Democrats Win Congress in 2026 Midterm Election Results

Democrats have won control of both chambers of Congress in the 2026 midterm results, delivering a sweeping rebuke to President Donald Trump and ending Republican control of Washington. Projections from major news organisations on Wednesday, November 4, showed Democrats passing 218 seats in the House of Representatives and securing a majority in the Senate, after flipping at least seven Republican-held Senate seats.

The Associated Press reported Democrats had won 222 House seats that had been called, with 41 more districts still leading Democratic, against 138 called for Republicans. In the Senate, Democrats were projected to hold 54 seats, according to projections cited by several outlets, with only two races — in Alaska and Mississippi — still uncalled. The result reverses the narrow Republican majorities that entered the election: 219-215 in the House, counting one vacancy and an independent who caucused with Republicans, and 53-47 in the Senate.

USA TODAY described the outcome as a resounding rebuke driven by widespread anger over the cost of living and the war with Iran. President Trump acknowledged the result on Tuesday night but rejected the idea that it was a personal defeat, and on Wednesday he accepted the outcome, according to market and political coverage. House Speaker Mike Johnson, in a statement overnight, acknowledged a seismic defeat for the Republican Party and said a new battle was just beginning.

How the 2026 midterm results unfolded

The Senate flips reached deep into states that former President Trump won just two years ago. In Texas, Democrat James Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton to become the first Democrat to win a Texas Senate seat since 1988. In Kansas, Adam Hamilton defeated Republican Senator Roger Marshall, becoming the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Kansas since 1932, with 52.1 percent of the vote to Marshall’s 45 percent when 94 percent of ballots had been counted, according to the New York Post.

In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews defeated the Republican candidate to flip a seat held by Republicans for decades, becoming the first Democrat to win a South Carolina Senate seat since 1998. In Maine, Democrat Troy Jackson defeated five-term Republican Senator Susan Collins, giving Democrats their seventh Senate flip. Democrats also flipped seats in Iowa, North Carolina and Ohio, according to projections from ABC News and Fox News cited in election coverage.

In the House, Democrats flipped dozens of seats from California to New Jersey, including three seats in Iowa, USA TODAY reported. NBC News projected on Wednesday morning that Democrats would take at least 258 House seats in total, although some western races remained too close to call early on Wednesday and counting continued in states with large mail-ballot volumes.

• Democrats passed 218 seats in the House, the threshold for a majority of the 435 seats.
• Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats, reaching a projected 54-seat majority.
• Alaska and Mississippi were the only Senate races still uncalled on Wednesday morning.
• Governors also flipped in Texas, Georgia, California and Florida, in a night of broad change.

What Democratic control means from January

The balance of power does not change overnight. The new Congress begins in January, and until then Republicans remain in control of both chambers. After the switch, Democrats will run House and Senate committees, set the congressional agenda, and gain far more leverage over legislation, investigations and presidential appointments, according to analysis published on Wednesday.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is expected to become Speaker of the House when the new Congress convenes, which would make him the first Black Speaker in American history. In the Senate, a Democratic majority gives the party control over confirmations and the legislative calendar, although the president’s veto power means significant policy disagreements remain likely.

Democrats are also expected to gain committee gavels and subpoena power, allowing them to investigate the administration, its officials and its allies. Representative Robert Garcia of California is expected to lead the House Oversight Committee, according to USA TODAY Network reporting. That oversight role, more than any single bill, is likely to define the next two years of divided government.

Why voters swung against the governing party

Coverage of the results pointed repeatedly to two forces: the cost of living and the war with Iran. Voters told pollsters and reporters that household prices remained the dominant concern, and President Trump himself acknowledged in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that higher petrol prices resulting from the conflict with Iran had contributed to Republican losses, according to market coverage on Wednesday.

The result also fits a long historical pattern. The president’s party almost always loses seats in a midterm election, and this year the losses were larger than usual because Democrats made gains in states and districts that had long voted Republican. Analysts cautioned, however, that the scale of the wave does not guarantee the same outcome in the next presidential election, when turnout and the issues on the ballot will be different.

For now, the immediate questions are practical: which races remain uncalled, who will lead the new Senate majority, and what the incoming Democratic leadership signals about its first priorities. Democrats have not yet published a detailed legislative programme for January, and party leaders are expected to set out their agenda in the coming days as the final results are confirmed.

What is clear is the scale of the change. Voters on November 3 chose a Congress that will check, rather than advance, the president’s agenda for the final two years of his term — and they did so by flipping seats in some of the most Republican states in the country.