2026 United States elections see Republicans suffering 'worse than anyone thought' at the polls
The results of 2026 United States elections have begun to flow in after millions of voters headed to the polls to help shape the last two years of President Donald Trump’s presidency - and it's not looking good for the Republicans.
American voters decided whether the Democrats or Republicans will control Congress for the remainder of Trump’s final term.
Trump’s Republican Party currently controls the House and the Senate, for that to change the Democrats need a net gain of four seats in the 100-member Senate to win a majority, while in the 435-member House, they need three.
Polls began earlier this evening and the first results are coming in, with plenty more to follow.
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The Republicans experienced an early upset, after the Democrats took the US Senate seat of North Carolina.
Former governor Roy Cooper defeated Michael Whatley, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
“You have made your voices heard and they were loud," Cooper said after winning.
He went on to say that ‘for too many people in North Carolina, the middle class was feeling like a distant dream’, while ‘the richest Americans were getting unimaginable wealth at our expense’, before calling out the ‘chaos and corruption’ in Washington.
"Today you said this has to stop," he said, as per the BBC.
"As your new United States Senator, I am ready to take that message to Washington and work to do something about it."
Elsewhere, potential 2028 presidential candidate Democrat US Senator Jon Ossoff has won re-election in Georgia.
“In sweeping and decisive victories the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption, and incompetence of the failed lame duck president Donald J Trump,” the 39-year-old told his supporters after the win.
“And if, at times these last two years, amidst the ceaseless onslaught of brutality and indecency, you doubted whether our republic would survive, let tonight’s results give you courage that the first light of dawn is on the horizon.”
And the Democrats have also retained New Hampshire, which was critical to the party’s hopes of gaining a majority in the Senate.
Chris Pappas, who has served in the US House of Representatives, saw off Republican challenger John Sununu.
He told supporters: “This has been a long campaign against the backdrop of chaos, corruption and costs coming out of Washington.
“New Hampshire showed up today, you spoke up today, you said in a resounding voice that New Hampshire needs a course correction. Washington needs a new generation at the table to fix things.”
On a state level, Republican Byron Donalds made history when he was voted Florida’s first black governor, while Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms will become the first black woman elected governor of Georgia.
According to CBS News, the democrats are projected to win control of the US House of Representatives.
Speaking on Tuesday (3 November), Trump appeared optimistic, telling reporters: “I think the results are going to be better than you think.”
However, one Republican source in Texas told the BBC he was expecting a ‘bloodbath’ for his party, while another source told Daily Mail journalist Mark Halperin it was ‘going to be a massacre’.
Another source told Halperin: “It’s worse than anyone thought. The assumptions on the percentage of Republicans that would vote Republican was wrong.”
While Democratic strategist Matt McDermott said: "It’s not a wave. It’s not a tsunami. It’s an electoral deluge of biblical proportions not seen since the 1974 Watergate midterm wipeout."
Topics: US News, Donald Trump, Politics
Claire Reid
