Democrats swept the 2026 midterms at every level while Republicans flipped nothing, and the GOP immediately fractured over who and what to blame

Democrats swept the 2026 midterms, flipping GOP-held seats across every level of government. As of Wednesday afternoon, the Associated Press had not recorded a single Republican pickup of any Democratic-held seat.

The scale was historic. Democrats flipped seven Senate seats, at least 24 House districts, five governorships, and 12 state legislative chambers. Republicans’ remaining opportunities for congressional pickups were largely confined to two newly gerrymandered House districts, and the one unredistricted seat they might have flipped was Maine’s 2nd District, according to FiftyPlusOne head of research Mary Radcliffe.

Senate and gubernatorial pickups

Kansas elected its first Democratic U.S. senator since 1932, ending a 94-year losing streak. In Texas, Democrats defeated three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and captured a Senate seat that had eluded the party since 1988. Republican-held Senate seats also fell in Iowa, South Carolina, Ohio, Maine, and North Carolina. The same wave swept through governors’ mansions, with Democrats scoring upsets in Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and Nevada — all states Donald Trump won in 2024. Democrats gained a majority of the nation’s governorships for the first time since 2010.

A statehouse reckoning

Democrats seized control of the Texas House for the first time in more than two decades. They flipped both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature and wrested the North Carolina House from Republicans after 16 years in the minority. In Pennsylvania, Democrats captured the state Senate for the first time since before 1994, giving the party complete control of state government. They reclaimed lower chambers in Michigan and Minnesota, restoring full Democratic control in both states. In Arizona, unofficial results pointed toward Democrats taking both legislative chambers for the first time in roughly 60 years. Even where Republicans held their majorities, Democrats stripped away veto-proof supermajorities in Florida, Indiana, Kansas, and Missouri. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee said not since the aftermath of Watergate in 1974 had the GOP faced a statehouse reckoning of this magnitude.

Races still uncalled

Nine House seats, two Senate seats, and two governors’ races remained uncalled by the AP as of late Wednesday. In Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colom led Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by 1,138 votes with 96% of the vote counted. In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola led Republican Dan S. Sullivan by 626 votes; if neither candidate receives 50%, the race moves to ranked-choice voting.

The Republican blame game

Trump claimed Republicans fared poorly because he was not on the ballot, after repeatedly urging voters to pretend he was. JD Vance pointed to Trump’s ongoing war in Iran as the obvious culprit. Pete Hegseth’s role leading the unpopular war could lead to him taking the fall despite Trump publicly backing him, and Republicans including Trump foe Thomas Massie criticized the defense secretary. Ron DeSantis called the result “close to an extinction-level event for Republicans,” blaming his party’s failure to target ad spending on issues that would motivate voters. Ted Cruz called the Texas results “an ass kicking” and a “Watergate-level repudiation,” blaming Republicans for failing to address affordability. “The top issue, cost of living, is very real,” Cruz wrote. “Too many in politics dismissed it.”

An open 2028 field

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the scale of the Republican defeat makes the race for the GOP presidential nomination wide open. Gingrich wrote that JD Vance might have previously been the frontrunner for 2028, but the results opened the door to Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, Ron DeSantis, Pete Hegseth, and Glenn Youngkin.