New York (AP): Democrats won control of the US Senate and are on the brink of taking the House in Tuesday's 2026 midterm elections in a widespread repudiation of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party that reached deep into their most loyal territory.
Six Senate seats and more than a half-dozen in the House have flipped toward Democrats. It's the first time in decades that Texas, Kansas and South Carolina have elected Democratic senators. Democrats also flipped seats in North Carolina and Ohio.
Democrats Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, Amy Acton in Ohio, Rod Sand in Iowa and Gina Hinojosa in Texas won races for governor, flipping GOP-held offices.
While Trump urged voters to pretend he was on the ballot, most appear to blame his administration for high costs and want Congress to impose more checks on him, according to The AP Voter Poll.
Here's the latest:
Democrat Sherrod Brown told supporters they had made themselves clear to the nation.
"You sent an undeniable message tonight: Ohio is not for sale," he said.
Brown's victory over Republican Sen. Jon Husted was among the most expensive in the nation, topping $500 million in spending by campaigns and outside groups.
The former three-term senator pledged to return to Washington to fight for the average Ohio resident.
"My pledge to all Ohioans, whether you voted for me or not, is that I will always be on your side - always," he said.
US Rep. Shomari Figures overcame an effort to unseat him through redistricting to win a second term in Alabama's 2nd Congressional District.
Figures defeated Trump-backed Republican Rhett Marques. The district had been reshaped to favor the GOP after the US Supreme Court's redistricting decision.
"We had the deck stacked against us," Figures said at his victory party. But he said they got to work, "and we did not look backwards."
Sand told a loud and energised crowd of Democrats in Des Moines that Iowans sent a clear message Tuesday (Nov 3).
"We have to have bigger hearts and minds than just our party," Sand said. "Come January, we will be forced to work together."
Sand's win breaks a Republican trifecta that's gripped state government for about a decade. He told lawmakers Tuesday that he looks forward to working across the aisle to solve Iowa's problems.
Sand also had supporters in the crowd sing an election-night rendition of "America the Beautiful," which he asked attendees to sing at each of his town halls. He also thanked his family and offered a tribute to his late brother-in-law, Walter Lauridsen, who died unexpectedly last month.
The crowd in Austin at her victory party screamed "Gina" repeatedly as the Democratic legislator who will be Texas' first Latina governor addressed supporters.
"It never bothered me that they doubted me. It bothered me that they doubted us," Hinojosa said. "Texas, my faith in you never wavered."
Hinojosa said Gov. Abbott had called to congratulate her and offered to assist with her transition into office.
Hinojosa is a state lawmaker from Austin who entered the race last year with little money or name recognition. She told supporters about her upbringing along the Texas-Mexico border and her policy priorities, including fighting for public school teachers and keeping billionaires out of politics.
"Your life can be bigger than your dreams," she said.
He'll take over from termed-out Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Becerra defeated GOP rival Steve Hilton while campaigning on a promise to push back against Trump and his administration's Republican policies, from immigration to voting rights.
"If anyone wants to come after California or any one Californian, they better be ready for a fight," Becerra said at a rally near Sacramento.
He'll become the state's first Latino governor since the late 19th century. Becerra was born in Sacramento to a mother from Mexico and a father who was born in California and raised in Mexico.
"What a great night to be an American, to be the son of immigrants from a union household, to be standing in victory with all of you," Becerra said.
The longtime Democratic leader told reporters in Washington that "Americans voted for change" and that there had been a "generational remake of the Senate map."
"Five words for the American people: relief is on the way," the New York senator said.
After Talarico and Hinojosa won the races for Senate and governor in Texas, respectively, overturning more than three decades of Republican control, voter Aaron Dickerson, 30, said it's a wake-up call for the Lone Star State.
"I think it is a rude awakening," said Dickerson, who attended Talarico's exuberant watch party. "They've been in power here in Texas for 30 years, and I think voters are realising that the problems with Texas, the only people to blame are Republicans."
After Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's defeat, Trump accused him of being a "RINO," or a "Republican In Name Only."
Abbott, one of the president's most steadfast allies, lost his bid for a fourth term to Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa.
"If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn't become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn't have lost," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "He went back to his original formula, and it wasn't pretty!"
Cheers erupted for Jeffries after he and his leadership team addressed the crowd at the House Democrats' watch party.
Jeffries is in line to make history as the first Black speaker of the House, if Democrats win control and colleagues elect him to the job.
Polls close in Hawaii and almost all of Alaska at midnight. The final polls of the 2026 midterms close at 1 a.m. in the Aleutian Islands, home of Alaska's westernmost polling location.
In Alaska in 2024, about 25% of the total vote was not counted on election night. The bulk of the state's mail voting results aren't expected before Nov. 18, the deadline to receive overseas and military ballots. Mail and early in-person ballots comprised about 35% of the total vote in 2022 and about 45% in 2024.
Key contests to watch include the Senate and House races in Alaska.
Three more Democratic US House members targeted for defeat through redistricting have won reelection.
In Alabama, Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures won a second term in a district that was redrawn to help Republicans after a US Supreme Court ruling severely weakened the Voting Rights Act.
The Republican redraw dropped the district's Black voting-age population from 48% to 40%, making it more challenging for Democrats. While some incumbents affected by redistricting chose to retire or run in another district, Democrats viewed the race as still winnable, and both parties ended up investing heavily in the race.
Meanwhile, in Texas, Republicans hoped to pick up five seats through redistricting. But Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez won reelection to a sixth term in a reconstituted district that Trump had won by about 10 percentage points over Kamala Harris.
And in Ohio, Rep. Greg Landsman, whose district on the west side of Cincinnati was redrawn, won reelection to a third term.
Republican campaign officials were unsparing in their blame of President Trump for Tuesday's wholesale losses, particularly in Senate races.
The losses in South Carolina, Ohio and Texas - all states Trump carried easily two years ago - were a direct repudiation of the president, two officials with Senate campaigns said.
Trump asked voters to pretend he was on the ballot, which they did but not in the way the president hoped, the Republican strategists said, speaking on condition of anonymity to share internal conversations.
Voters were not happy with his policies and upset with what they felt was his exacerbation of their cost-of-living concerns, they said, adding that the broader Republican Party apparatus understands it was Trump and his team who cost the party the elections.
Texas Republican Wayne Hamilton, a former state GOP executive director, upon Texas Democrats capturing the US Senate seat for the first time since 1988 as well as the governorship: "Does we got our butts kicked summarise it distinctly enough?"
"You just can't overcome this environment."
The House Democratic leader said this is not a partisan moment, but a patriotic one.
"Today begins the great American comeback," Jeffries said to a cheering crowd at the Democrats' watch party.
"We're going to work hard to deliver on the dramatic change that you deserve," he said.
"We hear you," he said. "House Democrats are committed to making life better for you."
Ohio Senate voters had a more positive opinion of Democrat Sherrod Brown than Republican Jon Husted, according to The AP Voter Poll, which found that about half of voters had a "strongly" or "somewhat" favourable view of Brown, while only about 4 in 10 felt the same way about Husted.
Most Ohio voters also saw Husted as "too supportive" of Trump, while less than half of voters said Brown was "too extreme."
About half of Ohio voters said control of the Senate was "crucial" to their vote, and Brown won a majority of this group.
Brown substantially improved on his 2024 performance among young voters, while making more modest - but still significant - gains among moderates, lower-income voters and women. The vast majority, about 7 in 10, of voters under 30 supported Brown this year, while only about half of this group voted for him in 2024, according to AP VoteCast.
Brown also won about two-thirds of moderates this year, up from about 6 in 10 moderate voters in 2024, and just over half of women voters, after splitting this group with Sen. Bernie Moreno in 2024.
Paxton spoke briefly after Talarico's victory.
"I will commit that I will be praying for him, that he will do good for Texas and this nation," he said.
Paxton also acknowledged Republican losses across the country.
"We've had a difficult night tonight across the country, but it's not over," he said.
It marks a decisive rebuke of Republican control of governance in Washington, ushering in a new era of congressional resistance to Trump.
The midterm elections that came to a close Tuesday channelled voters' deep frustration with high prices, the war in Iran and concerns about government corruption.
The House remains too early to call, but Democrats have already flipped seven seats as they try to win the majority in that chamber as well.
Democratic control of the Senate will profoundly reshape Trump's final two years in office and likely hamstring his ability to push his agenda, including his hopes for sustaining a conservative shift to the Supreme Court.
Trump has promised he would use his veto power to block Democrats' agenda, forecasting the potential for gridlock in Washington.
Thousands had arrived hoping a Democrat would win a statewide race in Texas for the first time in more than three decades. Talarico won the Senate seat. Then came another Democratic victory.
Gina Hinojosa beat Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, and the crowd's excitement reached a crescendo.
People leapt in the air; others hugged; one danced; a young man called his dad; and an older man marvelled that it was "unbelievable."
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy expressed both reservations and hope for the future after losing the Ohio governor's race to Democrat Amy Acton.
"I have to tell you, I have some serious concerns about the future direction of our country. There's no avoiding that," he told supporters at a subdued watch party. "But I do believe that there have been many ups and downs in the history of our country, and we have, in the end, still found our way upward."
The biotech billionaire thanked his parents, who were in attendance, as well as his wife and her parents.
As he watched election results from the White House, Trump told The New York Times late Tuesday that he would respect the results of the election and work alongside Democrats, who continued to rack up unlikely victories.
"I am absolutely willing to accept those results," he said shortly before 10:30 p.m. "We'll work with the Democrats, and we'll, you know, look forward to working with them. We'll probably work something out."
Voters defeated a proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution that would have reimposed restrictions on most abortions.
The defeat Tuesday came just two years after voters approved an abortion-rights amendment, making Missouri the first state in the nation to undo an existing abortion ban through a ballot measure.
The Republican-led Legislature responded by referring a new, less restrictive version of an abortion ban to this year's ballot. The measure would have allowed abortions only for medical emergencies and fetal anomalies, or in cases of rape or incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. The Legislature paired the latest abortion measure with a prohibition on certain medical procedures for transgender minors.
Abortion-rights advocates, led by national progressive groups, heavily outspent abortion foes in a successful campaign to defeat the ballot measure.
Hinojosa defeated Republican incumbent Greg Abbott.
Hinojosa's win marks an upset victory for Democrats. The state House member from Austin will be Texas' first Latina governor. She is also the first Democrat to win a governor's race in the state since 1990.
Abbott was seeking an unprecedented fourth term after first winning election in 2014.
The Austin state representative overcame his party's decades-old curse Tuesday, defeating Republican Ken Paxton in a race that once seemed like another far reach for Democrats.
Talarico benefited from a combination of circumstances, including Paxton's liabilities and Talarico's stellar fundraising.
In the race's closing months, Trump and Senate GOP super PACs tried to paint Talarico as out of the mainstream, with Elon Musk spending $158 million to oppose the Democrat.
But Talarico won in Texas' metro areas, as well as in once GOP-leaning urban and suburban areas.
The last Democrat to win a Texas Senate seat was Lloyd Bentsen in 1988. Talarico was born the following May.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been dogged by questions of corruption during his run for the Senate - and about two-thirds of voters in the Senate race say he lacked the personal character to serve in that chamber.
Democratic State Rep. James Talarico has been portrayed by Republicans as a vegan who is too supportive of transgender rights.
The attacks have had mixed results. Texas voters are roughly split on whether Talarico's views are "too extreme."
Talarico beat Paxton to net the first Democratic win of a statewide office in Texas since 1994.
Talarico's victory represents the first time a Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas since 1994, a shakeup for a state long dominated by Republicans. The outcome boosts Democrats as they look to retake control of the Senate.
A seminary student and state representative, Talarico focused on bringing down everyday costs and revisiting corruption allegations against Republican opponent Ken Paxton, a state attorney general.
Paxton, who had Trump's endorsement, said Talarico's progressive stances on social issues were out of step with Texas.
The Democratic former Atlanta mayor addressed a boisterous crowd of supporters after being declared the winner in an election that will make her the nation's first Black female governor.
She was met with chants of "Keisha! Keisha!" when she took the stage and was introduced by her daughter.
Bottoms called her campaign a victory for all Georgians, from teachers to farmers to entrepreneurs.
"No matter who you voted for tonight, I will be a governor for all of Georgia," Bottoms said. "Georgia, we sent a message loud and clear that we want a leader who will put Georgia first and who will stand up to all the chaos coming out of Washington, DC."
The Democrat said she'd stand up to her own party in Congress and pledged to show up for voters, including those who didn't support her.
Speaking to cheering supporters, she acknowledged her historic victory - she's the first woman to be elected to represent South Carolina in the US Senate - and lamented vitriol in politics and influence from billionaires.
"South Carolina, you have shown the nation what is possible," Andrews said.
She also said she'd stand up for her state, even if it means disagreeing with other Democrats.
But Andrews also alluded to Trump's support for Darline Graham, her opponent and the sister of late Sen. Lindsey Graham, whose seat Darline Graham was appointed to fill.
"The Senate seat does not belong to one family, one party or to Washington, DC," Andrews said.
Trump strongly pushed for Graham to be named senator after her brother Lindsey Graham died in July. Trump visited the state twice in the weeks before the election as her chances appeared to be fading.
"He loves this country dearly, and I appreciate all that he has done," Graham said.
Graham told the crowd they should remain as proud of her brother as she is.
"This is a tough cycle, and all of us need to be involved as we chart a path forward. It is clear that we as conservatives have work to do and that work starts tonight," Graham said.– AP
