WASHINGTON — Two years of unified Republican government ended Tuesday. Democrats took both the House and the Senate in the midterm elections, sweeping control of Congress.
The Associated Press projected the change in control overnight. With both chambers, Democrats can block Republican bills and decide what congressional committees take up, including investigations of the Trump administration. Senate control also puts confirmation votes for judges and executive-branch nominees in their hands.
The party’s gains reached well beyond the usual battlegrounds. AP reported Democratic Senate wins in Texas and South Carolina, two states President Donald Trump carried comfortably in 2024. Democrats also won Senate races in Michigan and Maine and picked up Republican-held House seats in several parts of the country.
The Democratic National Committee celebrated the two majorities in separate statements. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, speaking after the Senate was called, said his party had prevailed “against all odds.” He described the result as a “generational remake of the Senate map.”
Schumer credited a campaign centered on household costs, turmoil in Washington and corruption. That was his party’s reading of the vote. State officials still must certify the individual results, and some races had not been decided early Wednesday.
Trump told Fox News late Tuesday that he did not view the outcome as a personal defeat, according to AP. Voters “didn’t like the candidates,” he said. Trump said he would accept the results and indicated that he was prepared to veto Democratic legislation.
Senate Republican leader John Thune offered a different view of what comes next. He said Republicans would work with Trump to oppose the Democrats’ agenda, AP reported.
The exact size of the new House and Senate majorities was not yet clear as counting continued. But the larger question—who will run Congress—was settled by the overnight calls.
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