This Tuesday, November 3, Democrats took over Congress by gaining control of the House of Representatives and the Senate in a historic midterm elections in the United States.
READ ALSO
The ‘blue wave’, which It is a serious blow to President Donald Trump, It was achieved – according to projections – with victories in North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, and Republican strongholds such as Texas, Iowa and Kansas, where no Democrat had won a seat since 1932.
The surveys anticipated a clear Democratic victory in the House of Representatives and a tighter battle in the Senate, but the punishment to the current tenant of the White House and his party was greater than expected.
READ ALSO
Based on the votes counted and other variables, NBC projected on Tuesday night that the Democrats would obtain up to 255 seats in the Lower House (against 180 for the Republicans), a comfortable majority above the 218 necessary to control the chamber.
The composition of the Lower House before the elections was 219 Republicans, 214 Democrats and two vacancies, so the opposition only needed to add four seats to reach the majority.
Voting in Los Angeles, California. Photo:AFP
Among other things, the Democratic victory paves the way for the party leader in that chamber, Hakeem Jeffries becomes the first African-American speaker of the House of Representatives.
In the case of the Senate, although the Republicans resisted, suffering in strongholds like Florida, the Democrats achieved their most difficult objective: to turn around with historic victories in Texas, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa and Ohio, according to CNN and NBC News projections.
In Texas, for example, James Talarico became the first Democrat elected to the Senate from that state in 38 years, by defeating Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general and a personal bet of Trump’s.
READ ALSO
But the blow did not end there. The Republican governor Greg Abbott, who was seeking a fourth consecutive term in Texas, he fell to Democrat Gina Hinojosa, who will become the first Latina to hold the office, ending more than three decades of conservative dominance.
History repeated itself in Kansas, another Republican stronghold, where Adam Hamilton broke a streak of almost a century without a Democrat being elected to the Senate for that state. The man defeated Roger Marshall, becoming the first Democratic senator in 94 years, according to American media projections.
United States Senate. Photo:iStock
In Ohio, Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown defeated Republican Jon Husted. An especially hard blow for the White House, since it is the seat occupied by the current vice president, JD Vance.
The surprise was also felt in South Carolina, which struck one of the first blows of the night, when Democrat Annie Andrews won against Republican Darline Graham, according to projections. The last Democrat to win a Senate election in South Carolina was Firtz Hollings in 1998, 28 years ago.
In addition, In Iowa, Democrat Josh Turek beat Republican candidate Ashley Hinson in a race that initially the polls showed as very close. It is a rural, Republican-leaning state, where Trump won in 2016, 2020 and 2024, but which has become an example of citizen discontent with the White House.
The Democrats They also retained Senate seats in several East Coast states on Tuesday, the first to close the polling stations. According to the aforementioned media, they won in Virginia, Massachusetts, Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Illinois.
While the Republicans They kept several of the Senate seats in which they traditionally prevail, among them those of West Virginia, Wyoming and Tennessee and Florida, although Ashley Moody won by a margin of only three points over Democrat Angie Nixon.
Polling stations in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Photo:AFP
Thus, while waiting to know the outcome in Michigan, Maine and Alaska, Democrats could reach 55 seats, in addition to having a new independent senator in Nebraska. The majority in the Upper House is 51 seats.
This Tuesday’s midterm elections They sought to renew the 435 seats in the House of Representatives and about a third of the Senate, in addition to numerous state and local offices.
READ ALSO
These elections have been interpreted as a referendum on Trump’s management, whose popularity has been hit by the high cost of living, the price of gasoline and the effects of the Iran war and tariffs.
Sign of a decisive change in the political horizon, the Republicans who won did so with much smaller margins than previous contests.
Florida’s new governor, Byron Donalds, the first black head of government in the history of that southern state and solidly Republican, won by 1.5 points. Four years ago, his predecessor Ron DeSantis did so by 20 percentage points over his Democratic rival.
Legislative elections in the United States. Photo:AFP
What a Congress dominated by Democrats will represent in the United States
The new majority in the House of Representatives will allow the opposition block Trump’s legislative agenda, open investigations and push for impeachments against the president or members of his cabinet, although an eventual impeachment would require a two-thirds majority in the Senate.
Besides, Control of the Upper House will give Democrats the power to condition foreign policy decisions and block the confirmation of candidates to the Supreme Court.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump. Photo:Finn Gomez. AFP
Trump will then face a hostile Congress, capable of putting his Administration under scrutiny and complicating the final stretch of his presidency, without the possibility of running for a third term in the 2028 elections.
In the middle of election night, the president tried to distance himself from the defeat with a message on his Truth Social platform in which he attributed the Republican setback to the fact that his name did not appear on the ballot.
Important changes and elections in the governorships in the United States
- Democrat Xavier Becerra will become the first governor of Latino origin to lead California in more than 150 years, according to AP and NBC News projections.
- Democrat Deb Halland won the race for governor of New Mexico, becoming the first indigenous woman to hold that political position in the history of the United States, according to projections by the Associated Press and NBC.
- Democrat Gina Hinojosa became the first Latina to win the governorship of Texas and the third woman to hold the position, after defeating Republican Greg Abbott.
- Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the first black governor in the country after winning the elections in Georgia.
- Republican Byron Donalds was elected this Tuesday as the new governor of Florida after beating Democrat David Jolly, and will become the first black president in the history of the state, according to projections by the Fox News and NBC channels.
LATEST NEWS EDITORIAL
*With Efe and AFP
