Democrats win control of House and Senate: Key US midterms takeaways

SaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkA lit-up vote sign is displayed outside a rally for the Democratic candidate for the United States Senate from Texas, James Talarico [File: Kaylee Greenlee/Reuters]By Priyanka ShankarPublished On 4 Nov 20264 Nov 2026Democrats have won control of Congress after flipping Republican-held House and Senate seats in Texas, South Carolina, Iowa, Michigan and Kansas in the midterm elections.The results are being seen as a major rebuke to US President Donald Trump’s Republicans, who were previously in control of both houses of Congress.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Firsts for women and minorities in US midterm electionslist 2 of 3US House Speaker Johnson rants about Marxism after Democrat gainslist 3 of 3Democrat Troy Jackson wins Maine US Senate seat in blow to Republicansend of listAll 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats were contested in Tuesday’s elections, including special elections in Florida and Ohio to fill the seats vacated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.Voters in 36 states also elected governors, as well as state legislators and local officials.Counting continued throughout Tuesday evening and night in the US. Results in some races may, however, not be known until Wednesday or later.These are the key takeaways from this year’s US midterms:This is the biggest win for the Democrats since the 1990sDemocrats have won 228 seats in the House of Representatives so far, according to the Associated Press’s tally, and are leading in 34 others. That means they could end up with in excess of 260 seats in the House, the party’s biggest strength since 1990, when the Democrats won 267 seats in the lower chamber.The Republicans held 220 seats in the House after the 2024 elections, while the Democrats had 215.In the Senate, the upper chamber of Congress, Democrats have won 54 seats and are leading in another, while the Republicans have won 44 seats and are leading in one. To control the Senate, a party needs 51 seats. In the 2024 midterm elections, the Republicans had a majority with 53 seats, while the Democrats won 47 seats.The Democrats have not had such a clear majority in the Senate since 2008, when the party won 56 seats in the slipstream of Barack Obama’s historic first presidential election.Amid governors leading in each state, Democrats now have 28 governors, while 20 governors are from the Republican Party. Races in two states currently remain uncalled. Following the 2024 midterms, 27 governors of states were Republican while 23 governors were Democrats.Not all seats have been called, and Democrats are projected to win more, but they have already flipped 25 seats in the House of Representatives from the Republicans – more than the 21 they took in 2008 when they last held the largest majority in Congress.Several historic wins for DemocratsThey include the following:Trump loses both houses of CongressThis is the first time in 20 years that a Republican president has lost control of both houses of Congress, after George W Bush in 2006.But Trump’s losses are far deeper than Bush’s: In the 2006 midterms, the Republican strength in the House went down from 232 to 202, while the party’s numbers in the Senate fell from 55 to 49.This time though, the party is projected to fall short of 180 seats in the House, and is not expected to win more than 45 seats in the Senate.In the House, in 18 of the 20 midterms held from 1946 to 2022, voters have taken House seats away from the party in power. The average loss was 26 seats across both houses. Only Bill Clinton’s Democrats in 1998 and George W Bush’s Republicans in 2002 bucked that trend by gaining seats or holding them all.In the Senate, the governing party has lost seats in 13 of the 20 midterms since 1946 but lost overall control of the chamber in only six: 1946, 1954, 1986, 1994, 2006 and 2014.In the current midterms, while President Trump’s name was not on the ballot, he regularly urged voters to imagine that it was, and the results are seen as a verdict on his presidency.Michigan elects Senate’s first MuslimAbdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, has defeated Mike Rogers for senator after a fierce Michigan battle, becoming the first Muslim ever elected to the US Senate.President Trump has repeatedly targeted El-Sayed, even calling him a “jihadist”.“He would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate,” Trump said during a campaign rally in Michigan.In his victory speech, El-Sayed said: “America’s greatness is not about ignoring our flaws; it’s the courage that we have to correct them.“We don’t need to be great again. We need to embrace that thing about us that has always made us great: the will to be more perfect,” he said.“And right now that means taking on the corporations and the billionaires’ special interests who rigged the system against us,” El-Sayed said. A record for Black women in the SenateDemocrat Juliana Stratton’s win in the Senate race in Illinois marks the first time in US history that three Black women will be in the Senate at the same time.Stratton will join Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Senator Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, who were not up for re-election.Meanwhile, among governors, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms has made history as the first Black woman elected governor in the US.The former Atlanta mayor emerged victorious over her billionaire opponent, Republican Rick Jackson, who spent more than $200m of his personal fortune in an attempt to succeed popular outgoing Republican Governor Brian Kemp.First Native American state governorDemocrat Deb Haaland has made history as the first Native American woman elected governor of a US state, according to The Associated Press news agency’s projections.Haaland, a former US interior secretary and member of the Laguna Pueblo, defeated Republican Gregg Hull, a former mayor of Rio Rancho, to lead New Mexico. First Democratic senator to serve in Kansas in 94 yearsDemocratic US Senate candidate Adam Hamilton has defeated Republican incumbent Roger Marshall in Kansas.The highly competitive contest between Hamilton, a Methodist pastor, and Marshall stunned political observers given the state’s long history of Republican wins. A Democrat has not won a Senate seat in Kansas since 1932.“We’re always told to not talk about politics or religion but this is one time we’re trying to save our democracy. The next two years are a pivotal time for our country,” Hamilton had said on Monday.The race in Kansas was considered consequential to control of the US Senate.First Democratic senator in Texas in more than 30 yearsDemocrat James Talarico has defeated Republican Ken Paxton to win the US Senate race in Texas, the first time a Democrat has won state office since 1994.“The people of Texas were my slingshot,” he told a crowd in Austin in his victory speech. “And tonight, we defeated Goliath.”Talarico, a member of the Texas House of Representatives, centred his campaign on portraying Paxton as the face of a corrupt political system that allows billionaires to wield outsized political power.The Democrat’s argument was supercharged after Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Texas resident, became a key donor in the race.Talarico also tried to woo moderate Republicans and independents put off by Paxton.Democrats hold on to California governorXavier Becerra, a Democrat who ran on his decades of experience in public office, will take over from California Governor Gavin Newsom as the next governor of the nation’s most populous state.“If anyone wants to come after California or any one Californian, they better be ready for a fight,” Becerra said on Tuesday night in front of a crowd near Sacramento, according to a report by The Associated Press.Becerra has become the first Latino elected governor in a state where 40 percent of the population is Hispanic or Latino. Trump’s endorsements widely lostTrump had asked voters to pretend he was on the ballot in the midterm elections.He also endorsed candidates in South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Michigan and others, who were defeated by the Democrats.In South Carolina, which had not elected a Democratic senator since 1998, Trump backed Darline Graham. But Democrat Annie Andrews won the seat.In North Carolina, Trump had endorsed former national Republican campaign official Michael Whatley, who was beaten by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper.In Texas, Trump promoted Attorney General Ken Paxton. But Democrat Talarico won the race.Then in Michigan, Former US Representative Mike Rogers, Trump’s choice in Michigan, was defeated by Democrat El-Sayed.Speaking to Fox News, Trump said: “I think the Democrats did a good job. I really do. I think they did a good job. They fought hard.”He added that there was a “mood in the air” and said, “I shouldn’t feel guilty.”An actor impersonating US President Donald Trump looks out of a mock prison cell installed on a billboard at Tajrish Square in Tehran [File: AFP]Opinion polls got it right, for onceOpinion polls ahead of the midterms had pointed to Democrats having a good night and winning the House and possibly the Senate.But some pre-election polls were also cautious in calling it a complete win for Democrats since polls in the recent past have been off the mark.Polling in the US began with newspapers collecting local opinions in the 1880s. Predictions have often been right, historically.But in more recent years, they have often been horribly wrong.In 2016, opinion polls correctly predicted the popular vote for Hillary Clinton, but also had her winning the presidency, comfortably, in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, which Trump ultimately won. Their forecast of Clinton winning the Electoral College was also proved wrong.Polls were off in 2020 again, when COVID-19 restrictions greatly limited surveys. Most polls correctly predicted that Joe Biden would win the Electoral College and national votes. But they significantly overestimated support for Democrats by an “unusual magnitude”, according to the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), while undercounting voters backing Trump.Then, in 2022, polls got it wrong the other way – for the midterm elections. Some polls suggested that Republicans would sweep the House and Senate that year. In the end, the race was much closer, at least in the Senate, where neither party won a majority. Democrats ended up gaining narrow control with 51- 49, with the support of independents who caucus with them. Republicans, as predicted, won the House 222 – 213.Then, in the 2024 presidential election, public opinion polls had predicted a neck-and-neck race between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Yet eventually, Trump cruised to a comfortable victory, defying most polls. But this year, opinion polls have been in track with voter’s opinions, with many saying they voted for change.Gary Colbert, who cast his ballot on the west side of Detroit, lamented the rise in fuel prices due to the US-Israel war on Iran, and added that Trump and “his cronies” are negatively affecting people’s lives, “and they don’t care”.His wife, Shirley Colbert, said “some changes need to be made” to address the cost-of-living crisis.“I’m going with the Democrat; I’m not going to go with Republicans because we have one of those in office right now, and we see what’s going on not just in Michigan but across the United States,” she told Al Jazeera.Texas voter Monique Orellana, 46, had a message for every candidate regardless of party: “Do your job!”“I would vote for Republicans if I felt they were going to do what they said they were going to do. Right now I’m not feeling it,” she told Al Jazeera.“It’s name-calling and stuff like that. They don’t ever give anything about their policies. It’s just like ‘Talafreako’ [a nickname for Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico coined by his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, and adopted by US President Donald Trump] and all of that,” she said“Trump said he wasn’t going to start a war, and he did anyway. And he said he was going to fix the price of groceries on day one. They went up anyway. I still don’t know why they started this war and why it’s still going. But right now it’s just hope,” she added.