Democrats take both chambers of Congress as Trump's Republicans lose the midterms

Democrats take both chambers of Congress

Democrats won control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the midterm elections held on Tuesday, 3 November, ending a stretch of Republican control over the White House and Congress. From January 2027 the government will answer to a Congress where the opposition holds the majority. Vote counting was still under way on Wednesday, so final seat totals were not settled. Polityka reported that Democrats had secured at least 51 Senate seats, with New York Times projections of up to 55 Senate seats and 255 House seats. Polsat News put the Democrats at no fewer than 53 Senate seats, citing US media forecasts. A later Polityka report gave the Senate split as 55 to 44 or 54 to 45, with races in Mississippi and Alaska unresolved, and the House as about 260 Democratic seats against about 170 Republican seats.

Texas, Kansas and Nevada flip

In Texas, Democrat James Talarico beat Republican Ken Paxton in the Senate race, and Gina Hinojosa was elected governor over Greg Abbott. Hinojosa became the first Latina elected to the governor's office in the state, which Republicans had long treated as a stronghold. In Kansas, Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor, won the Senate seat that Roger Marshall is leaving, ending his party's losing run in the state. Polityka put that run at 94 years, while Interia said the change came after almost 100 years. In Nevada, the Associated Press called the governor's race for Democrat Aaron Ford over Republican incumbent Joe Lombardo, which would make Ford the first African American governor in the state's history. Polityka also reported that Abdul El-Sayed won the Michigan Senate race and described him as the first Muslim in the US Senate, while Annie Andrews beat Darline Graham in South Carolina.

Trump's response

Trump said the war with Iran contributed to the Republican defeat and agreed with the assessment of Vice President J.D. Vance, but he argued that voters were mainly angered by higher petrol prices. Speaking to reporters at the White House ballroom construction site, he said he would make the decision to start the war again. He told CBS News that the conflict would end when he declared it over. Vance wrote a long post on X arguing that many Republican voters from 2024 backed Democrats this time because they expected the Iran war to end, inflation to be tackled, living costs to fall and US relations with Israel to change. Trump posted a photo of a red cap reading 'VETO' on Truth Social. In a CBS News interview he described the veto as his ultimate power and predicted that Democrats would send him bills he would block. According to naTemat, he also called the defeated Texas governor a traitor on social media.

Reactions in Poland and Russia

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk commented on the American results and said:

“Democracy won in the US today. I love democracy.”

Tusk added that he hoped the results would stabilise the situation in the region. Former president Bronisław Komorowski told Rzeczpospolita that the defeat was a heavy blow to Republicans and that Trump had become a burden for his party. He said Congress could block the president but could not shape foreign policy, and he warned Trump supporters in Poland that the association had already hurt Viktor Orbán and would hurt PiS in 2027. Włodzimierz Czarzasty, the Marshal of the Sejm, mocked the 'VETO' cap in a post on X, aiming the jab at President Karol Nawrocki. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia hoped Trump would continue his peace efforts, and when asked whether the new Congress could derail planned talks, he called it America's internal affair. Volodymyr Zelensky said representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the United States would meet in Abu Dhabi on 10 and 11 November.

What comes next

Trump can still govern through executive orders, but Deutsche Welle noted that Democrats can refuse to fund his plans and set up investigative committees. An AP poll of voters, cited by Deutsche Welle, found that about 30 percent named the state of democracy as the country's most important problem, and about 70 percent said Congress had not done enough to check the president. Martina Navratilova, a US citizen, wrote on X that corruption in Trump's White House had been too great even for MAGA, and she called for the release of the Epstein files, according to Interia. The new Congress takes office in January 2027.