US midterms: Democrats defeat Trump’s party; sweep Senate, House

The midterm elections that came to a close Tuesday channelled voters’ deep frustration with high prices, the war in Iran and concerns about government corruption.

Washington: Democrats have won control of both the US Senate and the House of Representatives, ending Republican control of Congress and leaving President Donald Trump with a hostile legislature for the last two years of his term.

The Associated Press (AP) called the House for Democrats early on Wednesday, November 4, after the party crossed the 218 seats needed for a majority. About 90 races were still to be called at the time, and Democrats are expected to build a far bigger majority than the four-seat margin Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson had to work with.

Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the House, is now on course to become the first Black Speaker, CNN reported.

Trump says he will accept the results

Trump said he was willing to accept the outcome. “I am absolutely willing to accept those results,” he told The New York Times in an interview on Tuesday night as results trickled in.

The president also said he was prepared to work with Democrats. “We’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll, you know, look forward to working with them. We’ll probably work something out,” he told the newspaper. PTI noted that the remarks came days after Trump claimed he would run his administration over the next two years using his veto powers.

Trump blamed the Republican losses on the fact that he was not on the ballot and said he had no regrets about endorsing candidates such as Senator Darline Graham of South Carolina and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, both of whom lost. “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 posted on Truth Social.

Voters rebuke Trump on prices and Iran war

Voters, AP reported, used Tuesday’s midterm elections to vent anger over high prices, the war in Iran and concerns about government corruption. Democrats had bet that discontent over Trump’s failure to rein in inflation, and a perception that he cared more about beautifying Washington than easing pain at the petrol pump, would swing the vote.

Senate won in Republican heartland

Democrats built their Senate majority through some of the most conservative states in the country, flipping at least seven seats in Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina, AP said. Kansas has not elected a Democratic senator in nearly a century.

Josh Turek defeated Representative Ashley Hinson in Iowa, and Adam Hamilton ousted Senator Roger Marshall in Kansas. James Talarico beat Ken Paxton in Texas, Annie Andrews upset Darline Graham in South Carolina, and Sherrod Brown defeated Senator Jon Husted in Ohio. Roy Cooper won an open seat in North Carolina, and Troy Jackson won in Maine after Senator Susan Collins conceded.

Senator Jon Ossoff won re-election in Georgia, defeating Representative Mike Collins and closing off a seat Republicans once saw as a top pickup. In New Hampshire, Representative Chris Pappas beat former senator John Sununu to succeed retiring Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen.

House: Republican incumbents fall

Democrats flipped districts that Trump won by as much as 18 points in 2024, AP reported. Representatives Tom Kean of New Jersey and Ryan Mackenzie, Scott Perry and Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania lost their seats. Democrats also took three of Iowa’s four House seats, which had been held entirely by Republicans, and flipped two seats in Wisconsin, a seat in Nebraska and an open seat in Kentucky.

Republicans had poured tens of millions of dollars into states and districts Trump won comfortably two years ago, and Trump himself campaigned across some of the reddest states. AP said Republicans had hoped their money advantage would blunt the swing, and an outcome that looked unlikely earlier this year, given a map widely seen as favouring them, has now slipped away.

Muslim and Palestinian-American candidates make history

Among the winners were several candidates who broke new ground for Muslim and Arab-American representation.

Adam Hamawy, 57, an Egyptian-American surgeon, won New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, becoming the first Muslim and Arab-American to represent the state in the US House. The Democrat defeated Republican Gregg Mele on Tuesday, November 3, with 74.1 per cent of the vote against Mele’s 23.9 per cent, after the AP called the race. Hamawy volunteered as a trauma surgeon in Gaza in 2024 and 2025 and has called for an end to US military aid to Israel. He succeeds Democrat Bonnie Watson Coleman, who did not seek re-election.

In New York, Aber Kawas won State Senate District 12, becoming the first Palestinian American elected to the New York State Legislature and the first hijab-wearing woman to win a seat there. She secured 75 per cent of the vote with 90 per cent of ballots counted when The New York Times called the race. A member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Kawas was endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. “We made history,” she wrote on X after her win.

Tlaib, a Palestinian-American Democrat, won a fifth term in Michigan’s 12th Congressional District, defeating Republican James D Hooper.

Indian Americans win in Congress and state offices

Indian-American Democrats Suhas Subramanyam, 40, Aruna Miller, 61, and Pia Dandiya, 39, were among the first winners from the community, according to PTI. Subramanyam won re-election as a US Congressman from Virginia’s 10th Congressional District, defeating Republican Dave T Beckwith. Miller retained her position as Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor on the ticket with Governor Wes Moore, and Dandiya won Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, defeating Republican Casey Askar.

Representatives Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal and Ami Bera also won re-election, while Republican Vivek Ramaswamy lost the Ohio governor’s race. Nithya Raman, who was born in Kerala, was locked in a close contest with her former boss, Mayor Karen Bass, in Los Angeles.

What it means for Trump

Democratic control of both chambers is set to reshape the rest of Trump’s presidency. It is likely to hamper his legislative agenda and his hopes of cementing a conservative shift on the Supreme Court, and it gives Democrats the power to investigate his administration. Trump has promised to use his veto to block Democratic legislation, raising the prospect of gridlock in Washington, even as he now says he will try to “work something out.”