Democrats take Congress in US midterms as Trump turns to his ballroom

A Democratic night in Congress

Democrats won the House on Tuesday, 3 November 2026, and will take over the Senate when the new Congress convenes in January. The Irish Times editorial board calls the House popular vote margin the widest for a party since the post-Watergate landslide of 1974. In Republican heartlands from Iowa to South Carolina, Democrats took Senate seats, and Kansas elected its first Democratic senator in almost a century. Trump's historically low approval rating and voter anger over the cost of living, tariffs and the war with Iran drove the result, according to the same editorial board. Significant legislation is now seen as unlikely, since Trump has vowed to veto anything he dislikes.

Governors and statehouses

In Texas, Gina Hinojosa unseated Greg Abbott as governor, and James Talarico won the Senate race. Those wins rejected the $156 million (€139 million) that Elon Musk had poured into the state. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in US history. Rob Sand in Iowa and Amy Acton in Ohio, both Democrats, won governor's races, the first Democratic governors in those states in 16 years. Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said:

“Our victories have shattered Republicans' grip on our statehouses.”

Redistricting backfires on Republicans

Starting last summer, Trump pushed Republicans into an extraordinary mid-decade redrawing of congressional maps meant to protect the House majority. In the seven states where Republicans redrew boundaries, Axios reports the party is on track to lose as many as eight seats instead of gaining the 15 it had hoped for. The New York Times counts at least eight seats won by Democrats in Republican-run states that redistricted over the past 16 months. Tennessee's 4th District stands out as a dummymander, a map that spreads a party's own voters too thin. John Bisognano, president of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said:

“There's no way to look at this cycle and not see that the scheme to gerrymander the country was a complete and utter catastrophe.”

Seats Republicans hoped to gain15

Seats GOP on track to lose, as many as8

Seats Republicans hoped to gain

15 seats

Seats GOP on track to lose, as many as

8 seats

Data from the article text

Trump focuses on the ballroom

On Wednesday, 4 November, Trump spoke at an event marking the installation of the final steel beam in his White House ballroom. He spent more than 20 minutes on the project before addressing the election results, his first public appearance since the losses. Trump called the site "the safest place in Washington" and said he loves construction, dismissing criticism that he spends too much time on it. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum joined him and praised him as "the builder in chief." The ballroom is expected to be completed in 2028, barring a legal challenge, and Democrats are set to delay or halt it along with Trump's other construction projects.

Republican fallout and the courts

Ron DeSantis, who ran against Trump in the 2024 primaries, offered a blunt assessment of the results:

“This is [as] close to an extinction-level event for Republicans in many parts of the country as we have seen probably in the last hundred years.”

JD Vance blamed the war with Iran for the defeat, a move the Irish Times described as a distancing from the president. Trump has appointed nearly 300 judges over two terms, but as a lame-duck president he will be able to confirm few, if any, new judges once Democrats take over the Senate in January. Democrats may still chip away at the Supreme Court's conservative supermajority, depending on how many Senate seats they win and whether a vacancy arises.