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Democrats complete historic blue wave in ballot box referendum on President Donald Trump, gas prices and the war in Iran, taking firm control of the House and Senate.
Democrats completed the historic sweep of Congress in their blue wave, winning battleground Senate seats in Michigan, Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maine and Minnesota.
The Fox News Decision Desk determined Democrats retake control of the House, flipping several Republican-held seats in a major midterm setback for the GOP.
President Donald Trump remains defiant against a Democratic-controlled Congress, telling Fox News that he plans to use his “power of veto” to block legislation he opposes while remaining open to negotiations.
Several key battleground races broke in Democrats’ favor, including House flips in Virginia, Iowa and Nebraska, as Republican incumbents suffered losses across the country.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani struck a triumphant tone Wednesday following Democrats’ midterm victories, taking shots at Vice President JD Vance, billionaire Elon Musk and wealthy political donors while declaring a new political dawn.
“Last night’s election proved working people expect more from their government and they’re tired of waiting,” Mamdani said in a video posted to X.
The democratic socialist mocked Vance’s call for more time to deliver on the administration’s promises, arguing Americans cannot afford to wait another two years for relief from rising costs.
Mamdani also singled out Musk, accusing politicians of catering to the wealthy.
He went on to accuse politicians of spending taxpayer dollars on “war crimes and genocide” instead of schools and infrastructure.
“It is not enough to simply win power. We must use it,” Mamdani declared, challenging Democrats to turn their electoral gains into policies.
“My friends, it is morning again in America,” he concluded, invoking the iconic slogan from former Republican President Ronald Reagan’s campaign.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., celebrated the expanding Muslim presence on Capitol Hill Wednesday following Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate victory in Michigan, then accused President Donald Trump of “terrorization” in her home state.
“Congratulations, Abdul El-Sayed. You turned that inshallah into alhamdulillah,” Omar wrote on X.
“I am overwhelmed with gratitude knowing that we will now have 8 Muslims serving in Congress,” the Minnesota Democrat continued.
Omar also suggested Muslim lawmakers had overcome opposition to their political ambitions.
“They told us we couldn’t speak up, couldn’t challenge the status quo, and couldn’t make it this far. But we did,” she wrote.
Just five minutes later, Omar escalated her rhetoric against Trump, accusing his administration of mistreating Minnesotans and promising repercussions.
“We’re getting justice and accountability for every single Minnesotan who’s suffered under Trump’s terrorization of our state,” Omar declared.
“Our time is now,” she added.
Erika Kirk leaned on her late husband Charlie’s advice as she urged conservatives to regroup after Republican election setbacks.
“I miss Charlie so much every single day, but especially on a day like today,” she wrote on X.
“He always said that when things are going well, we need to stay humble. And when things aren’t going the way we want, we need to stay positive, keep our faith, and get back to work.”
Kirk warned against conservative infighting, saying Turning Point would study the results, listen to voters and prepare for 2028.
She also thanked the organization’s staff, students, volunteers and ballot chasers.
“I know Charlie would be unbelievably proud of each and every one of you, and I am, too,” she wrote.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is considering a third run for president in 2028, suggesting Republicans’ bruising midterm losses have him reconsidering his political future.
Appearing Wednesday on Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo’s SiriusXM show, Christie said Tuesday’s election results had prompted him to think seriously about another White House bid.
“I certainly am going to think about it now after the results of last night,” Christie said on Mad Dog Sports Radio on SiriusXM.
The former Republican governor, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2016 and 2024, even pointed to Ronald Reagan’s political comeback as a potential precedent.
“Reagan got elected on his third time running, so maybe there’s a bit of a charm to that,” Christie said. “You don’t do this a third time just for the experience.”
Christie said he expects to make a decision within a few months.
Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., defended her controversial decision to rescind her endorsement of Democratic Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed Wednesday, declaring she would not sacrifice her principles for party unity following Tuesday’s midterms.
“I don’t regret it, but I am truly sorry that it upset some of my colleagues and people I care about personally,” Stevens wrote in a lengthy statement posted to X.
“The endorsement was the outlier act. Rescinding it was not,” she declared.
Stevens, who lost the Democrat Senate primary to El-Sayed, said her longstanding support for Israel made endorsing him difficult from the outset.
“As co-chair of the House caucus on antisemitism, endorsing a man who stood with Hasan Piker and his antisemitic bile was always a tough fit for me,” Stevens wrote.
The Michigan Democrat said she initially hoped to help moderate El-Sayed’s positions but concluded that “Instead, he got worse.”
“I regret my original endorsement,” she added, acknowledging that her reversal had upset colleagues and personal friends.
Stevens insisted she remains committed to the Democratic Party while refusing to compromise her opposition to antisemitism.
“What mattered more was truth over political convenience,” she concluded.
The Justice Department fired back Wednesday at the prospect of congressional investigations under the incoming Democratic House majority, accusing Democrats of preparing to revive their previous efforts to weaponize the federal government.
“DOJ officials are not afraid of threats from Democrats on the Hill: we have followed the law and will continue to do so,” a Justice Department spokesperson told Fox News’ David Spunt.
The warning comes one day after Democrats won control of the House in Tuesday’s midterm elections, setting the stage for heightened scrutiny of President Donald Trump’s administration.
“It is no surprise that rather than focus on bringing down costs for Americans, Democrats in Congress are picking up where their weaponization efforts left off when they were last in power,” the spokesperson added.
Fox News’ David Spunt contributed to this reporting.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer acknowledged Republicans’ bruising midterm defeat Wednesday while launching his bid to remain the party’s whip as Democrats prepare to take control of the House.
“There is no sugarcoating the failure we just experienced,” Emmer wrote in a letter to House Republicans. “We lost, and I take that loss personally, both as a competitor and a member of this team.”
But the Minnesota Republican insisted the grand ole party could rebound.
“We are down, but we are not out.”
Emmer, who previously chaired the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), pointed to the GOP’s 2020 House gains and 2022 majority as evidence Republicans can recover from electoral setbacks.
He urged colleagues to unite against Democrats and prepare to reclaim the majority in 2028.
“The only goal of the minority is to become the majority,” Emmer wrote.
Emmer closed by formally requesting support to serve as Republican whip in the 120th Congress.
Democratic Socialists of America supporters laid out sweeping ambitions for the U.S. economy during an Election Night watch party, with some calling for collective ownership of major industries and an economic system no longer centered on private profit.
“I would definitely support collective ownership of industries in the United States for sure,” one attendee told Fox News Digital.
Another identified energy and weapons production as industries that should no longer generate private profits.
“Ultimately, for me, the long-term goal of the political project is a socialist transformation of society and a move beyond the economy being centered around profit and instead being centered on human need,” the attendee said.
A third socialist called for greater public control of companies, comparing bosses and landlords to authoritarian rulers.
“We don’t like kings. We don’t accept them,” the DSA supporter declared.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is officially running to be Speaker of the House in the next Congress.
It comes after Democrats made historic gains in Tuesday night’s midterm elections, taking back both the House and Senate for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind.
Voters handed Democrats control of Congress in the midterms after the GOP’s affordability pitch fell flat. Now Democrats must prove they can bring costs down after campaigning on a promise to address Americans’ economic woes.
Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute, said the gap between Trump’s promise to lower prices and voters’ experience since he was re-elected is likely what led to widespread Republican losses Tuesday night.
“When you campaign on lowering prices, and then you actually actively increase prices, it’s probably gonna hurt when voters go back to the polls and are mad about prices still being too high,” Lincicome told Fox News Digital.
Three charts show the cost pressures that helped shape the midterm vote — and the affordability challenge Democrats now inherit when they take control in January.
Consumer prices rose 3.7% over the year through September and 0.6% from August, according to the latest inflation report. The consumer price index tracks prices across a broad range of household expenses, including food, housing, medical care and transportation.
Trade policy added to some of those costs. A New York Federal Reserve study found that Trump’s tariffs added about 2.9 percentage points to prices across the consumer goods researchers examined.
Roughly one-third of the increase came from U.S.-made products, as domestic manufacturers faced higher costs for imported materials and components.
The figures show the price pressures voters faced, but not how they assigned responsibility for them.
Democrats’ midterm victories set up a new fight over Trump’s economic agenda, including his sweeping tariffs. A Democratic-led Congress can hold hearings, demand information and force votes, but experts say it may have limited ability to unwind the policies on its own.
This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News Digital’s Amanda Macias.
Republicans’ sweeping losses Tuesday could reshape the Supreme Court for years, prominent conservatives warned, arguing that Democrats’ new Senate majority may block President Donald Trump from replacing Justices Clarence Thomas or Samuel Alito with conservative successors.
“Assuming Republicans lose the seats where prediction markets have the Democrats at 90+% to win, that would produce 55 Democrat Senate seats,” Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on X on Tuesday night in a post that was viewed almost 4 million times.
“Chance of confirming a worthy successor to Justice Thomas and/or Alito during President Trump’s term: Zero. Chance of confirming a worthy successor during a hypothetical GOP admin 2029-2033: probably zero (GOP won’t be able to recapture enough seats in 28).”
Democrats took control of the Senate Tuesday night and hold 54 seats as of midday Wednesday, and DeSantis was joined on social media by several others explaining that Alito, 76, and Thomas, 78, will be almost impossible to replace with equally conservative appointees.
Ed Whelan, a conservative legal expert who clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, wrote on X that Trump is now effectively blocked from appointing federal judges or Supreme Court justices during the final two years of his term.
“If a Republican is elected president in 2028, that president will not be able to appoint any justices or judges until Republicans regain the Senate,” Whelan wrote. “Given the deep hole, that might not happen until 2033. “
Whelan also explained that a justice resigning during the upcoming “lame duck” session is highly unlikely and Republicans would have a hard time securing 51 votes.
“If Sherrod Brown wins Ohio seat, he gets sworn into Senate in early December, so Senate becomes 52R-48D,” Whelan wrote. “Collins and Murkowski would be unlikely to support anyone Trump would nominate. John Cornyn, Thom Tillis, and Bill Cassidy aren’t going to be eager to do Trump any favors. And there are other senators—e.g., John Curtis of Utah—who would be leery of anyone Trump would be eager to push through.”
This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller.
A far-left Democrat who founded a youth climate activism group in 2015 is heading to Congress in January after defeating Trump-backed House GOP Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich.
Sunrise Movement co-founder Will Lawrence is projected to win the election to represent Michigan’s 7th Congressional District in the House of Representatives in what was considered one of the most closely watched races of the 2026 midterm cycle.
Lawrence, a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), was endorsed by prominent figures on the far-left, like Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Lawrence’s victory comes in the middle of what’s expected to be a successful election for Democrats across the country.
The central Michigan district was a major battleground heading into Election Day. President Donald Trump narrowly carried it in 2024, while Barrett won the House seat that year with just over 50% of the vote.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., a co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, is projected to win re-election for New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Suozzi’s name is well-known in the New York City suburbs and he has forged a reputation as a moderate Democrat who frequently works across the aisle on issues like immigration and taxes.
He’s also been a vocal critic of the socialist wing of the Democratic Party, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The district, which is mostly comprised of Long Island along with a small sliver of New York City’s Queens borough, was one of just three that voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 but elected a House Democrat to Congress.
The district is also one of the top 15 wealthiest in the nation and is the third wealthiest in New York State.
While he was projected to hold the seat according to Fox News Power Rankings, the win is nevertheless a necessary victory for Democrats as they fight to win the House majority.
His opponent this year was Republican former state Assemblyman Mike LiPetri.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned Wednesday that Republicans have been nearly wiped out nationally after devastating election losses, while highlighting his state as the lone remaining GOP stronghold among the 10 most populous states as speculation builds about his political future in 2028.
Tuesday was an otherwise brutal night for the GOP, as the Trump movement faces major questions amid setbacks in longtime Republican strongholds such as Kansas and Texas, while holding Senate seats in West Virginia and deep-red Wyoming and South Dakota.
“This is close to an extinction level event for Republicans … out of the ten largest states in this union, only one state will have Republican control of their state, the state of Florida,” DeSantis said at a Wednesday news conference, where he also highlighted Florida as the lone bright spot on Republicans’ map of the nation’s largest states.
“We’ve built up a record of achievement. We’ve earned trust from a number of our voters that even in the worst situation that you can imagine politically we were able to hold the line,” DeSantis added.
Fox News Digital reached out to DeSantis for comment.
Orlando-based political strategist and pollster Doug Kaplan told Fox News Digital that DeSantis appears to be eyeing a lasting role on the national stage.
“I think last night was a big night for DeSantis. If you’re looking at winners on the Republican side, then I think he’s found his lane if he wants to run for president in 2028.,” he said.
Kaplan characterized DeSantis’ comments as an “opening salvo” in an effort to distance himself from the Trump-led status quo in the Republican Party, though he acknowledged the staying power of Trump’s MAGA movement among GOP primary voters.
This is an excerpt of an article by Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz.
Texas’ 9th Congressional District has been called for Democrat Leticia Gutierrez, adding to Democrats’ gains in the House.
Gutierrez defeated Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, in the Houston-area district.
The race was called Wednesday at 1:02 p.m. ET.
Democrat Angela Gonzales-Torres won election to represent California’s 34th Congressional District, defeating incumbent Rep. Jimmy Gomez, R-Calif.
Gonzales-Torres will represent the Los Angeles-area district in the next Congress.
The race was called Wednesday at 1:12 p.m. ET.
Rep. Adam Gray, D-Calif., won re-election in California’s 13th Congressional district, defeating Republican Kevin Lincoln.
Gray’s victory, which secures him a second term, comes in the wake of mid-decade redistricting efforts from Democrats in California that have turned its 13th District, formerly one of the most competitive seats in the country, into a slightly more Democratic-friendly territory.
Gray won the seat in 2024 by just 187 votes over then-Rep. John Duarte, R-Calif., a margin of less than 0.1 percentage point.
Although the seat only had a +2 Democratic lean coming into election night according to the Cook Political Report, Gray’s victory marks the successful shift in the district’s political calculus.
Like many other Democrats, Gray centered his campaign on messages of affordability, public safety and healthcare.
By contrast, Lincoln promised to lower taxes and cut wasteful spending, continue to secure the U.S. Southern Border and invest in law enforcement.
President Donald Trump said Republicans should choose their own leader after the party lost its House majority in the midterms.
“We’ll stay out of it,” Trump told reporters outside the White House.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said he will not seek a leadership post in the next Congress, setting up a contest that includes House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
President Donald Trump delivered remarks on the ballroom construction. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Trump hoped he could work with congressional Democrats in his final two years in office.
“I’ll get along probably with the Democrats, unless they want to be destructive,” Trump told reporters. “But I have the power of the veto.
“They’ve already called and they want to talk about things and that’s fine,” he added.
Democrat Randy Villegas won election Wednesday to the House representing California’s 22nd Congressional District, defeating incumbent Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif.
Villegas is a progressive who was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. He overcame concerns among some Democrats that he would be seen as too liberal for the district in California’s Central Valley.
In the primary, national Democrats backed a rival with ties to the party establishment.
Villegas was declared the winner at 1:17 p.m. ET.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump says he knew launching the Iran war would have a negative impact on the GOP’s performance in the midterm elections on Wednesday.
Trump made the statement while speaking to reporters at the White House, saying once again that he had no choice but to launch the war to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“I knew the war was going to impact it, but whether it impacted it or not, Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
He went on to address a social media statement from Vice President JD Vance saying that the war in Iran was the reason Republicans lost Tuesday night.
“I know how he feels about it. I think it was fine, year” Trump said of Vance’s statement. “I knew that when we went in, and we stopped them from having a nuclear weapon, and they will never have a nuclear weapon.”
Covered by: Andrew Mark Miller, Paul Steinhauser, Amanda Macias, Peter D'Abrosca, Charles Creitz, Morgan Phillips, Alec Schemmel, Ashley J. DiMella, Elaine Mallon, Alex Miller, Pedro B Rodriguez-Aparicio, Robert Schmad, Leo Briceno, Elizabeth Elkind, Kiera McDonald, Chris Pandolfo, Jasmine Baehr, Ireland Owens, Bonny Chu, Brittany Miller, Michael Sinkewicz, Landon Mion, Sophia Compton, Emma Bussey, Bradford Betz, Eric Mack, Anders Hagstrom and Stepheny Price
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2026 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG.
