Democrats flipped five governorships and more than two dozen House seats
Dozens of Republican candidates directly endorsed by Donald Trump lost their US midterm election races, according to analysis by The Guardian, raising questions over the power of the president’s support. In past elections, Trump’s endorsements have been coveted, and in the final stages of this year’s campaign he actively urged voters to act as though he were on the ballot. But just half of the 26 candidates Trump endorsed for the US Senate had won as of Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET, according to a Guardian tally. Of the 23 candidates for state governor endorsed by Trump, only nine had won, 12 were defeated and two races were still to be called.
The Guardian reported that Trump’s endorsement appears to have had a weaker impact on candidates’ prospects in this year’s midterms than in past cycles, with his handpicked candidates in closely watched races failing to resonate with conservative voters even in deeply red states. In 2022, approximately 82% of candidates endorsed by Trump went on to win their races, according to the New York Times. The president has spent the past decade reshaping the Republican Party in the mold of his Make America Great Again (MAGA) vision, handpicking loyal candidates to run in competitive races and occasionally rejecting established Republicans, The Guardian said.
In the Senate, 11 candidates endorsed by Trump lost their races, with two more still waiting for a result on Wednesday evening. Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general and a longtime Trump ally, lost to James Talarico, a progressive Democrat and political newcomer. Talarico’s election marks the first time a Democrat has been elected to represent Texas in the US Senate since 1988. The Guardian reported that Trump personally chose Paxton to run against Talarico earlier this year, effectively ousting incumbent Republican senator John Cornyn by failing to nominate him in the party’s primary, and said Trump had clashed with Cornyn occasionally and viewed Paxton as a loyal ally.
Darline Graham, the sister of the late South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, lost to Dr Annie Andrews in what The Guardian described as a stunning upset for Republicans. South Carolina, a state Trump won by 18 points in 2024, had not elected a Democratic senator since 1998. Trump handpicked Graham to run, heavily endorsed her and campaigned alongside her.
In North Carolina, Michael Whatley, the former leader of the Republican Party who was endorsed by Trump, lost to Roy Cooper, the state’s former governor. In Michigan, Mike Rogers, a former congressman and Trump’s pick for the Senate, lost to Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive Democrat who will become the first Muslim senator.
Trump’s gubernatorial endorsements performed the worst of the three categories, The Guardian said. Democrats flipped five governor seats, including in Texas, which has not seen a Democratic governor in more than 30 years, and in Iowa, which has not had a Democrat running the state since the mid-2000s.
His endorsed House candidates fared better, though many were incumbents running for re-election in conservative districts, and 46 Trump-backed House candidates have lost so far. The Guardian said Trump’s tumbling approval ratings appeared to challenge the influence of his public support for Republican candidates. In Pennsylvania’s eighth district, Trump’s candidate and the incumbent Republican, Rob Bresnahan, lost to Democrat Paige Cognetti. In Texas’s 15th district, the Trump-endorsed incumbent Republican, Monica De La Cruz, lost to Democrat Bobby Pulido.
Democrats flipped more than two dozen House seats, while by Wednesday evening Republicans had flipped only one. The Guardian said the results reflect voters’ deep frustrations with Trump’s performance as president, noting that over the last several months voters have grown more angry with the cost of living and the US economy under Trump’s policies. Two weeks before the midterms, Trump’s approval rating sat at roughly 36%.
Even some candidates endorsed by Trump attempted to distance themselves from the president in hopes of appealing to voters, The Guardian reported. Among them was Ashley Hinson, a Republican Senate candidate in Iowa, but it was not enough: Hinson and others were defeated.
“Tonight was a total referendum on Trump,” former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican who lost her Trump endorsement, wrote on X. “He told people to vote like he was on the ballot and they did.”
Trump insisted the opposite. “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform earlier this week. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
The Guardian’s tally remained provisional: two Senate races and two governor’s races involving Trump-endorsed candidates had yet to be called.