Democrats Win Big: Live Updates on the Aftermath

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, recently told The Sun that Republicans’ lack of interest in running against abortion this cycle “could prove deadly for our prospects.”

After a disastrous showing for Republicans across the country, which included losses for a majority of SBA Pro-Life America’s preferred candidates in races called as of this afternoon, Dannenfelser wrote in a statement that GOP consultants “got the campaign they wanted — and the defeat they earned.”

“You cannot spend years telling your base to sit down and shut up, then act surprised when they don’t stand up for you on Election Day,” she said. “Republicans must stop running from the pro-life fight and start giving voters a reason to fight for them.”

Last November, SBA Pro-Life America committed $80 million to the midterms. Pritchard confirmed Wednesday that the organization fulfilled that commitment between federal- and state-level races.

Consultants “haven’t departed from their strategy since the Dobbs decision in telling Republican candidates that they shouldn’t talk about the issue of abortion,” Pritchard said, calling it the “ostrich strategy” for sticking “their heads in the sand and pretend[ing] abortion isn’t an issue.”

Canvassers in SBA Pro-Life America’s massive operation found that “there was almost zero pre-existing enthusiasm among those pro-life voters” for Republicans, Pritchard said. She highlighted one ad in particular from Republican Mike Rogers, who lost to Democratic Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.

In it, Rogers — who has previously said that the only circumstance where abortion should be legal is to protect the life of the mother — said he would “respect” Michigan voters’ decision on the issue. In 2022, Michiganders voted to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution.

One of the last endorsements Charlie Kirk made was in support of Rep. Andy Biggs’ gubernatorial campaign in Arizona.

After Kirk was assassinated, the Phoenix-based Turning Point group went all in for Biggs and the downballot Republicans in its backyard. The group spent over $18 million on ad buys supporting Biggs and attacking Hobbs, despite the fact that the Republican Governors Association didn’t prioritize the race.

It didn’t work. Incumbent Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, along with the Democrats running for secretary of state and attorney general, won by double digits last night.

The results will fuel the criticism that Turning Point and its affiliated PACs are not a value-add in general elections. Earlier this year, when the group poured money under the radar into utility board elections in Arizona, voters responded in record numbers to elect pro-clean energy candidates.

The Democratic Governors Association touted the party’s new majority of governors for the first time since 2010, with Democrats flipping five governorships in states Trump carried in 2024: Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, Texas and Nevada.

As of this morning, Democrats held at least 28 governorships, compared with 20 for Republicans.The expanded majority gives Democratic governors a larger platform to advance their policy priorities, including Medicaid expansion, data center regulation and lowering utility costs. It also raises questions about their influence over the next round of congressional redistricting.

“The governors that we’ve elected last night are going to have a really strong say in how maps are formed before 2030,” DGA executive director Meghan Meehan-Draper said. “They’ll ensure that fair maps are drawn, that Census population is gathered correctly, and that Congress… is fair representation [of] everyone.”

The election results also renewed questions about the national ambitions of several Democratic governors who are viewed as potential contenders for the 2028 presidential nomination. Asked whether the victories could elevate governors’ standing within the Democratic Party, Meehan-Draper argued that they were already among its strongest leaders.

“If anything, I feel like this shows the Democratic governors are the leaders of the party. They’re by far the most popular elected officials in the Democratic Party because they have the receipts, they can show what they’ve done for people in their states to make their lives better,” she said.

Mississippi’s shockingly tight Senate race is still too close to call, but both candidates are already looking to a possible future recount. Democrat Scott Colom launched a text blitz with a link to the Scott Colom Recount Fund, according to a text message reviewed by The Washington Sun.

“We urgently need your help to make sure that every last eligible vote is counted in this race,” says the message, which directs readers to the ActBlue fundraising platform.

Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith is also anticipating a potential recount — the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee added her as a joint fund participant to their newly registered NRSC Recount Fund, according to a Federal Election Commission filing from this morning. She joined Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) as a fund participant. His race is also looking like a nailbiter for Republicans, although Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system tabulation process will make for much later results.

The funds are a curious development: Mississippi is one of the few states without a recount mechanism in place. Votes are still being counted, but Colom told reporters today that he’s “confident” he’ll win. Top Democrats plan to send election law experts and attorneys to Mississippi to block any potential legal challenges to a potential Colom victory.

Mississippi Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom listens during a maternal health roundtable at the Capital Club in Jackson, Miss., Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Sarah Warnock) Sarah Warnock/AP Photo/Sarah Warnock

House Judiciary Committee Democrats, who ran on a promise to investigate Trump and his administration, are already looking to beef up their staff with committee ratios set to change significantly come January, when Republicans will lose their chamber majorities.

Dems on the committee listed four new job postings today for “a diligent and creative Press/Digital Assistant,” “an Office/Operations Manager,” “counsels/professional staff members,” and “full-time Staff Assistants.”

Shortly after Democrats were projected to take the House, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, Oversight’s top Democrat, issued a two-word statement: “Lawyer up.”

Those job listings joined others posted by House Democrats after their Election Day triumph: Rep. Mike Levin of California is looking to hire a “digitally savvy Press Secretary/Digital Manager,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, also of California, is seeking “Legislative Counsel” to work on tech and AI issues, and Rep. Pablo Hernández of Puerto Rico is seeking an “experienced Legislative Director.”

Democrat Rebecca Cooke, who flipped Wisconsin’s partly rural 3rd Congressional District by more than 6 percentage points, said her victory margin exceeded even her expectations. She unseated Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden.

Cooke ran in part on the need to pass a farm bill to support small and midsize agricultural producers and undo the harm wrought by reciprocal tariffs and the war in Iran on farmers’ fertilizer and diesel prices.

Cooke told The Sun on Wednesday that Democrats should avoid getting bogged down in anti-corruption probes before addressing the high-impact economic issues that voters care about.

“The first 100 days has to be focused on meaningful results for working families to bring down costs and make things more affordable again. I think accountability comes later,” Cooke said.

“It would be a distraction, and I think that between New Dems and Blue Dogs ... they’re going to push back on that because those of us that won in these purple and red districts, we made promises to people that we need to go deliver on,” said Cooke, who has received endorsements from both groups.

South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds said Republicans are taking a message from yesterday’s midterms — and it might lead to more resistance to President Donald Trump from within the party.

Rounds, who won reelection on Tuesday night, told a local television station that he was “surprised at the depth” of losses suffered by his colleagues.

“The president made it very clear that he was on the ballot, and I think that’s part of the message that we’re taking back,” Rounds said.

He said they would work with the president to build the economy.

“But we’re also going to have to take a second look at some of the executive branch decisions that have been made, and we’ll try to add our two cents in and maybe make them a little bit better,” Rounds added, pointing to decisions about Cabinet members and “side issues” like renovations.

“They’re issues that I think the American people have looked at and said, ‘Yeah, we’ve got other things that are bigger issues for us,’” Rounds said. “The economy is the big one.”

President Donald Trump said he won’t be involved in decisions about the next House minority leader while speaking at the White House ballroom construction site today.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told staffers this morning that he will not seek the top Republican post next Congress.

“We’ll stay out of it,” Trump told reporters. “But the speaker was fantastic. The people under him were fantastic. All good people.”

Rep. Richard Hudson, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, has conceded his North Carolina seat to Democrat Richard Ojeda, Politico reports. It’s a loss that captures just how badly the election went for Hudson’s party, given that he was tasked with defending the Republican majority in the House.

Today is also Hudson’s birthday.

“It’s hard to think of a better poster child for the Democratic wave than the chairman of the [NRCC] losing a district that was drawn to be impervious to Democratic waves,” North Carolina Democratic strategist Asher Hildebrand told The Washington Sun.

Hudson’s district was the result of Republican-led redistricting in 2024, and he won his last election by 20 percentage points.

Ojeda spent 24 years in the U.S. Army, including time at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg, which is in the district. He ran on a progressive platform, telling local TV station WXII that the United States should provide universal health care and college student loan forgiveness. Ojeda raised $2.9 million this cycle, lagging behind Hudson’s $4.2 million.

The Cook Political Report rated the race as “likely Republican,” but Hudson may have sensed trouble in early October when he reserved tens of thousands of dollars in TV ad buys in the district. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had also targeted Hudson’s district on its optimistic “districts in play” list. Last month, the flagship Democratic House super PAC told donors that “more expansion seats,” including Hudson’s, were “within reach.”

President Donald Trump speaks during a tour of the White House ballroom construction site. (Alex Brandon/AP)

President Donald Trump’s first public appearance since Democrats swept the midterms was a beam signing inside the unfinished White House ballroom, where he spoke for more than 20 minutes about limestone columns, bulletproof glass and the marble he ordered for the floor. He did not raise the election once, though he did field reporter questions on it afterward.

He told the roughly 525 workers gathered at the site that the project was “ahead of schedule” and “under budget,” said the Corinthian columns were “very much like the Supreme Court” and again noted the structure is “drone proof, missile proof, bulletproof” and will be “the safest place in Washington.”

The closest he came to the campaign was defending the project: “It was sort of mentioned a little bit during the campaign about why does Trump spend time on the White House? Well, first of all, it’s very little time. Second of all, I like it. It’s good for me,” he said. “I love construction.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday he was confident he would be reelected leader of the Democratic Caucus in the next Congress, despite critics who said he wasn’t doing enough to stand up to Donald Trump.

Asked about a slew of incoming Democratic senators who have vowed not to support him as leader, Schumer told reporters, “The issue is not me. I’ll be reelected as majority leader. But the issue is focusing on the American people and what they want.”

The New York Democrat said his party would be focused on the key issues of the 2026 midterm elections: reducing high costs and ending corruption in Washington.

Freshman Rep. Brian Jack announced in a dear colleague letter that he is running for chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

“Eighteen years ago, the 2008 election handed Democrats 257 seats. Two years later, we won 242 seats. The Road to the Majority starts now,” he said in his letter.

Jack served as deputy chairman of the NRCC this cycle and previously was political director for President Donald Trump and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

In the letter, he laid out five things he would do if elected chair: “Go on Offense, All Day Every Day; Defend our incumbent; Recruit the best candidates; Smartly coordinate and deploy resources; Listen to and learn from the membership.”

While he has yet to announce, Indiana Rep. Rudy Yakym is also expected to get in the race.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn and James Talarico spoke by phone following Tuesday’s election, with Cornyn initiating the conversation, according to a person familiar with the call.

Cornyn lost a brutal primary against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton earlier this year.

Trump Media’s stock plummeted today following cataclysmic Republican losses in the midterm elections.

The company’s stock, which trades under the symbol DJT, was trading at around $5.08 on Wednesday morning, down 14% from the prior trading session, and trending downward. The stock traded at $97 during its peak in March 2022 but hit an all-time low on Wednesday.

Trump Media is the company behind Truth Social and Truth+, a live TV streaming platform.

The “real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone,” Vice President JD Vance wrote on X. Matt Rourke/AP Photo

Vice President JD Vance said the reason Republicans lost in the midterms was “obvious to almost everyone.”

“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote in a post on X.

Vance, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, said that while turnout was good, many voters shifted from supporting a Republican ticket to Democratic candidates.

“The main problem is not turnout,” Vance said. “The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.”

Vance outlined what a pollster told him were the top issues that cost voters to shift.

“The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses, were: End the war, Focus on cost of living/inflation, Put America First, Change our relationship to Israel,” Vance said.

Less than 100 votes separate Mississippi Democrat Scott Colom from Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the state’s Senate race, where Democrats are trying to extend their run of stunning midterm upsets.

Top Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, are sending officials from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to Mississippi, multiple sources told The Washington Sun.

They’ll be on the ground, along with the Elias Law Group, leading the party’s efforts to ensure all votes are counted, the sources said. Colom would be the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the state in 44 years.

Colom was recruited to run for Senate by Schumer, who’s in line to be the majority leader of the chamber.

Democrats are trying to pad the Senate majority they’ve already secured. The party has flipped Republican seats in Texas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, Kansas and Iowa.

Outgoing Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger will run for whip against current House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, according to a source familiar with the matter. After the brutal beating Republicans took on Tuesday, members have expressed they are open to a change in leadership.

Emmer’s team feels confident they can beat back a challenge from Pfluger.

House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain is expected to run for reelection. The decision comes amid a GOP leadership shakeup on the heels of devastating Republican losses in the House and Senate.

The top brass of the conference is undergoing a dramatic shift. Speaker Mike Johnson told staff today he would not seek another term to lead the conference. Outgoing Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio and current Majority Leader Steve Scalise are expected to announce leadership bids.

McClain could potentially see a challenger as some members see the election results as a referendum on the status quo.

Hakeem Jeffries named ending the Iran war as House Democrats’ first priority, saying it should not wait for the next Congress to convene on Jan. 3.

“The president and the administration should end this reckless and costly war of choice in Iran that has skyrocketed gas prices, skyrocketed fertilizer prices, skyrocketed the price of diesel,” the House Democratic leader told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer today.

In the same interview Jeffries called affordability the one thing uniting his caucus “whether you’re a progressive, a moderate, a centrist or a blue dog Democrat.”

Texas Senator-elect James Talarico told Fox News today that he would give President Donald Trump “credit where credit is due” and would like to work with him on immigration reform, housing and marijuana.

“He has done a better job than the previous administration in securing our border, but we also need to create more legal pathways for hardworking immigrants who want to come here and contribute to our economy,” Talarico said. “I also want to work with the president on housing. He’s a builder, and we need to cut the red tape.”

Talarico said he also agrees with Trump “on the need to legalize marijuana and reform this broken criminal justice system.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is expected to announce this morning that he will be running for minority leader, according to a source familiar with the matter. This sets up another clash against House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan as they fight for who will lead Republicans in the minority.

“Scalise will be announcing his run for Republican leader for the next Congress today,” a source told The Sun. “His number one goal will be to lead the conference back into the majority. He is a proven and tested leader who is ready on day one. He’s spent his career unifying Republicans and he is prepared for the big legislative and oversight battles ahead. The conference knows him, how he fights, and that he’s a trusted leader.”

Speaker Mike Johnson told staff this morning that he will not run for GOP leader and will step aside.

Speaker Mike Johnson told his staff today on a call that he does not plan to run for minority leader and will step aside, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The Federal Election Commission is disabusing anyone of the notion that we’re still in the midst of the midterms, at least when it comes to political money.

“November 4, 2026, marks the beginning of a new election cycle,” the campaign finance agency wrote in a memo Wednesday morning to federal campaign committee treasurers. The practical implication? Political committees must immediately “separate ... activity that occurred on or after November 4 from activity that occurred prior to that date.”

Rep. Jim Jordan plans to make a bid to lead the House Republican conference. Meg Kinnard/AP

Rep. Jim Jordan plans to announce this morning that he is running for House minority leader, according to a source familiar with the matter. Jordan is the first person to throw his hat into the ring to shake up House Republicans’ leadership — House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise have yet to say what they plan to do.

In a series of phone calls with reporters last night, President Donald Trump congratulated Democrats on their widespread wins, warned them of his veto power, and deflected the blame for the Republican losses.

The president told Politico that he had talked to leaders in the Democratic Party shortly before midnight. He declined to say specifically who he had spoken with.

“I know a lot of Democrats,” Trump told CBS. “I have total veto power, and I’m sure we’ll be able to work things out.”

The president continued to distance himself from the result.

“I wasn’t on the ballot, and there was nothing that could be done about that,” Trump told CBS. “If I was, we would have won.”

Trump also picked up the phone from reporters at The New York Times.

In the Senate, Alaska and Mississippi results remain too close to call. As of early Wednesday, Democratic nominee Scott Colom and incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith were tied in Mississippi at 48.9%, with 96% of the votes counted, according to the Associated Press.

Only 72% of the vote has been counted in Alaska. Since the state has a ranked-choice voting system, it could take days to know whether Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan has been toppled by Democrat Mary Peltola (the other Dan Sullivan is lagging far behind).

On the House side, National Republican Congressional Committee chair Richard Hudson is in a tight race to hold on to North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, where he is trailing Democrat Richard Ojeda by just over 1 percentage point. In North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, the most expensive U.S. House race on record, according to AdImpact, incumbent Democrat Rep. Don Davis is leading his GOP opponent by just over 3 points. And in the state’s 5th Congressional District, incumbent Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx was tied with Democratic nominee Chuck Hubbard at 48.7% and 99% of the votes counted.

A slew of House races in Florida remain within 1 percentage point, including Florida’s 9th Congressional District, which was redistricted to draw out Democratic Rep. Darren Soto.

The majority of California’s House races remain too close to call, in addition to the closely watched Los Angeles mayor’s race between Nithya Raman and incumbent Karen Bass.

Voters considered over 100 ballot measures yesterday. Abortion rights measures prevailed in multiple states. Voters rejected some redistricting efforts. California and Colorado rejected new voter ID mandates. Read more here.

A California measure to tax the net worth of billionaires that divided liberal leaders nationally and triggered one of the most expensive ballot fights in state history was too early to call Wednesday morning as the vote tally continued.

Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of Californians whose net worth exceeds $1 billion, with most of the revenue dedicated to replacing federal funding cuts to healthcare. The measure left the ultra-rich, some of whom spent heavily to defeat it, scrambling to figure out whether they would pay the tax or leave California.

Rep. Mike Lawler conceded the race on Tuesday. Seth Wenig/AP

Hours after Republican Rep. Mike Lawler conceded to his Democratic challenger Cait Conley in one of the most closely watched House races, thousands of votes are still being counted due to issues with Westchester County’s ballot-scanning machines.

A judge signed off on a plan on Tuesday evening for thousands of ballots to be transported and counted at a secure warehouse. Voters placed completed ballots in bags that were subsequently transported under police escort.

A programming glitch caused ballot scanners to reject votes when the polls opened in the county on Tuesday morning. The issue was quickly raised, and the Board of Elections worked to deploy replacement machines.

At Perspectives, Sun columnist Dana Milbank writes: “Even more than a win for Democrats or a loss for Republicans, Tuesday night’s result was a resounding vote of no confidence in Donald J. Trump himself.”

But columnist Matt K. Lewis shares a word of warning for Democrats about affordability: “Going forward, Democrats will share governing responsibility — and the blame if nothing gets done to alleviate this problem.”

The Ohio Republican lost to Democrat and union ironworker Brian Poindexter after Miller faced domestic violence allegations that overshadowed his campaign. Miller, who has denied the allegations and filed a defamation case against his ex-wife, was endorsed by Trump, who wrote in the election’s closing days on Truth Social: “GET OUT AND VOTE FOR MAX — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”

Democrat Rebecca Cooke won her bid to represent Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, flipping control of the largely rural district that covers much of the western half of the state. She defeated Republican incumbent Derrick Van Orden, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, in a rematch of the pair’s contest from two years ago.