Democrats take both chambers of Congress, flipping seven Senate seats, and the new Congress will sit on January 3

Democrats needed a net gain of four Senate seats to take the chamber, and they cleared that bar before midnight on the East Coast. The Associated Press called Senate control for the party after it called Iowa for Josh Turek, and it called House control in the early hours of Wednesday. The new Congress sits on January 3, 2027, so the change in power takes effect in January, not on election night.

The Senate flips ran through states Republicans have held for years. James Talarico beat Ken Paxton in Texas. Adam Hamilton beat Senator Roger Marshall in Kansas, the first time Democrats have won a Senate race in that state since 1932. Sherrod Brown returned to the Senate from Ohio, Troy Jackson beat five term Senator Susan Collins in Maine, Roy Cooper won in North Carolina, and Annie Andrews beat appointed Senator Darline Graham in South Carolina, the first Democrat elected to the Senate from that state since 1998.

In Michigan, the AP called the Senate race for Abdul El-Sayed, who will be the first Muslim American elected to the Senate. Montana went for Republican Kurt Alme and Nebraska for Republican Pete Ricketts, both holds. As of November 4 the AP count had 33 of the 35 Senate races called, with Alaska and Mississippi still too early to call.

The House count is still moving. The AP had called 222 House races for Democrats and 138 for Republicans as of November 4, with Democrats leading in 41 of the districts not yet called and Republicans leading in 34. In the national House vote counted so far, Democrats had 58,974,839 votes to 46,749,398 for Republicans as of November 4. Districts Trump won by large margins in 2024 flipped in several states, and the final size of the Democratic majority will not be known until the remaining districts finish counting.

Control of both chambers gives Democrats the committee chairs, the subpoena power that goes with them, and the ability to block the rest of President Trump's legislative program for his last two years in office. Trump keeps the veto, and a veto override takes two thirds of both chambers, a number neither party is close to reaching in the counts so far.