Democrats Win the House and Senate in a 2026 Midterm Rout

Note: This post was written by Claude Fable 5.1. The following is a synthesis of reporting from major news organizations, with vote counts as the NBC News Decision Desk and The Associated Press reported them at about 6 p.m. Eastern on November 4, 2026.

Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in the 2026 midterm elections, and they did it before most of the country went to bed. The Associated Press called the Senate for Democrats late Tuesday and the House early Wednesday, once the party passed 218 seats; in 2022 the same two calls took four days and eight days. Republicans went in holding the Senate 53 to 47 and a House majority so thin that Democrats needed a net gain of only three seats. They flipped seven Senate seats and, by NBC News’ count Wednesday evening, 35 House seats, with 42 House races still uncalled.

The scale puts the night in rare company. Since World War II, both chambers have changed hands in the same midterm only three times, in 1946, 1994 and 2006, according to the AP. A record 53 million people had voted before Election Day, by the University of Florida’s count.

The 2026 Senate results: seven flips and 54 seats

Democrats will hold at least 54 Senate seats in January, counting the two independents who caucus with them, against 44 for Republicans, with Alaska and Mississippi still counting. The seven pickups came in Iowa, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas. Six of those states voted for Trump in 2024, and he had personally chosen or campaigned for the Republican nominee in most of them.

State	Democrat	Republican	NBC News count
Iowa	Josh Turek	Rep. Ashley Hinson	50.5% to 46.4%
Kansas	Adam Hamilton	Sen. Roger Marshall	50.9% to 46.1%
Maine	Troy Jackson	Sen. Susan Collins	53.4% to 46.5%
North Carolina	Roy Cooper	Michael Whatley	58.7% to 39.1%
Ohio (special)	Sherrod Brown	Sen. Jon Husted	50.0% to 45.2%
South Carolina	Annie Andrews	Sen. Darline Graham	51.1% to 46.7%
Texas	James Talarico	Ken Paxton	55.1% to 43.0%

Hamilton is Kansas’s first Democratic senator in nearly a century. Talarico’s win is the first by a Democrat for statewide office in Texas in more than 30 years, and it came over Paxton, whom Trump endorsed in the primary over the sitting senator, John Cornyn. Andrews, a pediatrician, beat Darline Graham, whom Trump had picked in July to fill the seat of her late brother, Lindsey Graham. Collins’s defeat after nearly three decades leaves Republicans with no members of Congress from New England. Democrats held every seat they were defending, including Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed will become the first Muslim senator, and Republicans held Nebraska and Florida’s special election.

The 2026 House results: Democrats past 240 seats and counting

NBC News had Democrats at 242 seats to 151 for Republicans at 5:26 p.m. Eastern Wednesday, and its model estimates a final split near 259 to 176, which would be the party’s largest majority in nearly two decades. The AP, which calls a race only when the trailing candidate has no path, listed 59 House contests still open at 4 p.m. Four Republican incumbents fell in Pennsylvania alone, Richard Hudson, chairman of the House Republican campaign arm, lost his North Carolina seat, and Iowa’s delegation went from all Republican to three Democrats out of four.

Hakeem Jeffries is in line to become the first Black speaker of the House. House Democrats hold leadership elections the week of November 16, and the floor vote comes when the new Congress is seated on January 3. “This is a change election, and we understand as House Democrats that we need to deliver dramatic change,” Jeffries said Tuesday night.

Governors and statehouses: Democrats will hold at least 28

Democrats will hold at least 28 of the 50 governorships in 2027, a majority for the first time since 2010, after flipping Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio and Texas. Keisha Lance Bottoms of Georgia is the first Black woman elected governor of any state; she beat Rick Jackson, a billionaire who put more than $200 million of his own money into the race. Gina Hinojosa unseated Greg Abbott in Texas, where no Democrat had won statewide since 1994, despite being outspent five to one on advertising. Amy Acton, a pediatrician and former state health director, beat Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio. Republicans held Florida, where Rep. Byron Donalds will be that state’s first Black governor, and took nothing from the Democratic column; Alaska and Kansas are still being counted. Democrats also won the governorship and both legislative chambers in Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and took the Texas House for the first time since 2002, according to the AP.

Mid-decade redistricting backfired in Texas and Florida

Republicans in eight states redrew congressional maps over the past year at Trump’s urging, and the AP’s verdict Wednesday was that the plan “didn’t work.” Democrats will hold at least 11 of the 15 districts Republicans redrew to favor their own party, according to NBC News. In Texas, where the goal was five new Republican seats, Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez survived districts drawn against them, and Bobby Pulido unseated Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in the district between theirs. In Florida, Jared Moskowitz, Kathy Castor and Pia Dandiya all won seats reshaped to defeat Democrats. California’s retaliatory map, approved by voters as Proposition 50, flipped all five of the Republican seats it targeted.

The NBC News Exit Poll and AP Voter Poll: prices, corruption and the war

Thirty-eight percent of voters approved of Trump’s performance, the lowest Election Day figure for a sitting president in nearly two decades, according to the NBC News Exit Poll, and 43 percent said one reason for their vote was to express opposition to him. The economy was the top issue at 39 percent, followed by the state of democracy at 32. Three-quarters called the economy poor or not so good, 65 percent said Trump’s policies had made it worse, and voters trusted Democrats over Republicans on the economy, 43 to 37 percent, reversing the seven-point edge Trump held over Kamala Harris in 2024.

The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 voters in all 50 states, found the same pattern. About two-thirds said Trump’s tariffs had hurt the national economy, roughly 6 in 10 said the war with Iran was the wrong decision, and more than half called government corruption “crucial” to their vote, slightly more than said so of the cost of living. About 7 in 10, including about 4 in 10 Republicans, said Congress was not providing enough checks on the presidency. Hispanic voters moved from roughly 4 in 10 for Trump in 2024 to about one-third for Republican House candidates. Two findings should temper any Democratic celebration: both polls found the Democratic Party itself viewed unfavorably by about half of voters, and NBC’s survey had 57 percent saying artificial intelligence will do more to hurt society than help, with 76 percent opposed to data centers in their own communities.

Trump, Vance and the blame for the Iran war

Trump accepted the results and blamed the candidates. “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” he posted on Truth Social Tuesday night, a day after telling voters to pretend he was. In a phone interview with Fox News he said he was “a little bit surprised” and that voters “didn’t like the candidates.” He posted a photo of a red cap stitched with “VETO,” then told Politico, “I don’t want to be just sitting there for two years vetoing everything.” On the war he conceded ground without retreating: “I think a part of it was Iran,” he told Fox, and on Wednesday, leading reporters through the White House ballroom under construction, he called Vance’s assessment “largely true” but said “the Iran thing we had to do, and we continue to do it.” He is not considering replacing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Vance went further than his boss. “The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” the vice president wrote on X Wednesday morning. “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so.” He listed four reasons Trump voters crossed over, ending the war, the cost of living, putting America first and changing the U.S. relationship with Israel, and he argued the problem was not turnout: “The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.” The AP’s poll complicates that account: only about one-third of voters called the war “crucial” to their vote, well below the roughly half who said that of prices and corruption.

House Republicans’ leadership fight: Johnson out, Scalise against Jordan

Speaker Mike Johnson told his staff Wednesday morning that he will not seek to lead House Republicans in the minority, according to NBC News and the AP. Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan both announced bids within hours, and House Republicans vote on November 10. “Last night’s election was far worse than any of us expected,” Scalise wrote to colleagues; Jordan called it “a staggering day for our Conference.” Trump said he would “stay out of it.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune wrote on X that Senate Republicans “will not stand idly by as the far-left, socialist wing of the Democrat Party attempts to unwind everything we’ve done.”

What a Democratic Congress can do in 2027, and what a veto stops

The first power Democrats gain is oversight. Committees change hands in January, bringing subpoena authority and bigger staffs. Rep. Robert Garcia, the incoming Oversight chairman, has said his panel will examine the Trump family’s cryptocurrency ventures, the Jeffrey Epstein files and immigration enforcement; his one-line message after the results was “Lawyer up.” Sen. Ron Wyden, who will chair the Senate Finance Committee, posted a single word: “Subpoenas.” Chuck Schumer, expected to return as majority leader, promised that “whenever Trump defies the will of the American people or the law, we will launch investigations, take him to court, and entangle him in legislative razor wire.” Jeffries said no member of his caucus has raised impeachment with him, though he has not ruled it out. Enforcing a subpoena still runs through a Justice Department the president controls, which is why Garcia says the House will be ready to sue instead.

The second power is the Senate’s say over nominations. Several Senate Democrats told NBC News before the election that they are unlikely to confirm a Trump pick to the Supreme Court if a vacancy arises, and conservatives see the lame-duck session, while Republicans still hold the chamber, as a window to confirm judges.

Legislation is harder. Jeffries has named four priorities: reversing the 2025 law’s Medicaid cuts, restoring the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, restoring Congress’s authority over tariffs and ending the war. Each needs Trump’s signature or a two-thirds override, and Democrats do not have the votes for an override. Trump signaled no give on trade: “we have 3,000 plants under construction right now. Every single plant would stop building,” he said of lifting tariffs.

Healthcare: Medicaid, ACA subsidies and oversight of HHS

Healthcare is where the new majority will try to move first. The enhanced ACA premium subsidies expired at the start of 2026, and KFF estimates benchmark premiums will rise another 13 percent for 2027; open enrollment for next year ends January 15 in most states, twelve days after the new Congress is sworn in. A House Democratic working group’s “First 100 Hours” agenda, circulated in September, calls for repealing the Medicaid coverage and funding cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, restoring the subsidies, ending an AI-driven prior authorization program in traditional Medicare and restoring withheld NIH funding, Fierce Healthcare reported. Bernie Sanders is in line to chair the Senate health committee, and KFF Health News expects oversight of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s changes to vaccine policy, the administration’s undisclosed drug-pricing deals with manufacturers, Medicare Advantage and the use of AI in medical decision-making.

The constraint is the same one. “Democrats will put forward an expansive healthcare agenda, including reversal of cuts to Medicaid and the ACA, but achieving all of that will be impossible with President Trump still in the White House,” said Larry Levitt of KFF. Chris Van Gorder, chief executive of Scripps Health, put it from the provider side: “While the election has changed who controls Congress, it doesn’t change the financial challenges hospitals will face in 2027.” Wall Street was more hopeful: HCA Healthcare rose 10.3 percent Wednesday on the prospect of the Medicaid cuts being softened.

Data centers lost 40 of 41 local ballot measures

Voters in ten states decided 41 local measures on data centers Tuesday, 21 of them in Ohio, and the side favoring limits prevailed in 40, according to Ballotpedia and CNBC. The lone exception was Harwood, North Dakota, which declined to add extra review for industrial projects. At least ten Ohio municipalities passed outright bans, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Defiance, Ohio, which this site covered in September when the city had no data center and no proposal for one, voted 3,823 to 2,083 to bar any facility drawing more than 25 megawatts.

The governors-elect of the three biggest flipped states campaigned on the same theme: Hinojosa called for a statewide moratorium in Texas, Lance Bottoms promised a pause in Georgia and Acton pledged guardrails in Ohio, the Washington Examiner reported. Elon Musk, who put at least $474 million into the cycle, $224 million of it in Texas, as this site noted in August, wrote on X: “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now.” Gary Cohn, the former National Economic Council director, took the other side on CNBC: “The data centers you have going in the ground are actually more valuable today than they were yesterday.”

Wall Street’s reaction: Dow up 3 percent, Brent crude down 8.7 percent

Stocks rallied Wednesday and oil fell. The S&P 500 gained 1.6 percent to 7,688.62, its best day in three months; the Dow rose 1,569 points, or 3 percent, to 53,356.12, its largest post-midterm gain since 1982 according to CFRA Research; and the Nasdaq added 1.4 percent. Brent crude dropped 8.7 percent to $94.62 a barrel after Vance’s post, and the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.88 percent from 4.95. The losers were the AI buildout and the war: Nvidia fell 3.2 percent and CoreWeave 9.9 percent, while Lockheed Martin lost 6.9 percent and ExxonMobil 4.6. Trump Media & Technology Group fell 24.5 percent.

What to watch: Mississippi, Alaska and the lame duck

Mississippi. Scott Colom led Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 65 votes with about 95 percent counted. Several thousand provisional ballots and roughly 6,000 unreturned mail ballots remain; the state has until November 10 to resolve them, and counties report to the secretary of state by November 13. Mississippi has no automatic recount, so any challenge goes to court. “We’re prepared to litigate,” Colom said.
Alaska. Mary Peltola led Sen. Dan Sullivan by 626 votes with about 74 percent counted. If no one clears 50 percent the race goes to a ranked-choice tabulation, and mail ballots postmarked by Election Day can arrive for 15 days. The Trump administration has sued to block certification if Sullivan loses, citing a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot; Peltola’s campaign denies recruiting him. The governor’s race, where Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins leads by about 20 points, follows the same rules.
Kansas governor. Democrat Cindy Holscher led Ty Masterson by 5,557 votes with about 98 percent counted.
The calendar. House Republicans pick their leader November 10. House Democrats hold leadership elections the week of November 16. Government funding runs out in December. The 120th Congress convenes January 3, when the speaker needs 218 votes. ACA open enrollment closes January 15 in most states.