Democrats won control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections, overturning Republican control of Washington and dealing President Donald Trump a major political setback midway through his second term.
The party secured the 218 seats needed for a House majority and captured enough Republican-held Senate seats to take control of the upper chamber. The scale of the gains extended well beyond the districts and states that had been expected to decide the election, with Democratic candidates winning in territory that had voted comfortably for Trump only two years earlier.
In the Senate, Democrats flipped at least seven Republican-held seats: Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina. They also retained closely watched Democratic seats in Georgia and Michigan. The final composition of the chamber remains subject to outstanding counts and formal state certification, but control has already been decided.
The result represents a sharp reversal from the 2024 election, when Republicans emerged with a 53-seat Senate majority and retained control of the House. Democrats entered this year's Senate contests needing a net gain of four seats.
Some of the night's most consequential results came in states that had recently appeared well beyond Democratic reach.
In Texas, Democrat James Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton for a U.S. Senate seat, while Democrat Gina Hinojosa unseated Republican Governor Greg Abbott. Hinojosa will become the state's first Latina governor and the first Democrat to hold the office since Ann Richards left office in 1995. Democrats also made gains in congressional races and other statewide contests.
The results marked a dramatic reversal in a state Donald Trump carried by double digits in 2024 and where Democrats had not won a statewide election since 1994. Democratic candidates also recovered ground in several counties along the Mexican border where Republicans had made substantial gains in recent elections.
Kansas produced another significant upset. Democrat Adam Hamilton defeated Republican Senator Roger Marshall, ending a 94-year stretch without a Democratic Senate victory in the state. Hamilton drew particularly strong support from younger and moderate voters, according to the AP Voter Poll.
In Ohio, former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown won the special Senate election against Republican Jon Husted, while Democrat Amy Acton defeated Republican Vivek Ramaswamy for governor. Acton will become the first woman elected governor of Ohio and the first Democrat to win the office in two decades.
Democrats also gained governorships in Iowa and Georgia, while Aaron Ford defeated Republican incumbent Joe Lombardo in Nevada.
Economic concerns were central to the electorate, but the results cannot be reduced to a single issue.
The AP Voter Poll, which surveyed roughly 80,000 voters nationwide, found that about four in ten identified the economy as the country's most important issue, while roughly three in ten pointed to the state of democracy. Around half described the cost of living and government corruption as crucial factors in deciding their congressional vote.
Trump was also a significant factor. About four in ten voters said their congressional vote was intended to express opposition to the president, compared with fewer than two in ten who said they were voting to demonstrate support for him. Roughly seven in ten said Congress had not done enough to provide checks and balances on presidential power.
Democrats also recovered ground among younger and Hispanic voters, two groups where Republicans had improved their performance during the 2024 presidential election. Around seven in ten voters under 30 backed Democratic House candidates, according to the poll, while roughly six in ten Hispanic voters did the same.
The war with Iran and its economic consequences, including higher energy costs, also featured prominently during the campaign, although fewer voters identified foreign policy itself as the country's leading issue.
The congressional results will significantly alter the final two years of Trump's presidency.
Democratic control of the House gives the party authority over committees, investigations and the legislative agenda in that chamber. Control of the Senate gives Democrats considerably greater influence over presidential nominations and legislation, although the filibuster, Trump's veto authority and the size of the eventual Democratic majority will limit how much either side can enact without cooperation.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is positioned to become speaker when the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2027, provided he is formally nominated and elected by the chamber. If elected, he would become the first Black speaker of the House.
The election does not settle the direction of either party ahead of the 2028 presidential campaign, but it substantially changes the political conditions in Washington. Republicans will enter the next Congress without the unified federal power they held during the first half of Trump's second term, while Democrats will have to translate a broad midterm coalition into governing majorities.
For now, the clearest result of the 2026 elections is the scale of the shift. Democrats did not merely recover narrowly contested congressional seats; they broke through in several states that Republicans had treated as reliable territory, giving the new Congress a markedly different balance of power from the one voters elected two years ago.