2026 Midterm Election Results Left Republicans Counting Droughts, Not Seats
Democrats won the House and the Senate on Tuesday, flipped five governorships and nine legislative chambers — and in Kansas, Texas and Georgia, the waits had lasted 94, 38 and 23 years.
Outside the Long Center in Austin, a crowd watched the Texas Senate race called on a giant screen. Just before 10 p.m. on Tuesday, the networks called the race for James Talarico, a 37-year-old former schoolteacher and the first Democrat elected to the United States Senate from Texas since 1988. Within the hour, Gina Hinojosa had beaten Greg Abbott for the governor’s office, the first Democrat to hold it since Ann Richards.
The 2026 midterm election results gave Democrats both chambers of Congress. The Senate stands at 54 Democrats to 44 Republicans, with Alaska and Mississippi still uncalled. The Associated Press had called 235 House seats for Democrats and 146 for Republicans on Thursday morning. The rest are still to be decided. Five governorships changed hands. So did at least nine state legislative chambers.
The longest wait ended in Kansas. Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor, beat Senator Roger Marshall by about five points to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state since 1932, 94 years. Hamilton talked about his faith on the trail, and about a more humane politics, in a state where the last Democratic Senate victory predated the Second World War.
In South Carolina, Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, beat Senator Darline Graham by about four points. The last Democrat elected to the Senate there had won in 1998. In Maine, Troy Jackson ended Susan Collins’s run in the Senate after nearly 30 years, winning by about five points. Collins conceded early on Wednesday, ending a Senate career that began in 1997.
Democrats led all eight statewide races in Texas overnight. Vikki Goodwin beat Dan Patrick for lieutenant governor, the attorney general’s office changed hands, and the Texas House flipped for the first time since 2002, with Democrats netting about 21 seats. The Senate race moved about 26 points toward Democrats compared with the 2024 presidential vote. In Hidalgo County, on the border, Talarico took more than 73 percent of the vote.
“Lived in Texas for fifteen years and this never seemed possible,” one Texan wrote on the forum ResetEra as the race was called. “I voted every election in this fucking state and I never thought it would happen,” wrote another. A third: “I thought this day would never come.” A Dallas woman of 26, who has lived in the city her whole life, wrote that she never thought an election would have her sitting in her apartment crying tears of joy, and never thought Texas would be the reason. Gingrich, in a video posted on X, called the night a bloodbath. He said it was much worse than he had thought: he had expected Republicans to keep the Senate by a narrow margin and lose 10 to 15 House seats. The thread’s writers measured the same night in the years they had spent voting and doubting it could happen.
In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms beat Rick Jackson by about eight points and became the first Black woman elected governor in American history. No Democrat had held the office since Roy Barnes left it in 2003. In Ohio, Amy Acton, a former health director, beat Vivek Ramaswamy by about eight points. She became the first woman elected governor of the state. Ramaswamy had raised $82 million. In Iowa, Rob Sand beat Zach Lahn by 11 points in a state Trump had carried by more than 13 in 2024. In Nevada, Aaron Ford beat Governor Joe Lombardo by about seven points and became the state’s first Black governor.
In Wisconsin, Democrats took both legislative chambers for the first time since 2010, ending 16 years of Republican control. In Pennsylvania, Democrats took the Senate for the first time since before the 1994 elections. In Texas, Democrats took the House for the first time since 2002. The Minnesota House went Democratic. It had been tied 67 to 67 since 2024. So did the Michigan House, the North Carolina House and both chambers in New Hampshire. Five states — Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — now have Democratic trifectas, and the National Conference of State Legislatures called it the biggest single-election change of partisan power in state governments since 2010.
Hakeem Jeffries is in line to become the first Black Speaker of the House, and with the gavel come the committee chairmanships and the subpoena power. A Democratic Senate also means no Trump nominee is confirmed without Democratic votes. The limits are arithmetic. Removing a president takes two-thirds of the Senate, and overriding a veto takes 290 House seats. Democrats hold neither. Against the modern midterms, the Republican loss will sit above 2018 and below 1994 and 2010 once the final count is in. On the races already called, Republicans have lost 36 to 38 seats across both chambers, and the final count will push that higher.
In Alaska, Mary Peltola leads Senator Dan Sullivan, with mail ballots still being counted and a ranked-choice tabulation to follow if nobody clears 50 percent. In Mississippi, Scott Colom leads Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by about 1,100 votes. Affidavit ballots are still being counted. If he wins, he would be the first Democrat elected to the Senate there since 1982.
