Democrats retake the House in the midterms, ending the Republicans' single-party control

The Democratic Party has regained control of the United States House of Representatives in the midterm elections. In a string of wins, the party passed the 218-seat threshold needed for a majority in the 435-member chamber. Its candidates won congressional districts across the country in a 'blue wave' of opposition to Donald Trump.

All 435 seats in the lower chamber were on the ballot in Tuesday's midterm race. A term in the House lasts only two years, compared to six years for the Senate. On Tuesday night, the House was called in the Democrats' favour.

Democrats needed to gain five seats to flip the chamber. In the outgoing 119th Congress, Republicans hold 218 seats, Democrats 214, there is one independent and two vacancies. Republicans have held a majority in the House since the 2022 midterms, during the presidency of Democrat Joe Biden.

A string of wins in Republican districts across North Carolina, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and New Jersey helped the Democrats pass the majority threshold, the minimum goal in achieving their aim of reining in Donald Trump's presidential power.

Meanwhile, Representative Richard Hudson, the chair of the House Republicans' campaign arm, was in danger of losing his North Carolina House seat in what would be a stunning upset. He narrowly trailed his Democratic challenger on Tuesday evening.

Opinion polls had widely predicted that the Democrats would retake the House, where the Republicans held a wafer-thin majority. The election took place amid public anger over inflation and cost of living rises, much of it linked to the war with Iran, which has increased the price of oil. The White House had been bracing itself for significant losses.

The Democrats' victory means its party leader in the chamber, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, will likely be selected as Speaker of the House, the chamber's top officer. That position would make Jeffries the first Black person to serve in the role. He will replace outgoing Republican Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who has held the post since 2023. The Speaker is third in line for the US presidency, should the president and vice president be removed from office.

Top Democrat Hakeem Jeffries has called the midterm results the start of a 'great American comeback'. He is vowing to hold those in power accountable.

For the last two years, Trump's Republican Party has held a political 'trifecta' in Washington, with control of the presidency and both chambers of Congress. The Democrats' victory ends that single-party control and brings back an era of divided government. The 120th Congress is slated to be sworn in on January 3, 2027.

The election took place against the backdrop of Trump's vice-like grip on the Republican Party, which has extended to its representatives in Congress. He has unilaterally frozen and withheld funds appropriated by Congress, ignoring its constitutionally mandated 'power of the purse'. His expansion of the Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose wide-ranging tariffs on goods from across the world was also made without recourse to Congress.

Democrats on Capitol Hill vowed a new era of oversight if they won, with a focus on allegations of corruption against the president and his family, as well as on the Iran war, which the president launched and continues to wage without congressional approval. Republicans, by contrast, promised more of the same.

Democrats also triumphed in the face of aggressive mid-cycle gerrymandering by Republicans in several states. In Florida, Democrats won in three of the four districts the GOP redrew in its favour this year, and are leading in the fourth.