Democrats win the US House and Senate as voters deliver a strong rebuke
to Trump and Republicans
[November 04, 2026]
By JILL COLVIN, MARY CLARE JALONICK and WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress,
delivering a decisive rebuke of Republican governance in Washington and
ushering in a new era of congressional resistance to President Donald
Trump.
Tuesday's midterm elections laid bare voters' deep frustrations over
high prices, the Iran war and concerns over government corruption.
Democrats routed their rivals across the map, flipping states that have
voted Republican for decades and that Trump won by double digits just
two years ago.
That includes James Talarico's stunning Senate victory in Texas, where
no Democrat had won statewide office in more than 30 years, and Annie
Andrews' upset victory over Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina. Trump
had thrown his full weight behind both losing candidates.
In Michigan, progressive Abdul El-Sayed — one of a crop of left-wing
candidates who prevailed in Democratic primaries — topped Republican
Mike Rogers. Even Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a
battle-tested survivor of difficult elections, lost to Democrat Troy
Jackson.
The results marked a fundamental unraveling of the coalition that
returned Trump to the White House two years ago, with young people and
Latinos moving away from Republicans, according to The AP Voter Poll.
Only about one-third of Hispanic voters said they backed the Republican
in their local U.S. House races.
It was all a major blow to Trump, who spent nearly every day of the last
month holding rallies to energize his supporters but was unable to stop
a wipeout.
The results will reshape the rest of Trump's term
While Trump has proven adept at steamrolling efforts to rein him in,
Democratic control will profoundly reshape Trump’s final two years in
office and hamstring his legislative agenda.
Party leaders have signaled they'll use their new power to ensure
Trump's final two years in office are dominated by a series of
investigations of top members of his administration and deeper scrutiny
of how he's enriched his family. Impeachment of Trump and his Cabinet
officials is not off the table. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and tech
titan Elon Musk, a former top Trump adviser, are among possible targets
for investigations.
In celebratory events Tuesday night, Democratic Senate Leader Chuck
Schumer called the results a “generational remake of the Senate map.”
Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “the American people are
crying out for transformational change.”
Trump immediately sought to shift blame for his party's losses, posting
on his social media site before polls even closed on the West Coast that
he wasn't on the ballot — even though he spent weeks asking voters to
act like he was. He vowed to veto Democrat-controlled legislation,
sharing a picture of a red baseball cap with “VETO” stenciled in the
style of his trademark “Make America Great Again” campaign swag.
In a late-night phone interview with Fox News, Trump said he didn't
consider the elections to be a personal defeat. Voters, he said, “didn't
like the candidates.”
Democrats had braced for Trump to again try to undermine the results if
they won after he warned that noncitizens would cast ballots en masse
and filed lawsuits in Alaska and California. Instead, he said on Fox
that he would accept them.
Despite the results, Senate Majority Leader John Thune wrote on X that
“Senate Republicans will not stand idly by as the far-left, socialist
wing of the Democrat Party attempts to unwind everything we’ve done.” He
said they will work with Trump “to stop the worst impulses of Democrat
extremism.”
Democrats charted an extraordinary path to Senate victory
Midterm elections are typically difficult for the president's party, but
Republicans had originally expected that their Senate majority was safe.
Instead, Democrats marched through some of the most conservative states
in the nation.
Josh Turek defeated Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa, while Adam Hamilton
ousted Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas to become the state's first
Democratic senator since 1932. A cascade of surprising Democratic
victories included Talarico defeating Ken Paxton in Texas, Andrews
upsetting Graham in South Carolina, Sherrod Brown topping Sen. Jon
Husted in Ohio and Roy Cooper taking an open North Carolina seat.
Trump played an outsized role in many of the races. He endorsed the
scandal-plagued Paxton and helped him defeat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn
in the Texas primary, even as Republican officials warned his efforts
could be costly. He sharply criticized North Carolina Republican Sen.
Thom Tillis, who opted not to seek reelection. He also supported Graham,
despite doubts within the party that she was the right candidate to
replace her brother, who died unexpectedly earlier this year.
Less of a surprise was Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff winning reelection in
Georgia, defeating Rep. Mike Collins. Rep. Chris Pappas also won a
Senate race in New Hampshire, defeating former Sen. John Sununu to
replace retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
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South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Dr. Annie Andrews takes
the stage at an election night event in Charleston, S.C., Tuesday,
Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
One outstanding Senate battleground was Alaska, where the Trump
administration filed a lawsuit to block certification of Senate
results if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses the race, citing
the presence of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot.
Mississippi’s Senate race remained too early to call.
In the House, Democrats reached deeply into Trump-won territory to
defeat his preferred candidates and win in even some of the most
Republican states. There were multiple Democratic pickups in Iowa,
Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania and new Democratic seats in
Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and Utah. In Iowa, there was an
all-Republican congressional delegation going into the election.
Democrats will now represent three of them.
Bracing for a tough night, Republicans had spent the campaign’s
final stretch pumping tens of millions of dollars into states and
districts that Trump won handily two years ago, as Trump campaigned
in heavily red areas. But even Republicans' money advantage didn't
stem the Democratic tide.
“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A
LANDSLIDE!” Trump wrote on his social media site.
The electorate is frustrated and unhappy
Voters were sour heading into Tuesday, deeply unhappy with the
country’s direction and pessimistic about the future, according to
The AP Voter Poll.
Most said they felt frustrated, with about three-quarters saying
they felt “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the country’s current
trajectory. Dissatisfaction was particularly high in blue states,
but even in red states, a majority of voters were at least
“dissatisfied.”
The economy was key to Trump's White House comeback two years ago.
But the poll found that three-quarters of voters said the economy is
“not so good” or “poor." About 8 in 10 said inflation has caused a
“severe” or “moderate” financial hardship for their households.
Government corruption was also a big issue with voters. Roughly half
cited it and the cost of living as “crucial” to their vote for
Congress — higher than immigration enforcement policies, the war in
Iran and artificial intelligence data centers. About 6 in 10 voters
said Trump prioritizes his own personal interests more than the
country’s interests.
Despite their relative advantage on issues, the Democratic Party was
not much more popular with voters than the Republicans. Just under
half of voters said they have a “somewhat” or “strongly” favorable
view of the Democratic Party, while about 4 in 10 viewed Republicans
positively.
Republicans tried to buck historical midterm precedent with an
aggressive redistricting effort aimed at creating a more favorable
congressional map. But in Florida and Texas, where Republicans hoped
to pick up as many as nine seats, the plan fell short, with
Democrats picking up targeted districts.
Democrats dominate governor's races
Beyond Washington, 36 states elected governors. Democrats Josh
Shapiro in Pennsylvania, JB Pritzker in Illinois, Wes Moore in
Maryland, Maura Healey in Massachusetts and Kathy Hochul in New York
all won reelection. In a stunning upset in Texas, Gina Hinojosa
defeated Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who was seeking a fourth term.
In Ohio, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy lost to Democrat Amy Acton after
his campaign faced backlash for an ad featuring Acton’s estranged
mother, who lost custody of Acton decades ago after her husband,
Acton’s stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton as a child.
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms of Georgia will be the first Black
female governor of any state. In neighboring Florida, Byron Donalds
became the nation's first Black Republican to be elected governor.
Jeffries, in line to make history as the nation’s first Black
speaker of the House, has outlined a 100-day agenda focused on
lowering the cost of living and aggressively overseeing the Trump
administration.
The especially strong showing for Democrats could boost the party's
large crop of potential presidential candidates. It may also
complicate the paths of Vice President JD Vance and other
Republicans who may have been looking to turn their loyalty to Trump
into momentum.
___
Associated Press journalists Joey Cappelletti, Lisa Mascaro, Linley
Sanders, Aaron Kessler and Ali Swenson in Washington; Cody Jackson
in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; and Allen Breed in Raleigh, N.C.,
contributed.
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