Democrats regain US Senate control in 2026 midterms
Democrats have regained control of the US Senate in the 2026 midterms, routing Republicans in races that, according to the Associated Press, include South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Iowa and Kansas. That majority will let them stall Donald Trump’s remaining legislative agenda and any cabinet or federal judiciary appointments, including to the Supreme Court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority. Combined with a likely win in the House of Representatives, they are expected to control Congress from next year for the first time since 2022.
The rebound follows 2024, when voters returned Trump to the White House and gave Republicans a 53-seat Senate majority. Democrats had first aimed at Republican-held seats in North Carolina, Ohio, Alaska and Maine, while the GOP hoped to take Democratic-held seats in Georgia and Michigan, both of which voted for Trump, plus New Hampshire and Minnesota, which Kamala Harris carried by relatively weak margins. Republicans then failed to unseat Democrats in New Hampshire and Georgia. Counting continues in Minnesota and Michigan, where Democrats hope to hold seats vacated by retiring incumbents; in Maine, where Susan Collins is the last Republican senator from a blue state; and in Alaska, where Democrats hope to unseat two-term Republican Dan Sullivan, a result that may take days.
Trump’s second-term approval fell, especially on the economy and immigration. His attack on Iran and highly public federal immigration raids, in which two US citizens were killed in Minneapolis, alienated voters, and rising petrol prices after the Middle East conflict boosted Democratic hopes in Texas, Kansas and Iowa. Kansas had not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, Texas since 1988, South Carolina for 38 years, and Iowa and North Carolina for 18. Trump’s primary interventions also backfired: he condemned North Carolina’s Thom Tillis for opposing his main domestic bill, Tillis retired, and former governor Roy Cooper easily won the seat. In Texas he backed scandal-plagued attorney general Ken Paxton over longtime senator John Cornyn, who lost the primary; Democratic state representative James Talarico then took the seat by a double-digit margin, the AP reported.
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