WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- Democrats are projected to flip control of the U.S. Senate after winning several key races in battleground states, securing control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, election forecasting agency Decision Desk HQ reported late Tuesday.
Before the midterms, Republicans held 218 seats in the House of Representatives, compared with 214 for Democrats. The chamber also had one independent member and two vacancies, one in a Republican-held district and the other in a Democratic-held district, following the resignations of their respective representatives in 2026.
With 218 seats required for a majority, Democrats needed a net gain of just three seats to regain control of the House.
The latest projections from NBC indicated that Democrats could win more than 250 seats, marking a major political turnaround in the House. Several media outlets described the outcome as a "blue wave" or even a "blue tsunami."
Before the Senate elections, Republicans held a 53-47 majority over Democrats. Democrats needed a net gain of four seats to reach the 51-seat threshold for a majority.
As votes were counted throughout election night, U.S. media outlets projected Democratic victories in several states, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Kansas, Ohio and Maine.
Notably, South Carolina, Texas and Kansas are all traditionally Republican strongholds, having voted for Donald Trump in each of the past three presidential elections.
Texas Democratic Senate candidate and state Representative James Talarico is projected to defeat Republican candidate and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, becoming the first Democrat since 1988 to win a U.S. Senate seat in the state. Democrat Gina Hinojosa is also projected to win the Texas governor's race and become the state's first Democratic governor in more than 30 years.
In Kansas, Democratic Senate candidate Adam Hamilton is projected to defeat Republican incumbent Senator Roger Marshall, becoming the first Democrat since 1932 to win a Senate election in the midwestern state.
The emergence of these "blue sprouts" in traditionally Republican strongholds has attracted widespread attention.
Commenting on the midterm election results reported so far, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the outcome a "victory for America" in a social media post on election night. With Democrats poised to take control of the House, Jeffries is set to make history as the first Black speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Politico reported that the long-feared "blue wave" had begun sweeping across the country, with Republicans bracing for what could be a crushing defeat in the midterm elections. "This is the worst electoral defeat in my lifetime and likely in history," one GOP operative was quoted as saying.
Multiple opinion polls offer insight into the public sentiment behind the "blue wave." Preliminary exit poll results released by CNN showed widespread voter dissatisfaction with the state of the nation, the economy and President Donald Trump's job performance.
According to the poll, roughly three-quarters of voters nationwide said they were dissatisfied with or felt even more negatively about the direction of the country.
The Associated Press reported that voters had punished Trump, with Republicans paying a steep price across nearly every front. The party's electoral defeat appeared to represent a direct repudiation of Trump by voters.
According to the report, Trump had repeatedly demanded loyalty from Republicans across the party, but led them into the midterm elections burdened by his persistently low approval ratings, an unpopular war with Iran, and surging living costs that had left millions of Americans deeply frustrated.
The report also noted that, since World War II, control of both chambers of Congress has switched from one party to the other in the same midterm election only three times: 1946, 1994 and 2006.
People close to Trump are blaming the Iran war, with some White House officials and Republican allies saying the Iran war was misguided, and the midterm elections would have looked very different if the conflict wrapped up months ago, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Trump, meanwhile, admitted that the war in Iran was partially to blame for widespread Republican losses in the elections. But he maintained that he didn't regret launching the war earlier this year.
"Iran was a piece of it," he said in a phone interview with The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday night.
He rejected the notion that the results were a rebuke of his presidency, even as Republicans lost in deep-red states such as Kansas, South Carolina and Texas, and his poll numbers have dropped significantly across many states.
"It was a point in time, and I wasn't on the ballot," he said in the interview. "The biggest issue is that I wasn't on the ballot."
In Iran, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the results of the U.S. midterm elections showed that the American people said no to war.
"Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message," he said in a post on X. "If the US govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare."
The House of Representatives plays a key role in setting the legislative agenda, overseeing federal spending, and conducting congressional investigations and oversight.
The Senate, meanwhile, has the power to confirm presidential nominees for key positions, including federal judges and Cabinet officials. Major legislation involving the federal budget and appropriations, as well as defense and foreign policy, must pass both chambers of Congress.
With Democrats on track to take control of both chambers of Congress, the Trump administration could face significant legislative and political constraints in advancing its agenda over the next two years. ■
