US Midterms: Trump Suffers Major Setback As Democrats Close In On Senate, House Control

Democrats have recorded stunning victories in key United States Senate races, defeating Republican candidates in traditionally conservative strongholds of South Carolina, Texas and Ohio in a major setback for President Donald Trump.

The victories have brought Democrats closer to reclaiming control of the Senate, while the party is also making significant gains in the House of Representatives after defeating several Republican candidates in states including Kentucky, New Jersey and North Carolina.

Also read: https://leadership.ng/us-elections-democrats-favoured-as-polls-close-results-awaited/

In Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown defeated Republican incumbent Jon Husted to return to the Senate, while Texas Democratic State Representative James Talarico overcame substantial campaign spending to defeat Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.

The results are particularly significant as both Ohio and Texas supported Trump by double-digit margins in the 2024 presidential election.

In South Carolina, another traditionally Republican stronghold, Democrat Annie Andrews defeated Republican Senator Darline Graham, delivering another major blow to Trump’s party.

The Democratic victories followed Trump’s decision to endorse and campaign heavily for several Republican candidates, including Paxton, Graham and Husted, despite controversies surrounding their political careers.

Paxton has faced several controversies, including his impeachment in 2023 and securities fraud charges, while Graham’s limited political experience attracted negative attention during the campaign.

Trump embarked on an extensive campaign blitz, holding more than two dozen rallies and repeatedly urging supporters to vote for Republican candidates as though he himself were on the ballot.

However, as the results indicated mounting Republican losses on Tuesday night, Trump took to social media to dismiss responsibility for the outcome.

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he wrote.

The Democratic gains reflect growing voter dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the economy, rising living costs and his decision to launch military action against Iran in February, which contributed to a sharp increase in petrol prices.

Several opinion polls conducted ahead of the elections indicated widespread anxiety over the cost of living and dissatisfaction with the president’s economic policies.

With former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper also defeating his Republican challenger in the Senate race, Democrats have secured four Republican-held seats needed to gain a Senate majority, provided they retain their own seats in Michigan and Minnesota.

The party also held onto Senate seats in Georgia and New Hampshire, where Republican candidates had previously hoped to mount competitive challenges.

Americans Rebuke Trump

Reacting to the results, incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, who was projected to retain his Georgia seat, said the victories reflected widespread rejection of Trump’s leadership.

“In sweeping and decisive victories, the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence of the man named President Donald J. Trump,” Ossoff told supporters at a victory gathering.

In Florida, however, Republican Senator Ashley Moody defeated Democrat Angie Nixon, although her narrow lead of approximately three percentage points highlighted the changing political landscape in a state Trump won by 13 percentage points in 2024.

Democrats also retained three congressional districts in Florida that Republican lawmakers had redrawn earlier in the year. All three districts had supported Trump by at least nine percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.

Exit polls conducted by SSRS for a consortium of US media organisations, including major television networks and the Associated Press, showed widespread dissatisfaction with the country’s direction.

According to the findings, half of voters viewed the 2026 midterm elections as an opportunity to reject Trump’s leadership, while three-quarters said they were either angry or dissatisfied with the direction of the country.

About 70 per cent of voters also said they wanted Congress to exercise greater checks and balances on the president.

Trump Deploys 1,000 Election Monitors

Meanwhile, concerns over possible challenges to the election results emerged as Democrats made significant gains across the country.

Legal observers and Democratic Party members had expressed concerns that Trump, who has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims that US elections are rigged, could challenge the results if Republicans lost their congressional majorities.

The United States Department of Justice said it deployed 1,000 election monitors and observers across all 50 states, describing the exercise as the largest Election Day monitoring operation in the country’s history.

However, Democrats criticised the deployment, arguing that the presence of federal monitors could intimidate voters.

As reported by Reuters, approximately two-thirds of the jurisdictions identified by the Justice Department had voted for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris over Trump in the 2024 election.

Election officials in several states, however, reported no major problems with the monitoring exercise.

In New Mexico, the Secretary of State’s office said it received reports of federal monitors asking unusual questions in one county.

The Justice Department reportedly assured state officials that the conduct would be addressed.