Democrats win US Senate and projected House majority in midterm rebuke to Trump

Democrats have won control of the US Senate and are projected to secure a majority in the House of Representatives, according to multiple US media projections. The result means Donald Trump's Republican Party has lost full control of Congress after heading into the 2026 midterms with slim majorities in both chambers. It marks a significant political setback for the president and reshapes the balance of power in Washington.

The Senate result was called after Democrats reached the gains they needed to take the chamber, while projections for the House pointed to a comfortable Democratic majority. All 435 House seats were contested, while only a third of the 100 Senate seats were on the ballot. Democrats needed a net gain of three seats to take the House and four more seats to win the Senate, and they appear to have cleared both thresholds.

Among the seats reported to have flipped were races in New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, as well as in Kentucky. One of the earliest Senate flips came in North Carolina, where Roy Cooper defeated the Republican candidate Michael Watley. Democrats also gained ground in South Carolina, where Annie Andrews beat the Republican candidate Darline Graham.

The outcome is expected to give Democrats stronger leverage in Congress and to increase scrutiny of the Trump administration. The result matters because it ends unified Republican control of Congress and is likely to complicate the president's legislative agenda. Without control of both chambers, the White House will need bipartisan support to advance major bills.

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A Democratic House would also be positioned to intensify oversight through investigations, subpoenas and hearings, which could shape the next two years of the administration. The midterm outcome also reflects the broader political stakes of the 2026 election cycle. Analysts and prediction markets had already suggested Democrats were favoured to win the House and had a realistic chance of taking the Senate.

The Republican Party entered the contest with only narrow margins, leaving little room for losses in competitive states. The results now point to a clear shift in congressional power away from the president's party. What remains unclear is the final scale of the Democratic House majority and how quickly the new balance of power will affect legislation and oversight.

Further official certification will confirm the full congressional map, but the central outcome is already established by the projections. The next focus will be on leadership decisions in both chambers and on how the White House responds to a divided Congress.

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