November 4, 2026
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, delivering a decisive rebuke of President Donald Trump and ushering in a new era of congressional resistance to the president.
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 Senate victory in Texas, where no Democrat had won statewide office in more than 30 years, and Annie Andrews' 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 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.
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. 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 posted on his social media site that he would veto Democrat-supported 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.”
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.”
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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