Frustration with President Trump, economic woes, and nasty campaigning contributed to change in power‘Things happen when you are at war and there is always a political repercussion,’ says Republican strategist Jeffrey Lord People 'were told that there was never going to be a forever war, and this president got them into one, so they feel misled or lied to,’ says former Obama campaign adviser Laurie Watkins It was a blue blowout in both House and Senate races in the US’ 2026 Midterm elections. Democrats decisively claimed both chambers, in some cases flipping seats that had remained in Republican control for generations.

Most surprising were the flips of Senate seats Texas, Kansas, Maine, and South Carolina.

In Kansas, Adam Hilton ousted Republican incumbent Roger Marshall. It is the first time in 90 years that a Democrat has won the Senate from that state.

Susan Collins, Maine’s stalwart centrist Republican, fell to Democratic nominee Troy Jackson by seven percentage points.

Democrats’ efforts in Maine experienced turbulence when original nominee Graham Platner stepped aside due to multiple sexual assault and harassment allegations. Jackson was able to step in and carry the state.

In South Carolina, Democrat Darline Graham lost her race after being appointed to replace her brother, longtime Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who suddenly died earlier this year. Democrats made an issue of Darline Graham’s inexperience in politics. She herself also made several admissions to the media that she was not the most educated on important policy areas.

In Michigan, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed managed to stave off a last-minute defection in his party and growing concern about his positions on US-Israel relations.

In the 11th hour, departing Michigan Democratic Representative Haley Stevens flipped her endorsement. After tensions continued to escalate between her and El-Sayed reached a fever pitch, Stevens was seen attending church with Republican nominee Mike Rogers. Stevens posted her endorsement of Rogers later that morning.

The ensuing firestorm elicited angry reactions from Democrats across the country and even resulted in several of Stevens’s staff resigning. However, the drama seemed to leave voters unfazed and El-Sayed untouched. He went on to win the seat by seven points. He will take over for retiring Democratic senator Gary Peters.

Other races were tighter. In Mississippi, Democrats are favored to narrowly pick up the Senate seat.

Democrats now hold over 250 seats in the House, and 54 seats in the Senate. Both numbers are expected to increase as tight races are officially called in the coming days.

Anadolu spoke with Republican and Democratic analysts and a non-partisan pollster to examine how the Democrats won back control of Congress.

Battleground state polling was clear While the tide may seem dramatic, Zogby Strategies pollster John Zogby said the Democratic wins are not as seismic as many are claiming. “Democrats went in leading in every one of the battleground states,” he said. “If we take a look at Maine, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Texas. You know, by and large, Democrats did very, very well. Though, Zogby said, there were some outliers.

“Texas warrants an asterisk because no one predicted the very late surge for James Tallarico. He ended up winning by significant double digits, whereas the pre-election polls had him at single digits.”If Talarico’s polling had stayed in the single digits, he would have been within the margin of error to lose to Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. However, in the south, things were tighter than conventional polling thought they should be. In the end, Republican Ashley Moody won the Florida senate seat she was appointed to in 2025.

But in Mississippi, the race has tightened and will be decided by only a handful of votes. It is looking like Democrats will pick up another seat in the state for the first time since 1982. “If you look at the trajectory of the Mississippi race, we see Scott Colom, the Democratic candidate, was definitely closing in.”The race is so close, it has yet to be called.

Zogby said the factors for tighter races in the south also included Black voters returning to the Democratic party, and a repudiation of President Trump and his policies. But nationwide, “There is not an instance where the polls misled anyone,” Zogby said.

Iran war doomed Republicans Polling numbers were driven in part by a very unpopular war with Iran. Republican strategist and former Reagan administration official Jeffrey Lord told Anadolu: “I do think that anytime the country is at war in any fashion, that can play a role,” in party-switching in the legislative branch.

“Things happen when you are at war and there is always a political repercussion. Sometimes there can be support for a war as Americans sort of rally around the flag. But other times voters ask, ‘How did we get into this kind of thing?’”

Lord said. Pollster Zogby said America’s relationship with Israel started disaffecting voters in the 2024 election and drove a younger demographic to participate in the midterms.

“A third of the total of voters on Tuesday were Millennials and Gen Z,” Zogby explained. "In each case, they supported their Democratic candidate.

And a major factor for supporting the Democratic candidate was the position (on Israel)." Former Obama campaign adviser Laurie Watkins said Democrats saw money going to Israel being misused. “There were many candidates who ran on ending funding to the Israeli government through Benjamin Netanyahu, because they don't believe that he's using the money appropriately to defend themselves.”The fundamental broken promise from Republicans to stay out of Middle Eastern affairs left many independent voters who had voted for Trump in 2024 feeling hoodwinked.

“People are very angry. They were told that there was never going to be a forever war, and this president got them into one, so they feel misled or lied to,” Watkins said. War exacerbated an affordability crisis The war in Iran forced the president and his colleagues in Congress to fail on three key campaign promises from the 2024 election: No new foreign wars, lowering prices for goods, and getting fuel costs down.

This is why, Zogby says, the Iran war and the American economy “fold into one issue. It impacts Americans’ grocery bills. It becomes a meta issue from the impact of the war.”

Watkins concurred, saying: “People see the amount of money that (the US sends) to Israel when people are struggling. They see the money that we're sending to them is being used to offer weaponry and bombs to kill innocent people. That's what this was about for those voters.”Shifting messages and attacks Republicans continually downplayed the role of the war and the economy while campaigning.

They failed to address voters’ concerns in a meaningful way. Watkins explained: “People feel gaslit. There's an affordability crisis, and when the president makes fun of it, that makes people angry. They feel like they're not being heard.”Instead, Republicans focused on left-leaning social policy, and issues related to candidates' identities, particularly in the case of El-Sayed in Michigan.

The tactic turned people off. “It got really nasty,” said Watkins. “Overall, the American electorate doesn't want to see that anymore. They don't want to see one ad after the other of the most vitriolic, nasty kind of talk about other human beings. So, they were tired of it and they voted overwhelmingly so.”The Democrats bounced back from 2024 by understanding what their message needed to be.

They stayed focused while managing to avoid being derailed by the cultural issues not germane to voters’ concerns. “Through all the attack ads, Democratic candidates continued to show the American people that they hear them, they see them, and they're going to do something about it, and they're going to fight back,” Watkins said.

Ken Paxton in Texas and Mike Rogers in Michigan were particularly hampered by charismatic media-friendly opponents.

Rogers was steamrolled by El-Sayed’s ability to, as Watkins put it, “pivot masterfully right back to affordability, and a lot of the candidates did that every time in a debate or with the media.”Paxton had trouble getting past several skeletons in his closet, including an indictment for securities fraud and multiple marital scandals.

Tuesday came down to voter frustration with not only President Trump’s policies, but his tactics.

Voters saw a president whose promises had been broken and whose moves in breaking those promises turned an ever-deafening ear to the needs of everyday Americans. John Zogby, the pollster, put it succinctly: “Trump wanted to be on the ballot, and he was.”