Voters on Tuesday delivered a stunning sweeping victory for Democratic incumbents and challengers across America, giving them substantial majorities in both the Senate and House and presenting President Donald Trump with the prospect of facing a flood of time-consuming subpoenas, hostile congressional inquiries, and impeachment hearings.
Final results for dozens of races are not available as this news story is written, but Democrats are assured of at least 54 Senate seats and 231 House seats. Only the Alaska and Mississippi Senate races remain undecided, but on the House side, there remain more than 60 seats not yet declared for either party, according to Ballotpedia earlier this morning.
The most stunning example of Democratic dominance came in Texas, where Senate candidate James Talarico (D) blew out Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton with 55% of the vote. Talarico will be the first Democratic senator from the Lone Star State since Lloyd Bentsen in 1993. In the Lone Star state’s gubernatorial race, long-serving GOP incumbent Greg Abbott also lost by a shocking margin, falling to Democrat Gina Hinojosa 53%-46%.
Democrats also swept the attorney general’s race, with State Senator Nathan Johnson besting Republican Mayes Middleton by 7%. It was 1994 when Democrats last held all three of the top slots in Texas government.
Other huge Democratic wins came in Michigan, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is slated to be sworn in in January 2027 as the nation’s first Muslim senator after defeating Republican Congressman Mike Rogers by 20 points, with 99% of the votes counted.
In Maine, veteran GOP Senator Susan Collins went down in defeat for the first time in three decades, losing to Democrat Troy Jackson on a 54%-46% count with all but 14% of the ballots counted. Similarly, in Minnesota, Democratic Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan turned back the challenge of former NFL sidelines broadcaster Michelle Tafoya by 54%-44%.
In Kansas, incumbent GOPer Roger Marshall suffered defeat against Democrat Adam Hamilton, a liberal mega-church minister who came out of nowhere to garner the win on 51%-46%, and in Iowa, Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson lost in her bid to succeed the retiring Republican Senator Joni Ernst. Winning the seat on a 51%-46% count was Democrat Josh Turek, who will become the first Democratic senator from Iowa in almost two decades.
Also losing Tuesday night was Ohio GOP Senator Jon Husted to Democrat Sherrod Brown, who returns to the Senate after losing a 2024 re-election bid to Senator Bernie Moreno. And in South Carolina, one of the reddest of the red states, voters rejected the late Senator Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darlene, the hand-picked candidate of Trump, as Democrat Annie Andrews ran up a 51%-46% margin of victory.
Things look just as grim for Republicans on the House side as multiple incumbent GOPers went down to defeat, especially in North Carolina, where representatives Richard Hudson, Addison McDowell, Brad Knott, and Tim Moore lost; and in Pennsylvania, where GOPers Brian Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mackenzie, Rob Bresnahan, and Scott Perry lost. Hudson was chairman of the House Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, while Perry is a former highly visible chairman of the House Freedom Caucus (HFC).
Rep. Andy Harris, the Maryland Republican who heads the HFC, successfully turned back a strong challenge from Democrat Dan Schwartz, 56% to 44%.
Also losing as of the early morning returns are GOPers Max Miller (Ohio), Jen Kiggans (Virginia), and Derrick Van Orden (Wisconsin). Jeff Van Drew and Tim Kean Jr. in New Jersey and Mike Lawler in New York will also not return to Congress next January. Other GOP House losses included James Gallagher of California, Gabe Evans in Colorado, Victoria Spartz in Indiana, Ann Wagner in Missouri, and in Iowa both Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn.
Top Democratic congressional leaders wasted no time Tuesday night in making clear their plans to renew their previously unsuccessful political and legal assaults against Trump and other Republicans. Rep. Robert Garcia, the California Democrat who is likely to become chairman of the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued a two-word warning as his official statement about the election: “Lawyer up!”
Similarly, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who is expected to become Senate Finance Committee chairman, issued a one-word statement: “Subpoenas.”
And House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Pete Aquilar (D-Calif.) said, “There will be a host of investigations, and [Maryland Rep.] Jamie Raskin with the Judiciary Committee and [California Rep.] Robert Garcia with House Oversight will take leadership roles on those issues. And there is plenty to investigate, but I’ll tell you what the American public wants us to investigate are the grift and the corruption, the self-dealing, the no-bid contracts, all of those things that are stealing taxpayers’ money that otherwise could be going to deliver on the priorities that they care about, you know, delivering on healthcare.”
The bad news continued on the state ballot measure front as well, with voters in Missouri, Idaho, Virginia, and Nevada either rejecting new restrictions on abortion, or approving new protections. Also in Virginia, a proposition removing a long-standing state constitution provision prohibiting same-sex marriage was approved by voters.
Results were more encouraging for conservative Christian voters as ballot propositions providing restrictions on transgender surgery on minors were leading in Nebraska, Colorado, and Arizona, while voters in Colorado and Washington state are close to adopting protections for girls’ sports that would bar biological men from competing.
Other ballot propositions included one in Alaska requiring proof of citizenship to vote, which was approved overwhelmingly, as it was also by voters in Arkansas, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Kansas. But voters in Arizona and California decisively rejected citizenship requirements for voting. Alaskans also rejected a proposal to repeal that state’s complicated “ranked choice” voting process.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, discussing the election returns near midnight Tuesday on the “PrayVote Stand: Decision 2026” election coverage, pointed to the results in Texas and Kansas, where left-wing Democratic candidates presented themselves as Christians, and declared, “I think there is an element of biblical illiteracy, of not knowing what the Scripture says. But that goes back to the pulpit of not preaching what the Bible says.”
Perkins noted, however, that “with the Texas situation, you almost have to put that in a separate category. Ken Paxton had a lot baggage. There were many, many conservatives who could not support him, even though I know people say ‘Well, but you know the Senate was hanging in the balance. Well, yeah but his personal lifestyle was unfolding in real time. It wasn’t like something that happened 10 or 15 years ago.”
“I don’t think Christians should necessarily fall in line behind someone who is very compromised like that,” he added. “Now, there is redemption and forgiveness, but there is usually a timeframe there that takes time. I think Kansas is a really good example of this because [Senator] Roger Marshall is a very good man, a pro-life doctor who delivered 5,000 babies, [and] he’s represented the state well in the Senate. But then you had this Methodist minister who is preaching a different gospel. And the church, we’ve got to do a better job of teaching the word of God and its application to the world in which we live.”
The morning after the election, Perkins urged the church to “be in the Word.” “A nation’s staying power,” he insisted, “is directly linked to its spiritual strength and vitality. Our country needs a spiritual awakening. We need to return to the Word of God. We need to return to the worship of God. And we need to return to the ways of God.”
