Voters Give Democrats Control of Congress in Rebuke to Trump
A wrap-of the major overnight election results from the Midterm Elections, from the Associated Press.
November 4, 2026 (AP) – Democrats have won control of Congress in Tuesday’s 2026 midterm elections in a widespread repudiation of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, a drubbing that reached deep into reliable GOP territory.
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Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats in ruby-red states and battlegrounds alike: Kansas, which hasn’t elected a Democratic senator in nearly a century, Iowa, Texas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina. They held on to battleground seats in Georgia and Michigan. In the House, Democrats flipped more than two dozen districts, some that voted for Trump by double digits in 2024.
Democrats Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, Amy Acton in Ohio, Rob Sand in Iowa and Gina Hinojosa in Texas won races for governor, flipping GOP-held offices.
Trump faces a profoundly reshaped Washington for the last two years of his presidency. Democrats will have the power to block his legislative agenda, reject his appointees and investigate his administration.
After telling voters repeatedly to “pretend I’m on the ballot,” Trump tried to shift the blame away from himself, saying Democrats “did a good job” in their campaigns and blaming GOP candidates for losses. Most voters appear to blame his administration for high costs and want Congress to impose more checks on him, according to The AP Voter Poll.
U.S. midterm elections result in a wave of historic firsts
The country’s first Black female governor, the first Native American female governor, the first Native female senator and the first openly gay male U.S. senator had been declared winners on Tuesday.
By early Wednesday, the first Muslim U.S. senator was added to the list of barrier-breaking milestones.
The astonishing Democratic wave also means the United States will likely have its first-ever Black speaker of the House.
“These firsts show how our country is changing,” Alexis Anderson-Reed, president and CEO of State Voices, a network of advocates for civic engagement and equity in democracy, said in an email.
It’s too early to call the outcome of California’s proposal to tax billionaires
A California measure to tax the net worth of billionaires that divided liberal leaders nationally and triggered one of the most expensive ballot fights in state history was too early to call Wednesday morning as the vote tally continued.
Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of Californians whose net worth exceeds $1 billion, with most of the revenue dedicated to replacing federal funding cuts to healthcare. The measure left ultra-rich people, some of whom spent heavily to defeat it, scrambling to figure out whether they would pay the tax or leave California.
How Trump and Republicans lost the 2026 midterm elections, according to The AP Voter Poll
After more than a decade with Donald Trump at the epicenter of U.S. politics, most voters appear exhausted and exasperated by him, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of midterm voters in all 50 states.
The president’s failure to deliver on key promises — most prominently, his vows to tame inflation, which has worsened instead — clearly weighed on his fellow Republicans in Tuesday’s midterm elections for the House and the Senate. The polling shows that voters generally saw Trump as being more focused on his own fortune and gold-leafed existence than their needs.
The president also helped elevate candidates with obvious flaws, amplifying their struggles in an already challenging year.
But the poll also contains a serious note of caution for Democrats. Many voters dislike the party — and while Democrats hold an advantage on key issues such as the economy, their edge is relatively slim. About 7 in 10 voters said that Congress isn’t doing enough to provide checks and balances for the president, setting the bar for Democrats who won back the Senate and the House.
‘A new era in world relations,’ South African leader says
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says the Democrats taking control of the House and the Senate in the U.S. midterms is going to “introduce a new era in world relations.”
Ramaphosa says he hopes South Africa will be able to improve its bilateral relationship with the United States after his country became a target for criticism during President Donald Trump’s second term.
Trump’s Republican administration has made several moves against South Africa’s government, which he has baselessly accused of discriminating against its white minority. Those moves include excluding South Africa from meetings of the Group of 20 countries this year in the U.S. and suspending it from AGOA, a key U.S.-Africa trade program.
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed wins election to U.S. Senate from Michigan
Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, will succeed Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, who is retiring. El-Sayed will be the country’s first Muslim senator.
El-Sayed had defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in a razor-thin primary despite her massive fundraising advantage and support from Democratic establishment figures who warned that El-Sayed was a risky bet in November.
His victory over Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, will likely embolden progressives by demonstrating success in a battleground state.
Alaska’s Mary Peltola sidesteps controversy in speech to supporters
Democrat Mary Peltola and Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan are the major candidates in the closely watched U.S. Senate race in Alaska.
The race’s final days were roiled by allegations Peltola’s campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting a second candidate named Dan Sullivan to run. Peltola denied involvement.
She seemed to allude to the controversy, telling supporters that she was looking out on a room of “smart people and know exactly who they’re voting for.”
While Democrats won control of Congress before polls closed in Alaska, Sullivan asked his supporters to be patient. Alaska accepts ballots from overseas voters up to 15 days after the election.
While there was a “blue wave” in the Lower 48, “we’re different, right?” Sullivan said.
Democrat Hakeem Jeffries poised to make history as the first Black speaker of the House
Current House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York faces a vote of his colleagues when the new Democratic-controlled Congress convenes Jan. 3. If nominated and elected, as expected, it would be the first time a Black lawmaker has grasped the powerful House speaker’s gavel, a job second in line to the president and the only leadership position in Congress mandated by the U.S. Constitution.
His rise to the speakership at the nation’s domed Capitol, which enslaved African Americans helped build, would be a milestone more than 150 years in the making, tracing an arc of history that began when the first Black American was elected to the U.S. House in the turbulent era of Reconstruction after the Civil War.
Jeffries would wield the gavel at a time when many of the landmark gains of the 20th century Civil Rights era are being challenged anew, often by the Trump administration.
Democrats win the U.S. House and take unified control of Congress
Democrats have won control of the U.S. House in addition to the U.S. Senate, delivering a shockingly decisive rebuke of Republican governance in Washington and ushering in a new era of congressional resistance to Trump.
The midterm elections Tuesday channeled voters’ deep frustrations over high prices, the Iran war and concerns over government corruption. Democrats routed their rivals across the map, from Texas to Iowa to New Hampshire, including states Trump won by double digits just two years ago.
Democratic control will profoundly reshape Trump’s final two years in office and likely hamstring his agenda.
Democrat Troy Jackson wins election to US Senate from Maine
Incumbent Sen. Susan Collins conceded earlier to Jackson, ending her run for a sixth term.
Democrats considered defeating Collins as key to winning control of the U.S. Senate, and she was one of Republicans’ most threatened incumbents this year.
Jackson, a former state legislative leader, replaced Graham Platner as the Democratic nominee after Platner dropped out while facing an allegation of sexual assault, which he denied.
‘We just took back Texas,’ Talarico tells crowd after victory
That line made the crowd shout with joy, but to James Talarico it wasn’t about a party victory — even as Democrats tout his Senate win in the Republican state.
“We are tired of being told to hate each other,” he told a crowd, who yelled in agreement. “We didn’t win this race by alienating our neighbors or shaming our neighbors.”
His campaign, he said, is changing the game to a “politics of love.”
“This win is for every Texan who has ever wondered if anyone is ever listening,” he said. “I heard you. We heard you. And tonight, the world hears you.”
Trump says he’ll accept election results but says ‘I don’t view it as a hit on me’
Trump has congratulated Democrats for their string of victories but maintains that the midterm elections are not a referendum on him.
“The Democrats did a good job. They fought hard,” he said in a phone interview with Fox News.
Several Trump-backed candidates lost in places that he won easily in 2024. But he blamed the candidates themselves, not policies of his that voters have looked on unfavorably, like the economy and Iran war.
“I don’t view it as a hit on me,” he said. “We’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency.”
Maine Sen. Susan Collins concedes to Democrat Troy Jackson, ending her run for a sixth term
The Associated Press has not yet called the race.
Jackson is a former Maine Senate president who took over as the Democratic nominee in July after primary winner Graham Platner dropped out. He was tasked with defeating the longtime incumbent after a chaotic primary season that left the Democrats in disarray and briefly without a candidate.
Democrats had seen the race as a top opportunity to flip a Republican-held seat. Maine has supported Democrats for president since 1992, and Collins was running for reelection at a moment when President Trump is deeply unpopular.
Sherrod Brown says Ohio residents ‘sent an undeniable message’
Democrat Sherrod Brown told supporters they had made themselves clear to the nation.
“You sent an undeniable message tonight: Ohio is not for sale,” he said.
Brown’s victory over Republican Sen. Jon Husted was among the most expensive in the nation, topping $500 million in spending by campaigns and outside groups.
This article was written by the Associated Press.
