Democrats win both chambers of Congress in US midterms, El-Sayed makes history

Democrats take both chambers

Projections from the main US networks give the Democratic Party control of the House of Representatives and the Senate after the midterm elections held on Tuesday, 3 November. All 435 House seats and about a third of the 100 Senate seats were contested. The new Congress takes office in January 2027, so Donald Trump will govern with an opposition that controls federal legislative power for the remaining two years of his term. More than 60 million Americans had already voted early, according to one report. The result fits the usual pattern of midterm voters punishing the sitting administration, which for Trump and the Republicans ends their unchallenged hold on Washington's institutions.

Senate seats that changed hands

Roy Cooper was projected to beat Republican Michael Whatley in North Carolina, the first Senate seat taken from Republicans in this round, according to CNN and NBC. Donald Trump's party had won the state's recent elections comfortably. In Georgia, Jon Ossoff was projected to beat Republican Mike Collins, and Democrat Jamie Ager took a House seat from Republicans in the same state. Mark Warner was projected to win in Virginia. Republicans were projected to keep West Virginia, where Shelley Moore Capito holds her seat, and Florida, where Ashley Moody was projected to win the special election for the seat Marco Rubio held until he became secretary of state. Democrats were also projected to win in Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island, according to CNN.

Firsts in the new Congress and governors' races

Abdul El-Sayed won the Michigan Senate seat left open by Gary Peters' retirement, beating Republican Mike Rogers, and becomes the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. A physician and public health specialist born to Egyptian immigrants, he led the Detroit health department from 2015 and finished second in the 2018 Democratic primary for Michigan governor, more than 20 percentage points behind Gretchen Whitmer. During the campaign Trump had called him a jihadist, while El-Sayed built his campaign on mobilizing younger voters and a critical stance on Israel. In New Hampshire, Chris Pappas beat former senator John E. Sununu and is expected to become the first openly gay man to join the Senate. In Minnesota, the Associated Press and NBC projected that Peggy Flanagan will become the first Native American senator in US history, after her Republican rival Michele Tafoya led for much of the count. Deb Haaland won the New Mexico governor's race and became the first Native American woman elected governor of a US state, while Gina Hinojosa beat Republican governor Greg Abbott in Texas and will be the first Latina to govern the state.

Flanagan's controversy and the Schumer question

Flanagan, until now Minnesota's lieutenant governor, had been caught up in a controversy over state social assistance programmes. She and other senior officials were accused of failing to stop the diversion of funds meant for low-income children. The dispute centred on child care centres and nurseries run by members of the Somali community, and mixed real investigations into large-scale fraud with accusations that went viral, which drew a harsh response from Trump. Flanagan had come close to becoming governor, because the state constitution would have made her Tim Walz's successor had he become vice president. In an interview she opposed keeping Chuck Schumer as the Democratic leader in the Senate, and Schumer was re-elected in Tuesday's vote, leaving the party's Senate leadership question open for the new Congress that takes office in January 2027.