Figure caption, Watch: The key moments from the US midterm elections
By
North America correspondent
Democrats have torn up Donald Trump’s political map on a night that will send shockwaves through American politics for years to come.
With a string of major Senate victories in states that have been reliably Republican for decades – and in Kansas’s case, nearly a century – a blue tidal wave crashed across the nation, sweeping Republicans out of power.
Halfway through President Donald Trump’s second term, the Democrats now have decisive control of the House of Representatives and have wrested a majority back in the Senate.
They will be able to frustrate Trump’s agenda, and launch investigations into his administration. A historic third impeachment attempt could also be on the cards.
Few imagined such an outcome was possible in the months after Trump returned to the White House with unified Republican control of Congress in January 2025.
As the public mood turned against him and his party, Democrats had hopes of retaking the House.
But they contemplated a Senate map that appeared unfriendly, populated by states Trump had won comfortably just two years ago.
Instead, Democrats rewrote the political equations with victories in Texas, Maine, Kansas, Ohio, Iowa and North and South Carolina.
In comments to the BBC’s US partner CBS, Trump pledged to strike deals with congressional Democrats, adding that he didn’t want to have to spend his final two years in office rejecting their legislation.
He somewhat undermined that sentiment later, posting a picture to Truth Social of his trademark red baseball hat with the word “veto” emblazoned on it.
The president went on to note that his name wasn’t on the ballot this year, but if it had been Republicans would have won a decisive victory.
Trump had helped elevate many of those Republican candidates, however, and had urged voters to pretend he was up for re-election.
In the Senate, Democrats flipped at least six seats, comfortably securing a majority.
Adam Hamilton won in Kansas – a state that last elected a Democrat to the Senate almost 100 years ago during the Great Depression.
James Talarico beat Republican Ken Paxton in Texas’ Senate race, ending a 38-year Democratic losing streak in statewide elections there.
In South Carolina, Annie Andrews beat Darline Graham, who had been appointed to the seat after the death of her brother, Senator Lindsey Graham. Few analysts had that seat in play even a few months ago.
Five-term Republican Susan Collins conceded Maine’s Senate election to Democrat Troy Jackson.
Paralympian Josh Turek flipped the Iowa Senate seat held by retiring Republican Senator Joni Ernst. Democrats also wrested from Republicans a Senate seat in Ohio, with Sherrod Brown’s comeback victory over Jon Husted.
Meanwhile, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has beaten Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s bitterly fought Senate race.
Nor was that the end of the electoral carnage for Republicans.
Ruby-red Texas witnessed another seismic result in the governor’s race.
Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa ousted the incumbent Republican Greg Abbott, who was earlier this year seen as the prohibitive favourite.
Democrats also took governors’ races in Iowa, Ohio and Georgia, which made history by electing the first black woman to such a post.
Meanwhile, the party has won a House majority for the first time since 2022.
They are projected to win 245 House seats and the Republicans 166 seats.
Image source, Reuters
Image caption, Democrats celebrate in Maine where the party won a crucial Senate race
A look at the key races offers plenty of reasons why.
Democrats flipped House seats in Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Kentucky and Colorado, among others. And they were poised to make gains in Virginia and Indiana.
Black Democrats in the southern states turned out in record number, helping to carry their party to victory. And Hispanic voters, whose support had helped secure Trump’s presidential victory in 2024, swung decisively back to the Democrats.
Democrats won all three House races in the overwhelmingly Hispanic congressional districts along the Texas-Mexico border.
And Hispanic voters helped Democrats hold House seats in Florida that the state’s Republicans had sought to flip by redrawing the congressional district lines.
In fact, the congressional redistricting battles that had dominated headlines for months last year ended up being a bust for the Republicans.
In Texas, they had hoped their line-drawing would net five new seats for their party. But on Tuesday they may end up losing one seat.
If there is a silver lining for conservatives, Florida as a whole still appears to tilt to the right.
Republican Senator Ashley Moody narrowly won re-election, as did congressman Byron Donalds, who was elected the Sunshine State’s first black governor.
And embattled Republicans were able to hold governorships in Vermont and New Hampshire. But the bright spots were few and far between.
Just two years ago, Trump won the presidency with 48% of the vote. He claimed an electoral mandate.
He then went about governing like it, pushing sometimes unpopular policies on trade and immigration, and launching an Iran war that is opposed by most of the American public.
On Tuesday, voters gave him the kind of stinging rebuke that will not be easily forgotten.
Figure caption, BBC asks voters across US what brought them to the polls today
Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
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