Blue surge: Democrats close in on US House, claim Senate
The Democrats have cemented control of the Senate with an upset victory in Iowa, in a body blow for Donald Trump in the midterm elections.
Democrats have now won enough seats to control the Senate after an upset victory for Josh Turek in Iowa, Reuters reports.
It was the latest in a succession of victories in Republican bastions like Kansas, Texas and South Carolina that gained Democrats six seats in the chamber.
Democrats could lose both of the seats they are defending in Michigan and Minnesota but still have enough to have a majority in the Senate.
They are also on track to win the US House in the midterm elections after seizing Republican seats in South Carolina and North Carolina.
The results on Tuesday are a sweeping rebuke to US President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress that has supported him since he returned to the White House two years ago.
It is now looking like Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is expected to become the next House Speaker, the first Black man in the role, though he will first have to win the gavel in a floor vote once the new Congress convenes.
Meanwhile, Gina Hinojosa is projected to become the first Hispanic governor of Texas, unseating Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who served almost 12 years in office.
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In South Carolina, pediatrician Annie Andrews became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat since 1998, a stunning victory over Trump’s hand-picked candidate Darline Graham in a state that he carried by nearly 18 percentage points in 2024.
Andrews’ win, along with Democrat Roy Cooper’s win in North Carolina’s Senate race, gave the party two of the four seats it needs to net in order to take control of the chamber.
The results also suggested that a Democratic wave was growing large enough to swamp even deeply Republican areas.
After the death of his ally, US Senator Lindsey Graham, Graham’s sister Darline was appointed to fill his seat and Trump encouraged her to run for a full six-year term. But her political inexperience proved a liability.
Democrats held onto Senate seats in Georgia and New Hampshire, both races that were once considered competitive but moved out of reach for Republicans amid Trump’s declining approval ratings.
While several television networks projected that Democrats would eventually win a House majority, most of the chamber’s most tightly contested races had yet to be called.
So far, Democrats have picked up several seats from Republicans, meaning they can afford to lose one of their existing seats and still take control of the 435-member chamber.
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“In sweeping and decisive victories, the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence of the man named President Donald J Trump,” incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, the projected winner in Georgia, told supporters at a victory party.
Ossoff is being touted as a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
In Florida, Republican Senator Ashley Moody fended off Democrat Angie Nixon but was ahead by only about three percentage points in a state Trump carried by 13 points in 2024, according to a vote count compiled by Reuters and USA Today, further evidence that even solidly Republican states were shifting dramatically toward Democrats.
Democrats held onto three House districts in Florida that Republican lawmakers had redrawn earlier this year, all of which backed Trump by at least nine percentage points.
President Donald Trump says he will accept tonight’s election results, shutting down — for now — questions about whether he would challenge the outcome.
“I am absolutely willing to accept those results,” Trump said in an interview with the New York Times.
“We’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll, you know, look forward to working with them. We’ll probably work something out,” he told the newspaper.
Midterm elections are typically viewed as a referendum on the president, and that is especially true for Trump, who dominates attention like no other politician. Trump himself told his supporters to “pretend I’m on the ballot” and held dozens of rallies in the closing weeks.
According to exit polls, half of voters nationwide said they saw the 2026 midterm elections as an opportunity to rebuke the president, and three-quarters said they are “angry” or “dissatisfied” with the way the country is headed.
In addition, 70 per cent of voters surveyed said they wanted Congress to provide more checks and balances on the president.
History is against Republicans: The sitting president’s party has lost ground in Congress in all but two midterms since World War Two. Trump’s approval rating is hovering near his career lows, with voters frustrated by war with Iran, higher fuel prices and wider affordability concerns.
Opinion polls show voters are most concerned about affordability and disapprove of Trump’s handling of the issue. His tariffs on imports and his decision to attack Iran in February raised prices for consumers.
There are 47 US House races widely seen as competitive, according to a Reuters analysis of the leading election forecasters. If the other contests all proceed as predicted, Democrats would need to win only 13 of those races to secure a majority.
– with AAP
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