US Midterm Elections: Democrats win US Congress control as voters reject Donald Trump's Republicans
Victories across the Senate and House leave Donald Trump facing obstacles to his domestic agenda and the prospect of investigations into his administration.
Democrats have taken control of both chambers of Congress after winning Senate contests in former Republican strongholds and flipping numerous House seats.
The result leaves Donald Trump facing the prospect of his domestic agenda being blocked on Capitol Hill, as well as potential investigations into the conduct of his administration.
Democrats secured Senate seats in Texas, Kansas, South Carolina, Ohio, Maine and Iowa, while also gaining the four seats they needed for a majority in the 100-member chamber.
They regained the House of Representatives, which they last controlled in 2023, after overturning Republican seats in states including Kentucky, New Jersey, Indiana and North Carolina. The party needed a net gain of three seats in the 435-member House.
The midterm elections had been viewed as a referendum on the controversial Republican president, who urged voters during the campaign to pretend his name was on the ballot.
After the losses, Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social: “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”
He acknowledged in an interview with Fox News that the scale of the result had surprised him.
“I thought they’d do better, we had tremendous rallies,” he said.
“I thought that I could transfer those people into candidates.”
Mr Trump also congratulated his opponents, saying: “They did a good job. They worked very hard.”
Although he offered to work with Democrats, the president posted an image of a red baseball cap bearing the word “Veto”, indicating he could block legislation passed by Congress.
Mr Trump retains executive authority in important areas, including foreign policy, despite the change in control on Capitol Hill. The result is also expected to shape party strategies and debate before the 2028 presidential election.
In Georgia, Democrat US senator Jon Ossoff secured re-election in a race that had been a leading Republican target.
He told supporters: “In sweeping and decisive victories the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption, and incompetence of the failed lame duck president Donald J Trump.
“And if, at times these last two years, amidst the ceaseless onslaught of brutality and indecency, you doubted whether our republic would survive, let tonight’s results give you courage that the first light of dawn is on the horizon.”
The Democrat gains came amid voter dissatisfaction over the cost of living, tariffs and high energy prices fuelled by the Iran war, which Mr Trump launched with Israel earlier this year.
Among the most significant results was Adam Hamilton’s victory in Kansas, where the church pastor became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in nearly a century.
He said: “I think the people in Kansas, Republicans, independents and Democrats are saying what’s happening in Washington is not OK.”
Mr Hamilton added: “I got elected because Kansans were saying, ‘We’re tired of the bullies. We’re tired of the chaos.’”
In Texas, James Talarico became the first Democrat elected to the US Senate in nearly four decades. He defeated Republican Ken Paxton, who had Mr Trump’s backing.
Democrat Sherrod Brown won the Ohio Senate seat held by vice president JD Vance just two years ago, while Annie Andrews defeated Mr Trump’s hand-picked candidate Darline Graham in South Carolina.
Ms Graham, the sister of the late US senator Lindsey Graham, had been chosen by the president to fill the seat and contest the election. Her brother had held it for more than 20 years.
In Maine, Democrat Troy Jackson defeated Republican incumbent Susan Collins, who had occupied her Senate seat for almost three decades.
Democrats also took a Republican-held Senate seat in North Carolina, where governor Roy Cooper beat Michael Whatley, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who was supported by Mr Trump.
Mr Cooper said: “I’m not going to Washington to be something, I’m going to Washington to do something.”
The party also made gains in contests for governor. Keisha Lance Bottoms won in Georgia, Amy Acton in Ohio, Rod Sand in Iowa and Gina Hinojosa in Texas, removing Republicans from office.
In California, former state attorney general Xavier Becerra defeated long-shot Republican candidate Steve Hilton, a former senior aide to David Cameron.
UK ministers insisted the election result would not prevent the Government from maintaining an “excellent relationship” with the Trump administration.
Health minister James Frith said: “It looks like an enormous night for American democracy and for the Democrats.
“We will see where the final numbers end up, but it looks like a seismic shift in domestic politics for the Americans.”
Mr Frith said the outcome would not alter Andy Burnham’s relations with the Trump White House.
He told Times Radio: “The change of emphasis of power in the States is frequent. But the mainstay of the relationship with the UK Government, as its closest ally, is unwavering and unchanging.
“So I don’t expect it to change the nature of the relationship at all, it remains very strong.”
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