By Townhall Chicago News Staff
Democrats won control of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives in Tuesday’s midterm elections, according to results reported during election-night broadcast coverage.
The shift ends full Republican control of Congress and gives Democrats committee chairmanships and subpoena power for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term. Races in Alaska and Mississippi remained uncalled as of the broadcast.
Fox News Radio reported Democrats had flipped seven Senate seats: Texas, South Carolina, Kansas, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina and Ohio, putting the chamber at 54 Democrats to 44 Republicans with two seats outstanding. The network reported the Texas result marked the first time since 1988 that the state had elected a Democrat to the Senate.
Texas Democrat James Talarico defeated Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. “We went up against our own Goliaths,” Talarico said after the race was called. In South Carolina, pediatrician and first-time candidate Annie Andrews was reported to have defeated Darlene Graham. “This victory doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to all of you,” Andrews said. In Kansas, Fox News Radio reported Democrat Adam Hamilton had defeated Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, another seat on the network’s list of seven Democratic flips.
House figures varied during the broadcast. One Fox News Radio report put Democratic gains at 25 seats for a total of at least 228, while other figures cited on-air put the total higher. A final, certified count was not available by the time of the broadcast.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who led his caucus through four years in the minority, reacted to the results by saying, “Relief is on the way.” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the results showed “trust has been broken between the Congress and the American people.”
Jeffries has led House Democrats since his colleagues elected him to the position in 2022 and reelected him in 2024. If Democrats’ House majority is confirmed in final counts, Jeffries would be positioned to seek the speakership when the new Congress convenes in January.
Certified results from the affected states were pending as of the broadcast, and a national seat count had not been finalized.
Jeffries was the lead Democratic sponsor of the FIRST STEP Act, the bipartisan criminal justice reform law signed in 2018, during his time in the House minority. He has represented New York’s 8th Congressional District, covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens, since 2013.
The newly elected senators and representatives are set to be sworn in when the new Congress convenes in January 2027.
