Democrats are projected to win control of the House of Representatives in a stunning sweep, ending unified Republican control of Washington in a stark rebuke of President Donald Trump’s leadership.
The margin of the win is still unclear, with a number of contested seats still yet to be called. Midterm elections are often a referendum on the president’s leadership, and Democrats were able to secure a striking number of wins in deep-red districts that the president won by double digits in 2024.
Rep. Richard Hudson (R-North Carolina), the current head of the House Republicans’ campaign arm, is trailing in his race in what has been a solidly red district.
Democrat Zach Dembo flipped a highly watched seat in Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District, an area that Trump won by 15 percentage points in 2024. Democrat Jamie Ager won North Carolina’s 11th District, which Trump won by nearly 10 points, following a series of misconduct allegations against Rep. Chuck Edwards, who withdrew from the race earlier this year. And Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti won Rep. Rob Bresnahan’s contested Pennsylvania seat, a district that swung for Trump in 2024 by 8 points.
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Democratic campaigns focused intensely on the cost of living in the fight over the House this year, blaming Trump and Republicans for high prices due to tariffs and the Iran war. Costs generated by data centers and artificial intelligence were also a central part of the argument against the GOP, often mentioned alongside allegations of corruption benefiting the president and billionaires.
The result is a major setback for Trump halfway through his second term, handing power to Democrats to block his agenda and launch investigations into an administration that has so far faced little pushback from a Republican-controlled Congress.
And, Democrats stunning wins in red states on Tuesday came even after the GOP kicked off a redistricting push to add Republican seats in states like Texas, Florida and North Carolina earlier this year. Democrats were largely able to buck those efforts on Tuesday night, holding on and ousting Republicans in several of those redrawn districts.
The Democratic victory also means House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will likely become the first Black speaker of the House next year. He would be the first Democrat to hold the position since his mentor and the first woman to hold the office, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, relinquished the gavel in 2023.
Through nearly two years of complete control over Washington, Trump and Republicans were able to pass a sweeping bill that extended tax cuts from the first Trump administration, slashed billions in spending for Medicaid and food assistance and poured funding into immigration enforcement and border security. They also clawed back funding for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting.
It’s the second time Democrats have reclaimed the House during a midterm election under a Trump administration. In 2018, Democrats won 41 Republican seats, taking the majority and later impeaching Trump twice.
Democrats have promised to investigate the president, his family and his close circle of allies. That includes an expanded congressional investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his network of connections. Many are wary of impeaching Trump a third time, but other officials such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could be in their sights.
Leaders have said they want to focus on the issues that helped them win. They’ve already started to sketch out a House Democratic agenda for next year, campaigning on reversing some of the GOP’s deepest cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP, restoring Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies and seeking to end the war in Iran. They will have a hard time enacting that agenda, though, with any legislation passing the House also having to go through the Senate and receive Trump’s signature (or enough votes to override a veto).
The win for House Democrats comes with a slew of new headaches and challenges for the party’s leadership.
Jeffries’ caucus will get an influx of progressives who are pushing to move their party to the left and challenge its leadership. A number of Democrats who refused to publicly support Jeffries for speaker during their campaigns won their races. The growing progressive bloc could present challenges for Jeffries in the speakership. The New York Democrat and members of his inner circle have already started outreach to potential defectors.
Democrats claimed control of the House in spite of an aggressive, nationwide mid-decade redistricting campaign spearheaded by the president to bolster his party’s chances. GOP-led states, led by Texas, redrew congressional maps to give Republicans an advantage in more than a dozen districts. Democrats retaliated with redistricting of their own in California and other states, but Republicans emerged from the redistricting battle with an advantage.
The Democratic triumph also sinks the House Republican Conference into uncertainty. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s political future is up in the air, and there’s a roster of potentially interested suitors for the minority leader job.
Johnson’s tenure as speaker will end after three turbulent years, in which he struggled to balance demands from the president, a rowdy faction of House conservatives and the realities of governing.
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