Democrats will control both the House and the Senate in January. In Tuesday’s midterms they flipped seven Senate seats, won the House by a wide margin and took five governor’s offices from Republicans, including Texas and Ohio, CNBC reported. That sets up two years of divided government for the rest of President Trump’s term.
Trump said he was “a little bit surprised.” “I thought we would do better,” he told Fox News. Hours later he posted, “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” ABC News reported. He also posted a photo of a red hat that says “VETO.”
How big did Democrats win the midterms?
- Senate: Democrats gained seven seats and were on track for at least 54, with Alaska and Mississippi still uncalled. They beat Susan Collins in Maine and Jon Husted in Ohio, and won in Texas and South Carolina, states that hadn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in decades.
- House: Democrats won a large majority. Hakeem Jeffries launched his bid for speaker and would be the first Black speaker.
- Governors: Democrats flipped Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Iowa and Nevada, giving them a majority of governorships for the first time since 2010.
Mississippi is the cliffhanger. Democrat Scott Colom led Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by just 65 votes out of more than 945,000 with 95% counted, and a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett let mail ballots that arrive after Election Day still count there. If Colom wins, he’d be Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction.
Why did Republicans lose the midterms?
Even Republicans point to the Iran war and prices. Vice President JD Vance said the war led to the party’s losses, and Trump pointed to the higher fuel prices that came with it. He also blamed candidates: “they didn’t like the candidates in most cases, just one of those things.” Nearly 9 in 10 voters told CNBC the cost of living was a crucial or major factor. Trump’s approval was already at a second-term low heading in.
What changes for me with Democrats in charge of Congress?
Not your taxes or prices overnight. Trump can veto anything Democrats pass, and he’s promised to. “I send them back with a nice stamp veto,” he said. What does change is oversight. Democrats get subpoena power, and Rep. Robert Garcia, the likely House Oversight chair, said he’ll focus on “the Trump family, immigration enforcement policies, corporate corruption and Jeffrey Epstein.” Government funding and the debt limit will now need both sides. Trump said he can work with Democrats on “a lot of financial ideas,” but not on tariffs or immigration.
The BeezLoop Take
This was a verdict on prices and a war voters never signed up for, and Republicans’ own vice president said so. Blaming the candidates or the president’s absence from the ballot misses what people said at the polls.
Democrats now have to show they can do more than investigate. Oversight matters, and there’s plenty to look at. But voters who flipped Texas and Ohio want lower costs and an end to the war, and a party that only holds hearings will lose them just as fast.
The open question: will Trump and the new Congress make any deal on prices or the Iran war, or will the next two years be vetoes and subpoenas?
Also on BeezLoop: Trump warned America would burn like France if Democrats won.
Sources: ABC News · CNBC · NBC News (video)
