Democrats Seize Congress as Voters Punish Trump Over Prices

Washington (GNP): Democrats have captured the Senate and are projected to take the House of Representatives, delivering a sweeping verdict in the 2026 US midterm elections that cut deep into Republican territory.

Tens of millions of voters turned out on Tuesday, and the scale of the result points to a wave that stretches well beyond the traditional battlegrounds. Democrats prevailed in states long considered out of reach, including South Carolina, Texas and Iowa.

The Senate map shows how far the swing travelled. Democrats flipped six Republican seats in all, which secures a majority even if they fail to hold their own seats in the competitive states of Michigan and Minnesota.

Kansas produced one of the biggest surprises. Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor, became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat there since 1932, during the Great Depression. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown claimed a seat that Vice President JD Vance held two years ago.

Texas went the same way. State Representative James Talarico defeated Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and becomes the state’s first Democratic senator-elect in 38 years. Both Ohio and Texas backed President Donald Trump by double-digit margins in 2024.

In South Carolina, paediatrician Annie Andrews beat Republican Senator Darline Graham, who was appointed to the seat after the death of her brother, Senator Lindsey Graham. Trump carried the state by nearly 18 points in 2024, and Democrats had not won a Senate race there this century.

Those defeats landed hard on the president personally. Trump had elevated Paxton and Graham over the objections of local Republicans, and he backed Michael Whatley in North Carolina, who also lost. He campaigned heavily for his picks, including more than two dozen rallies, and urged supporters to act as though he were on the ballot.

After the results became clear, Trump wrote on social media that he was not on the ballot and would have won in a landslide if he had been. He has since said he would accept the outcome and is prepared to work with Democrats.

The House picture points the same way. Democrats flipped at least eight Republican seats in states including Kentucky, New Jersey and North Carolina. They also held three Florida districts that Republican lawmakers redrew earlier this year, each of which backed Trump by at least nine points in 2024.

The wave reached state capitals as well. Democrat Gina Hinojosa unseated three-term Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and the party also won governorships in Iowa and Ohio. In Florida, Republican Senator Ashley Moody held off Democrat Angie Nixon by only about three points in a state Trump won by 13.

Exit polls conducted by the research firm SSRS explain the mood behind these numbers. Nearly nine in ten voters called the cost of living a crucial or major factor, and nearly two-thirds blamed Trump for high prices. Voters have also voiced frustration over the war with Iran that Trump launched in February, which pushed up gas prices sharply.

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The same polls show three-quarters of voters were angry or dissatisfied with the country’s direction, and half saw the election as a chance to rebuke the president. Some 70 per cent said they want Congress to provide more checks and balances on him.

The coalition that powered Trump’s 2024 victory also appears fractured, with sharp drops in Republican support among Black men, Latinos and young voters. Republican attempts to portray Democrats as dangerous radicals in the closing weeks failed to move an electorate focused on the price of groceries and fuel.

Control of Congress brings its own pressure for Democrats. Voters will expect action on the economy rather than opposition alone, yet the president keeps his veto power, which limits what the party can pass.

Jon Ossoff, the incumbent Democratic senator projected to win in Georgia, said, “Voters have delivered a decisive rebuke of corruption and incompetence under President Trump.”