Democrats scored a resounding victory against Republicans on Tuesday evening, delivering a blistering verdict on two years of complete Republican control of the White House and both houses of Congress. The results, although still being finalized, were definitive: the House and Senate firmly under the Democrats’ control.
Democrats seized majorities in both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, flipping six states to secure 54 of 100 Senate seats, according to the Associated Press. Nebraska, Alaska, and, surprisingly, Mississippi, remained too close to call at publication time.
For the first time in nearly a century, Democrats flipped a Senate seat in Kansas, where Democrat Adam Hamilton defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall.
Former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper defeated Trump’s handpicked Senate candidate in North Carolina. In neighboring Georgia, Jon Ossoff, a rising Democratic star, won reelection to the Senate.
“Though we rightly celebrate tonight’s historic victory, the fact is we have been too long mired in a small and selfish politics bought by big money,” Ossoff told supporters.
Georgia also elected Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms as the nation’s first Black woman governor.
In South Carolina, one of the country’s most prominent Republican strongholds, Democrat Annie Andrews defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Darline Graham, who took over the seat of her brother Lindsay Graham following his death in July.
Andrews became the first woman elected to represent South Carolina in the Senate and the first Democrat elected to the state’s Senate seat since 1998.
In Iowa, Democrat Josh Turek, a Paralympic athlete, won the state’s vacant Senate seat over Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson, serving her third term in the House of Representatives.
In Ohio, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown will return to represent his state after defeating Republican Sen. Jon Husted, two years after Brown ceded the 2024 election to Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno.
Democrats also flipped Maine’s Senate seat with Troy Jackson’s victory over Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who was first elected in 1996 and served five terms.
But Texas provided perhaps the biggest surprises of the night. Democrats captured a Senate seat in Texas for the first time since 1988, after Democrat James Talarico bested Republican Ken Paxton, a close ally of President Donald Trump. But not only that, Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for the governorship of the country’s second largest state, something that has eluded Democrats since Ann Richards left office in 1995.
From Land Commissioner to Railroad Commissioner to Lieutenant Governor to the Attorney General, Democrats either won or were in the lead at the time of publication. It was a shattering of Republican political power that had lasted almost 30 years.
Back in Washington, Democrats were poised to take control of the House of Representatives, giving congressional committees the power to investigate members of the Trump administration, over unpopular issues like the war with Iran, and mass deportations of immigrants. Democratic control would also complicate Trump’s efforts to pass new legislation.
Losing control of the Senate also threatens Trump’s ability to secure confirmation of judicial nominees and appoint senior officials to his administration.
Trump told The New York Times Tuesday he would accept the results of the midterm elections, after many observers worried he would not.
“We’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll, you know, look forward to working with them,” he said. “We’ll probably work something out.”
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
