Americans delivered a resounding rebuke to President Donald Trump in Tuesday’s midterm elections, with Democrats projected to capture both chambers of Congress and usher in two years of divided government.
Amid voter backlash over the cost of living and the Iran war, Democrats toppled Trump-backed candidates and broke through in states that had resisted the party of Franklin Roosevelt for decades. Their gains extended deep into territory Trump carried comfortably just two years earlier, including Texas, South Carolina and Kansas.
By early Wednesday, Democrats were projected to win 54 Senate seats to Republicans’ 42. In the House, Democrats had secured 224 projected victories to Republicans’ 134.
It’s “a full-blown repudiation of Trump and GOP policies,” said Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University. On Fox News, Sean Hannity offered a mournful assessment: “I wish it was two years ago.” Meanwhile, White House staffers — potentially poised to eat their feelings — reportedly ordered dinner in from the Cheesecake Factory.
In a late-night phone interview with Fox News, Trump congratulated Democrats, but stopped short of accepting blame for his party’s defeat. “They did a good job,” he said. “They’ve been looking for this one for 11 years, and they finally got it.”
Networks including CNN and Fox News projected Democratic control of Congress even as millions of votes remain uncounted and dozens of races were unresolved. Those outstanding contests will determine the size of the Democratic Party’s majorities — and the leverage they will wield when the new Congress assembles in January.
Even with the final margins unsettled, the result marked a stunning political reversal — just two years after Trump swept swing states and won the popular vote. The president’s party tends to lose ground in midterm elections, but control of both the House and Senate has shifted to the opposing party in the same midterm just three times since World War II.
The Senate produced some of the night’s biggest surprises, with Democrats flipping Republican-held seats in Texas, Kansas, South Carolina, Ohio, Iowa and North Carolina. Republicans entered into Election Day with a 53-47 majority, leaving Democrats requiring four new seats to take control.
In Texas, James Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton, becoming the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state in more than three decades. In Kansas, Adam Hamilton unseated Senator Roger Marshall, ending a Democrats’ 94-year losing streak in the Sunflower State.
Annie Andrews defeated Sen. Darline Graham — the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham — in South Carolina, while former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper captured another Republican-held seat. In Ohio, former Sen. Sherrod Brown beat Sen. Jon Husted, sending Brown back to Washington after two years out of power.
Democrats’ gains extended to Maine, where CNN projected that Troy Jackson would defeat five-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
Early Wednesday morning, The Associated Press also projected that progressive Abdul El-Sayed would defeat Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s Senate race. El-Sayed’s race was upended when his former primary opponent, Haley Stevens, endorsed Rogers at the eleventh hour.
Florida offered Republicans a bright spot, as incumbent GOP Senator Ashley Moody retained her seat.
In the House, Democrats needed smaller gains to reclaim the majority. By early Wednesday, projections pointed to a substantially broader victory.
Pennsylvania delivered several prominent pickups: Bob Brooks defeated Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, Paige Cognetti beat Rep. Rob Bresnahan and Janelle Stelson ousted Rep. Scott Perry. In New Jersey, Rebecca Bennett defeated Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr., whose months-long absence from Congress had drawn scrutiny.
In Virginia, former Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria reclaimed her seat from Rep. Jen Kiggans, while Shannon Taylor defeated longtime Republican Rep. Rob Wittman.
The projected takeover put House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a longtime Trump critic, on course to become the first Black speaker of the House, subject to a vote by the chamber.
Democratic gains also extended beyond Congress, with the party flipping Republican-held governorships in Texas, Georgia and Ohio — where GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy faced backlash over a controversial political ad.
Trump insisted the Republican defeats were not “a hit on me,” blaming candidates he said had failed to inspire his supporters — despite repeatedly urging his base to “pretend I’m on the ballot.”
Still, he credited Democrats with fighting an effective campaign, after having derided them as “communists” and “jihadists.”
“I think the Democrats did a good job; I really do,” the 80-year-old president told Fox News. “They fought hard. They were, you know, they've been fighting for a long time. They've been fighting me for a long time.”
Democrats cast the results as a rejection of Trump’s policies, including his handling of the cost of living and the war in Iran, while signaling plans to use their new power to challenge his agenda. “MAGA extremists are on the run from sea to shining sea,” Jeffries wrote on X. California Rep. Robert Garcia delivered a two-word message: “LAWYER UP.”
Attention now shifts to the unresolved contests, including the closely watched Senate race in Alaska. The state’s mail-ballot deadlines and ranked-choice voting system could leave the outcome there unsettled for days. Ballot-counting in California likewise can take days or even weeks.
On Tuesday night, Trump signaled a willingness to cooperate with the opposition, saying he thought the parties could “get along very well.” At the same time, he said he would not compromise on certain issues, like immigration, while threatening to veto legislation he considered “insane.”
Notably absent from Trump’s Fox News interview was any mention of cheating — an accusation the president has repeatedly levied at Democrats without evidence.
Democrats have put forward an agenda for the new Congress that includes reversing health care cuts, clawing back congressional authority over tariffs and stopping the Iran war. The party also plans to investigate the administration and reportedly may pursue impeachment charges against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“We won,” El-Sayed wrote on X. “Now the real work begins.”
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