11/04/2026, 1:27 AM EST | Updated: 11/04/2026, 1:36 AM EST Democrats seize full control of Congress Democrats have forcefully taken control of Congress, bolstered by a wave of voter dissatisfaction with Republicans and cost-of-living concerns.

The party will hold both the House and Senate for the first time under a Republican president in roughly two decades.

It’s a blow to President Donald Trump, who is effectively being forced into lame-duck status. His administration has been privately preparing for a wave of Democratic investigations that could threaten to suck up much of the political oxygen for the next two years. And GOP lawmakers are already openly questioning whether his influence may begin to dwindle with Hill Republicans over the next two years.

The result is the best-case scenario for Democrats and one that many had viewed as unlikely even a year ago.

They needed to win multiple seats in states Trump won by double digits in 2024. But Democrats were able to land top-shelf recruits in key races and capitalize on a souring national political environment driven by the president’s low poll numbers, the Iran war and related economic costs. With control of Congress in their grasp come January, Democrats will have legislative teeth.

They’ll still have to balance checking Trump with their own intra-party scramble to figure out their own identity and strategy ahead of the 2028 presidential election, where several Democratic lawmakers are looking at bids.

“Our number one focus has to be producing for the American people in terms of their number one need, the high costs that Trump has imposed on them, and second, to go after the corruption,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters as his party flipped the upper chamber.

Democrats needed a net pickup of four Senate seats in order to win back the majority. They picked up North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas and Maine, with other states still uncalled as of early Wednesday morning.

Democrats also flipped several GOP-held House districts, including in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Jersey.

The party is waiting to see how much breathing room they will have in their majorities. But securing both chambers is a win for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is expected to be elected speaker, as well as Schumer, who is also expected to return as majority leader despite months of criticism from outside progressives.

In a sign of things to come, some top Republicans quickly vowed to be an ally for Trump and a check on Democrats.

“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. Thankfully, we still have President Trump in the White House,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said in a statement.

Most Republicans who broke with Trump on Iran lost anyway Some vulnerable Republicans tried to break with President Donald Trump over the Iran war. It didn’t work.

Of the five battleground Republicans voted with Democrats in September to curb Trump’s Iran war powers in the House, only one — Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson — held onto their seat tonight.

Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and Iowa Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn were all ousted despite attempts to distance themselves from the deeply unpopular war.

And in a stunning defeat, Sen. Susan Collins, who joined a similar push in the Senate, conceded to Democrat Troy Jackson.

Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, who called for a quick end to the Iran war in September, was ousted by Democrat Sherrod Brown. And Iowa GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson, who broke sharply with Trump the same month to call for an end to the conflict, lost her Senate bid to Democrat Josh Turek.

Races have yet to be called in Michigan for Republican Senate hopeful Mike Rogers, who said in September that Trump should end the war, and GOP Rep. Tom Barrett, who voted in favor of curbing the president's war powers in September.

Former Trump voters began to lose patience with the conflict by the summer, according to a POLITICO Poll from July that showed support for the war decreased by 13 points in two months. And the persistent conflict, combined with rising gas prices, forced Republican candidates to call for the war’s end to maintain viability in their respective races. In the end, it wasn’t enough for many Republicans.

Trump appeared to acknowledge the suggestions from those in his party who said the spike in fuel costs triggered by the war was a drag on Republicans, but he defended his actions.

“I am totally convinced that my decision on Iran for the long-term good of our country and even the world was an absolutely correct one,” he told POLITICO on Tuesday evening.

RFK Jr. and his MAHA movement suffer massive defeat It was not a good election night for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Make America Healthy Again movement.

Kennedy and his fellow vaccine safety skeptics and health food advocates saw major allies in Iowa, Texas and Kansas go down.

“MAHA moms stayed home and it could’ve swayed some of these races that were unbearably close,” Alex Clark, a MAHA influencer and conservative podcaster, wrote on social media platform X. She attributed the losses to President Donald Trump’s support of glyphosate, a weedkiller MAHA supporters say causes cancer.

Nowhere were Kennedy’s losses more profound than Iowa, where he and MAHA groups put more time and money into electing Republican Zach Lahn governor than any other candidate. Lahn still went down, losing in a landslide to Democrat Rob Sand. Kennedy called Lahn’s race “the most important election going on in this country” when he appeared with him at a MAHA rally last week.

Two MAHA PACs, led by Kennedy’s book publisher, Tony Lyons, said last month that they were donating a combined $1.65 million to help Lahn, more money than they’d spent on any other race.

Republican Ashley Hinson lost her bid for the Iowa Senate seat of the retiring Joni Ernst.

GOP Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn, both of whom Kennedy had sought to help, lost.

Joe Mitchell, another Kennedy-backed GOP candidate in Iowa running for the House seat vacated by Hinson, lost to his Democratic opponent Lindsay James.

Other Senate races didn’t go any better for Kennedy and his movement. GOP candidate Ken Paxton’s loss in Texas to Democrat James Talarico deprives MAHA and Kennedy of what would have been a likely champion for their causes. As state attorney general, Paxton opened investigations into food, chemical and drug companies, earning praise from MAHA supporters.

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, the chair of the MAHA Caucus in Congress, lost in a shocker to Democrat Adam Hamilton. Marshall, a senior member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has been the legislative voice for MAHA causes like ending chronic disease and improving nutrition.

Marshall has repeatedly defended Kennedy against critics and aided the secretary in ensuring Trump’s health nominees secure Senate confirmation. Marshall had said he aimed to lead the Health Committee in the next Congress.

Elsewhere, Annie Andrews, a Democratic pediatrician who has criticized Kennedy throughout her campaign for questioning vaccine safety, scored a victory against Republican Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina.

Andrews reportedly called Kennedy her “professional archnemesis for decades” and supports his impeachment. Democrat Gendebien says Constantino will win New York seat long held by Stefanik Democrat Blake Gendebien said Republican Anthony Constantino will narrowly win the northern New York district held by Rep. Elise Stefanik for over a decade, wishing his opponent well in Congress while saying every vote should be counted.

“I wish Anthony Constantino well in Congress, and I hope he’ll always put the North Country first," Gendebien said.

Constantino will head to Washington as one of the most unconventional figures New York has sent to Congress in years.

"To those that voted for Blake, you made a big mistake, but its okay,” Constantino said in his victory speech. “I'm going to spend the next two years making you fall in love with me." A sticker magnate, Constantino came to public attention when he successfully fought zoning laws to build a giant “Vote for Trump” sign visible from the New York State Thruway. Democrats repeatedly highlighted stickers his company produced with messages like “Kill the Police” and abrasive lyrics from his attempted rap career.

But the bigger obstacle for Constantino was President Donald Trump’s trade war with Canada. The district includes communities along New York’s border with Quebec, where economic turmoil and a steep decline in tourism have stoked voters’ anxiety.

Those pressures helped put the district in play just two years after Trump carried it by 21 points.

A jubilant Chuck Schumer took a victory lap just before midnight Tuesday, saying the election had delivered a “generational remake” of the Senate map in Democrats' favor.

The Democratic leader made his comments outside the party's Senate campaign headquarters moments after the party won a majority — a feat many Democrats viewed as all but impossible even a year ago. "The American people reduced the red brick wall to a pile of bricks.

And as a result, there is now a generational remake of the Senate map that is going to change America now and on into the future. Americans voted for change, and now, Democrats must deliver,” Schumer told reporters.

The election victory is expected to sweep Schumer back into the Senate majority leader’s office. He cast it as a vindication of his strategy to stay focused on a "costs, chaos and corruption" message and recruit superior candidates in battleground states — even as he has aggravated some progressive outside groups and House Democrats over the past two years.

Asked about how Democrats would deal with President Donald Trump, Schumer said Democrats would "deliver for the people of America with or without the president," separately calling him "the worst president ever." "Republicans made a choice and followed Trump over the cliff,” he added.