Voters delivered a historic rebuke to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, handing Democrats control of both chambers of Congress in a midterm wave that reached deep into Republican strongholds. CNN called it a historic Democratic wave; USA Today called it a landslide. Either way, the final two years of Trump’s second term will now be lived under divided government.
A Senate flipped in seven states
Democrats flipped seven Republican-held Senate seats to claim the majority, winning in Iowa, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas, according to CNN and USA Today. USA Today put the resulting Democratic majority at 54 seats.
The individual results read like a tour of places Democrats had not won in a generation. In Kansas, megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton defeated Republican Senator Roger Marshall, becoming the first Democrat to win a Kansas Senate race since 1932. In Texas, Democrat James Talarico defeated scandal-plagued Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton in what became the most expensive Senate race in US history — and the first Democratic Texas Senate win since 1988. In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews defeated Darline Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, taking a seat held by Republicans since Strom Thurmond switched parties in 1964.
In Maine, Democrat Troy Jackson ousted five-term Republican Senator Susan Collins. In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed defeated his Republican opponent to become the nation’s first Muslim US senator. In New Hampshire, Chris Pappas became the first openly gay senator. And in Iowa, state lawmaker Josh Turek defeated Representative Ashley Hinson, one of the Republican Party’s star recruits of the cycle.
The House follows
In the House, the Associated Press had called 222 seats for Democrats and 138 for Republicans by Wednesday morning, with dozens of districts still counting — already past the 218 needed for a majority. Democrats flipped seats from California to New Jersey, including three in Iowa, and won in districts Trump had carried by 20 percentage points just two years ago, CNN reported. USA Today projected that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York will become the first Black Speaker of the House.
The governor’s races told a similar story. In Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated three-term Republican Governor Greg Abbott to become the first Hispanic woman governor of the state. In Georgia, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman governor. In Florida, Republican Byron Donalds became the first Black Republican governor. Democrats also took the governor’s office in Ohio and Nevada, according to projections reported by USA Today and NBC News.
Two races still to call
Not everything is settled. The Senate races in Alaska and Mississippi remain too early to call. In Mississippi, results at 3:48 a.m. showed challenger Colom ahead of incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by just 43 votes with 96% of votes counted, according to USA Today. The Justice Department has appealed a lawsuit over the Alaska result, where a challenger sharing a name with the incumbent complicated the count.
What Trump said
Trump watched the returns from the White House East Room and went silent on Truth Social for three hours as Democratic wins piled up, CNN reported. Just after 10:30 p.m., he posted: “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
He struck a different note with The New York Times late Tuesday, saying he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results and to work with Democrats. On Fox News, he called the outcome only a “little surprise,” blamed a “mood in the air” and the candidates themselves, and insisted: “I don’t view it as a hit on me.” He conceded to The Wall Street Journal that the war in Iran was “a piece” of the defeat, while arguing that tariffs and higher prices were only part of the story.
What to watch next
Watch the final calls in Alaska and Mississippi, the size of the Democratic House majority as western states finish counting, and whether the new Congress — seated January 3, 2027 — moves quickly on the cost-of-living and Iran-war issues voters cited most. The first test of divided government will be how Trump and a Democratic Congress handle each other when neither can govern alone.
Sources: CNN, “A historic blue wave, a stunning rejection of Trump and other takeaways from the midterms” (Nov 4, 2026); USA Today, “Democrats landslide midterms with big wins in Senate, House: Live updates” (Nov 4, 2026); Associated Press election results, U.S. House and U.S. Senate (Nov 4, 2026).
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