Democrats win control of Congress in sweeping rebuke of Trump

Washington — Democrats have won control of both chambers of the US Congress, sweeping Republicans from power in a result that gives the party new leverage over Donald Trump for the remainder of his presidency. According to the Guardian, Democrats took the Senate with 54 seats to the Republicans' 42, with counting still under way in Alaska.

Al Jazeera reported that Democrats also regained the House of Representatives, needing a gain of five seats to flip the chamber where Republicans had held a majority since 2022. All 435 House seats were on the ballot. The result, Euronews said, gives Democrats the power to investigate Trump's administration and press the White House over its policies.

The scale of the victory was striking. Democrats won Senate seats in states they had not carried in decades — Maine, South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Iowa and Kansas, according to the Associated Press. Kansas last sent a Democrat to the Senate in 1932, Texas in 1988. In Texas, state representative James Talarico won by a double-digit margin after Trump endorsed attorney general Ken Paxton over incumbent senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary.

"Now, against all odds, we Democrats have won the Senate," the minority leader Chuck Schumer said in Washington. "We have five words for the American people: relief is on the way."

The Guardian attributed the reversal to Trump's slumping approval ratings on the economy and immigration, once his strongest issues, alongside his decision to attack Iran and immigration raids in which two US citizens were killed in Minneapolis. Rising fuel prices linked to the Middle East conflict deepened voter anger. In the House, Democrats swept Republican-held seats in Iowa, Virginia and Pennsylvania; Hakeem Jeffries is now likely to become the first Black speaker of the House, replacing Republican Mike Johnson.

Even Trump offered rare praise, telling Fox News he thought the Democrats "did a good job" and "fought hard". Former president Barack Obama wrote on X that Americans had "sent a clear message".

What comes next matters far beyond Washington. The 120th Congress will be sworn in on 3 January 2027, and Republicans have less than two months of unified government left — a window in which some expect an attempt to confirm a new conservative justice if a vacancy opens on the Supreme Court. Voters who delivered this verdict are waiting to see whether the "relief" Schumer promised reaches their kitchens before then.