UPDATED with Talarico, El-Seyed results, 12:05 a.m. PT/3:05 a.m. ET Wednesday: James Talarico, whose upset victory in Texas helped form the Democrats’ new majority in the Senate, gave a victory speech Tuesday night in which he invoked his faith and a message of unity.
Across the nation, that unity manifested as a historic blue wave that transformed the political landscape and secured Democratic majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives. Those transformations came in places like the once deep-red Lone Star state, but also in Georgia, Kansas, Ohio and in Michigan with Abdul El-Sayed‘s Senate seat win. GOP dynasties were toppled in South Carolina and Maine, Gina Hinojosa denied Greg Abbott a fourth term as Texas governor to become that state’s first Latina leader, and nearby, ex-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland New Mexico’s win means she will be the nation’s first female Native American governor.
“This is a victory the size of Texas,” Talarico told supporters in the midnight ET hour, at a lecturn displaying the sign, “Love Thy Neighbor.”
“We just shows that a politics of division is no match for a politics of love, and we just sent a message to every billionaire mega donor, every trillionaire megadonor, every corrupt defender of this broken political system in this state, in this country, power belongs to the people,” Talarico said.
Clockwise from top left: James Talarico, Ken Paxton, Troy Jackson, Susan Collins, Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers
Getty Images
He was undoubtedly referencing Elon Musk, who poured hundreds of millions into the midterms, including a major chunk to defeating Talarico.
Tonight, Musk lamented and maybe even mocked his own efforts. “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,” the world’s richest man and X owner said heavy-handedly. “Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time.”
Back in Texas, the Senator-elect compared his race to the Biblical story of David and Goliath. “We went up against more than 300 million dollars, more than any Senate campaign in American history,” he said. “We went up against all the negative ads, smear campaigns, foreign bots and AI deepfakes that money can buy.”
In Michigan, it looked like the race between epidemiologist El-Sayed and MAGA man Mike Rogers would drag well into Wednesday, but the contest was called around 2 a.m. ET after all. Having won despite relentless Islamophobic attacks, controversy over the Democratic Socialist’s opinion on Israel and the defection of his primary rival Haley Stevens a few days ago, El-Sayed will become America’s first Muslim Senator once he is sworn in.
Talarico decried “politics as professional wrestling.” He added to cheering Austin crowd: “The billionaires, who own the social media algorithms, who own the cable news networks, who own the politicians fighting on our screens, they want us at each other’s throats. They want us focused on how we’re different instead of how we’re the same.”
On CNN, Kristen Holmes reported that Trump was blaming other candidates and did view the blue wave as a “hit on me.” Pulling out an oldie but goodie, CNN’s Jake Tapper responded, “Denial ain’t just a river.”
Troy Jackson Defeats Susan Collins In Maine, 9:29 p.m. PT/12:29 p.m. ET: Democrat Troy Jackson has defeated Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), flipping a Senate seat in the blue state against a longtime incumbent who had survived previous challenges.
Multiple networks reported that Collins had called Jackson to concede, and CNN projected his victory at around 9:15 p.m. PT/12:15 a.m. ET.
In other races, sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya was defeated in her Senate bid in Minnesota by Democrat Peggy Flanagan, the state’s lieutenant governor. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) won her bid to become the state’s next governor.
Donald Trump made the rounds of media outlets, and gave a lengthy interview on Fox News in which he blasted the network’s polling. He said, “CNN had a poll that said I had 99% approval in the Republican Party, the highest ever. (Laughs) I shouldn’t say this, but Abraham Lincoln had 8%, Ronald Reagan was 13% and Trump was at, like, 54%. And then I read at Fox that I’m not popular.”
Donald Trump boards Air Force One on his way to Mississippi on Monday
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Democrats Win Control Of U.S. Senate; Maine And Michigan Races Still Not Yet Called, 8:41 p.m. PT/11:41 p.m. ET: Democrats will control the Senate and the House in the next Congress, regaining both chambers in what will be a consequential rebuke and check on Donald Trump.
The AP projected that the party would take control, shortly after major network calls.
Democrats already have flipped seats in Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kansas, Iowa and Ohio. Races in Alaska and Maine are still outstanding, and it was unclear at this hour if they would hold seats in Michigan and Minnesota.
In a short interview with the New York Times, Trump promised to be absolutely willing to accept the results “of the midterms.” Spreading responsibility for the GOP defeats on others like soon to be ex-Texas governor Greg Abbott, Trump added, “We’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll, you know, look forward to working with them.” He also spoke to CBS News, telling Weijia Jiang, “Congratulations to the Democrats, and I look forward to working with you for the good of our country.”
Trump also posted on Truth Social, “I’m going to become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost!” And he complained again about Fox News featuring Bill de Blasio’s analysis. “FoxNews bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition, and worse,” he wrote.
With Dems taking the House and the Senate, he’ll have to. Or as Brett Baier just said on Fox News, “Democrats sealed the deal.”
Democratic control of the Senate will have a huge impact on oversight and investigations, but potentially on the Supreme Court if there are one or more vacancies. If so, Democrats could refuse to consider confirmation, as Republicans did when Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland in 2016.
Democrats Get Closer To Flipping Senate With Adam Hamilton’s Victory In Kansas, 8:32 p.m. PT/11:32 p.m. ET: Adam Hamilton will become the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas since 1932, scoring another blue wave upset by defeating incumbent Republican Roger Marshall.
The AP called the race for Hamilton at around 8:25 p.m. PT/11:25 p.m. PT.
Hamilton, a Methodist minister, ran a centrist campaign in the reliably red state. Democrats already have flipped seats in North Carolina, Texas and Ohio.
Texas Stunner As James Talarico Wins U.S. Senate Seat And Gina Hinojosa Wins Governor Race, 7:59 p.m.: James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa scored major upsets in Texas, winning the U.S. Senate seat and the state governor’s race, respectively, in a state that has not elected a statewide Democrat in almost three decades.
The AP called the race for both candidates in the 8 p.m. PT/11 p.m. ET hour, following news networks.
Talarico defeated Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general, who faced a series of scandals that turned off independents and some Republicans.
Hinojosa defeated Republican Greg Abbott, who has been governor since 2015.
Talarico was a favorite of Hollywood donors, who warmed to the possibility of flipping the seat as the year went on and his polling improved. With personal charisma in which he talked about his faith, Talarico proved to belie the image of a candidate of the far left. And Talarico embraced Trump’s nickname for him, “Talafreako,” in a dose of campaign irony.
“This is history,” Erin Burnett said on CNN, reporting from Talarico’s victory party.
Talarico earned words of praise last year from Joe Rogan, a sign that he had crossover appeal even to those who voted for Trump in 2024. That helped propel his Senate race.
His victory also is a rebuke of Elon Musk, who poured $168 million into the Senate Leadership Fund, with much of it going to support Ken Paxton, per the New York Times.
As surprising as Talarico and Hinojosa’s victory was, it was not the only surprise of the evening. There was Democrat Annie Andrews’ win in South Carolina, defeating Trump’s choice of Darline Graham, appointed to the seat after the death of her brother, longtime Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). “This is an earthquake in politics,” NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie said. Democrats also have flipped U.S. Senate seats in North Carolina, where Roy Cooper won, and in Ohio, where Sherrod Brown has won.
Even before major networks called the race for Talarico, the senator he replaced, John Cornyn, offered congratulations. He wrote on X, “The voters have spoken, and I want to extend my congratulations to James Talarico on his election to the U.S. Senate. I look forward to meeting him and offering my assistance with his transition as he prepares to serve Texans in the U.S. Senate.”
Democrats To Take Control Of The House Of Representatives, Flip South Carolina Senate Seat, 7:09 p.m. PT/10:09 p.m. ET: Democrats were projected to win control of the House of Representatives, giving a check on Donald Trump for the remaining two years of his term.
As Trump briskly started blaming everyone but himself, NewsNation was the first to project House control, followed by MS NOW and CNN.
Avoiding the fact that midterms are almost always a referendum on the incumbent in the White House, Trump wrote: “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”
As the House now in ruled by Speaker-in-waiting Hakeem Jefferies and Trump’s pledge of $5,000 to every American if the GOP won, the Senate is looking pretty blue too.
On MS NOW, Rachel Maddow said, “In the second Donald Trump presidential term, the Democratic Party and America’s voters have defied the first of those dynamics in seizing back power for the opposition party in Congress, and now we will see if they can defy that second dynamic as well, whether they can use the full power of the legislative branch, whether they can take up all the space the founders intended when they wrote the powers of Congress as Article One of the United States Constitution, and we will see whether this president reacts to this election and this massive loss like a lame duck or like a wounded bull.”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), in line to chair the House Oversight Committee, posted on X, ‘LAWYER UP.” He has already talked of multiple investigations, including of corporate donors to Trump’s White House ballroom.
In a particularly harsh rejection of Trump, Democrat Dr Annie Andrews had emerged victorious in the South Carolina Senate race against appointed Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC).
Earlier in the night, as results had Andrews moving ahead, MS NOW’s Jen Psaki proclaimed: “Holy cow, what a moment there, because that was not even a race a couple of weeks ago.” After the race was called for Andrews, Fox News’ Dana Perino lamented, “there are some races that are going to be too hard to overcome.” The former Bush press secretary and The Five co-host admitted she didn’t think the sister of the late Lindsey Graham would be one of those races.
RELATED: The Key 2026 Midterm Races Hollywood Is Watching
As they have all night as the blue wins have piled up, the FNC hosts blamed the war with Iran as the cause of the GOP and MAGA losses.
“It’s sad to me,” decried Sean Hannity of the Dems’ flip of the SC seat and the sibling Graham’s defeat. it could get very sad for Trump pal Hannity as the Dems are looking close to snagging the Senate. Over on CNN, conservative Scott Jennings, who is being sued by Hasan Piker for alleged defamation, told his fellow panelists “the wheels of democracy” turned on the elites tonight. A self-declared shocked Jake Tapper just let out a “someone throw a blanket on me” over Andrews’ win.
On the West Coast, outgoing California governor and anticipated 2028 POTUS contender Gavin Newsom added Andrews to fellow Dems he was congratulating as a party leader. In full Trump caps, Newsom tweeted: “THIS IS HUGE FOR SOUTH CAROLINA AND THE NATION”
Another potential big blue win Tuesday happened in Trump territory of Ohio, with Democrat Amy Acton beating 2024 POTUS candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
In a homage to Megyn Kelly’s famous live stroll down the hall to the Fox Decision Desk on Election Night 2020 to confirm a state win by Joe Biden, Anderson Cooper took viewers through the catacombs of CNN tonight to get the skinny on where the 2026 midterms stand and where it could go.
It wasn’t looking very good for the GOP.
Pundits Start To Call It a Blue Wave, 6:18 PM PT: “It’s everywhere,” CNN’s John King said shortly before 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. PT of the shift toward Democrats so far shaping up this evening.
Even in states like Florida, where Republican Ashley Moody was expected to win the Senate race and Republican Byron Donalds was projected to win the governor’s race, the margins were closer than expected.
“This night is shaping up to be a blue tsunami,” CNN’s Kasie Hunt said, saying that it was the “greatest fear for Republicans that Democrats didn’t dare hope for.”
In Texas, James Talarico was leading in the race for U.S. Senate and Gina Hinojosa was leading in the race for governor in that state. Adam Hamilton was leading in Kansas, hoping to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state since 1932. Democrat Annie Andrews was leading in deep red South Carolina.
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms was projected to win the governorship in Georgia, flipping the statehouse. History is also made as she is the first Black woman elected governor in the United States.
On MS NOW, Symone Townsend Sanders said, “Today, America has elected its first Black woman as governor in this country. Keisha Lance Bottoms made history tonight, but she didn’t run on making history. She ran on the issues, and I think that resonated with folks in the state.”
She added, “Whatever else happens tonight, this is a reminder that in America the people have the power. And Georgia has a governor named Keisha.”
On NBC News, anchor Tom Llamas said that what was happening was more than traditional midterms which favor the party out of power but a “shift,” citing the candidates.
On Fox News, Peter Doocy reported that there was a reception in the East Room and that some staffers have ordered from the Cheesecake Factory. That was a reference to Barack Obama’s joke at a rally last week over Donald Trump’s choice for White House decor.
“I think Trump’s hurdle is the Iran conflict, high gas prices, high food prices,” Fox News’ Laura Ingraham said. “That’s really it, and Trump decided – and I asked him this in an interview the last time I interviewed him — if you lose your entire majority, as a result of what looks like, you know, high prices, will the Iran conflict, as far as gas, be worth it? He said ‘I wouldn’t change a thing’.”
Jon Ossoff Projected To Win Georgia, 4:56 p.m. PT/7:56 p.m. ET: Networks made their first major race projection: Jon Ossoff, winning reelection to another U.S. Senate term in Georgia.
NBC News made the call in the 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET hour, and was followed by CBS News and CNN. AP called the race around 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET.
RELATED: How The Associated Press Will Be At The Center Of The Midterms’ Election-Night Results
His victory is not a surprise, given his position in the polls, but Ossoff had been a key target for Republicans at the start of the midterm.
Already, Ossoff has been mentioned as a 2028 presidential prospect, even though he has denied that he is interested. His race also was among the closely watched by entertainment industry Democrats, as he had trekked to Los Angeles multiple times on fundraising swings.
Speaking to John King minutes before the 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET poll closing on much of the East Coast and just after CNN called the Georgia Senate race for Ossoff, Jake Tapper noted the outlet has “a cautious desk.” Certainly tonight, with lawyers from the DOJ and lawyers from the Democratic Party fanning out all over the nation in anticipated of contested races, almost all outlets online and on TV are playing it cool to not ignite any friction.
Over on NewsNation, anchor Blake Burman captured that mood when he said of early data: “Here’s what they are projecting at this point in time, and I use that word projecting, in the House. A very strong night, potentially, for Democrats.”
Over on Fox, former Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt gave her ex-boss a poised dose of reality with some qualification. “The reality of the night … is that history is not on his side,” Leavitt said of “pragmatic” Trump, who has been hate-watching Fox tonight. Adding to Levitt’s election desk debut, Jesse Watters was blunt: “It’s not a red wave, I don’t think we’re going to get our $5,000 checks.”
Another call also came shortly after the 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET, with Josh Shapiro projected to win reelection to governor of Pennsylvania and J.B. Pritzker to governor of Illinois. Both victories are not surprises. On the other side of the aisle, Republican Ashley Moody, appointed to the U.S. Senate last year, was projected to win in Florida.
Donald Trump Rages Fox News For Platforming Jessica Tarlov And Democrats, 3:50 p.m. PT/6:50 p.m. ET: Donald Trump has been watching The Five on the early part of Election Night, and once again raged at its sole Democratic co-host, Jessica Tarlov.
He wrote on Truth Social, “Watching the Pre-Election Results on FoxNews, but I can’t stand Jessica Tarlov’s voice — DUMB AS A ROCK, but it’s the voice that gets me. Have to go somewhere else until that LOSER is off the air — I’ll be back later! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
He even texted one of the show’s other co-hosts, Greg Gutfeld, who read it on air. “Greg, tell Tarlov, who is the WORST, gas prices are lower than they were for Biden and Obama and they allowed Iran to have a nuclear bomb. Furthermore, I inherited the worst crisis inflation in history from Sleepy Joe. Prices are heading DOWN. Just like all other prices, and so is inflation, which is 1.7% the last three months. And there will be no ‘Nuclear bomb.’”
The co-hosts then laughed and riffed a bit.
In the 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT hour, Trump posted again about Fox News, this time to complain about their voter poll results.
He wrote, “The FoxNews Poll, always the worst, is so insulting with the questions they ask. Every question is a hit job, and every answer is ‘BULLSHIT!’ This has been going on for years. President DONALD J. TRUMP” He also posted, “No wonder FoxNews Ratings are collapsing, and they’re going to go down a lot further. They’re way down, not because of me, but because they are AGAINST me!”
Fox News does its own polling during the campaign, but the data shown on election night is The Voter Poll, the SSRS consortium of all the major networks who get the same data.
Tarlov later posted on X, “I realize my comments highlighting the highest gas prices on any Election Day aggravated the president, but reality is a tricky thing and he should get better at dealing with it.”
Later, Trump spoke to CBS News’ Robert Costa, and the president vowed the use the “tremendous powers” of the presidency if Democrats gain control of Congress. That means executive orders and vetoes. “We won the Slaughter case and the Slaughter case gives the president tremendous powers that it never had before,” he told Costa, referring to the Supreme Court decision that affirmed his power to remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission.
Networks Comb Through First Voter Poll Data Showing Dismal Numbers For Trump, 2:28 p.m. PT: Networks got their first glimpse at the sentiment of the electorate, with a batch of preliminary voter poll information showing dismal approval ratings for Donald Trump and the state of the country.
Per CNN, Trump’s approval rating was at 38% with 62% disapproving. That is seven points lower than Trump’s approval in the midterm of 2018.
The top issue for voters was the economy, at 39%, followed by democracy at 32%.
On another question, 44% of voters said that their financial situation was worse than two years ago, 18% said it was better and 38% said that things were about the same.
Some 37% of voters said that they were dissatisfied with the state of things in the country, and 38% said that they were downright angry. About 25% said they were enthusiastic or satisifed.
“That is an electorate that is hungry for change,” said CNN’s David Chalian, who cautioned that the numbers will shift as the day goes on.
That said, Jake Tapper noted that the 44% of voters saying they were worse off was below some of the recent polling on a similar question, although that may be just a small bright spot for Trump and Republicans.
Other polls showed that 65% thought that Trump has worsened economic conditions, 28% thought he had improved conditions, and 8% thought he had no impact. Some 61% thought that he has prioritized his personal interests, and 39% thought he had put at the forefront the country’s interests.
CNN debuted a new set, with its team and different stations around a giant studio, and a roving camera keying in on them for analysis. Kaitlan Collins, CNN’s chief White House correspondent, reported that the mood is “fatalistic” in the White House, while his allies say he Trump has been “in denial” about gas prices. “The question still is how he takes it and how he responds to it,” she said.
The data, known as The Voter Poll, is from early, vote-by-mail and election day voters and is conducted by SSRS, with all the major networks subscribing. While the numbers will change, they can offer a hint of what will happen later in the evening. Early in the evening in 2024, when Chris Wallace was still at CNN, he doubted that Kamala Harris could win with such a high “country on wrong track” figure.
MS NOW, in its first major election night coverage since the split from Comcast, keyed in on one figure: 54% said that corruption was crucial in their vote, and 46% said it was not crucial. Filmmaker Ken Burns was a guest, telling Nicolle Wallace that “one of the big disappointments, in addition to Article One, the legislative, is of course the way in which the Supreme Court has turned and become sort of an instrumentality of the executive, which was not what was intended at all.”
L-R: Chris Hayes, Jen Psaki, Rachel Maddow, Michael Steele and Ari Melber during MS NOW’s Election Night Special 2026 in New York
MS NOW
Fox News featured The Five, the top show on cable news, and ran the Voter Poll information on a side screen.
The midterms will be a test for legacy media, not just as they deploy new technology, but because of the flood of polling that generally showed Democrats were in for a possible “wave” election, with rising odds to take the House and the Senate.
But a number of pollsters have been cautious about addressing the potential for a polling error, particularly the difficulty of reaching right-leaning voters in rural areas. Trump has often dismissed his bad polls as “fake,” but the issue of polling reliability came to the fore when his FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, warned broadcasters about amplifying fraudulent surveys. Although his statement came after the revelation that two polls cited by prognosticators were made up, he remark drew pushback from Democrats and others that he was trying to chill election coverage.
The evening is the biggest night of the year for the linear networks, a chance for them to put forth their star anchors and personalities. But this cycle they face substantial competition for eyeballs from a wave of influencers and content creators, even news stars formerly in their ranks. They include Jim Acosta and Katie Couric, teamed for a livestream as results come in, and Chris Cillizza and Chuck Todd, who will have their own coverage in a partnership with Decision Desk HQ.
Legacy networks have been trying to keep viewers within their universe. NBC News, for example, is planning 13 hours of coverage on the broadcast network, along with a stream of its data expert Steve Kornacki.
Will it be a blue wave? That will be a prevailing question throughout the evening’s coverage, starting with the first poll closings at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT in the eastern part of Kentucky and Indiana. The rest in the states close at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. ET, as do Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia.
Leave a Reply