Democrats seized control of both the Senate and House on Tuesday, scoring sweeping victories in Republican strongholds for the first time in generations as tens of millions of voters delivered a scathing rebuke to President Donald Trump.
Voters in conservative bastions who had propelled the president to his second term in office just two years ago swung dramatically toward Democrats, fueled by deep frustration over the unpopular war with Iran, anxiety over the high cost of living and anger at Trump's stewardship of the country, reported Reuters.
Kansas elected its first Democratic senator since the Great Depression nearly a century ago. In South Carolina, a state that Trump carried by nearly 18 points in 2024, Democrats turned aside his hand-picked Senate candidate.
And in Texas, the biggest Republican state, Democrats ended a decades-long losing streak in seismic fashion, winning a Senate seat and ousting three-term Governor Greg Abbott.
The results will usher in a new era of divided government in Washington, following two years in which the Republican-controlled Congress rarely exercised its power to rein in Trump.
PROBE INTO TRUMP FAMILY DEALINGS
Once seated in January, Democrats are expected to use their power to investigate Trump's administration, family and allies and demand concessions on major legislation. The Democratic Senate can block Trump's nominees, including any US Supreme Court justices should a vacancy arise.
"There is now a generational remake of the Senate map that is going to change America," said Chuck Schumer, the party's Senate minority leader. "Americans voted for change, and now Democrats must deliver."
Trump, who is barred by the US Constitution from seeking a third term, has exercised an iron grip on his party for most of the last decade. But the new balance of power in Washington may accelerate his lame-duck status, as attention turns toward the 2028 presidential race and potential successors begin competing for political influence in a post-Trump world.
For the mid-term polls, Trump had campaigned heavily for both Republican candidates as part of a late election blitz that included more than two dozen rallies, and the president told his supporters repeatedly to "pretend I'm on the ballot" in an effort to fire up his base.
On Tuesday night, as it grew clear Republicans were in danger of losing their congressional majorities, Trump wrote on social media, "I wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter."
Despite worries from Democrats that Trump might seek to overturn the election results, as he did in 2020, the president accepted the outcome, congratulating Democrats in an interview with Fox News. He also said he would work with Democrats on issues such as immigration, though he threatened to veto any "insane" bills they passed.
Democrats focused their campaign on corruption and affordability, blaming Trump's tariff policy and the war with Iran for driving up costs while highlighting the billions of dollars the Trump family has made since he returned to the White House.
Republicans, led by Trump, attacked Democrats over culture war issues such as transgender rights while portraying their opponents as radical and extreme. But in poll after poll, voters made it clear they were far more concerned with pocketbook issues.
The Democratic wave flooded huge swaths of the country. Republicans lost ground in all but a handful of the approximately 1,700 counties where most votes had been counted on Tuesday night, according to tallies compiled by Reuters and USA Today.
Democrats made gains in the richest counties and the poorest; in counties where more people have college degrees and where fewer do. Democrats' advances were particularly sharp in heavily Latino counties, including the border counties of Texas that shifted toward Trump in 2024 and the agricultural towns of the Kansas prairie.
Reacting to the Republican midterm losses, Iran's Parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a key negotiator in US-Iran talks, said: "Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message."
"If the US [government] betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a nightmare," he writes on X.
Speaking to Fox News earlier, Trump said "we have to do something large" when asked about reports the US was planning further strikes on Iran - adding it could involve a "heavy hit".
A REBUKE TO TRUMP
"In sweeping and decisive victories, the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence of the man named President Donald J. Trump," incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, the projected winner in Georgia, told supporters at a victory party.
According to exit polls conducted by SSRS on behalf of a consortium of US media outlets including major television networks and the Associated Press, half of voters nationwide said they saw the 2026 midterm elections as an opportunity to rebuke the president, and three-quarters said they are "angry" or "dissatisfied" with the way the country is headed.
In addition, 70 % of voters surveyed said they want Congress to provide more checks and balances on the president.
On the stock market scenario, experts said the markets will face days of turmoil after the big Trump loss, followed by an S&P 500 surge.
"Nobody on Wall Street was positioned for a wave this big, so there’ll be some rough sessions ahead, and AI stocks will take the worst of it," predicts
Nigel Green, the CEO of deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations.
The bullish prediction from Green comes as Democrats swept both chambers, flipping six Republican-held Senate seats including Texas, South Carolina and Iowa.
“Once the shock’s absorbed, investors are left with a Congress and a White House that can block each other but can’t do much else," he stated. “Equities usually do well in that situation. We think the S&P 500 is likely to surge and be well ahead by this time next year,” he added.
S&P 500 futures had already recovered from a fall of as much as 1.4% to trade 0.4% lower by early morning, with Nasdaq 100 futures clawing back most of a 2.4% drop.
“Dip buyers were in within hours,” explained Green. “Much of the money that bolted overnight is already finding its way back,” he added.
Green pointed out that companies hate guessing what Washington will do next. “With both sides boxed in, the guessing stops, and boards start signing off on spending they’ve been sitting on,” he stated.
Treasurys rallied as results came in, pushing the 10-year yield down six basis points to around 4.9%. “Democrats won’t pass another round of unfunded tax cuts, and bond investors know it,” said the deVere CEO.
“The deficit outlook looks less alarming as a result, and we believe yields will likely keep easing into 2027," he added.
