Democrats took control of Congress in Tuesday’s U.S. midterm elections, making extraordinary gains deep in Republican territory with voters delivering a sharp rebuke to U.S. President Donald Trump and his agenda.
Here are some takeaways.
A Democratic wave
Opinion polls ahead of the midterms pointed to Democrats having a good night. But the scale of their gains was far greater than most analysts had forecast, extending beyond traditional battlegrounds deep into Republican territory.
In Texas, James Talarico routed Republican Ken Paxton, becoming the state’s first Democratic senator-elect in 38 years.
In flipping the Senate seat in South Carolina, the party also made history. Democrats have not won a U.S. Senate race there this century, and the win by Annie Andrews over Republican Senator Darline Graham became another defining upset of the night.
In the Senate race in Ohio, a state Trump won three times, Democrat Sherrod Brown prevailed, while in Kansas, Democrat Adam Hamilton easily defeated Republican incumbent Roger Marshall. Democrats last won a Senate seat in Kansas in 1932, during the Great Depression.
Democrats were projected by U.S. media outlets to win back control of both the U.S. House and Senate.
Strategists in both parties said Democrats’ sweeping victories were fueled by strong turnout of party faithful and independent voters who broke their way in both swing states and Republican strongholds. Democrats also adopted a strategy to field a candidate in every race — even those that just months ago appeared to be long shots.
Those bets paid off, particularly as Republicans fielded candidates who struggled to overcome Trump’s unpopularity and voter anger over high prices.
Winning back Congress could be a double-edged sword for Democrats, however.
Voters likely will look to Democrats to address their economic concerns and not just oppose Trump. But they will be limited in what legislation they can pass as the president retains veto power. Trump could also say Democrats are now at the very least equally culpable for the state of the economy.
Trump told media outlets he would accept the election results and was prepared to work with Democrats.
An angry electorate
Trump asked voters to pretend he was on the ballot. They did, and Republicans paid the price.
Early results and exit polls showed an electorate in a sour mood, delivering a strong rebuke of Trump and his agenda as voters expressed deep unhappiness about high prices and the direction of the country.
Many said they feel worse off than two years ago and nearly 9 in 10 identified the cost of living as a crucial or major factor in their vote, according to exit polls conducted by SSRS on behalf of a consortium of U.S. media outlets that included major television networks and the Associated Press.
Trump was elected in 2024 on a promise to arrest high inflation, but his tariffs on foreign goods and war against Iran have worsened the economic situation for many Americans. His response on the campaign trail was to tell Americans to absorb the higher costs even as his popularity sank to record lows.
Nearly two-thirds of voters in the exit polls blamed Trump for high prices, while three-quarters said they were either angry or dissatisfied with the direction of the country. Voters also expressed widespread concern over government corruption.
Rejecting Trump’s picks
It wasn’t just a bad night for Republicans; it was a bad night for Trump personally. He suffered a series of defeats as several candidates he had elevated over the objections of local Republicans struggled in races the party expected to win.
Trump’s handpicked Senate candidates in South Carolina and North Carolina, Graham and Michael Whatley, lost their races, while Paxton in Texas was soundly beaten. Trump’s choices put Republicans on the defensive in states where they had been favored to win.
The losses are likely to revive questions about Trump’s political instincts, particularly his tendency to prioritize personal loyalty over candidates with broader electoral appeal.
The exit polls showed that the coalition of voters that powered his 2024 victory is badly fractured. Republicans recorded sharp declines in support among Black men, Latinos and young voters.
Economy outweighs fear
In the closing weeks of the campaign, Trump and his fellow Republicans tried to paint Democrats as dangerous radicals and communists who would destroy the country if elected.
The attacks didn’t work. Voters were far more focused on the price of groceries and gas and wanted to hear more from Trump about how he would lower costs.
During the campaign, Trump repeatedly argued that if Democrats won, “it’s going to be a communist country.” He said Democratic establishments in various states had been replaced by “crazed lunatics and radicals.”
Fear has often worked as a tactic in U.S. elections, but in the end, Trump could not persuade voters that Democrats really posed an existential threat to the United States.
Goodbye, Hispanic honeymoon
Trump’s honeymoon with Latino voters may be over. That’s bad news for Republicans who had been counting on that major group of swing voters for wins from California to Florida.
In Texas, where 4 in 10 people are Latino, Democrats flipped both the governor and Senate seats, media outlets forecast. In heavily Latino southeast Florida, Democrat Pia Dandiya triumphed in the 22nd congressional district despite the congressional district being recently redrawn to favor Republicans.
Latino voters helped lift Trump to victory in 2024, when he won nearly half the Hispanic vote, up from roughly one-third in 2020. Two years later, many had deserted his party. Economic anger helped drive Republican support among Hispanic voters down to just one in three on Tuesday, from 46 per cent in 2024, exit polls showed.
The victories of Gina Hinojosa, who will become the first Latina governor of Texas, and Xavier Becerra, who will be California’s first elected Latino governor, underscored the importance of the Hispanic electorate.
Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Tim Reid in Washington. Additional reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb. Editing by Ross Colvin, Deepa Babington and Howard Goller, Reuters
