully controlled Wisconsin’s government since 2010. But new legislative districts, ordered by the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court, gave Democrats a better shot at flipping the legislative chambers this year.
Republican Ashley Hinson made brief remarks to supporters after Democrat Josh Turek won Iowa’s open seat in the U.S. Senate.
Hinson, who serves in the House, was hoping to replace retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst. Flanked by her family, Hinson thanked her staff and supporters for helping her fight to keep the American dream within reach for more Americans.
“I will continue to fight for common sense,” Hinson said.
“I think we ran an absolutely fabulous campaign across the state,” she added. “Lots of late nights and lots of miles.”
Republican Sen. Roger Marshall performed significantly worse with Kansas Senate voters under 30, with roughly 8 in 10 backing Democrat Adam Hamilton. Marshall split this group with his Democratic opponent in 2020, during his last Senate campaign, according to AP VoteCast.
Hamilton won moderates in Kansas this year, with roughly 7 in 10 backing him over Marshall. Marshall only won about one-quarter of this group, down from about 4 in 10 in 2020.
Many Kansas voters also appeared concerned about Marshall’s character, after he faced accusations throughout the campaign that he had sent unpaid medical bills from former patients to collections agencies. A slim majority of Kansas voters said Marshall did not have the right personal character to serve in the U.S. Senate.
About half of voters, by contrast, said Hamilton was “too extreme.”
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was confident going into Tuesday but said she was surprised anyway.
“The size of the blue wave is bigger than I ever imagined,” the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee told The Associated Press. “It’s unbelievable.”
Calling from her hotel after the evening at the committee office watching returns, she at times broke into laughter when ticking through the high points of the evening.
For Gillibrand, the biggest thrill was easy. “Kansas,” she interrupted. “First time since 1932.”
Beyond the wins, she credited candidates with talking about issues that were heavy on voters’ minds: “housing costs, fuel costs, medical costs and how they are going to fight for these families across America.”
Speaking before a raucous crowd, Hamilton said he won over Republicans and independents because they were not on board with the administration’s policies.
He cited economic pressure weighing on voters from tariffs along with the war in Iran as factors.
“I think the people in Kansas, Republicans, independents and Democrats are saying what’s happening in Washington is not OK,” he said.
He added: “I got elected because Kansans were saying, ‘We’re tired of the bullies. We’re tired of the chaos,’” Hamilton said to cheers.
Democrat Sherrod Brown told supporters they had made themselves clear to the nation.
“You sent an undeniable message tonight: Ohio is not for sale,” he said.
Brown’s victory over Republican Sen. Jon Husted was among the most expensive in the nation, topping $500 million in spending by campaigns and outside groups.
The former three-term senator pledged to return to Washington to fight for the average Ohio resident.
“My pledge to all Ohioans, whether you voted for me or not, is that I will always be on your side — always,” he said.
U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures overcame an effort to unseat him through redistricting to win a second term in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District.
Figures defeated Trump-backed Republican Rhett Marques. The district had been reshaped to favor the GOP after the U.S. Supreme Court’s redistricting decision.
“We had the deck stacked against us,” Figures said at his victory party. But he said they got to work, “and we did not look backwards.”
Sand told a loud and energized crowd of Democrats in Des Moines that Iowans sent a clear message Tuesday.
“We have to have bigger hearts and minds than just our party,” Sand said. “Come January, we will be forced to work together.”
Sand’s win breaks a Republican trifecta that’s gripped state government for about a decade. He told lawmakers Tuesday that he looks forward to working across the aisle to solve Iowa’s problems.
Sand also had supporters in the crowd sing an election-night rendition of “America the Beautiful,” which he asked attendees to sing at each of his town halls. He also thanked his family and offered a tribute to his late brother-in-law, Walter Lauridsen, who died unexpectedly last month.
The crowd in Austin at her victory party screamed “Gina” repeatedly as the Democratic legislator who will be Texas’ first Latina governor addressed supporters.
“It never bothered me that they doubted me. It bothered me that they doubted us,” Hinojosa said. “Texas, my faith in you never wavered.”
Hinojosa said Gov. Abbott had called to congratulate her and offered to assist with her transition into office.
Hinojosa is a state lawmaker from Austin who entered the race last year with little money or name recognition. She told supporters about her upbringing along the Texas-Mexico border and her policy priorities, including fighting for public school teachers and keeping billionaires out of politics.
“Your life can be bigger than your dreams,” she said.
He’ll take over from termed-out Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Becerra defeated GOP rival Steve Hilton while campaigning on a promise to push back against Trump and his administration’s Republican policies, from immigration to voting rights.
“If anyone wants to come after California or any one Californian, they better be ready for a fight,” Becerra said at a rally near Sacramento.
He’ll become the state’s first Latino governor since the late 19th century. Becerra was born in Sacramento to a mother from Mexico and a father who was born in California and raised in Mexico.
“What a great night to be an American, to be the son of immigrants from a union household, to be standing in victory with all of you,” Becerra said.
The longtime Democratic leader told reporters in Washington that “Americans voted for change” and that there had been a “generational remake of the Senate map.”
“Five words for the American people: relief is on the way,” the New York senator said.
After Talarico and Hinojosa won the races for Senate and governor in Texas, respectively, overturning more than three decades of Republican control, voter Aaron Dickerson, 30, said it's a wake-up call for the Lone Star State.
“I think it is a rude awakening,” said Dickerson, who attended Talarico’s exuberant watch party. “They’ve been in power here in Texas for 30 years, and I think voters are realizing that, the problems with Texas, the only people to blame are Republicans.”
After Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s defeat, Trump accused him of being a “RINO,” or a “Republican In Name Only.”
Abbott, one of the president’s most steadfast allies, lost his bid for a fourth term to Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa.
“If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty!”
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