A wave of Democratic gains swept across Republican strongholds on Tuesday during the midterm elections, fueled by anger over surging energy prices and by the costly, protracted war against Iran.
This punitive vote represented a personal humiliation for the 80-year-old U.S. president, even though he said he did not feel targeted, and jeopardizes his remaining two years in office. The new Congress taking office on January 3 will give the Democrats a substantial margin to act against the president.
The majority won in the House and Senate will allow them to block laws desired by the White House, to hinder presidential nominations and to restart investigations targeting Donald Trump and his administration.
“We are going to hold them to account,” warned Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrats’ leader in the House and expected to become the first Black president.
“Taking Back Our Country”
“I almost want to cry. We will be able to take back our country,” said Kathy Jackoway, celebrating in Texas the election of James Talarico, the first Democratic senator elected in the state in nearly 40 years.
The Democrats have gained seven seats in the Senate, giving them at least 54 of the 100. By 14:00 GMT, two seats were still contested in Mississippi and Alaska, but the count could take several days.
In the House, they would hold a solid majority of at least ten seats, at 228 members, according to projections by American media.
For Todd Belt, a political scientist at George Washington University, these results mark “a strong rejection of Donald Trump and his policies.”
The rout of the Republicans was fueled by voters’ anger over the cost of living, driven upward by tariffs and the war in Iran, which sent fuel prices soaring and dragged down the president’s popularity.
Donald Trump told the New York Times that he would accept the election results but said he was ready, on his Truth Social platform, to exercise his veto against laws that Democrats in Congress would pass.
“I do not think this was directed at me,” the billionaire president said on Fox News, declining to take responsibility for the defeat.
“We Have Beaten Goliath”
Abroad, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham argued that the defeat of the Republican Party should push the world to “unite” to fight the cost of living. His Spanish counterpart Pedro Sánchez said that “the ultra-wave” was collapsing.
The Iranian Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, however warned that those who expect a change in U.S. policy “are badly mistaken.”
The Democrats even won in states long considered Republican strongholds, such as Kansas where Adam Hamilton was elected senator, the first Democrat there since 1932.
In South Carolina (the Southeast), Democrat Annie Andrews captured the Senate seat from Darline Graham, personally chosen by Donald Trump to succeed his brother Lindsey Graham who died in July.
In Texas, another conservative stronghold, the last election of a Democratic senator dated back to 1988… a year before James Talarico was born.
“We have beaten Goliath,” said the 37-year-old Presbyterian seminary student during his victory speech in Austin, alongside Gina Hinojosa, the governor-elect.
North Carolina, Iowa, Ohio…
The Democrats also flipped Senate seats in North Carolina, Iowa and Ohio, all won by Donald Trump in 2024.
In Maine, a former lumberjack, Troy Jackson, ended nearly three decades of the tenure of the outgoing Republican senator Susan Collins.
At the same time, Democrats preserved several crucial seats they already held. In Georgia, Jon Ossoff, a rising star of the party, was re-elected to the Senate.
And in Michigan, an industrial state on the Canadian border with a sizeable Arab-American community, the Democratic physician Abdul El-Sayed, from the left wing of the party, became the first Muslim elected to the United States Senate, after a very tight and acrimonious contest with his opponent Mike Rogers, a former Republican congressman and former FBI agent.
