Democrats Win Senate, Completing Sweep Of Congress

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - Democrats won control of the US Senate, NBC News and CBS News projected early Wednesday, completing a sweep of Congress in midterm elections that voters used to deliver a verdict on President Donald Trump’s second term. NBC counts 51 Democratic seats to 40 Republican seats, enough for a majority on its own, after Democrats flipped six Republican-held seats. Republicans held the Senate 53-47 before the vote, and Democrats needed a net gain of four.

The flips came in states Trump won by wide margins in 2024. Democrats took Texas, where James Talarico defeated Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Kansas, where Adam Hamilton defeated Sen. Roger Marshall and became the first Democrat to win a Senate race there since 1932, according to the Associated Press. They also took Ohio, where Sherrod Brown unseated Sen. Jon Husted, North Carolina, where Roy Cooper won, South Carolina, where Annie Andrews defeated Sen. Lindsey Graham, and Iowa, where Josh Turek won the open seat of retiring Sen. Joni Ernst, according to NBC and CBS. Democrats also held Georgia, where Sen. Jon Ossoff won, and New Hampshire, where Chris Pappas won. Alaska, Maine and Michigan were still undecided and could change the final count. Democrats also won control of the House, NBC projected, with an estimate of about 255 seats to Republicans’ 180.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday morning, after voting in Brooklyn, that he expected a new Democratic majority, calling his mood “nauseously optimistic.” He credited his party’s focus on affordability and the Iran war for making it competitive. He is expected to become majority leader.

Trump, who has not been reported to have responded to the Senate result, said in a CBS News interview before the polls closed that he would welcome the nickname “Mr. Veto” if Democrats won a chamber. He told CBS he would use his “ultimate power,” the veto, against Democratic legislation. Overriding a veto requires two-thirds of both chambers, which Democrats do not have on their own. His Truth Social post late Tuesday said “I wasn’t on the Ballot,” and he said he would have won in a landslide. Political Wire carried the post.

The vote followed months of frustration over prices that rose after the war began on February 28, with gas climbing to about $4.48 a gallon by May, according to NPR and Marist.