Democrats seized control of both the Senate and the House in Tuesday’s midterm elections, delivering margins far wider than pre-election polling had forecast and putting the party on track for what could be its largest House majority in nearly two decades.
The results amounted to a sharp rebuke of President Donald Trump, who campaigned in 2024 on fixing the economy and ending wars abroad, and who mounted a late campaign blitz to try to rally Republican voters in the final weeks before the election. It wasn’t enough.
A Fox News poll taken before the election found Trump’s approval rating at 36%, with 74% of voters rating the economy negatively.
Texas delivers the biggest surprise
Nowhere was the shift more striking than in Texas, a state Trump carried by double digits just two years ago. Democrat James Talarico defeated Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Gina Hinojosa unseated Gov. Greg Abbott.
A Fox News poll in October had shown Talarico and Paxton nearly tied, with Abbott leading Hinojosa. Both Democrats went on to win by wide margins. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report had rated the Senate race a toss-up with a Republican-leaning R+6 index, but as of early Wednesday morning Talarico held 53.9% of the vote to Paxton’s 44.2% — a gap of nearly 10 points.
The governor’s race was an even bigger miss for forecasters. Cook had rated it
