Democrats Seize Control of Congress as Voters Rebuke Trump Democrats flipped seven Senate seats, including three in states held by Republicans for decades, and overcame a redistricting effort to capture the House. President Trump told The New York Times that he would accept the election results. Latest Democrats seized control of the Senate and the House as voters delivered a blistering rebuke to President Trump in a midterm rout that reset the balance of power in Washington.

The romp stretched from coast to coast, with Democrats flipping seats that had spent decades in Republican hands and taking House districts in corners of the country that had long seemed inaccessible.

Mr. Trump told The Times in an interview that he was “absolutely willing to accept those results” and was prepared to work with Democrats. “We’ll, you know, look forward to working with them,” he said. “We’ll probably work something out.”Voters swept out Republican candidates who tethered themselves to Mr. Trump and those who sought a modicum of independence from him.

Democrats flipped Senate seats in Maine, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and even Texas, according to The Associated Press. Many of those states had been longtime conservative strongholds. Republicans had held the Senate seats in Texas and South Carolina for decades.

The Kansas seat had been red for nearly a century. Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who across 30 years in Washington repeatedly foiled Democratic efforts to unseat her, conceded her race to Troy Jackson, a former state legislator whom Democrats anointed in July after their preferred nominee quit the race in scandal.

In Texas, James Talarico, a state legislator who became a national fund-raising sensation, toppled Ken Paxton, the scandal-ridden Republican state attorney general whom Mr. Trump elevated to the nomination in the spring. “We just took back Texas,” Mr. Talarico said in his victory speech.

“We just showed that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love.”In South Carolina, Dr. Annie Andrews prevailed over Senator Darline Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. In Kansas, the Rev. Adam Hamilton stunned Senator Roger Marshall, a one-term Republican.

And Dr. Abdul El-Sayed prevailed in Michigan even after his Senate campaign was rattled on Sunday when his defeated primary rival, Representative Haley Stevens, endorsed the Republican nominee and drew the scorn of her own party.

Democrats could still widen their lead in the Senate: Ballots were still being counted in Alaska, where Republicans have complained that a potential spoiler candidate could unfairly siphon votes from their incumbent, and in Mississippi, an unlikely battleground where a couple dozen votes separated the two candidates.

Democrats also notched major victories in races for governor. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman to be elected governor in the country’s history. In Texas, Gina Hinojosa was the first Democrat elected governor since Ann Richards in 1990, by ousting Gov. Greg Abbott, a three-term Republican.

In another race for governor, Dr. Amy Acton became the first woman elected to lead Ohio, emerging from a vicious campaign that included an ad by her Republican opponent that featured her estranged mother. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat ousted from his seat two years ago, will again represent Ohio in the Senate after flipping a Republican seat.

The results came in a midterm election that is the first national mandate on Mr. Trump’s second term. They showed what polls have indicated for months — that voters are supremely dissatisfied with Mr. Trump and Republicans who have backed his agenda.

Democrats flipped House seats across the map. And the redistricting effort Republicans undertook in hopes of protecting their majority failed to yield victories that they intended: Democrats won districts in Florida that Republicans redrew to be favorable for themselves, and a North Carolina seat Democrats flipped was also part of the Republican redistricting effort.

Democratic candidates have blamed Mr. Trump, and the war he started this year in Iran, for the economic hardships that have driven a current of frustration across the nation. Republicans have focused on portraying their Democratic opponents as extreme on social issues and the economy as they played defense in reliably red states.

Republicans fended off a significant challenge in a Senate race in Florida: Senator Ashley Moody defeated Angie Nixon, a progressive Democrat, in a tight contest to complete the term of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The last polling places closed at 1 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, in Alaska, and full results for some races may not be known for days or longer.

Here’s what else we’re covering: A complicated landscape: More than 400 Times reporters, editors, data analysts, video journalists and photographers are covering the midterms, seeking to understand a large country with voters who are complicated — and sometimes contradictory. Minor disruptions: A technical problem with voting machines in Westchester County, N.Y., outside New York City, led officials there to collect ballots by hand in a competitive House race.

In Florida, flooding forced more than 20 polling stations across eight counties to be relocated. In North Carolina, technical problems at several precincts caused minor delays; state election officials said they would delay the release of election results to at least 8:15 p.m. from 7:30 p.m. Election integrity: Many election officials and Democrats have said they fear that Mr. Trump’s attacks on the integrity of U.S. elections could lead to tensions during voting and baseless challenges to the outcome.

The administration has sought to prove that many noncitizens have cast ballots, but few people have been charged with offenses related to voting fraud. Local and state officials say they are well prepared to run a secure election.

Court rulings: A federal judge has turned down a request by Democratic lawmakers and party organizations to prohibit the Trump administration from coercing states into screening incoming ballots.

And the Supreme Court issued what appeared to be an extraordinary rebuke to Mr. Trump, signaling that it was not interested in assisting his efforts to interfere with how states administer elections.

Gov. Tina Kotek, one of the few endangered Democratic incumbents in a difficult year for Republicans, prevailed in her re-election bid, The Associated Press said, as she was powered in the end by a pro-Democratic environment in her blue state. Ms. Kotek, who had been the longest-serving House speaker in Oregon history before winning the governorship four years ago, defeated State Senator Christine Drazan, the same Republican she beat in her first run for governor.

Ms. Kotek ran in 2022 pledging to reduce homelessness, expand access to addiction and mental health services, supercharge housing production and improve public schools. Progress on all of those issues has been far slower than promised.

In 2024, she faced an ethics controversy over her efforts to give her wife an expanded role in state government, prompting the departure of three top aides and forcing the governor to abandon her plans and apologize. A state ethics commission later dismissed complaints against her. Liberal Democrats in Oregon have been frustrated by Ms. Kotek’s efforts to woo business leaders and work with Republicans.

The state’s largest teachers union, a traditional source of Democratic support and get-out-the-vote efforts, opted not to endorse in the race. Recent polls have shown Ms. Kotek’s dissatisfaction ratings rivaling those of President Trump. By Nate Cohn, Laura Bult, Nour Idriss, June Kim and Edward Vega By Shane Goldmacher, Alexandra Ostasiewicz, Thomas Vollkommer and James Surdam By Christine Zhang, Sutton Raphael, Brian Oh, Edward Vega and Stephanie Swart By Shane Goldmacher, Alexandra Ostasiewicz, Jon Miller, Edward Vega and James Surdam By Christine Zhang, Sutton Raphael, Brian Oh, Stephanie Swart and Edward Vega Nebraska voters rejected two ballot measures that would have legalized online sports betting in the state.

Gambling companies supporting the measures, including DraftKings and FanDuel, poured more than $20 million into the campaign, promising new tax revenue for property tax relief. Opponents, who raised just over $1 million, warned that online betting would threaten the integrity of college sports and fuel gambling addiction.

Arizona voters have approved a ballot measure barring transgender student athletes from participating on teams that match their gender identity, The Associated Press reported.

The measure also requires transgender students to use only those restrooms and locker rooms that match their sex at birth.

Senator Pete Ricketts, a Nebraska Republican backed by President Trump, won re-election on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press, staving off a competitive challenge from an independent candidate with a working-class platform. Mr. Ricketts’s victory against Dan Osborn, a mechanic and military veteran who ran without party affiliation, confirmed the strength of the Republican Party and the senator’s conservative record in the deep-red state despite the growing discontent with Mr. Trump’s economic policies.

Mr. Ricketts focused his campaign on his reliably conservative record in his years of public service in Nebraska and reiterated his focus on border security and economic support for farmers. He has acknowledged the financial strain that the Iran war has brought to Nebraska families and farmers by raising fuel and fertilizer prices, but he has not opposed the conflict.

Mr. Osborn’s independent status appealed to swing voters, Democrats and Republicans disillusioned with the Trump administration.

He was also aided when the Democratic nominee, Cindy Burbank, withdrew from the race, backing Mr. Osborn believing that he would have a better chance of unseating Mr. Ricketts. But Mr. Ricketts’s deep ties to Nebraska, name recognition as a former governor and Republican allegiance in a red state proved too much for Mr. Osborn to overcome.

Before being appointed to the Senate in 2023, Mr. Ricketts served two terms as governor. Across those roles, he has delivered tax cuts, supported the agriculture industry, pushed business-friendly policies and promoted securing the southern border.

Mr. Ricketts comes from a powerful family in Nebraska politics.

His father, Joe Ricketts, is a Republican megadonor and billionaire businessman and founded the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade.

The senator previously worked in executive roles at the firm, and served as a board member of the Chicago Cubs, which he partly owns. Two traditionally stalwart Democratic groups returned to the party fold these midterms after a dalliance with the G.O.P. in 2024. Counties with a Black majority had drifted a little more than a percentage point toward Trump two years ago.

But when the dust settled this election night, those places moved nearly 16 percentage points toward Democratic Senate candidates. The Democrats ended up beating their Republican opponents by more than 50 percentage points in some counties.

Young voters also appear to have come back to the Democratic fold after some signs they were willing to vote Republican.

After counties with large numbers of 18- to 34-year-olds swung more than seven percentage points to Mr. Trump in 2024, they swerved left by nearly 23 percentage points this year. Gov. Katie Hobbs, one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the 2026 election year, held on to Arizona’s highest office for another four years, The Associated Press said, solidifying Democratic leadership of the swing state heading into the 2028 presidential election.

Ms. Hobbs, a moderate, defeated Representative Andy Biggs, an ally of President Trump’s who had the backing of Turning Point USA, the conservative organization founded by Charlie Kirk. Her victory represents the latest rebuke of far-right Republicans in Arizona, and it was the first time in two decades that a Democratic governor won re-election in the state.

Ms. Hobbs campaigned for the support of independents, who make up Arizona’s largest share of registered voters, and moderate Republicans. She even tapped a former Republican, John Giles, the former mayor of the city of Mesa, as her running mate.

Ms. Hobbs campaigned on affordability and protection of the drought-stricken state’s water. Though her refusal to debate Mr. Biggs earned her derision, the decision was validated by her victory.

In 2022, Ms. Hobbs barely edged out a far-right firebrand, Kari Lake, who lost in a U.S. Senate bid two years later.

Mr. Biggs tried to make the case that he was a more electable Republican, but Democrats framed him otherwise, slamming his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and claiming that he turned a blind eye to child abuse by a Mormon splinter group more than a decade ago as president of the State Senate. Turning Point PAC Arizona, a political arm of Turning Point USA, dumped nearly $20 million in support of Mr. Biggs’s campaign this year, but he was still outspent by Ms. Hobbs.

For Democrats hoping to retake the White House in 2028, Ms. Hobbs’s presence in the governor’s office will come as a relief. The state has been a hotbed of election deniers since Joseph R. Biden Jr. narrowly won it in 2020, and Democrats feared Mr. Biggs would empower those who still claim wrongly that Mr. Trump has won the state three times. With Democrats performing so well around the country, the party will be looking at Montana as a big potential missed opportunity.

For months, supporters of Seth Bodnar, a well-funded left-leaning independent, and Alani Bankhead, the little-known Democratic nominee, feuded with each other and tried to pressure each other to drop out of the race. In the end, neither did and they split Democratic votes, helping Kurt Alme, the Republican, to an easy victory. Dan S. Sullivan’s lead in Alaska’s Senate race masks the fact that he is underperforming President Trump’s margins in the 2024 race.

Much of the reported vote is from ballots cast on Election Day, which are favorable for Republicans. In the 27 districts that have finished tallying such votes, Sullivan is running behind Trump by an average of 12 percentage points. In District 22, which includes North Muldoon, one of the most diverse areas in the state, Mary Peltola, the Democratic candidate, leads by nearly 20 percentage points among Election Day voters.

Trump carried the same district’s day-of vote by nearly four points in 2024. The remaining votes here will be from early and mail ballots, which are expected to lean toward Peltola. Beau Bayh, a Democrat, was elected Indiana secretary of state, The Associated Press reported, ending a Republican lockout on all statewide offices.

Bayh, a Marine veteran and lawyer, is a son of former Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana. The Republican incumbent, Diego Morales, did not receive his party’s nomination for another term. It’s after midnight in Los Angeles. While the Associated Press has not yet called the city’s mayoral race, Nithya Raman, the D.S.A.-aligned challenger to Mayor Karen Bass, gave a speech that sounded a lot like a victory address.

She told the crowd of supporters, who were buzzing about progressive wins across the country, that she was hopeful. “But I’m also really superstitious,” she said, “so we’re all just gonna be cool, OK?”

Kurt Alme, a former federal prosecutor, won the Senate race in Montana, according to The Associated Press, allowing Republicans to hold on to an open seat in conservative territory. Alme, the former U.S. attorney for Montana, focused his campaign on reducing federal spending and bringing tax relief. He entered the race in March after Senator Steve Daines withdrew his candidacy just minutes before the filing deadline.

Daines and Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, quickly endorsed Alme, as did President Trump. Some Democrats backed the independent bid of Seth Bodnar over their own nominee, Alani Bankhead, believing he was more electable in the heavily Republican state, and Alme was able to capitalize on the rift. Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, the longest-serving woman in Congress, defeated Derek Merrin, a Republican, according to The Associated Press, to win her 23rd term. Kaptur, 80, was first elected to the House in 1982. She edged out Merrin two years ago in an area that President Trump carried, and the Ninth Congressional District was redrawn to tilt more conservative.

Kaptur prepared for the rematch by moderating her stances to defend her seat.

She faced local Democratic backlash over an ad in which she said that “boys should not play in girls’ sports.”Voters in Idaho, one of the country’s most conservative states, turned back an effort to repeal the state’s abortion ban, according to The Associated Press.

Two years before the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, Idaho lawmakers had already passed a ban, making it a crime for doctors or other health care professionals to terminate a pregnancy. The law went into effect when the high court reversed itself on Roe v. Wade. Since then, in-person abortions have nearly vanished in Idaho, but the state has also experienced a dramatic drop in the number of doctors practicing obstetrics.

A study published last year found that Idaho had lost 94 of the 268 physicians who were practicing obstetrics when the ban took effect, a 35 percent decline in the first two years, even after accounting for doctors who had arrived in the state over that time. About half of Idaho’s 44 counties lack a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist.

Proponents of repealing the ban argued that the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature had gone too far with a law that led to long wait times and fear among the doctors who have stayed. They hoped that Idaho would join Kansas and Missouri, other conservative states where voters have rolled back abortion limits. Conservatives and the Idaho Republican Party made maintaining the ban their big issue and used it to drive voter turnout.

They said the statistics about doctors fleeing the state were overblown, noting the number of people with active obstetrician and gynecologist licenses in Idaho grew since the abortion ban. Doctors do not need to live or practice full time in the state to maintain one, and not all OB-GYN practices offer a full range of women’s health care.

Opponents of the referendum also focused on aspects of the measure that went beyond abortion.

The proposition would have also enshrined a right to birth control and fertility treatments in Idaho. Attorney General Keith Ellison of Minnesota, a Democrat, won a third term, The Associated Press reported, fending off a challenge from a trial lawyer who sought to portray him as complicit in the proliferation of fraud in state-run welfare programs.

Ellison touted the lawsuits his office had filed against the Trump administration, including over its immigration enforcement and pursuit of voter data.

He warned that his opponent, Ron Schutz, would be a rubber stamp for the White House. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive Democrat and outspoken critic of Israel, won Michigan’s Senate race, according to The Associated Press, maintaining his party’s hold on a crucial battleground seat despite a remarkable last-minute defection from his rival in the primary.

Dr. El-Sayed, 42, will become the nation’s first Muslim senator when he is seated in January. He defeated former Representative Mike Rogers, a Republican making his second run for the Senate, in a campaign that became one of the country’s most bitter and expensive contests.

Dr. El-Sayed overcame opposition not only from Republicans, but also, in the final days, from Representative Haley Stevens, the moderate Democrat he beat in the primary. On Sunday, after days of growing criticism of Dr. El-Sayed, she rescinded her support of the Democrat and made a stunning endorsement of Mr. Rogers. Her late opposition was emblematic of a faction of moderate Democrats and Jewish voters who found Dr. El-Sayed’s position on Israel untenable.

In the end, though, Ms. Stevens proved to have a limited constituency.

Her endorsement of Mr. Rogers drew broad condemnation across the Democratic Party. Dr. El-Sayed’s triumph gives Democrats a critical victory and keeps them in control of the seat held by Senator Gary Peters, who is retiring. A talented orator and debater, Dr. El-Sayed ran on a platform of “money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for all.”

He focused relentlessly on tying Mr. Rogers to President Trump and his policies, especially the war in Iran and tariffs, which have driven up prices. He also reveled in schoolyard taunts, calling Mr. Rogers “a beta” during a Fox News appearance.

But throughout his campaign, questions lingered over whether he could win over crucial segments of Democrats’ traditional base.

Black voters, especially in Detroit, have long had tensions with Arab Americans in the region. And suburban Jewish voters who have been loyal Democrats for generations blanched at his suggestions that Israel should not exist as an explicitly Jewish state — a position he had softened by the end of his campaign — and that the United States should cut off military aid to the country. In the campaign’s final weeks, Dr. El-Sayed faced a blitz of Republican attacks centered on his faith and family. At televised debates, Mr. Rogers questioned Dr. El-Sayed’s loyalty to America, invoked his mother and suggested he was in league with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist political movement. (Dr. El-Sayed has disavowed the movement.)

Mr. Trump called Dr. El-Sayed a “jihadist” at a rally last month in Port Huron, Mich., and in Truth Social posts. Throughout the campaign, Dr. El-Sayed emerged as a litmus test for Democrats. Progressives argued that his muscular left-wing politics were the party’s future and sought to cast his campaign as an example for others to follow.

But centrist and moderate Democrats who backed Ms. Stevens in the primary saw his approach as an unnecessary risk in a battleground state. Late in the race, a low-grade feud between Ms. Stevens and Dr. El-Sayed exploded into public view. Ms. Stevens had spent the campaign’s final weeks offering increasingly pointed criticism about Dr. El-Sayed’s position on Israel and demanding that he condemn an online ad made by an outside group that supported him. Dr. El-Sayed publicly uninvited Ms. Stevens from a planned joint appearance at a Detroit church; Ms. Stevens responded by pulling her endorsement and backing Mr. Rogers.

Dr. El-Sayed has telegraphed high ambitions in the Senate. He has said he aims to influence Democratic policy on health care and Israel, both in Washington and during the 2028 presidential contest.

Michigan is set to play a newly influential role in the party’s primary race, with the Democratic National Committee placing the state fifth on its revamped calendar. Leading liberal figures flooded into the state to campaign for Dr. El-Sayed. Former President Barack Obama held a rally in Detroit for him, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York accompanied him for a day of campaign stops.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont held rallies to try to juice turnout for him. The Senate race was the most expensive in state history, with $278 million spent on television and digital advertising, according to AdImpact, a media tracking firm.

Dr. El-Sayed was outspent in both the Democratic primary, when pro-Israel super PACs supported Ms. Stevens, and during the general election against Mr. Rogers. There are still no results in Nevada, more than four hours after polls closed there.

That’s because, per state law, no results can be reported until the last person who was in line to vote before polls closed has gotten a chance to cast a ballot — and exceptionally long lines in Washoe and Clark Counties have delayed proceedings.

Sarah Trone Garriott, a Democratic state senator and Lutheran minister, defeated Representative Zach Nunn, Republican of Iowa, according to The Associated Press, flipping a key seat to help her party win control of the House. Ms. Trone Garriott’s victory over Mr. Nunn, a two-term incumbent who had closely aligned himself with President Trump, was a major breakthrough for Democrats in a district that Mr. Nunn had won twice.

Republicans had invested millions of dollars there to defend one of their most vulnerable incumbents.

It was also a rebuke of the Trump administration’s economic agenda in a politically divided stretch of central and southern Iowa, where Ms. Trone Garriott had made rising costs, health care cuts and the economic consequences of the war in Iran central to her campaign.

Throughout the race, Ms. Trone Garriott sought to cast Mr. Nunn as a politician more concerned with protecting the president and his wealthy supporters than with the financial struggles of ordinary Iowans.

“Families are paying too much for groceries, health care and child care, and people are tired of politicians in Washington who look out for themselves,” she said last month, summarizing her central argument.

Her victory demonstrated the potency of that message in Iowa’s Third Congressional District, which encompasses Des Moines, its fast-growing suburbs and a broad swath of rural Iowa where Republicans have maintained considerable political strength. A former Air Force intelligence officer, Mr. Nunn, 47, had spent much of his time in Congress as a steadfast supporter of Mr. Trump’s agenda.

He repeatedly backed legislation that cut federal Medicaid spending, declined to break with the president over his sweeping tariffs and for months supported the war in Iran. But as polling showed growing dissatisfaction with the war and its economic consequences, Mr. Nunn sought to distance himself from the administration. In September, after repeatedly rejecting efforts to restrict the president’s military authority, he joined a small group of Republicans who voted to curtail Mr. Trump’s ability to continue waging the war.

The shift was not enough to save him.

Ms. Trone Garriott, who had opposed the war, repeatedly tied the military operation to rising gasoline and fertilizer prices, arguing that Iowa families and farmers were paying the price for a conflict Congress had never authorized.

She also attacked Mr. Nunn’s support for the Republican domestic policy law that reduced Medicaid spending, accusing him of endangering access to health care in rural communities already struggling to keep hospitals and clinics open.

Ms. Trone Garriott, who defeated a powerful Republican incumbent to win her State Senate seat, held public town halls in all 21 counties of the congressional district, making her accessibility to constituents a central contrast with Mr. Nunn. She also proved to be a formidable fund-raiser, bringing in more than $8 million by late October, substantially more than Mr. Nunn’s approximately $6 million.

Outside Republican groups poured millions into defending his seat even as some of the party’s most powerful super PACs withdrew support from another vulnerable Iowa incumbent, Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks. Mr. Nunn had demonstrated considerable political staying power, rooted in his popularity beyond the Democratic stronghold of Des Moines.

But Ms. Trone Garriott appealed to suburban voters and sought to cut into the large margins Republicans traditionally enjoyed in rural communities. Adam Hamilton’s victory in the Kansas Senate race represents a significant expansion of the Democrats’ footprint in the state. He carried 11 counties, winning back three that voted Democratic in the 2022 governor’s race but then flipped to Trump in 2024.

He also flipped three counties that voted Republican in both 2022 and 2024. In a victory speech, Josh Turek, Iowa’s Democratic senator-elect, cast his underdog win as proof of the power of the many over the concentrated wealth of the few.

“We have proved that the impossible was possible,” he said, adding later, “We outvoted the billionaires.”Grinning, he welcomed former Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, onto the stage and again credited him with paving the way for his political career as the author of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

“I have been saying that it’s going to be beautifully poetic that the man that is coming to get Senator Harkin’s seat back is only there because of the work that he did.”Turnout in Texas will end in the range of 10 million ballots cast, a record showing for a midterm election in the state that approaches turnout typically seen in a presidential race. It was strongest in areas that James Talarico won, particularly in majority-Hispanic counties like Cameron, Caldwell and Webb, which saw modest declines between 6 percent and 12 percent from two years ago.

Midterm turnout often decreases much more sharply. Richard Pan, a former Democratic state senator, defeated Representative Kevin Kiley, a Republican who changed his registration to independent this year, to win the House seat in a redrawn Northern California district, according to The Associated Press. Pan, a pediatrician who as a state lawmaker was known for passing bills to toughen school vaccine requirements, capitalized in a district where Democrats now outnumber Republicans, 3 to 1.

Kiley, who has represented a rural stretch of Northern California in the House since 2022, tried to distance himself from President Trump’s policies.

Representative Max Miller, the Ohio Republican whose campaign was rocked by accusations that he physically abused his ex-wife and young daughter, lost his re-election bid, according to The Associated Press, handing Democrats a seat in deep-red territory as they won House control. Brian Poindexter, a union ironworker, defeated Mr. Miller, a two-term congressman whose political rise was fueled by his close relationship with President Trump, in a district Mr. Trump won by a double-digit margin two years ago. Mr. Miller had rejected calls by fellow Republicans to drop out of the race after he was accused by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, of domestic abuse against her and their 2-year-old daughter.

Ms. Moreno, the daughter of Senator Bernie Moreno, also an Ohio Republican, said that Mr. Miller had scalded her chest and stomach by throwing hot water from a skillet at her body; held a gun to her head; pushed her against a wall and hit her head; and fractured their daughter’s collarbone and bruised her shoulder. The allegations came to light as part of a lengthy divorce court battle.

Mr. Miller denied all of the accusations and embarked on a defiant media tour in which he accused his ex-wife of being mentally unstable, a liar, a stalker and a dangerous individual.

As the sordid family drama gained national attention, some powerful Ohio Republicans, including Senator Jon Husted, pressed Mr. Miller to exit the race and resign. Mr. Moreno, who at first tried to avoid questions about Mr. Miller, eventually said that his former son-in-law was not fit to hold public office.

“If there are any basic standards of character required to hold elected office, Max Miller fails them,” Mr. Moreno said in an emotional statement. The House Ethics Committee also opened a review of the domestic abuse allegations.

Some White House officials wanted Mr. Miller to drop out of the race in time for Republicans to replace him on the ballot, but the president stopped short of asking Mr. Miller to drop out.

In a private phone call, Mr. Trump simply warned him that it might be difficult for him to win given the allegations. Mr. Miller was resolute that he would do what the president himself had done when faced with personal scandals seen as fatal to his presidential campaigns: stay in and fight.

Mr. Poindexter continued to work full time as an apprentice instructor throughout his primary campaign. He tried to make his own relatable life story part of his pitch to win over working-class Trump voters.

“I never got in this race to run because Max Miller is terrible in his personal life,” he said in an interview. “I got in it to run because of policies that hurt us.”Despite the accusations, Mr. Miller was never fully deserted by House Republican leaders.

Once it became clear there was no way to replace him on the ballot, they quietly spent more than $5 million to defend his seat, according to the ad-tracking service AdImpact.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson won the race for governor in Michigan on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press, keeping in Democratic hands an office that has an important role in certifying the closely divided state’s presidential election results. Ms. Benson, 49, will take over in January from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who was barred by term limits from running again, and who built a national profile during eight years in Lansing. Ms. Benson defeated Representative John James, a Republican from suburban Detroit who had lost two previous statewide campaigns.

Both candidates made an anti-incumbent case to an electorate frustrated by the high cost of living and rising prices.

While Mr. James blamed the Democrats in state government, Ms. Benson criticized President Trump’s policies, including tariffs targeting Canada that have had an outsized effect on Michigan’s auto industry. She pledged to seek “sub-national” agreements with Canada, which borders Michigan, if elected.

“At a time where it feels like, at the federal level, government is showing up everywhere we don’t want it and nowhere where we actually need it, I will make sure that government is showing up for you and doing right by you,” Ms. Benson said in a recent debate hosted by WDIV-TV.

Ms. Benson, a former law school dean who served two terms as Michigan’s chief elections officer, became a target of right-wing activists in 2020 when she presided over Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the state over Mr. Trump. Ms. Benson defended the results against unproven claims of widespread fraud. After Mr. Trump returned to office, she fought his administration’s efforts to obtain private voter data. Michigan’s governor signs a document certifying the state’s presidential electors, a role that could again become important if the results of a future presidential race are contested.

Mr. Trump carried the state in 2016 and 2024, while Mr. Biden won it in 2020. Ms. Benson will become the first Democratic governor of Michigan to succeed a fellow Democrat since the 1960s.

She will also be the third woman to serve as the state’s leader. The governor’s race had initially been expected to be a three-way contest including Mike Duggan, a former mayor of Detroit and longtime Democrat who was running as an independent.

Though he received significant endorsements and had competitive polling numbers, Mr. Duggan dropped out of the race in May, saying he did not want to be a spoiler. His decision to withdraw was widely seen as a boost for Democrats. Democrats won control of the House early Wednesday, capping a sweeping takeover of Congress as they harnessed a backlash against President Trump to end Republicans’ governing trifecta and secure a powerful foothold from which to check his power.

Capitalizing on widespread dissatisfaction over the war in Iran, Mr. Trump’s tariffs and corruption allegations, Democrats won decisive victories across the country, reaching deep into Republican territory where voters had soured on the president and his allies.

Having won control of the Senate despite a map stacked against them, Democrats early Wednesday clinched the 218 seats needed to take control of the House of Representatives, according to The Associated Press, and appeared on track to capture many more.

With final results still outstanding, it was unclear exactly how large Democrats’ majority would be, a factor that will shape their ability to set an agenda and muscle bills through the Senate, where Republicans retained the ability to block major measures from the minority.

But in a thrashing for the G.O.P., Democrats had won decisive victories across the country, including in solid conservative bastions, in what was projected early Wednesday morning to be the largest popular vote victory for either party since 1976.

The election results promised a new era of divided government in Washington and a freshly assertive Congress after two years in which Republicans generally ceded power to Mr. Trump and reduced the legislative branch’s role to that of a mere bystander. It capped a fiercely fought midterm election cycle that Democrats entered chastened from the 2024 presidential election but finished buoyant and with strong political winds at their backs.

“The American people have spoken and made clear they’ve had enough of the extremism, enough of the corruption,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader who is now in line to be speaker, told supporters in Washington. “They want a Congress that’s going to deliver for the American people.”

Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and the longtime leader who was deeply involved in his party’s uphill battle for the majority, vowed a swift change in direction. “We have five words for the American people,” he told reporters in Washington. “Relief is on the way.”

With control of Congress and its committees, Democrats are expected to deploy their oversight powers to aggressively investigate Mr. Trump and his administration over allegations of corruption, aggressive immigration enforcement tactics and the president’s pardons. Representative Robert Garcia, the California Democrat who is poised to be the chairman of the Oversight Committee, the main investigative panel in the House, issued a warning in a statement on Tuesday night. “Lawyer up,” he said.

Democrats have also promised a shock-and-awe legislative sprint in which they plan to push through bills that would restore health care subsidies and Medicaid funding, address the increased costs of food and fuel and seek to force Mr. Trump to roll back his tariffs and end the war with Iran. Democratic control of the Senate will also give the party veto power over Mr. Trump’s judicial and administration nominees, as well as the leadership of the committees that will have the authority to subpoena administration officials and others.

Mr. Trump, who appeared stunned by the results even as he deflected any blame for the losses, insisted he would still have the upper hand over a Democratic Congress.

“I have total veto power, so they have to come to us,” he said in an interview with The New York Times as the Democratic victories piled up.

“And if they have some good ideas, I’m certainly open to working.”

Despite their losses in the last presidential election, Democrats had been consistently bullish about their ability to win the House majority. The party out of power typically gains seats in midterm elections, and Republicans have held only a slender majority in the House since they took over in 2023. They were less optimistic about their prospects in the Senate, where the political map was stacked against them with seats in states that had become solidly Republican during the Trump era.

But as voters who backed Mr. Trump in 2024 began souring on the president and his agenda, Democrats saw an opportunity to drastically expand their political map.

They won in longtime G.O.P. bastions like Kansas and Texas, reversed years of losses in Iowa and Ohio, and flipped both North Carolina and South Carolina. Mr. Schumer recalled that when he first began talking about reclaiming the majority in 2025, “people rolled their eyes.”

Democrats, he argued, prevailed because they heeded voters who were frustrated with how things were going in Washington and felt ignored by Republicans. “We listened; they didn’t,” he said.

“And the American people reduced the red brick wall to a pile of bricks.”Their victories were powered by Americans’ growing dismay over the rising costs of goods and fuel linked to Mr. Trump’s tariffs and the war. Democrats painted the G.O.P. as beholden to the president and indifferent to the financial struggles of everyday Americans. Those arguments were bolstered by growing concerns among voters about corruption in Washington and the cuts to Medicaid and health care subsidies that Republicans enacted as part of their signature tax cut and domestic policy package last year.

Their strength became evident early in the night, when Democrats surged in crucial House battlegrounds and had notched victories in competitive races in Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

The party needed a net gain of only three seats to win the House. Aware of the historical trend, Republicans had taken efforts to stem their expected losses with a frenzy of redistricting in red states that was meant to increase the number of G.O.P.-leaning districts and force Democrats out of what had been safe seats.

But those moves fell short in the face of Mr. Trump’s plummeting approval ratings.

In Florida, Democrats won in three districts that Republican state lawmakers redrew to favor their party, including some where Mr. Trump won by more than 10 percentage points in 2024. Even with many races uncalled, Speaker Mike Johnson effectively acknowledged his party’s defeat on Tuesday night.

“We knew that to keep the House and sustain our majority, we would have to defy more than a century of midterm history,” Mr. Johnson said.

“It’s very, very difficult to overcome. And it looks like history will be kept tonight.”The drubbing appeared to leave many Republicans reeling on Tuesday evening, and raised questions about the direction that the party would take in the final two years of Mr. Trump’s second term, a lame-duck period that has bedeviled many presidents. Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the Republican leader, said his party would work to thwart Democrats at every turn.

“As we head into 2027, Senate Republicans will not stand idly by as the far-left, socialist wing of the Democrat party attempts to unwind everything we’ve done,” Mr. Thune said in a statement early Wednesday.

“Thankfully, we still have President Trump in the White House, and we’ll work with him to stop the worst impulses of Democrat extremism. We cannot let their fringe positions become the mainstream.”During the first half of his second term, Mr. Trump has enjoyed near-total control of Congress, with lawmakers showing little appetite for imposing guardrails on his actions.

But Senate races in particular suggested that Mr. Trump had lost his once dominant sway over Republican voters. The president won both North Carolina and South Carolina in all three of his presidential elections. But in both cases in this election, his handpicked candidates trailed significantly.

And with Mr. Trump losing ground even in Ohio and Iowa, two former battleground states that he transformed into G.O.P. strongholds, it was unclear whether he would exhibit the same hold on Republican lawmakers that has characterized his second term.

Sensing a political shift in the final weeks of their campaigns, many vulnerable lawmakers sought to put some distance between themselves and his policies, particularly his signature tariffs. But the pivot appeared to have come too late. Annie Karni and Robert Jimison contributed reporting from Washington.