‘This Is a Massacre’: A Blue Tsunami Crashes Down

Abdul El-Sayed is projected to win the open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, defeating Republican Mike Rogers — a major win for Democrats and the progressive movement. El-Sayed will be the first Muslim U.S. Senator.

It was one of the most competitive — and nastiest — of the year, filled with personal attacks. It also prompted an intraparty feud that haunted Democrats until the final days of the general election: El-Sayed’s primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens, broke party ranks on Sunday to endorse Rogers, to the disapproval of many Democrats.

El-Sayed focused his campaign on economic issues facing Michigan, supporting “Medicare for All” and regulation of the AI industry.

“He’s going to make this about him and me,” El-Sayed said of Rogers during their first debate in October. “But really, it’s about you and whether you can afford your gas and your groceries.”

As Republican incumbents in purple Pennsylvania battled strong political headwinds this November, they were forced to choose a tack — tying themselves to Trump or going their own way.

The question loomed large as the president’s approval rating continued to sink in the state — one late-October poll showed 70% of Pennsylvania voters disapproved of Trump’s job performance.

Two of the battleground state’s longest-serving Republican incumbents — Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Scott Perry — chose opposite courses on the campaign trail this fall. It didn’t make a difference as Democrats swept in deep red districts across the country, including in areas that Trump won by double digits in 2024.

Fitzpatrick, who distanced himself from the increasingly unpopular president and his war in Iran, is projected to lose his seat in PA-01 to Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie.

Perry, who stuck by Trump and defended some of the administration’s most controversial moves while serving his seventh term in Congress, was also projected to lose to the Democratic nominee, former local news anchor Janelle Stelson, in his Harrisburg-area district.

The loss of Pennsylvania’s four competitive districts alongside a heavy win for Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro could cement a new direction for the state, where those districts have historically swung back and forth between the two political parties.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., arrives to a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on Tuesday. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

Democrats performed even past their own expectations yesterday, and the onslaught of flipped states have led some senators to move past polite celebrations.

Responding to a social media post about how the new Senate will handle the executives of major tech companies, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) posted, “They are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we’ll be printing.”

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-New Hampshire) asked, “Want to say that under oath?” after former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the night’s losses were due to the Trump administration being “too successful” in its first year.

“It was a blue tsunami,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) in a video on X. “We are going to hold the Trump administration accountable.”

The video’s caption finished with three blue wave emojis.

Democrats succeeded in ousting conservative Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz in one of the most surprising upsets of the 2026 midterm elections.

Spartz lost to Democrat J.D. Ford, who currently serves in the Indiana state Senate.

The results reflect strong Democratic enthusiasm this year. The three-term congresswoman previously won her Indianapolis-area district by 19 percentage points. Trump also won it by more than 16 points.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is still expected to run for a second term atop the Republican conference despite the heavy losses incurred by the party last night.

A source close to the leader confirmed his plans to The Sun. Leadership elections for Senate Republicans are slated for Tuesday, Nov. 10.

The South Dakota Republican has indicated in past months that he would run for the post but stopped short of making a definitive announcement.

Thune talks to Republican supporters at a campaign stop for Sen. Jon Husted in Clyde, Ohio. Maddie McGarvey for The Washington Sun

Iowa Democrats had an impressive Election Day, with projections showing Rob Sand becoming the state’s next governor, Josh Turek landing a Senate seat and the party flipping Iowa’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd congressional districts.

The last time Iowa elected a Democratic governor was 2006, and Democrat Tom Harkin — the most recent Iowa Democrat to serve in the Senate — ended his tenure in January 2015.

However, Republican Chris McGowan is projected to hold IA-04. The results are a sea change from 2024, when Trump won Iowa by more than 13 percentage points.

“I think more and more people are paying attention to who actually cares about the health care crisis and the cancer crisis and the water quality crisis and who is legitimately going to address it,” Turek told The Sun in October.

AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who lost the race for Senate against Democrat James Talarico, has not called him to concede, a person close to Paxton told The Washington Sun.

When asked if Paxton planned to call, the person didn’t respond.

Talarico is on stage now giving his remarks.

In a lengthy phone interview with Fox News, Trump said he does not expect to make changes to his Cabinet after Democrats flipped both chambers of Congress.

Trump cast blame for Republicans’ dismal results on the candidates themselves, and congratulated Democrats — “they did a good job” — adding that he can work with them “on many things.”

“They didn’t like the candidates, and some of the candidates that I endorsed fought me, and they didn’t like that they fought me,” Trump said of Republicans.

Trump said he would accept the results of the races — “Why wouldn’t I?” — and said the thumping was not a result of the war in Iran, but that gas prices played a factor.

“I think it’s a gasoline price,” Trump said. “People agree with what I’m doing on Iran, but they really probably weren’t willing to do the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline.”

On working with Democrats, Trump said: “They’re in control, but they’re really not in control because they can send over 50 different great bills that they’re all excited about, and I send them back with a nice stamp veto.”

“I wasn’t on the ballot,” Trump said. “If I was on the ballot, they would have gotten out. Look, they got out for the rallies. You never saw rallies that big.”

For the first time in history, more than 100 Democratic women have been elected to the House of Representatives, according to a spokesperson for the Democratic Women’s Caucus.

Back in May, DWC Chair Teresa Leger Fernández told reporters “there aren’t enough women representing America,” predicting that the caucus would “soar past a hundred” in the midterm elections.

Currently, 97 Democratic women serve in the House, already the highest number in the caucus’ history. Still, that set comprises about 22% of the wider chamber. Combined with the 32 Republican women who currently hold seats, these 129 voting and nonvoting members reach 29% — far from representative of the group that makes up roughly 50% of the U.S. population.

A jubilant Chuck Schumer celebrated with campaign staff after Democrats won control of the Senate, lauding the results as a paradigm shift that will deliver major change to the nation.

“Wow! Wow! Wow!” Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, exclaimed during a news conference at the headquarters of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee just before midnight on Tuesday.

“There is now a generational remake of the Senate map that is going to change America now and on into the future. Americans voted for change, and now Democrats must deliver,” the Senate minority leader said.

Schumer thanked and hugged campaign staff, who popped champagne bottles and toasted to Democrats’ huge gains on Tuesday, which included a slew of red states that once seemed unthinkable.

The mood on the outside patio of the building was joyous. Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” blared from the speakers somewhere. Wild screams erupted after a staffer announced to her colleagues that longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine had just conceded her race, padding Democrats’ new majority next year.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins has called Democrat Troy Jackson to concede, a source confirmed to The Sun, ending a five-term reign and flipping a key seat. Collins ran independently from Trump and the national Republican Party, instead emphasizing her strength as a retail politician who steers funds to the state from her top position on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

But her independent record wasn’t enough to overcome voters’ frustrations with the GOP in the only state on the board held by a Republican that was carried by Kamala Harris two years ago.

“It has been the honor of my life to serve the people of Maine in the United States Senate. I’m proud of all I have been able to accomplish for our state and for our country in the past 30 years,” Collins said in a statement.

Sen. Susan Collins at an election night event in Bangor, Maine. Charles Krupa/AP

Democrat Amy Klobuchar won election Wednesday as governor of Minnesota, defeating Republican Lisa Demuth. She launched her campaign in January after Gov. Tim Walz abandoned his bid for a third term amid criticism over mismanagement of taxpayer funding for child care programs.

Democrat Peggy Flanagan emerged victorious in the state’s Senate race, defeating Republican Michele Tafoya. The current lieutenant governor, Flanagan, who is a member of the Ojibwe Native American tribe, will succeed Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat who did not seek reelection.

Trump, in a post to Truth Social, said he was “going to become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost!”

Nine hours ago, Trump reshared his endorsement of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. After Abbott’s stunning loss to Democrat Gina Hinojosa, Trump said the governor was to blame.

“If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost,” Trump wrote in a post. “He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty!”

Shortly after, Trump trained his ire back at Fox News for having on Bill de Blasio: “FoxNews bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse.”

Republican incumbents have lost close races in Virginia’s 1st and 2nd congressional districts but hung on to the state’s 5th District.

Incumbent Rob Wittman’s almost two-decade career in Congress has come to an end after his Democratic opponent, Shannon L. Taylor, won the 1st District. Wittman exhausted all his resources, outspending Taylor’s campaign by almost $2 million as of Oct. 14.

His defeat has upended the race to lead Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee, removing Chair Mike Rogers’ preferred successor. Reps. Trent Kelly of Mississippi and Ronny Jackson of Texas are also seeking the job, while questions remain about whether Rogers could secure a waiver from the House Republican Steering Committee to stay on.

Jackson, a close Trump ally, is feared by some defense insiders as a potential disruptor of the panel’s bipartisan traditions. But that may be precisely what Trump wants as Democrats prepare to investigate his Pentagon.

Tom Williams/AP

Democrat Elaine Luria, a retired Navy commander and former member of the House Armed Services Committee, is poised to return to Congress after a four-year absence — potentially putting one of the Pentagon’s toughest former critics on a collision course with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Luria, who lost her Virginia Beach-area seat to Republican Jen Kiggans in 2022, was a relentless questioner of Navy leaders during her two terms in Congress, challenging them on shipbuilding, readiness and plans to confront China. Luria’s projected victory is a reversal from the candidates’ last battle in 2022, when Kiggans eked out a victory and unseated her.

Both candidates are Navy veterans, but they have conflicting views on the Iran war and its effects on a district home to 19 military bases and over 30,000 active service members. Kiggans voted against Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-Virginia) war powers resolution, but said she looks forward to the “conflict ending.”

Luria also served on the House panel probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, giving her experience in high-profile investigations.

If Democrats capture the House, Luria could become a formidable voice in their promised oversight of Hegseth’s Pentagon, including its handling of the Iran war and military leadership purges.

Al Drago/AP

John McGuire defended his 5th District seat against Democrat Tom Perriello, who previously represented the district from 2009 to 2011, and won by 1 point.

McGuire’s victory solidified the Republican stronghold in a district that saw Trump win by 12 points in 2024.

Hawaii and most of Alaska have closed their polls. (Alaska’s Aleutian Islands are in another time zone and will finish voting at 1 a.m. Eastern time.)

“America is back,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said during an election night event as Democrats are projected to take back control of the House and Senate.

“This is a change election, and we understand, as House Democrats, that we need to deliver dramatic change,” said Jeffries, who is positioned to become majority leader. “Things are broken. We need a Congress that puts the American people first.”

Jeffries said the party is committed to fixing the affordability crisis, bringing down health care costs and improving education.

Hakeem Jeffries is joined by Reps. Katherine Clark (D-Massachusetts), Suzan DelBene (D-Washington), Ted Lieu (D-California), and Gregory Meeks (D-New York) at a watch party in Washington, D.C. Francis Chung/POLITICO/AP

Democrats are projected to take control of the Senate after flipping seats in a striking number of solidly red states across the country, setting the party up to hold majorities in both chambers of Congress for the final two years of Trump’s presidency.

Democrats won Senate seats in GOP strongholds like South Carolina, Texas, Kansas, Iowa and Ohio and picked up a seat in North Carolina in a sharp rebuke of Trump’s policies. Midterm elections are often a referendum of the president’s leadership, but Democrats were able to secure remarkable wins in states that the president won by double digits in 2024.

The result was virtually unthinkable just a year ago, given how challenging this year’s map was for Democrats. But in South Carolina, which has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998, Democratic nominee and physician Annie Andrews is projected to win over Sen. Darline Graham — who took over the seat after the death of her brother, Lindsey Graham — in a stunning upset.

Texas state Rep. James Talarico’s double-digit victory over Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was another shining spot for Democrats, who have tried repeatedly to flip a Senate seat in the state that had not elected a Democrat to the upper chamber since 1988.

Democrats also picked up a seat in Kansas, where pastor Adam Hamilton unseated Sen. Roger Marshall in a state that hadn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1932.

Sen. Chuck Schumer votes at Public School 321 elementary school in the Brooklyn, New York earlier today. Yuki Iwamura/AP

Utah Sen. John Curtis penned a column today, asserting that the election “shellacking” — during which Democrats retook the Senate and the House — should serve as a wake-up call for the party down the road and that Republicans should return “to our roots.”

“Instead of finally seeing relief on prices after the reckless Biden years, [Americans] saw a hastily planned war disrupt oil markets. Instead of enjoying a restoration of order and integrity in our government, they read headline after headline of scandals, incompetence, and corruption,” Curtis wrote. “I can’t reconcile these things with the conservative principles that brought me into public service. And I don’t think we should try.”

“Tonight’s shellacking should be a wake-up call,” he continued. “We are losing good colleagues — people who served honorably and deserved better than to be swept up in the failures of our party as a whole. But if our response is to blame the media, the polls, or the voters, we’ll have learned absolutely nothing. We might start by looking in the mirror.”

Curtis, a moderate-leaning member, has reportedly been looking into a run for the state’s governorship despite only winning his Senate seat two years ago.

Republican Mike Lawler told his watch party crowd in NY-17 tonight that he had called Democrat challenger Cait Conley to concede the competitive House seat. The race has not yet been called by The Associated Press.

Lawler said he’s “exceptionally proud” of his record while in office. He won twice in the district, which is considered to lean blue, having more registered Democrats than Republicans — and was just one of three Republicans to represent a district that Kamala Harris won in 2024.

The Republican broke with Trump multiple times throughout the campaign, trying to bill himself as willing to stand up to the president’s unpopular policies, but it ended up not being enough to keep his seat.

Earlier today, issues with Westchester County’s vote-scanning machines caused delays in the tabulation process. But Lawler told reporters at a news conference that he was confident no “sheningians” were occurring with the voting process.

Josh Turek has won Iowa’s open Senate seat, a key pickup for Democrats and the first time in nearly two decades that the state has elected a Democrat to the Senate. He is projected to beat Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in the race to replace outgoing Sen. Joni Ernst.

It’s not Turek’s first time flipping a red seat: He served two terms as a state representative in a district that was a Republican stronghold until he ran. During the campaign, he promised to pursue bipartisan populism aimed at addressing high prices and Iowa’s cancer crisis.

Democrat David Crowley won election as governor of Wisconsin, defeating Republican Tom Tiffany. Crowley will be Wisconsin’s first Black governor. His win marks the first time in Wisconsin’s 178-year history that the governor’s office has been held by a Democrat for more than eight consecutive years.

It’s not your father’s Kansas anymore. But it might be your grandfather’s.

For the first time in 94 years, a Democrat, Adam Hamilton, is projected to win a Senate election in the state, which Trump carried by 16 percentage points two years ago. A combination of unpopular policies and a lackluster campaign by incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall contributed to a generational flop for the GOP.

Just before Election Day, Marshall, who had a long career as an OBGYN, got the most buzz around a video he filmed in an effort to explain his lawsuits against patients to recover medical debts, which became an effective attack against him during the campaign.

“We did have to keep the lights on, so we occasionally handed some accounts over to a collection agency just like nearly every private medical practice does,” he said in the video.

Adam Hamilton to voters in Kansas City, Kan. Charlie Riedel/AP

Iowa voters chose Democrat Rob Sand to be their next governor, flipping the seat Republicans have held for more than two decades and likely ushering in a new era of divided state government.

Sand defeated Zach Lahn, a first-time candidate who surprised even members of his own party when he won the Republican primary. Sand, who is currently state auditor, has been the only Democrat serving in statewide elected office.

After 12 years in Texas’ top office, Gov. Greg Abbott is out.

A Texas-sized blue wave blocked Abbott’s run for a historic fourth term, and the governor conceded the race to Democrat state Rep. Gina Hinojosa late this evening.

“The effort you all put into this campaign, the effort you all invested into our state, is really incalculable,” Abbott said during brief remarks at an election night party in Austin. “There are still votes to be counted, but mathematically we’re not going to be able to win this election.”

Abbott added that his time as governor has been “the joy of his life.”

Eric Gay/AP

Texas’ blue wave has even reached the state’s oil and gas regulatory board. Democrat Jon Rosenthal, who previously served as a state representative, defeated Bo French, a former GOP county party leader who faced criticism from leaders of his own party for inflammatory rhetoric.

“You never gave up, never gave up on me, never gave up on the hope,” Rosenthal said to an applauding crowd around 10 p.m.

Rosenthal saw a fundraising surge after French posted a tweet seeming to criticize the ethnicity of South Asian students celebrating at a University of Texas-Austin football game.

Sherrod Brown is headed back to the Senate. The three-term senator lost reelection in 2024 to Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, but he is now projected to flip a critical seat for Democrats in his race against Sen. Jon Husted. The special election means Brown, who has built a reputation as being a champion of labor and the working class, will serve out the remaining two years in the seat once occupied by Vice President JD Vance.

Recriminations among Republicans have begun. The war in Iran is high on the list.

Some in the GOP say Trump’s decision to launch an offensive against Tehran alongside Israel caused a political calamity and should inspire a rethink in the party.

“If it’s not about the war first-hand for American voters, it’s about the fact they can’t afford the rent anymore,” given the rising cost of other essentials like gas and groceries, said Reid Smith, the vice president of foreign policy at Stand Together, an organization founded by the right-wing billionaire Charles Koch that advocates for a more restrained U.S. position in global affairs.

Smith highlighted the loss of South Carolina Sen. Darlene Graham, Trump’s pick to fill the seat previously held by her late brother, Lindsey Graham, who encouraged aggressive U.S. military moves against Iran and elsewhere globally.

“It comes back to the war and presumably a lot of military families in South Carolina who are uncomfortable with a nepo choice of the sister of the primary evangelist of this conflict,” Smith said.

A national GOP operative told the Daily Wire: “This is 100% because of Iran.”

A White House official told outlets including The Washington Sun that the losses were a result of “candidate quality” and argued: “Anyone who voted Democrat today is going to have a serious case of buyer’s remorse when gas prices come down quickly when the Iran conflict is solved.”

Smith pushed back against that framing and suggested that potential 2028 GOP presidential candidates may tap frustration over Iran. Outgoing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has already emphasized higher costs as a valid voter concern, he noted.

No matter what else happens tonight, this will be featured heavily on Democrats’ highlight reel: James Talarico is projected to become the state’s next senator, making him the first Democrat elected to a statewide office in Texas in 32 years.

Throughout the general election campaign, Talarico appeared to lead in the race as he faced off against a uniquely weak candidate in state Attorney General Ken Paxton. The tight race, and the sense that Republicans’ long-held control of Texas may actually end, attracted an absolute spending blitz. It made the competition one of the most expensive in history.

Talarico arrives at a campaign event in San Antonio, Texas. Eric Gay/AP

Democratic incumbent Rep. Shomari Figures won election in AL-02, defeating Republican Rhett Marques. Figures, an attorney and former Obama administration staffer, secured a second term in the southern Alabama district despite a redrawing of its boundaries to favor Republicans.

SHREVEPORT, Louisiana — Speaking to supporters in Shreveport, Speaker Mike Johnson conceded that Republicans have lost the House, saying that the party in power keeping seats during a midterm has “only happened twice in 90 years” and that this year “history will be kept.”

He also touted his fundraising prowess in what some Republicans views as him laying the groundwork to remain in leadership saying, “Since becoming speaker, I can’t believe I’m about to tell you. I’ve raised more than $870 million, which makes me, I think, the largest fundraiser in the history of the Republican Party, other than President Trump.”

“Come 2028, we will take back the House,” he added.

Speaker Mike Johnson conceded that Republicans have lost the House. Charlie Neibergall/AP

In his first remarks since Democrats were projected to have flipped the House, Trump offered a tacit acknowledgement of Republican losses, which he said were owed to his absence from the ballot.

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP,” he wrote.

Trump’s handpicked candidate in South Carolina, Sen. Darline Graham, is projected to lose to Democrat Annie Andrews in a stunning upset.

In an interview with The New York Times, Trump said he would be “absolutely willing to accept those results.”

“We’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll, you know, look forward to working with them,” he told the Times. “We’ll probably work something out.”

Washington state, California and the rest of Oregon and Idaho have now closed their polls.

Democrat Amy Acton won election as governor of Ohio, defeating Republican Vivek Ramaswamy. The victory by Acton, a physician who was Ohio’s COVID-era health director, marks the first time since 2006 that a Democrat has been elected as governor.

Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn congratulated Democrat James Talarico on his potential victory to replace him as he leads the Texas Senate race over state Attorney General Ken Paxton — despite the race having yet to be called by The Associated Press.

“The voters have spoken, and I want to extend my congratulations to James Talarico on his election to the U.S. Senate,” Cornyn wrote on X. “I look forward to meeting him and offering my assistance with his transition as he prepares to serve Texans in the U.S. Senate.”

Cornyn lost his primary fight in May to Paxton, and the two had a testy relationship ever since, with the incumbent Republican calling out him for being a lazy campaigner. He also decided to raise money for other Senate Republicans and party candidates.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, with former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, speaks during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Trump’s decision to convince Sen. Darline Graham to seek a full term after she was appointed to finish the term of her late brother, Lindsey Graham, has backfired spectacularly.

Democrat Annie Andrews is projected to unseat Graham in South Carolina, a major upset in a state Trump won two years ago by nearly 20 percentage points.

The loss is the result of a bad environment for Republicans combined with a weak candidate.

Graham was practically a complete unknown when she was appointed, even to those in her party. Her lack of experience showed up on the debate stage and in weak fundraising numbers.

Andrews, meanwhile, promised to work with Republicans and stand up to her own party. She focused on cost-of-living issues and labeled her opponent “data center Darline” and called her Trump’s “puppet.”

Democratic Senate candidate Dr. Annie Andrews at a campaign rally in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP

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 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, but 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 the highly watched KY-06 in an area that Trump won by 15 percentage points in 2024. Democrat Jamie Ager won NC-11, 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 GOP Rep. Rob Bresnahan’s contested Pennsylvania seat, a district that swung for Trump in 2024 by 8 points.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., talks with phone bank volunteers during a midterm election night watch party in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP

Firefighter Bob Brooks is projected to oust GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in PA-07. The area, which has a high Latino population, was one of Democrats’ biggest pickup opportunities after Mackenize unseated former Rep. Susan Wild in 2024.

Left-leaning operatives in Pennsylvania forecast optimism about the race ahead of tonight. State Democrats pointed to the rising price of gas and the ongoing war in Iran as key issues in the area.

“Pennsylvania Republicans underperform every time Trump isn’t on the ballot,” Pennsylvania Democratic ad-maker J.J. Balaban told The Sun earlier today. “The Trump electorate varies by state, but so far no one not named Donald Trump has been able to recreate his impact on the Pennsylvania electorate.”

Freshman Rep. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pennsylvania) incessantly traded stocks until he didn’t. He flew around in a once-secret private helicopter and may or may not have broken House rules. He hunted ghosts.

And tonight, he lost his seat to Democrat Paige Cognetti, who, while herself playing a bit fast and loose with an anti-corporate political action committee pledge, successfully hammered Bresnahan as out of touch with his northeast Pennsylvania constituency and flipped another red district blue.

Rob Bresnahan leaves a House Republican Conference in September. Tom Williams/AP

SHREVEPORT, Louisiana — More than three hours after polls closed, Speaker Mike Johnson has not been out to address hundreds of supporters of his in Shreveport. Republicans are facing a nightmare situation as party members lose seats they didn’t even know were in play.

“This is a massacre,” one senior GOP member said. “I would hate to be a member of current leadership.”

The speaker’s staff also kicked reporters out of a hallway Johnson would walk out from.

Lots and lots of cheering at House Democrats’ phone bank and watch party event as Democrats flip multiple seats tonight. The crowd at one point started screaming, “Jeffries! Jeffries! Jeffries!”

The minority leader is expected to make another appearance this evening.

An attorney at Republican Ken Paxton’s election party in Dallas offered a grim assessment in a text to The Washington Sun: “The mood is sad. The bar is cash. The laptop man is trying to say there’s a chance.”

Democrat Zach Dembo is projected to represent KY-06, defeating Republican Ralph Alvarado in a race the Cook Political Report considered a toss-up.

Dembo will replace outgoing Republican Rep. Andy Barr, who The Associated Press projected earlier in the night will take Sen. Mitch McConnell’s open seat in the U.S. Senate. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Dembo to its “Red to Blue” list in August, even when it was widely considered a longshot candidacy.

“It’s very much a swing district, and this was always going to be a close race,” an Alvarado adviser told The Sun in September.

Zach Dembo and his wife Lindsey in Lexington, Ky. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP

“Silence” is what those group chats sound like right now, according to multiple House Republicans watching election results.

The chatty exchanges among members have grinded to a halt as some of them absorb — alone — tonight’s returns.

“Glad I didn’t have a watch party,” one Texas member, nervous about their own race, told The Sun. “This is so much more pleasant in peace.”

Republicans appear to be inching closer to losing their majority in the chamber with multiple upsets by Democrats in states across the country, like New Jersey and Indiana. Add to that, National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Richard Hudson is trailing his Democratic opponent in North Carolina, where Gov. Roy Cooper flipped a Senate seat earlier tonight.

The mood hasn’t stopped Republicans from taking jabs at Democrats, however.

“Fascinating to observe. It’s like large segments of the nation crave government oppression,” Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana texted me.

A White House official cast blame on Republican candidates — not Trump — for the rising number of election losses his party is suffering tonight.

“President Trump was not on the ballot, and it’s proven that Trump voters show up when he is on the ballot,” they added, despite Trump repeatedly asking Americans who showed up to his dozens of rallies to pretend that he was.

“Also, candidate quality matters, and President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves.”

The official described the mood at 1600 Pennsylvania not as dour or grim, as Trump stares down the real possibility that his party could lose both chambers of Congress. Instead, they said, the White House is “defiant.”

Americans who voted for Democratic candidates would have “a serious case of buyers remorse” once gas prices come down after the Iran war ends, the official said — but instead, voters will be “still stuck with … liberal extremist Democrats.”

The president promised again tonight that he would fight Democrats if they return to power. And the official echoed that resolve in the statement: “Regardless of how today plays out, President Trump’s resolve to stop the Radical Left is only going to become stronger. Buckle up.”

In the first flip of the night, Democrat Roy Cooper triumphed over Republican Michael Whatley in a seat that became open after President Trump pushed GOP Sen. Thom Tillis into retirement. Matt Ramey/AP

Polls are now closed in Montana, Utah, Nevada and parts of Idaho and Oregon.

Democrat Rebecca Bennett won election to the U.S. House of Representatives representing New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, defeating Republican incumbent Thomas H. Kean Jr.

The district has changed political parties in each of the last two midterm elections. Kean’s defeat comes after he missed more than 100 votes during a prolonged absence this year, later explaining he was struggling with depression.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro predicted Democratic wins across Pennsylvania’s contested congressional seats after he won reelection by roughly 30 points tonight.

Democrats hope the popular governor’s name at the top of the ticket could help boost the party’s chances as they try to pick up four House seats and aid in flipping the balance of Congress.

“I am hopeful that we will be sending some new leaders to Washington, too, to take on the corruption, to be a check on Donald Trump and deliver real results for Pennsylvania,” Shapiro

told the crowd after his win.

Shapiro alluded to national frustration with rising costs and corruption in Washington in his remarks, telling supporters that today’s Republican leadership has been “shameless” and “self-dealing.”

Pennsylvania operatives told The Washington Sun that Shapiro represents his own brand in the state and that his margin is a good sign for Democratic candidates in swing districts across the map.

“The Democratic brand remains not great … but being able to run as Shapiro Democrats has been very helpful for Democrats up and down the ballot In Pennsylvania,” Democratic ad-maker J.J. Balaban told The Washington Sun.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has secured a third term — and may already be dropping hints about his future ambitions.

Pritzker became the first Democrat elected to a third term as governor in the state’s history, defeating Republican Darren Bailey, a former state lawmaker. The Illinois governor is widely considered a potential contender for president in 2028.

“It looks like maybe, just maybe, something is stirring in the conscience of America,” Pritzker told supporters in a victory speech Tuesday night.

“We climbed one mountain tonight,” he added, “but we are sitting at the base of another.”

ICE’s closing messages to Americans today included a barrage of boasts about recent arrests, a threat to noncitizens and the reposting of a video that Radiohead specifically demanded be taken down months ago.

“The patriots of ICE are DELIVERING!!” the agency said in a self-congratulatory post that capped a day of broadcasting its central role in Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.

ICE drew attention on Tuesday to its recent arrests of people accused of voting illegally, although the accusations pertained to past elections — including one involving a 72-year-old permanent resident from Italy and another of a Finnish woman who’d actually been charged last week.

“If you vote illegally, we will find you. We will track you down, arrest you, and prosecute you. There will be no escape,” the agency said in a post that was shared by Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, who shot back: “If YOU show up to the polls illegally, we will find you. We will track you down, arrest you, and prosecute you. There will be no escape.”

People gather at a site where local authorities say an ICE officer shot and wounded a man in Austin, Texas. Joel Angel Juarez/AP

But the agency’s strongest plea to voters came in a video with images of Americans the agency has previously described as people who have been “raped and murdered by those who have no right to be in our country.”

“Be their voice, today,” it said.

The 40-second clip was overlaid with a cover of Radiohead’s “Let Down” — a peculiar choice for the nativist online account given that it features a Canadian choir singing a British band that months ago told ICE to stop using the song in a statement that told the agency to “go fuck yourselves.”

Keisha Lance Bottoms made history in Georgia tonight as the first Black woman governor of a U.S. state, per tonight’s projections.

Bottoms, a former Atlanta mayor, overcame a massive spending disadvantage to defeat Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire health care executive and political newcomer. She is the first Democrat to win the state’s top office since 1998.

Her victory comes alongside Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff’s commanding reelection victory and helps clear the path for a potential Ossoff presidential campaign. As governor, Bottoms will be empowered to fill any Senate vacancy.

Ossoff and Bottoms ran as a ticket, frequently campaigning together, and the senator gave several million dollars to the state party to help her and other downballot candidates.

Keisha Lance Bottoms hugs a young supporter at a campaign event in Macon, Ga. Ryan Murphy/AP