Democrats won both houses of Congress as Tuesday’s midterm elections delivered several stunning results in what could be the largest popular vote victory for either party since 1976.
Democrats were expected to regain control of the House and they did. By early Wednesday, they had gained 19 seats and had secured a 228-139 advantage, with several races still to be decided, The New York Times and The Associated Press reported.
Democrats were on pace to win their largest House majority since 2008, when they took 257 seats, according to the newspaper.
“The American people have spoken and made clear they’ve had enough of the extremism, enough of the corruption,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic minority leader who is now in line to be Speaker, told supporters in Washington. “They want a Congress that’s going to deliver for the American people.”
“We knew that to keep the House and sustain our majority, we would have to defy more than a century of midterm history,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said, according to the Times. “It’s very, very difficult to overcome. And it looks like history will be kept tonight.”
But it was in the Senate where the Democrats were surprisingly strong, flipping seven seats and taking a 54-44 majority with two elections still to be decided, the AP reported.
That included a contentious race in Texas, where James Talarico defeated Ken Paxton to give the Democrats their first statewide victory in the Lone Star State in more than 30 years; and in Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed topped Republican Mike Rogers. In Maine, Republican Susan Collins lost to Democrat Troy Jackson, and Annie Andrews pulled off an upset against Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina.
Josh Turek defeated Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa, while Democrat Adam Hamilton topped Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas to become the state’s first Democratic senator since 1932. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown returned to the Senate by defeating Republican Sen. Jon Husted, while Democrat Roy Cooper prevailed in North Carolina.
Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer called the results a “generational remake of the Senate map,” according to the AP.
“We have five words for the American people,” he told reporters in Washington. “Relief is on the way.”
Senate races in Alaska and Mississippi have yet to be decided. By early Wednesday, Dan S. Sullivan held a slim edge over Mary Peltola in Alaska. In Mississippi, votes were still being counted but Democrat Scott Colom held a razor thin edge over incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Tuesday’s results ended the Republicans’ trifecta of holding the White House, Senate and House.
According to the Times, the outcome promised a new era of divided government and potential battles with President Donald Trump, who actively campaigned for GOP candidates in the weeks leading up to the midterms.
Trump said he would still have the upper hand in negotiations with a potentially hostile Congress.
“I have total veto power, so they have to come to us,” he said in an interview with the Times. “And if they have some good ideas, I’m certainly open to working.”
Trump posted on his Truth Social media site that he was not on the ballot, although he had urged voters at rallies to act like he was, the AP reported. He shared a photograph of a red baseball cap with “VETO” stenciled in the style of his “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan, according to the news organization.
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