Trump's coalition defeat. Democrats took the majority in both houses of the US Congress

Democratic candidates won in North Carolina and Maine, as well as in Texas, Kansas, Ohio, South Carolina, and Iowa, which were previously considered Republican strongholds. The party has already secured 53 seats in the 100-seat chamber but is likely to increase its lead. In the most closely watched and most expensive contest in terms of spending, Democrat James Talarico – a former theology student and state legislator – defeated Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The biggest sensation so far was the defeat of Darline Graham, sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, in South Carolina, where Trump won in 2024 by an 18-percentage-point margin. The new Senator will be physician Annie Andrews. In relatively liberal Maine, the 30-year Republican incumbent Senator Susan Collins was defeated by Troy Jackson, the former Democratic leader in the state legislature. In the Ohio race, former Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, defeated the incumbent Republican Senator Jon Husted.

In Kansas, Methodist pastor and Democrat Adam Hamilton defeated Senator Roger Marshall, while in Iowa, former Paralympian Josh Turek defeated Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson. As predicted, the former opposition party defended its seats in all states except Michigan, where candidate Abdul El-Sayed is the favourite. The Democrats also have a chance to flip Republican seats in Alaska. An unexpectedly close contest is also underway in conservative Mississippi. These results indicate that the Democrats have a chance to gain the highest number of Senate seats since the 2014 elections, when the Republicans gained nine seats during Barack Obama’s presidency.

The issue of the majority in the new House of Representatives had already been settled. There, too, the Democrats will regain control, resulting in the party having full control of Congress for the first time since 2022. According to an NBC News projection, the Democrats will hold 255 seats in the House, 41 more than before. These results for the Democrats are slightly better than pre-election polls indicated. Opposition candidates won in many districts where Donald Trump won by double-digit margins two years ago.

The Democrats also performed unexpectedly well in a series of gubernatorial races. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat, will become the governor of a state previously dominated by Republicans after defeating incumbent Governor Greg Abbott. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms will become the first African American woman to lead the state government. The party also took power in Ohio, Iowa, and Kansas. Reacting to his party’s clear defeat, President Donald Trump, in a series of posts on his Truth Social platform, sought to downplay his role in the failure.

„I wasn’t on the ballot, and if I had been, we would have won BY A LANDSLIDE!” he announced in one of his posts. In another, he published only a photo of a red cap with the word „VETO”, signalling that he will block legislation passed by the Democrat-controlled Congress. Nevertheless, in a telephone interview with Fox News, Trump praised the Democrats for a good campaign, although he simultaneously called them „crazies”. He also assessed that history would judge his decision to attack Iran favourably, even though it contributed to rising fuel prices and a drop in his approval ratings.