Democrats swept every level of government in 2026 as Republicans failed to flip a single seat

Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats, at least 24 House districts, five governorships, and 12 state legislative chambers, per CNBC. Republicans had not flipped a single Democratic-held seat.

The war in Iran was cited as a factor in Republican losses. Affordability was a top voter issue. According to AP exit polls, voters said cost of living and government corruption were their two top issues. Just 21% of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country, even though the economy looks healthy on paper.

Senate seats fall across the map

Republican-held Senate seats fell in Iowa, South Carolina, Ohio, Maine, and North Carolina. Kansas elected its first Democratic U.S. senator since 1932, ending a 94-year losing streak. Democrats captured a Senate seat in Texas that had eluded the party since 1988. Two Senate seats remained uncalled as of late Wednesday. Republicans were still fighting to hold Senate seats in Alaska and Mississippi. Counting in Alaska was expected to continue into Thursday.

Democrat Scott Colom was leading Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi by 1,138 votes with almost 96% of the vote counted. Mississippi has no law on the books for initiating a recount. Democrats haven’t won a US Senate seat in Mississippi since 1982. Donald Trump carried the state by 22 points in 2024. Not since 1875 had Mississippi elected a Black person to the US Senate. Colom is a seventh-generation Mississippian whose father was a Republican who campaigned for Ronald Reagan. In 2015, Colom unseated a nearly 30-year incumbent to become the first Black district attorney for the 16th circuit. Colom had a 94% success rate for convictions as district attorney.

Governorships and statehouses

Democrats won governorships in Texas, Ohio, and Georgia. They toppled three-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas. Democrats scored gubernatorial upsets in Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and Nevada — all states Trump won in 2024. The party gained a majority of the nation’s governorships for the first time since 2010. Two governors races remained uncalled as of late Wednesday.

Democrats flipped 12 state legislative chambers. They seized control of the Texas House for the first time in more than two decades. Democrats flipped both chambers of the Wisconsin Legislature. They 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 complete control of state government. Democrats reclaimed lower chambers in Michigan and Minnesota, restoring full Democratic control in both states. Unofficial results in Arizona pointed toward Democrats taking both legislative chambers for the first time in roughly 60 years. Even where Republicans held on, 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.

Republican recriminations

The blame game began. Donald Trump claimed Republicans fared poorly because he was not on the ballot, after repeatedly urging voters to pretend he was on the ballot. JD Vance pointed to Trump’s ongoing war in Iran as the “obvious” culprit for the loss. Pete Hegseth’s role leading the unpopular war could lead to him taking the fall, despite Trump publicly backing him. Republicans including Trump foe Thomas Massie have criticized the defense secretary. Ron DeSantis said the result was “close to an extinction-level event for Republicans” caused in part by his party failing to target ad spending on issues that would motivate voters.

What voters wanted

Democrats link the war in Iran to petrol prices averaging $4.18 a gallon, an increase of nearly 40%. Sid Miller, the outgoing Republican agriculture commissioner in Texas, said ranchers are getting $300 to $500 less for each head of cattle while facing record fertiliser costs. Democrats want to bring back extra financial help that made health insurance cheaper under the ACA and reverse Medicaid cuts signed by Trump in 2025. They want to scrap the president’s import taxes, which they say add thousands of dollars a year to the cost of groceries, fertiliser, and building materials. Import taxes accounted for just over 1% of federal revenue in 2024; this year they account for more than 5%.

Hakeem Jeffries said “We ran on affordability, we won on affordability, and now it’s our job to govern on affordability.” Sid Miller said “They felt betrayed.” Kim Hanks owns Tillies, a hotel, restaurant, and spa business near Austin with 300 staff, and said “It’s been such a moving target for us on affordability.” Danny Reynolds runs Stephenson’s of Elkhart, a clothing and bridalwear store in Indiana, and said “My hope is that we can just find some consistency, some working together.”

Governing with a veto pen ahead

Getting around a presidential veto requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate. Ken Fisher said “Congress can’t get anything past a presidential veto. President Trump can’t get anything he wants.” Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat set to chair the Finance Committee, plans to use the committee to reassert congressional authority over trade policy. Wyden said the agenda is “affordability for us, accountability for them.” Government funding runs out after 11 December, and the chances of another shutdown look uncomfortably high. Bernard Yaros of Oxford Economics expects the average tariff rate on imports to stay around 10% for the rest of Trump’s term. Yaros sees the possibility of a political trade-off: Democrats agree to extend Republican tax cuts in return for restoring health insurance subsidies, but doesn’t expect a deal until late 2027 with benefits arriving in 2028. Oxford Economics warns that with the election over, further escalation in the Iran war appears more likely because petrol prices will no longer be as much of a political concern for the president.

The morning front pages

The Chicago Sun Times headline on newly elected Senator Juliana Stratton read “Dem-olition.” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described Keisha Lance Bottoms’s win as “historic,” noting she shattered “racial and gender glass ceilings” on a day the US elected “four Black governors.” The Dallas Morning News headline read “Wave of change,” featuring Senator-elect James Talarico and Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa. California’s Spanish-language daily La Opinión ran a headline reading “National punishment” above a picture of a battered MAGA hat. The New York Post headline read “Blue Tsunami,” riffing on Hokusai’s Great Wave artwork. The Guardian’s headline on Thursday’s edition was “Trumped.” The Tehran Times headline read “US hegemony crumbling; Iran will never surrender” and quoted senior Iranian officials linking the Republican election defeat to the US war against Iran.