US Midterm Elections 2026 Results: Who Won, Who Lost — Senate, House, Governors, and the First Muslim Senator

Here is the full picture — Senate, House, governors, the biggest individual winners and losers, and what the result does and doesn't change.

The Senate: Democrats flip seven seats

Going into election night, Republicans held the Senate 53–47. Democrats needed a net gain of four seats to take control. They flipped seven Republican-held seats, according to CNN and Le Monde's tallies, and held all of their own seats:

• Texas: James Talarico beat Trump-endorsed Attorney General Ken Paxton in what became the most expensive Senate race in US history — the first Democratic Senate win in Texas in decades.
• Maine: Troy Jackson ousted five-term Republican Senator Susan Collins, in office since 1997.
• Kansas: Adam Hamilton beat Senator Roger Marshall — the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Kansas since 1932.
• Ohio (special election): Sherrod Brown beat Jon Husted to take the seat that was up in the special election.
• North Carolina: former Governor Roy Cooper won — the first Democrat to win a Senate race in the state since 2008.
• South Carolina: Democrats won a Senate seat they had not held since the 1960s.
• Iowa: Democrats won the Senate race, part of a clean sweep in the state (see governors below).

Democrats also held Michigan and Minnesota (see below). Two races were still too close to call at the time of writing: Mississippi, where Democrat Scott Colom and Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith were separated by a razor-thin margin, and Alaska. Importantly, Democrats did not reach the 67-seat two-thirds supermajority that would let the Senate alone remove a president through impeachment.

The House: at least 25 seats change hands

All 435 House seats were contested. Republicans had held the chamber 219–214 (with two independents). Democrats gained at least 25 seats, per Le Monde's count, with the final majority size still growing as counting continued. The gains reached deep into Republican territory: districts in rural North Carolina and central Kentucky, the suburbs of St. Louis and Omaha, and all along the Texas border. Democrats took three seats in Iowa and four in Pennsylvania, and won in a Kentucky district Donald Trump had carried by 15 points in 2024.

California, the only Democratic-controlled state to redraw its maps, delivered exactly what Democrats hoped: five more House seats, for 48 of the state's 52. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is now poised to become the first Black Speaker of the House. As in the Senate, Democrats are not expected to reach the 290-seat supermajority needed to override presidential vetoes on their own.

Governors: five new states flip

Thirty-six states elected governors. Democrats won five new governorships and held 17 others:

• Texas: Gina Hinojosa beat three-term Republican Governor Greg Abbott — she becomes Texas's first Latina governor and its first Democratic governor in more than 30 years.
• Georgia: Keisha Lance Bottoms won — the first Black woman governor in the United States.
• Ohio: Amy Acton beat Vivek Ramaswamy.
• Iowa: Rob Sand won the governorship, completing the state's Democratic sweep.
• Nevada: Democrats flipped the governorship.

Democrats also won both the governor's office and a Senate race in each of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio.

The historic first: Abdul El-Sayed, first Muslim US Senator

The result many Muslim voters around the world were watching came in Michigan. Abdul El-Sayed, 42, a former public health official and epidemiologist who once ran a county health department, beat Republican former Congressman Mike Rogers for the state's open Senate seat — the seat of retiring Democratic Senator Gary Peters. The Associated Press called the race at 2:27 AM with El-Sayed leading 52–46%.

El-Sayed, the child of Egyptian immigrants and a Michigan native, had first entered politics in Michigan's 2018 gubernatorial primary with Senator Bernie Sanders's backing. He is a progressive who campaigned on lowering costs for working families and reducing corporate influence in politics. His campaign was ugly: the president attacked him personally through the campaign, and his opponent tried to cast him as sympathetic to Islamic extremism through alleged Muslim Brotherhood ties — claims El-Sayed denies and which remain unsupported by evidence. He won anyway, and not only in Dearborn: he also won in West Bloomfield Township in Oakland County, a community with many Jewish voters. When the new Congress takes office in January, he becomes the first Muslim to serve in the US Senate.

The biggest losers

• Donald Trump and the MAGA-backed candidates: most of the candidates Trump personally backed in key races lost, including Ken Paxton in Texas. CNN's analysis called the night one of the most colossal repudiations of a sitting president in modern history — that is the media's characterisation, but the seat counts behind it are factual.
• Greg Abbott (Texas): a three-term Republican governor beaten in his bid for a fourth term.
• Susan Collins (Maine): a five-term moderate senator Democrats had repeatedly failed to defeat.
• Republican map-drawers: several outlets noted Republicans effectively gerrymandered themselves into trouble, creating close districts that flipped in the wave.

Republicans did hold some ground: in Florida, Senator Ashley Moody beat progressive Democrat Angie Nixon, fending off a significant Democratic challenge.

Why it is called a "blue wave"

"Blue" is the Democrats' colour, and a "wave election" is one where one party wins far beyond normal expectations, including in places it usually loses. This one qualifies on the numbers: a Senate majority flipped by seven seats, at least 25 House seats, five governorships, Democratic Senate wins in Kansas (first since 1932), South Carolina (first since the 1960s), and Texas (first in decades), and House wins in districts Trump won by 20 points two years earlier. Some outlets went further and called it a "blue tsunami". Either way, the label describes the scale, not a single race.

What changes now — and what doesn't

With Congress in Democratic hands, the last two years of Trump's term will run under divided government. The new Congress can block Supreme Court vacancies and Cabinet confirmations it opposes, and its majorities have promised investigations into the administration. But without two-thirds supermajorities, Democrats cannot override presidential vetoes or remove a president on their own — so the practical result is gridlock and oversight, not one-party rule. The new Congress takes office in January.

Frequently asked questions

Who won the 2026 US midterm elections?

The Democrats. They won control of both the Senate (flipping seven seats) and the House (gaining at least 25 seats), plus five new governorships.

Who is Abdul El-Sayed?

A 42-year-old Michigan Democrat, former public health official and child of Egyptian immigrants, who beat Mike Rogers to become the first Muslim ever elected to the US Senate.

What is the "blue wave"?

Media shorthand for the scale of the Democratic victory — wins far beyond expectations, including in deeply Republican states like Texas, Kansas, and South Carolina.

Is the result final?

Almost. The majorities are decided, but a few races (Alaska, Mississippi) were still uncalled when this post was written, so exact final seat counts may shift slightly.

What happens next?

The new Congress takes office in January 2027, with Hakeem Jeffries poised to become Speaker of the House and Democrats able to block confirmations and run investigations, but without veto-proof supermajorities.

Sources: Associated Press election results; CNN midterm takeaways and analysis (4 November 2026); Le Monde's results visualisation (4 November 2026); Reuters on Abdul El-Sayed's Michigan win; Religion News Service and USA Today on the first Muslim senator; Reason's results roundup.