THE NEW YORK TIMES:
Democrats flipped seven Senate seats, including three in states long held by Republicans, and overcame a redistricting effort to capture the House. President Trump told The New York Times that he would accept the results.
Democrats on Wednesday were celebrating a triumph in the midterm elections, winning control of the Senate and the House as voters delivered a blistering rebuke to President Trump and reset the balance of power in Washington. The romp stretched from coast to coast as Democrats flipped seats that had spent decades in Republican hands and took House districts that had long seemed inaccessible.
Mr. Trump
told The New York Times in an interview that he was “absolutely willing to accept those results” and was prepared to work with Democrats.
Among the questions remaining as Wednesday dawned were how big the Democrats’ House majority would be, and whether the party could yet widen its lead in the Senate. Ballots were still being counted in
Alaska’s contentious Senate race and in the unlikely battleground of
Mississippi, where less than 50 votes separated the two candidates.
Voters turned out Republican candidates who tethered themselves to Mr. Trump and those who sought a modicum of independence from him. Democrats flipped Senate seats in
Maine,
Iowa,
Kansas,
Ohio,
North Carolina,
South Carolina and even
Texas, according to The Associated Press. Republicans had held the Senate seats in Texas and South Carolina for decades. The Kansas seat had been red for nearly a century.
Senator
Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who had repeatedly foiled Democratic efforts to unseat her in over 30 years in Washington, conceded her race to the Democratic candidate, Troy Jackson.
In Texas,
James Talarico, a state legislator who became a national fund-raising sensation, toppled Ken Paxton, the scandal-ridden Republican state attorney general whom Mr. Trump elevated to the nomination.
In South Carolina,
Dr. Annie Andrews prevailed over Senator Darline Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. And
Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan, becoming the first Muslim elected to the Senate, even after his defeated primary rival endorsed the Republican nominee.
Democrats notched other firsts in governor’s races. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman to be
elected governor in the state in U.S. history. In Texas,
Gina Hinojosa will be the first Democratic governor since 1990, ousting Gov. Greg Abbott, a three-term Republican. And Dr. Amy Acton became the first woman
elected governor of Ohio.
As
Democrats flipped House seats across the map, the redistricting effort Republicans undertook in hopes of protecting their majority failed to yield the victories that they had intended. Democrats won districts in Florida that Republicans redrew, and a North Carolina seat Democrats flipped was also part of the Republican redistricting effort.
Republicans fended off a significant challenge in a Senate race in Florida: Senator Ashley Moody
defeated Angie Nixon, a progressive Democrat, in a tight contest to complete the term of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Midterm Elections Live Updates: » |
Reid J. Epstein and
Kellen Browning | Wednesday, November 4, 2026
