Democrats win House and Senate in historic GOP collapse

WASHINGTON,— Democrats won majorities in both the Senate and the House on Tuesday, taking seats in longtime Republican territory for the first time in generations as voters delivered a harsh verdict on President Donald Trump.

Voters in conservative regions that backed Trump two years ago shifted sharply toward Democrats. The shift came amid frustration over the unpopular war with Iran, concern about living costs, and anger over Trump’s leadership.

In Texas, Democrats broke a decades-long losing streak, winning a Senate seat and defeating three-term Governor Greg Abbott.

Kansas elected its first Democratic senator in nearly a century. In South Carolina, a state Trump won by almost 18 points in 2024, voters rejected his chosen Senate candidate.

The results bring divided government to Washington after two years in which the Republican Congress rarely challenged Trump.

Once Democrats take their seats in January, they are expected to investigate Trump’s administration, his family, and his allies, and to push for concessions on major bills. A Democratic Senate can also block Trump’s nominees, including any Supreme Court pick.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it a generational shift in the Senate map. He said voters chose change and that Democrats must now deliver results.

Trump cannot seek a third term under the Constitution, and he has controlled his party for most of the past decade.

The new balance of power could speed up his decline in influence as attention shifts to the 2028 race and possible successors.

Despite concerns Trump might contest the results as he did in 2020, he accepted the outcome and congratulated Democrats in a Fox News interview.

He said he would work with Democrats on immigration but warned he would veto any bill he called extreme.

Democrats campaigned on corruption and the cost of living, blaming Trump’s tariffs and the Iran war for rising prices and pointing to money his family has earned since he returned to office.

Republicans attacked Democrats over issues such as transgender rights, but polls showed voters cared far more about economic concerns.

Republicans lost ground in nearly all of the roughly 1,700 counties counted by Tuesday night, according to Reuters and USA Today tallies.

Democrats gained in wealthy and poor counties alike, and in areas with high and low rates of college education. Gains were strongest in heavily Latino counties, including Texas border counties that had favored Trump in 2024 and farming towns in Kansas.

In Seward County, Kansas, home to a major beef processing plant and a population about half Hispanic, Democrat Adam Hamilton led Republican Senator Roger Marshall by 13 points, two years after Trump carried the county by 39 points.

Democrats won all 20 of the most competitive House races decided so far. A Republican effort to redraw House districts largely failed, as Democrats held most of the targeted seats.

Trump held dozens of rallies in the campaign’s final weeks, urging supporters to vote as if his name were on the ballot. He also backed candidates in several Republican primaries this year despite concerns from within his party.

In Texas, he supported Ken Paxton over Senator John Cornyn. In South Carolina, he backed Darline Graham after her brother, Senator Lindsey Graham, died earlier this year. Both lost.

In Maine, Republican Senator Susan Collins lost after 30 years in office, despite stressing her independence from Trump during the campaign.

Progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s open Senate seat, becoming the first Muslim elected to the chamber.

He defeated Mike Rogers, a former congressman and FBI agent backed by Trump, who falsely portrayed El-Sayed as an extremist. El-Sayed told supporters that Michigan chose hope over hate.

Senate races in Mississippi and Alaska remained too close to call early Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, Trump wrote on social media that Republicans would have won in a landslide had he been on the ballot. In interviews, he acknowledged the Iran conflict hurt his party but defended his decision to go to war.

Exit polling by SSRS for a group of media outlets, including major networks and the Associated Press, found half of voters nationwide viewed the midterms as a chance to rebuke Trump, and three-quarters said they were angry or dissatisfied with the country’s direction.

Seventy percent said they wanted Congress to provide more checks on the president.

Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia told supporters voters had rebuked what he called corruption and incompetence under Trump.

The night brought several historic firsts. Georgia’s Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor of a U.S. state.

Florida’s Byron Donalds became the first Black Republican governor in the country. Texas Democrat Gina Hinojosa will be the state’s first Latina governor, and California’s Xavier Becerra will be its first Latino governor.

(With files from Reuters)