Democrats win control of US Congress in midterm blow to Trump
- Democrats have won majorities in both the US House and Senate, according to tallies reported after Tuesday's midterms.
- The party flipped Senate seats in Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Ohio, and held Georgia and New Hampshire.
- Trump said he was not on the ballot, but later told the New York Times he would work with Democrats.
Democrats have won control of both chambers of the United States Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, a result that sharply limits President Donald Trump's room to legislate for the rest of his term.
The BBC reported on Wednesday that Democrats had secured a House majority, with counting still going on in some states. The figures at the time showed Democrats on 194 House seats against 115 for the Republicans. In the Senate, Democrats had 52 seats to the Republicans' 40.
All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats were up for grabs. The midterms are widely seen as a verdict on the sitting president, and this one came amid voter worry over the cost of living and the war with Iran, according to PM News.
Senate upsets in Republican strongholds
Democrats took Senate seats held by Republicans in Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Ohio, while keeping Georgia and New Hampshire.
In Texas, James Talarico beat Ken Paxton to become the first Democrat to win a Senate seat there since 1988, according to Vanguard. In South Carolina, Annie Andrews defeated Darline Graham, becoming the first woman elected to the US Senate from that state.
Roy Cooper beat Michael Whatley in North Carolina, and Sherrod Brown defeated incumbent Jon Husted in Ohio. The Associated Press reported that Trump had backed several of the losing Republicans, including Paxton and Graham.
Before the vote, CNN's poll of polls had Democrats nine points ahead on the generic congressional ballot, and New York Times-Siena polling showed them leading in five key Senate races. Turnout among Latino voters in Texas rose sharply, with their share of the electorate up nearly five percentage points on 2022, according to Catalist data cited by CNN.
The US Department of Justice said it would post about 1,000 election monitors across all 50 states, its largest such operation, to watch for voter intimidation, racial discrimination and poor language assistance. The monitors do not count ballots.
What happens next
From January, Democrats will chair key committees and can open investigations into the president, his family and his administration's policies. They can also block spending and legislation he wants.
Trump first blamed the result on not being on the ballot. "I wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!" he wrote on Truth Social. In a later New York Times interview, he said he was ready to accept the outcome: "We'll, you know, look forward to working with them. We'll probably work something out."
The result does not remove Trump from office. It does mean the last two years of his second term will be fought out against a Congress controlled by the opposition.
