Democrats take Congress in historic sweep as voters rebuke Trump

WASHINGTON — Democrats secured control of Congress on Tuesday, flipping the Senate and the House with victories in parts of the country that had been safely Republican for decades, according to Associated Press projections, signaling a sea change in Washington’s balance of power.

The wave of Democratic victories came in remarkable form, with deep-red areas toppling to Democrats by decisive margins, and candidates pulling off wins thought to be pipe dreams months ago.

Voters handed the party commanding control of Congress, putting a powerful check on President Trump during his final two years in office. Unified control will provide Democrats with broad investigative and subpoena powers, authority over presidential appointments, control of legislation and federal spending, and the ability to pursue impeachment proceedings.

“Today begins the great American comeback,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Tuesday night, describing voters as “crying out for transformational change.”

“The American people have spoken and made clear they’ve had enough of the extremism, enough of the corruption,” he said. “They want a Congress that’s going to deliver for the American people.”

In a series of upsets deep in conservative territory, Democrat Annie Andrews prevailed in a Senate race in South Carolina, defeating Republican Darline Graham. Democrat James Talarico won a Senate seat in Texas, fulfilling a long-held dream on the left, and a pastor in Kansas, Adam Hamilton, became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat there in nearly a century.

Democrat Sherrod Brown, a former senator, won his seat back in Ohio, a political return that flipped the seat for his party. Roy Cooper and Josh Turek both won their races in North Carolina and Iowa, respectively, becoming the first Democrats to win Senate seats in their states since 2008.

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers after a contentious campaign in Michigan, becoming the first Muslim to be elected to the Senate.

A race for a Senate seat in Mississippi was too close to call. And in Maine, thought to be a tight tossup, Republican Susan Collins conceded to Democrat Troy Jackson, ending her three-decade run in the Senate.

As Talarico addressed supporters Tuesday night, standing behind a lectern adorned with a sign reading “Love thy neighbor,” he cast his victory as a reflection of popular power.

“This win is for every underdog who’s been counted out and left behind,” Talarico said to raucous applause. “Tonight, the world hears you.”

Despite fears that Trump would attempt to deny or obstruct the vote, the president said he would accept the results on Tuesday evening as the outcome became clear. “My message is, congratulations to the Democrats, and I look forward to working with you for the good of our country,” he told CBS News.

But in a social media post, he blamed the Republicans’ poor showing on the fact that he wasn’t on the ballot.

“If I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” he wrote.

Ballots were still being counted in Alaska, the other Senate battleground.

Dozens of House races that will determine the Democrats’ margin in the lower chamber remained in play. But they had pulled off several flips, unseating Republican incumbents including Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Thomas Kean of New Jersey, Mike Lawler of New York, Jen Kiggans of Virginia and Victoria Spartz of Indiana.

And as the night progressed, election returns were showing Democrats ahead in roughly 60 House races, putting them on track to post one of the greatest political routs in modern history, alongside the “Republican Revolution” of 1994 and the “shellacking” of 2010, during the Obama administration.

Republicans also faced stunning setbacks in governor’s races, losing seats to Democrats in Ohio, Iowa, Texas and Georgia. Ballots were still being counted in a handful of states.

Tuesday’s surge capped months of anticipation that Republicans would face a reckoning amid voter discontent over Trump’s economic policies, corruption allegations and his war with Iran.

“In sweeping and decisive victories, the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence of the failed lame-duck President Donald J. Trump,” Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who won reelection Tuesday, told supporters Tuesday night.

In Florida, a bastion of conservatism in the Trump era, contests for House seats were far tighter than expected, and Democrats held their ground in seats that Republicans had attempted to redistrict to their favor. The Republican candidate for governor there, Byron Donalds, won his race by an unexpectedly tight margin.

Across the board, Republican candidates were underperforming compared with the party’s 2024 showing, seeming to validate months of polls that suggested voters’ frustration with cost-of-living issues might drive them to the ballot box.

More than 59 million Americans had cast ballots in early voting before election day, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.

Cooper’s victory in North Carolina was the first time a Democrat won a Senate seat in the state since 2008. And Chris Pappas’ win in New Hampshire is also a milestone, making him the first out gay man elected to the Senate.

In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat, became the first black woman elected to a U.S. governorship in history. And in the Texas gubernatorial race, Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in a shock victory to become the state’s first Hispanic governor.

As voters cast ballots Tuesday, the Justice Department’s election monitors fanned out at polling sites across the country. Though the nation was braced for possible interference in voting by the Trump administration, there had been no major disruptions by late Tuesday.

In his speech to supporters, Talarico said Tuesday’s vote was the answer to the “decade of division” under Trump that showed the power of everyday people against the current system.

“We must bridge the divides between us and repair the ties that bind us,” Talarico said. “That old politics is dying, and a new politics is being formed.”