Democrats Regain Control of the Senate, Schumer Declares: Relief Is on the Way

The Democratic Party has regained control of the US Senate in the 2026 midterm elections. Its victory was confirmed in Tuesday night's results, as the party won the four seats it needed to take control from the Republicans.

Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer said in Washington DC that, against all odds, Democrats had won the Senate. He said they had five words for the American people: relief is on the way.

According to the Associated Press, Democratic candidates won in states including South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Iowa and Kansas, where they had not had success in years, if not decades.

In South Carolina, Democratic candidate and doctor Annie Andrews defeated Darline Graham, the sister of the late longtime senator Lindsey Graham, by a margin of about four percentage points.

In Texas, Democratic state representative James Talarico won against state attorney general Ken Paxton. In North Carolina, former governor Roy Cooper beat Republican Michael Whatley, and in Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown regained his seat by defeating Republican senator John Husted. In Kansas, megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton beat Republican senator Roger Marshall; Kansas last elected a Democratic senator in 1932.

In the outgoing 119th Congress, Republicans held 53 seats in the 100-member Senate. Democrats held 45, with two independent senators caucusing with them.

Thirty-five Senate seats were voted on this time, 33 of them regular elections and two special elections in Ohio and Florida. Those two seats had fallen vacant after JD Vance and Marco Rubio joined President Donald Trump's administration in 2025.

Together with their likely triumph in the House of Representatives, Democrats are expected to have full control of Congress beginning next year, for the first time since 2022. It would also end the Republicans' trifecta in Washington — control of the Senate, the House and the presidency together.

With control of the Senate, Democrats will have the ability to hold up not only Trump's legislative agenda but also any appointments he makes to his cabinet or the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court, where conservatives hold a 6-3 majority.

Vote counting is still ongoing in Minnesota and Michigan, where the party hopes to hold seats vacated by retiring Democrats. They also hope to beat two-term Republican Dan Sullivan in Alaska, though that result may take days. Republican efforts to unseat Democrats in Georgia and New Hampshire have so far failed; in Georgia, Democratic senator Jon Ossoff held his seat.

Trump's involvement in the Republican primaries also appeared to backfire, the reporting said. After Trump condemned North Carolina's Republican senator Thom Tillis for opposing his main domestic policy legislation, Tillis announced his retirement and Democrat Roy Cooper easily won the race to replace him. In Texas, Trump endorsed scandal-plagued attorney general Ken Paxton over longtime senator John Cornyn, causing the incumbent to lose his primary and giving Democrats a rare opening.