Democrats woke up Wednesday still celebrating their seismic triumph in the midterm elections, after voters gave them control of the Senate and the House in a blistering rebuke to President Donald Trump. The rout, which has dramatically reset the balance of power in Washington, stretched from coast to coast as Democrats flipped seats that had spent decades in Republican hands.

Trump, who had made the midterms a referendum on himself, imploring voters to act as if he were on the ballot, 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.

But a blue wave had already become a red wipeout: 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.

Sen. Susan Collins, a long-serving Maine Republican who had repeatedly foiled Democratic efforts to unseat her, conceded her race to Democrat Troy Jackson.

In Texas, James Talarico, a state legislator who became a national fundraising sensation, toppled Ken Paxton, the scandal-ridden Republican state attorney general whom Trump had elevated to the nomination.

In South Carolina, Dr. Annie Andrews prevailed over Sen. Darline Graham, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham. And Abdul El-Sayed won in Michigan, becoming the first Muslim elected to the Senate, even after his defeated primary rival endorsed the Republican nominee.

The scale of the Democratic victory was beginning to come into focus: The party’s margin in the overall national vote for House seats was expected to be about 13 percentage points, the largest for either party in a congressional election in at least a half-century, according to estimates by The New York Times. Democrats made extraordinary gains with young voters and Hispanic voters, and significant inroads with voters who didn’t attend college, according to Times Voter Trends.

The wins also thwarted the redistricting effort Republicans had undertaken in hopes of protecting their House majority. Democrats won districts in Florida that Republicans redrew and flipped a North Carolina seat that was also part of the GOP redistricting effort.

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— Democratic landslide: The results revealed an unambiguous mandate from voters for a check on Trump, who has pushed the limits of his power, and imperiled whatever was left of his legislative agenda. He and his administration will face investigations that are expected to consume much of the next Congress.

— Statehouses: Democrats notched other firsts in governors’ races. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman to be elected governor 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.

— GOP bright spots: Republicans fended off a significant challenge in a Senate race in Florida, with Sen. Ashley Moody defeating Angie Nixon, a progressive Democrat. Byron Donalds, a staunch Trump supporter, was elected Florida’s first Black governor, keeping the Republicans’ hold on that office.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Reid J. Epstein and Kellen Browning/KC McGinnis
c. 2026 The New York Times Company