Trump’s GOP midterm wipeout: 5 key takeaways from Democrats’ historic Midterm win

US voters handed Democrats control of Congress in midterm elections on Tuesday, delivering a stunning repudiation of President Donald Trump. Donald Trump faces a major political setback as Republicans suffer losses in the 2026 US midterm elections.

(REUTERS/Eric Lee TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) (REUTERS)Democrats flipped long-held Republican seats in North Carolina and South Carolina, Texas and Kansas, among other places. They captured governor’s offices in Texas and Georgia.

In Iowa, which Trump won by 13 points in 2024, Democrat Josh Turek won handily. Republicans barely eked out victories in races that had been expected to be blowouts. Of all the races called so far, Democrats suffered no losses where they were expected to win.

In a closely watched Ohio House race where they were down, NBC now projects the Democratic incumbent, Marcy Kaptur, will be reelected. The results mark an extraordinary reversal from just a few months ago, when the Senate was considered out of reach for Democrats.

As the night progressed, the predicted blue wave became a tsunami, with Democrats winning or ahead in 25 House races that had leaned Republican. As of Wednesday morning, Democrats had won at least 228 House seats, well above the 218 needed for a majority.

Republicans won in 139 districts, with 68 still to be called. NBC News projected Democrats could wind up with 258 seats to Republicans 177, an 81-seat majority, and well above the 214 seats they hold in the current House.

In the Senate, the Democrats will now hold at least 54 seats, with just Alaska and Mississippi still unresolved. Currently, Democrats have 47 Senate seats, including two independents who caucus with the party. As the news came in, markets began to slide.

But futures for the S&P 500 on Wednesday erased early losses to gain 1.1%. Nasdaq 100 contracts also swung sharply. Among the concerns from investors were that potential Democratic policy changes could slow the development of artificial intelligence.

The dollar fell by the most in two months, retreating against all major peers. Below is a list of some of the biggest and most stunning results of the night. Democrats needed to flip four seats to take control of the Senate, and some predictions suggested the nation wouldn’t know who had control of the chamber for days because of how long it takes for Alaska to count.

But the drama was over before midnight. The first shocker of the night was in South Carolina, a state that had been seen as one of the less plausible ones for a Democratic win, with voters turning away from Darline Graham, the sister of the late Lindsey Graham, who died in office.

She fell to Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, who focused her campaign on high costs of living. Texas was the bigger earthquake. The state had not had a Democratic senator since 1993 but James Talarico won easily over Ken Paxton as Republican voters turned away from the attorney general amid allegations of corruption, extramarital affairs and deep unpopularity.

Iowa fell later in the night, as did Kansas and Ohio. Exit polls showed huge numbers of Black and Hispanic voters returning to the Democratic fold after moving sharply in Trump’s favor in 2024. The Voter Poll, a comprehensive exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and major television networks, found only 9% of Black voters and 35% of Hispanic voters supporting Republicans.

Comparable exit polls in 2024 found Trump got the support of 13% of Black voters and 46% of Latinos. Republicans also lost vote share among white voters, from 57% in 2024 to 51% in 2026. Democratic turnout also played a role.

Nationally, voters for Kamala Harris exceeded Trump voters by three percentage points in the midterm elections — even though she lost the presidential election by 1.5 points. But independents — and even some Trump voters — also played a part, according to exit polls published by CNN.

About 7% of Trump voters said they voted for a Democrat for Congress, while only 2% of Harris voters said they voted Republican. And independents broke for Democrats by 17 percentage points. The defection of Trump voters to Democrats may have been an even bigger factor in marquee Senate races, with 11% of Trump’s 2024 supporters voting for Andrews in South Carolina and for Talarico in Texas.