In a stunning night of victories for Democrat candidates across the United States, Trump went from controlling both the House of Representatives and the Senate to holding neither
It’s been a difficult set of results for Donald Trump(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Donald Trump faces a two-year nightmare after his Republican allies in Congress were wiped out in the midterm elections.
In a stunning night of victories for Democrat candidates across the United States, Trump went from controlling both the House of Representatives and the Senate to holding neither. The national rebuke of Trump’s party will mean he faces financial roadblocks on his priorities. And Trump and his allies will be braced for years of investigations and even a third impeachment.
Democrat victories were fuelled by significant rises in turnout compared to the last midterm election in 2022, particularly in Democrat-leaning areas. Early figures suggest turnout was up by as much as 15% in areas that backed Kamala Harris heavily in 2024. Democrats won in Texas and South Carolina , states Trump won by double digits just two years ago and where the blue party had not won for decades.
The results surpassed even the most optimistic predictions of a “blue tsunami”. As state after state flipped from red to blue, a Democrat source told the Mirror: “It’s beyond my wildest hopes… I cannot believe this is happening.”
Trump, whom many feared would try to subvert or deny the result, seemed to recognise such a move would be futile with a defeat on this scale. “I wasn’t on the Ballot,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “And if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”
Trump urged voters to pretend he was on the ballot in every speech he gave during the campaign – believing it would boost turnout for Republicans, despite his approval ratings being historically bad.
Calling in to Fox News late last night, Trump congratulated the Democrats – but sought to distance his own performance from the defeat. “They did a good job,” he said. “They’ve been looking for this one for 11-years and they’ve finally got it. But I don’t view it as a hit on me, we’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency.”
Trump was expected to spend most of Wednesday bunkered down in the White House in back-to-back policy meetings. But he must grapple with the fact the decisions he made in his first two years back in the Oval Office were the foundation of Tuesday’s generational drubbing.
Trump’s decision to wage war on Iran sent the price of petrol and diesel skyrocketing, creating an unprecedented cost of living crisis for American families. But polls suggest corruption in high office was also a key factor informing voters choices – after Trump used his return to office to enrich himself to the tune of $2.7 billion.
It was a torrid night for Elon Musk, who became the largest political donor in any single election in US history by pumping $445 million into a doomed ‘rescue mission’ for Republican candidate. America PAC, the Political Action Committee Musk has sole control over, poured more than $33 million into support for Ken Paxton’s doomed campaign in Texas. Musk also made a contribution of $168 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, which backed Paxton’s campaign.
On the night, Democrats flipped Senate seats in Texas, Iowa, Kansas, North and South Carolina and Ohio. They held on to Senate seats in New Hampshire and Georgia. Abdul El Sayed, the party’s candidate in Michigan won this race comfortably, becoming the first Muslim American to be elected to the Senate.
El Sayed was subjected to hateful attacks from Trump almost daily on the campaign trail. Trump deliberately called him “Mohammed” and “Ramadan” at rallies, branding him a jihadist and suggesting he would be the only Senator forced to go through a metal detector in order to take his seat. A left wing progressive, El Sayed ran on a promise of “money out of politics, money in your pocket, medicare [socialised healthcare] for all”.
“They went all in on one of the ugliest campaigns we’ve seen in our lifetimes,” he said celebrating his victory in the early hours of Wednesday morning. “They might have been pointing to my name and my faith, but we all know that my name and my faith aren’t the reason you can’t afford your gas, not the reason you can’t afford your groceries, not the reason you can’t see a doctor.” He added: “They wanted an America that is too small for some of us. We know that this is an America that is big enough for all of us.”
In Texas, James Talarico defeated Trump-backed MAGA Republican Ken Paxton by 20 points – making him the first Democrat elected to the senate in the Lone Star State since 1988, the year before he was born. And in New Hampshire, Chris Pappas became the first openly gay man elected to serve in the Senate.
Perhaps the night’s biggest shock was deep red South Carolina, where Darline Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who died earlier this year, was fighting to keep hold of his seat. She lost to Democrat Annie Andrews by around 100,000 votes.
In Georgia, Senator Jon Ossoff, whom many are tipping to be the Democrats nominee for President in 2028, won re-election. And Keisha Lance Bottoms, the daughter of Northern Soul legend Major Lance, defeated MAGA billionaire Rick Jackson to become the first black woman elected as a Governor in US history.
In Ohio, Democrat Amy Acton defeated MAGA darling Vivek Ramaswamy, who had faced a furious backlash over a grim attack ad. The ad against featured Acton’s own mother branding her a liar. But it was quickly revealed that Acton, a survivor of child sexual abuse at the hands of her late stepfather, has been estranged from her mother for 50 years.
The last time they saw each other in person was in court after her stepfather was arrested, charged and indicted. Her mother stayed with her abuser, and the pair fled the state, evading prosecution until the stepfather died before he could be brought to justice. Ramaswamy stood by the ad, and Trump and Vice President JD Vance backed him. It may well have cost him the race.
In perhaps the least surprising result of the midterms, Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s former “blue-sky thinking” guru-turned MAGA Republican lost his bid to become governor of California. Democrat candidate Xavier Becerra was leading by more than 2 million votes when the race was called by the Associated Press with just 59% of votes counted.
Meanwhile, senior Democrats were hinting at how they’ll use their new dominance in the House and Senate. Congressman Robert Garcia, will chair the House Oversight Committee in the new Congress, posted a two-word message to Trump’s family members and business associates on X: “Lawyer up.”
Trump will likely become a one-man roadblock for any legislation the Democrats try to pass, threatening in recent days that he would “veto everything.” But in return, the new Congress can refuse to pass Trump’s budget measures, making it harder for him to pursue his priorities and engage in military adventures overseas.
Trump’s demand for $1.7 trillion in funding for the armed forces next year is deadlocked in Congress, something unlikely to change with Democrats in charge.
For a decade, the party has thrown its weight almost unquestioningly behind Trump’s MAGA movement. Now, the depth and ferocity of the rebuke at the hands of American voters will prompt a period of reassessment. The result will almost certainly have an impact on who the party selects as its nominee for the 2028 presidential election to succeed Trump, with both JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio heavily tainted by their association with him.
Nationwide, 61% of women voters backed Democrats, a 13 point swing from 2024. But perhaps more troubling for the MAGA movement, men swung left even more strongly – with 51% of men voting democrat, a 17 point swing.
Andy Burnham said the world now has an “opportunity” to focus on ending the war in Iran after the Democrats triumphed in the midterms.
Asked for his reaction to the results and whether he thought they would make Mr Trump more unpredictable, the Prime Minister said: “President Trump has accepted the results, and I feel the world has an opportunity now to unite around the issue that is affecting us all, and that’s the cost of living.
“That has been the issue that I have put front and centre in my first three months in Downing Street, and we’ve made moves. But I can’t get people’s cost of living pressures down until the conflict in the Middle East is resolved.
“The conflict between in Ukraine started by Russia. These are the things we have to focus on now, and I hope the world has a moment to do that. And certainly, in my calls with leaders, that is what I will be asking everybody to do.”
Asked whether he was worried there might be an escalation in the Middle East following the results, he said: “Well, I’ll be working for de-escalation to make it very clear. You know, we want to see a resolution, the Strait of Hormuz fully opened again. That’s what we will be working towards.”
