Democrats seize Senate majority in midterm landslide
Wins in South Carolina Ohio Texas Iowa and Kansas end decades-long Republican holds, party that claimed to protect elections loses Congress after inflation and Iran war drove approval down
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The Democrats have won control of the Senate. Illustration: Rudy Sulgan/Getty Images
theguardian.com
Democrats have taken control of the US Senate, with the Associated Press projecting wins in South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Iowa and Kansas — states where the party had not won a Senate race in decades. Vote counting continues in Minnesota and Michigan, and Democrats expect full control of Congress from January, their first since 2022. Minority leader Chuck Schumer told supporters in Washington: "We have five words for the American people: relief is on the way."
The scale of the Republican collapse is difficult to separate from the administration's own record. Trump's approval ratings slid steadily through his second term, driven by the handling of the economy and immigration, gas prices rose after the decision to attack Iran, and highly publicized federal immigration raids in Minneapolis ended with two US citizens dead. Republicans had targeted Georgia and New Hampshire as pickup opportunities and failed in both. Kansas last sent a Democrat to the Senate in 1932, Texas in 1988, South Carolina 38 years ago, Iowa and North Carolina 18 years ago. In North Carolina, Trump publicly condemned sitting senator Thom Tillis for opposing his domestic legislation; Tillis retired, and former governor Roy Cooper won the seat comfortably.
The results invert the administration's central claim of the campaign. The same Justice Department that could not substantiate its figure of 20,000 non-citizen registrations before the Supreme Court — actual prosecutions in the matter stand at 28 — has now lost the chamber it said it was protecting the franchise for. Trump congratulated Democrats quickly and has since moved to threats of vetoes, indicating he intends to spend his remaining two years governing by executive action against a Congress that will control his cabinet appointments and judicial nominations, including any vacancy on a court with a 6-3 conservative majority.