Democrats win House and Senate majorities as Republican gerrymandering fails

Democrats take both chambers

Voters handed Democrats control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the midterm elections held on Tuesday, 3 November 2026. Projections by US broadcasters, cited by N-tv on the morning of 4 November, already showed Republicans losing the House majority. By the later count, Democrats had won at least seven Senate seats from Republicans, lifting them to at least 54 of the 100 seats. N-tv counted at least 228 House seats for Democrats with 68 races still undecided, while stern reported a projected House majority of at least ten seats. Mississippi and Alaska were the Senate races still open in the reporting.

Redistricting failed to save the majority

Republicans had redrawn 15 districts held by Democrats across seven states: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. Democrats won 10 of those 15 and lead in three more, according to the current count. Republicans are expected to keep only two, one around Dallas in Texas and one around Memphis in Tennessee. In Florida, where Republicans aimed to flip four Democratic seats, three races had already gone to Democrats and the Democratic candidate in the fourth was narrowly ahead. The new maps rested on the assumption that the coalition that carried Trump in 2024 would still vote largely Republican in 2026, and that assumption did not hold.

Won by Democrats10

Democrats leading3

Expected Republican2

Won by Democrats

10 districts

Democrats leading

3 districts

Expected Republican

2 districts

Data from the article text

Anger over prices and the Iran war

Reporting on the result points to voter anger over high energy prices and the war against Iran. Gasoline averaged well above four dollars a gallon nationwide, roughly 3.8 litres. Vice President Vance argued that the reason for the defeat is clear and that any discussion of what comes next has to start there. House Speaker Mike Johnson does not want to become minority leader. On 4 November the White House posted on X that Trump is still the country's president, alongside a photo of him with a serious expression, fists clenched, leaning on his Oval Office desk. Trump had raised fraud claims before the vote but then said he accepts the result.

Congress and the Senate map

Democrats also took Senate seats in Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio and Maine. In Texas, James Talarico, 37, beat Trump ally Ken Paxton for a Senate seat, and Democrats also won the governor's race there. In Kansas, Adam Hamilton, a Protestant preacher, won a Senate seat for Democrats, a party that had not held one there since 1932. In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed of the party's left wing won and will be the first Muslim to sit in the US Senate. Hakeem Jeffries, the expected next House speaker, called the win overwhelming. The new Congress convenes on 3 January, giving Democrats the power to open wide-ranging investigations into the president during his remaining two years in office.

What comes next for 2028

The start of the race for the White House is dated to 4 November. Republicans must decide whether to break with Trumpism or back a 2028 candidate who continues its authoritarian and nationalist course, and Trump cannot run again. Democrats remain divided between a centrist camp and a left-progressive one, and both wings won races on 3 November. Names already being floated include James Talarico, Jon Ossoff, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Josh Shapiro and Gavin Newsom, the outgoing governor of California. Whoever leads the party will have to unite its factions before the path to the White House opens.