'Blue tsunami' in US midterms 'pummels GOP out of power'

The New York Times' headline reads "Democrats take Senate". It notes stunning upsets across the US in a national rebuke to Donald Trump. The Washington Post has the same headline and calls the result a "repudiation" of the US president. Politico goes for a more illustrative headline: "Voters pummel GOP out of power." The Atlantic's take is more colourful still, with the headline "Orange crushed". It says the president told voters to act as if his name was on the ballot, and they did. The right-wing tabloid New York Post offers its own take on a Hokusai classic: a "blue tsunami".

Beyond the headlines, the US is seeing not only a blue wave but also a swell of historic firsts. As AP reports, Florida Republican Byron Donalds became the first Black man to be elected governor of the state. Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms made history in Georgia, becoming the first Black woman elected governor in US history. Nowhere is she celebrated more than in the local Atlanta Journal, which published a profile of the new governor. More than 160 years after her ancestors were enslaved in Georgia, it says, the former Atlanta mayor makes history as the first Black woman to move into the governor's mansion.

In North Carolina, local papers have a different first to celebrate. The News & Observer reports that Roy Cooper won the state's Senate race, the first for a Democrat in 18 years. In South Carolina, the Post and Courier covers the "stunning upset" inflicted by Democrat Annie Andrews, who against most odds beat Republican candidate Darline Graham for a Senate seat. The Texas Tribune, meanwhile, covers James Talarico's massive Senate win for the Democrats. The paper says the 37-year-old overcame "a deluge of outside money to break the GOP's three-decade grip on the state."

As results come in, many papers are already looking for an explanation, and somewhere to put the blame. The left-wing political magazine Jacobin has its answer: Trumpism is running out of gas. "MAGA is exhausted and about to suffer a significant body blow," it says. The magazine argues that Trump has never been that popular and that to consolidate his hold on the country, he should have mobilised a larger popular coalition.

That sentiment is reflected in Politico, which explains that "Republicans are about to pay for Trump's mistakes." According to the website, Trump's tariffs, a costly war in Iran and political vendettas have left Republicans scrambling to defend their congressional majorities. It notes that US presidents have suffered at midterms in the past, but argues that never before has a president been to such an extent solely responsible for a midterm defeat.

Some coverage also looks to the future. The Atlantic explains that the likelihood of Trump contesting his defeat once again is low. The magazine observes that "election deniers" are fewer in number than in 2020, and that he "no longer enjoys the political support he once had amongst Republicans". AP says that Trump will be staring at the spectre of Democratic probes and the race to succeed him. With his party losing control of Congress, the rest of Trump's time in office is likely to be consumed by Democratic-led investigations into his administration, and possibly even another impeachment. 

Finally, The Wall Street Journal looks at the financial angle, and wonders what the business world can expect from a blue wave. Its list of bullet points includes financial investigations, more opposition to AI data centres, a change in control at the Federal Reserve and an increase in the popularity of biofuel, among many others.

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