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 President Donald 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 her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, passed away — in a stunning upset.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters and staff after the bulk of the Senate results came in that Democrats won because they listened to American families’ concerns about “chaos and corruption” out on the campaign trail and recruited great candidates to run in red states.
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“The American people reduced the red brick wall to a pile of bricks,” Schumer said. “And as a result, 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.”
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 a Democratic senator has not won since 1932.
Democrats also picked up a seat in Ohio, where former Sen. Sherrod Brown is projected to unseat Sen. Jon Husted. Brown lost his seat in 2024 after serving in Congress for more than three decades.
The forecast grew increasingly bleak for Republicans, who were looking to defend their majorities in both the House and Senate, as the night wore on. Trump’s low approval ratings, along with the high cost of food and fuel, exacerbated the tough political environment for the GOP.
Trump told The New York Times on Tuesday night that he was prepared to work with Democrats and accept the results of the midterm elections.
“I am absolutely willing to accept those results,” he said. “We’ll work with Democrats, and we’ll, you know, look forward to working with them.”
Overall spending in Senate races was over $3 billion, according to the most recent round of Federal Election Commission disclosures. Republicans outspent Democrats in their total investment in Senate races across the country, particularly in the most expensive races, pouring $300 million into Texas and more than $200 million into Ohio.
Democrats focused on affordability issues on the campaign trail, spotlighting how much more Americans are paying for everyday necessities since Republicans took control of the White House and Congress. In advertisements across the country, Democratic candidates warned that Republican-backed spending cuts enacted in 2025 have increased insurance premiums. They also highlighted corruption and ethics issues, vowing to pass a ban on congressional stock trading.
The Iran war also emerged as a prominent issue in the midterms, as repeated closures of the Strait of Hormuz led to rising gas, grocery and electricity prices.
Republicans, in turn, labeled Democrats as “socialists” and argued their ideas are out of step with American voters. They emphasized their signature tax-cut bill passed in July of 2025, which included provisions like no tax on tips, and the steep drop in border crossings under the Trump administration.
Democrats will now have to decide what their legislative agenda will look like in a unified Congress but a divided government, with the president unlikely to back most of their policy proposals. Jim Kessler, a Democratic strategist and executive vice president for policy at Third Way, said there’s a laundry list of priorities the party will be looking to tackle come January.
Kessler warned that Democrats in the next Congress should be careful to prioritize the issues that voters elected them to address, including the high cost of living, rather than trying to “create their own moments and their own headlines” with investigations of Trump officials.
Schumer is expected to retain his position leading the caucus, while Deputy Whip Brian Schatz is widely anticipated to become second in command, taking over for retiring Sen. Dick Durbin.
Schatz told The Washington Sun in an interview that Democrats would prioritize introducing legislation to end the war in Iran as well as restoring funding to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that was cut in 2025.
“We’re going to be a check against the excesses of this administration and the excesses of unified Republican control,” Schatz said. “There are going to be opportunities on a bipartisan basis to either delay or repeal portions of those cuts.”
“The things that voters care about are costs, so I would do something on tariffs and something on health care,” Kessler said. “But Democrats did a great job of tying corruption to people’s costs, and when you do investigations, you want to try to keep that connection there.”
Drew Littman, a Democratic strategist and a former Senate chief of staff, said that the work the Senate pursues in the next two years would likely lay the groundwork for the party’s case in the 2028 presidential race.
Littman said he’d advise lawmakers to avoid infighting over ideology and instead focus on writing legislation to revive expired Affordable Care Act subsidies, an issue Democrats shut down the government over in 2025.
“Focus on an agenda that directly answers many of the concerns that voters voice to us,” Littman said. “Do things that are very simple and understandable, that can at least get 50-plus-one votes in the Senate and majorities in the House that voters can point to and say, ‘Gee, if we had a Democratic president, I know at least those things would be done.’”
Some Democrats cast doubt on the idea that a Democratic-led Senate would be able to tackle affordability measures. Most legislation requires 60 votes to pass in the upper chamber, meaning that even with a majority, Democrats are unlikely to advance major policy legislation.
Littman predicted that much of the action in the Senate would revolve around Trump’s Cabinet, noting that those officials often leave during the second half of a lame-duck presidency.
“If Trump wants their replacements confirmed by the Senate, they’re going to have to show up to hearings and testify, and Democrats can turn those hearings into oversight hearings,” Littman said. “I would anticipate maybe not in the first three months, but certainly in the first year, a lot of new nominees, a lot of new appointees, and some of them won’t get confirmed.”
Littman added that much of the Republican-controlled Senate has been dedicated to confirming Trump’s slate of nominees, which is likely to change when Democrats hold a majority.
“The president won’t get a judge controlled in the next two years,” Littman said. “Resisting some of those appointees will be on the Democratic agenda, but that’s driven by who resigns, who steps down, who passes away, and then what the president does about it.”
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