Democrats flip Congress for the first time since 2006, taking both the House and the Senate in a historic midterm sweep. Since World War II, both chambers have flipped in the same midterm only three times: 1946, 1994 and 2006, per the AP’s election night takeaways. Tuesday makes four. The Associated Press called the Senate for Democrats shortly before midnight Eastern.
The Senate Falls: Three Races That Tell the Story
Republicans started the year with a 53-47 Senate majority, per NPR. NBC News counts seven GOP-held seats that flipped: Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. For the full seat-by-seat breakdown, see our report on how Democrats flipped seven seats and took the Senate.
The AP-reported results read like a tour of states Republicans considered safe. In Texas, James Talarico beat Ken Paxton, a result that also ended a long Democratic statewide drought. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown beat Sen. Jon Husted. In Maine, NBC News and TIME report that Troy Jackson beat Sen. Susan Collins.
In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed won and will become the first Muslim U.S. senator, according to CNN, NBC and CBS. Alaska and Mississippi, meanwhile, were still too early to call as of CNN’s latest update. So the final Senate split isn’t locked in yet.
The House Completes the Democratic Takeover
Democrats needed a net gain of three seats. NBC News reported they reached 218 confirmed seats, a majority. However, outlets differ on timing. TIME noted the AP had not yet called the House for Democrats, while CNN and others had.
Flipped seats include those held by Reps. Tom Kean of New Jersey and Ryan Mackenzie, Scott Perry and Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania. More fell in Iowa, Texas, Indiana, Wisconsin and Nebraska, per AP via PBS NewsHour.
Republicans also tried to redraw district lines mid-decade to lock in more House seats. The AP says that push appeared to backfire. Democrats won three redrawn, heavily Latino Texas border districts. Two Florida Democrats also won in districts redrawn to favor Republicans.
Why Voters Let Democrats Take Control of Congress
The AP Voter Poll is blunt. About 6 in 10 voters disapprove of President Trump’s job performance. About 70% want Congress to provide more checks and balances. About 6 in 10 say he puts his personal interests above the country’s.
The shifts inside the electorate may matter more than the totals. AP VoteCast found only about 1 in 10 Black men backed the Republican in their House race. That is down from about a quarter who backed Trump in 2024. Meanwhile, about a third of Hispanic voters backed the GOP House candidate, versus roughly 4 in 10 who voted for Trump two years ago. Young voters moved away from Republicans too.
And Texas, the state a lot of our readers call home, went further than anyone predicted. Gina Hinojosa defeated Gov. Greg Abbott, and Democrats won numerous statewide offices, ending a 32-year drought, NBC reported. Georgia, for its part, elected Keisha Lance Bottoms, who the AP says will be the first Black woman elected governor in U.S. history.
The Caution Label on a Midterm Sweep
Don’t read this as a Democratic love letter. The AP points out that about half of voters view the Democratic Party unfavorably. That’s still better than the roughly 6 in 10 who say the same about the GOP.
In short, voters weren’t endorsing one side so much as rejecting the other.
What Happens Next Now That Democrats Flip Congress
Democrats take control of both chambers when the new Congress is seated in January 2027. For Trump, that means investigations in two chambers and lawmakers hostile to his agenda during his last two years in office. For Senate Majority Leader John Thune, it’s a major blow. The AP says attention now shifts to 2028.
Plan on fights over government funding, tariffs and health care once the new Congress arrives. Markets, however, showed no panic: CNN reported U.S. stock futures recovered from overnight losses. Elon Musk’s first public reaction, per CBS, was a post on X: “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now.”
So far, the reporting we reviewed includes no verbatim response from Trump, Thune, Speaker Mike Johnson or Hakeem Jeffries. Expect that to change fast. For a practical look at the fallout, read our explainer on what divided government means for you. The real question for the next two years is simple: do Democrats govern, or just investigate?
