Democrats win Senate seats in six states and four governor races

Bottoms makes history as Georgia’s first Black woman governor

Democrats captured the Senate in Tuesday’s 2026 midterm elections after the Associated Press called Republican losses in North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Ohio, Kansas and Iowa. Democrats had needed a net gain of four seats to reclaim a majority. With the exception of North Carolina, Trump won all six states by double digits in 2024, and The Wall Street Journal described the map as full of typically Republican terrain.

Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who was expected to become the majority leader, spoke outside Senate Democrats’ campaign headquarters in Washington, D.C.: “Now against all odds, we Democrats have won the Senate and we have five words for the American people: relief is on the way.”

Democrats won governor races in battleground Georgia and three states that backed Trump in the past three presidential elections: Ohio, Iowa and Texas. Former Atlanta mayor and Biden White House adviser Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the next governor of Georgia, the first Black woman elected governor of a state in U.S. history. Amy Acton, the former director of Ohio’s Department of Health under Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, will be the next governor of Ohio. Lawyer and state representative Gina Hinojosa unseated three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Iowa’s auditor, Rob Sand, will be the next governor of Iowa.

Senate candidates and historic wins

In Kansas, minister Adam Hamilton became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat there since 1932, defeating Republican Sen. Roger Marshall. In Texas, Democrat James Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton, whom The Journal described as “scandal-plagued,” to become the first member of his party elected to the Senate from Texas since 1988. The Journal wrote, “Democrats won victories on a historic scale.”

In Iowa, Josh Turek, a state lawmaker and one-time Paralympic basketball player, defeated Rep. Ashley Hinson to become the first Democrat to win a Senate seat there since 2008. In Ohio, former Sen. Sherrod Brown staged a political comeback by defeating Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who had been appointed to the seat after JD Vance became Trump’s vice president.

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff won re-election in Georgia in a race Republicans had targeted at the start of Trump’s second term. Democrats easily maintained seats in New Hampshire and Minnesota and held a lead in Michigan, an open seat Republicans had seen as their most promising opportunity.

In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician and gun-safety advocate, defeated Republican Sen. Darline Graham, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. The Journal had described Darline Graham as “an unthinkable pickup opportunity until recently.” Trump won the state by 18 percentage points in 2024. Andrews said at a victory party, “We will not bow down. We will not back down. And we will chart our own course.”

House contest remains unsettled

The Associated Press had not yet called the House, though Democrats were on track for a majority after flipping seats held by Republicans in North Carolina, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, New Jersey and Virginia. In Florida, Democratic Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Kathy Castor won re-election despite Republican redistricting efforts in the state aimed at ousting the Democrats.

House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York who was expected to become the nation’s first Black speaker of the House, said, “This is not a blue moment. Or a red moment. It’s a red, white and blue moment because America has won tonight.” Erin Covey, the House editor for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, wrote last week, as a dozen House races moved toward Democrats, “Democrats now have the potential to win their largest majority since 2009.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, spent Election Day morning in South Texas trying to get out voters in the predominantly Hispanic area that had historically been a Democratic stronghold but had swung toward Republicans in recent years. Johnson wrote on X, “We’re leaving it all on the field.” In the Rio Grande Valley, Republicans had sought to flip two Democratic-held seats redrawn to be more red-leaning during mid-decade redistricting brought about by Texas Republicans at Trump’s urging. Democrats held both seats and were on track to flip a neighboring district Trump had won by 18 percentage points in 2024.

Voters cite costs, war and immigration

The Journal said the election results represented a voter response to high inflation, inflated fuel prices, the Iran war launched by Trump and his trade fights with allies. Exit polls showed deep voter discontent with the economy and unhappiness with Congress. In a poll of more than 79,000 registered voters, people blamed Trump for high prices, and almost two-thirds said inflation was up more because of his policies. The poll was conducted on behalf of the Associated Press and all of the major television and cable news networks.

Republican candidates had faced backlash over Trump’s governing, including complaints about inflation and the broader state of the economy, according to The Journal. Voters were particularly frustrated with Trump’s use of tariffs, the Iran war and an aggressive deportation strategy. In the same analysis, The Journal reported that Trump’s 2024 coalition had added voters across the board but had weakened two years later, leaving Republican candidates expected to bear the consequences. Recent polling and interviews, as reported by The Journal, showed Hispanic voters, young voters and Make America Healthy Again voters shifting away from the GOP in response to Trump administration policies.

Lisa Lopez, a Weslaco, Texas, resident, voted for Trump in 2024 because she believed he would best handle the economy and immigration. She now regrets that vote, saying he failed to address the increased cost of living and went too far with the administration’s immigration-enforcement tactics. The 52-year-old health insurance company employee backed Democrats in the midterms. “The economy was supposedly going to be better, and it hasn’t gotten better,” she said. “It’s actually spiraled in the opposite direction. It’s just not what he promised.”

Post-election reactions

In a Tuesday-night interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump said the war in Iran was partially to blame for widespread Republican losses in the midterm elections but that he did not regret it. He said he would work with Democrats but would use his “veto power” if needed. Trump also wrote on Truth Social, “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”

In remarks published by The Journal, Cooper said, “We knew that the Washington, D.C., insiders and the richest Americans were getting unimaginable wealth at our expense,” and added, “We knew that the chaos and corruption in Washington were hurting people. Today, you said, this has to stop.”