Μake us preferred on Google Democrats delivered a blue shellacking in Tuesday’s midterm elections, reclaiming control of the Senate and putting the party on pace to recapture the House, as voters voiced their discontent over President Trump and prepared to usher in a new era of divided government during his final two years in office.
“Now against all odds, we Democrats have won the Senate and we have five words for the American people: relief is on the way,” Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who is expected to be the majority leader, told reporters outside Senate Democrats’ campaign headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The election results represented a voter response to high inflation, inflated fuel prices, the Iran war launched by Trump and his trade fights with allies. Exit polls showed deep voter discontent with the economy and unhappiness with Congress.
Republicans lost Senate seats in North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Ohio, Kansas and Iowa, according to the Associated Press, giving Democrats a Senate majority via a map full of typically Republican terrain. With the exception of North Carolina, Trump won all of those states by double digits in the 2024 election. Democrats had needed a net gain of four seats to reclaim a majority.
Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff cruised to re-election in Georgia in a race that Republicans had targeted at the start of Trump’s second term. Democrats easily maintained seats in New Hampshire and Minnesota. They held a lead in Michigan, an open seat Republicans had seen the most opportunity in.
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In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews , a pediatrician and gun-safety advocate, beat Republican Sen. Darline Graham, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham , an unthinkable pickup opportunity until recently. Trump won the state by 18 percentage points in 2024.
“We will not bow down. We will not back down. And we will chart our own course,” Andrews said at a victory party in South Carolina.
The Associated Press hadn’t yet called the House, but Democrats were on track for a majority. They flipped seats held by Republicans in numerous states, including North Carolina, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, New Jersey and Virginia. In Florida, Democratic Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Kathy Castor won re-election despite GOP redistricting efforts in the state that aimed to oust the Democrats.
“This is not a blue moment. Or a red moment. It’s a red, white and blue moment because America has won tonight,” said House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), who was expected to become the nation’s first Black speaker of the House.
Democrats won victories on a historic scale. In Kansas, Adam Hamilton, a minister, became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat there since 1932, defeating Republican Sen. Roger Marshall.
In Texas, Democrat James Talarico trounced scandal-plagued Republican Ken Paxton to become the first member of his party elected to the Senate from the Lone Star State since 1988.
In Iowa, Josh Turek, a state lawmaker and one-time paralympic basketball player, defeated Rep. Ashley Hinson to become the first Democrat to win a Senate seat there since 2008.
And in Ohio, former Sen. Sherrod Brown , a Democrat, staged a political comeback in defeating Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to the seat after JD Vance became Trump’s vice president.
Democrats also swept into governor’s mansions in battleground Georgia and a trio of states that backed Trump in the past three presidential elections.
Keisha Lance Bottoms , a former mayor of Atlanta and Biden White House adviser, will be the next governor of Georgia, the first Black woman elected governor of a state in U.S. history.
Amy Acton , the former director of Ohio’s Department of Health under Republican Gov. Mike DeWine , will be the next governor of Ohio. And Gina Hinojosa, a lawyer and state representative, unseated three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Rob Sand, Iowa’s auditor, will be the next Iowa governor.
“We knew that the Washington, D.C., insiders and the richest Americans were getting unimaginable wealth at our expense,” Cooper said. “We knew that the chaos and corruption in Washington were hurting people. Today, you said this has to stop.”
Republican candidates have faced consistent backlash over Trump’s governing, including complaints over inflation and the broader state of the economy. Voters were particularly frustrated with the president’s use of tariffs, undertaking the Iran War and an aggressive deportation strategy.
Voters blamed Trump for high prices, according to results from a poll of more than 79,000 registered voters. Almost two-thirds said inflation was up more because of his policies. The poll was conducted on behalf of the Associated Press and all of the major television and cable news networks.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump said the war in Iran was partially to blame for widespread Republican losses in the midterm elections, but that he didn’t regret it. He said he would work with Democrats but would use his “veto power” if needed.
On social media, he struck a defiant tone.
“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Trump’s 2024 coalition picked up new voters across the board. But two years later, that coalition had begun to fray and Republican candidates were the ones expected to face the fallout. Recent polling and interviews showed that Hispanic voters , young voters , Make America Healthy Again voters had all begun to shift away from Republicans in response to the Trump administration’s policies.
“Democrats now have the potential to win their largest majority since 2009,” wrote Erin Covey, the House editor for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, in announcing a dozen House races were moving toward Democrats last week.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) spent Election Day morning in South Texas, trying to get out voters in the predominantly Hispanic area that had historically been a Democratic stronghold but swung toward Republicans in recent years.
“ We’re leaving it all on the field,” Johnson wrote on X of his visit.
In the Rio Grande Valley, Republicans had sought to flip two Democratic-held seats that were redrawn to be more red-leaning during mid-decade redistricting brought about by Texas Republicans at Trump’s urging. But Democrats held both of those seats—and were on track to flip a Republican seat in a neighboring district Trump won by 18 percentage points in 2024.
Lisa Lopez, a Weslaco, Texas, resident, voted for Trump in 2024, believing he would best handle the economy and immigration. Now, she regrets voting for him, saying he has failed to address the increased cost of living and has gone too far with his administration’s immigration enforcement tactics. She backed Democrats in the midterms.
“The economy was supposedly going to be better, and it hasn’t gotten better,” said Lopez, 52, who works for a health insurance company. “It’s actually spiraled in the opposite direction. It’s just not what he promised.”
Write to Eliza Collins at eliza.collins@wsj.com , Sabrina Rodriguez at sabrina.rodriguez@wsj.com and Ken Thomas at ken.thomas@wsj.com
