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Texas Democrat James Talarico speaks out after projected win against Paxton

Texas Democrat James Talarico speaks out after projected win against Paxton

Texas Senator-elect James Talarico says the Democratic sweep in the midterm elections goes beyond party lines.

“This was bigger than the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. Texans from all corners of our state demanded change and now change is on the way,” Talarico said in an interview on “Good Morning America” Wednesday, hours after he beat his Republican challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Talarico, a former teacher and seminarian, campaigned on lowering costs and fighting corruption, a sticking point against his challenger Paxton, whose campaign was overshadowed by fraud and corruption allegations, which he has denied.

Talarico said he would work with Republicans and President Donald Trump to bring about change for Americans, touting his previous track record in the Texas House of Representatives.

“In the state house, I worked with both parties to pass 60 bipartisan bills to lower people’s costs,” he said. “I think we could repeal these tariffs to lower grocery prices. I think we could suspend the federal gas tax and the federal diesel tax to provide some relief at the pump. And I hope that we can end this disastrous war in Iran so that we can bring down prices across the board.”

Democrats are projected to take control of both the House and Senate and Talarico said Americans aren’t seeing eye to eye with President Trump’s stance on tariffs and the ongoing war with Iran.

“I think the people of this country may have convinced [Trump] last night. They delivered a resounding message that they want the president, they want both parties in Congress to focus on them, to focus on making their lives easier and better and less stressful, and that’s not a Democratic thing or a Republican thing,” said Talarico.

Another major issue Talarico said he hopes to tackle is immigration.

“We need to bring both parties together to pass comprehensive immigration reform that includes border security,” Talarico said. “We have to know who’s coming into our country but we should also fight for more legal pathways for hardworking immigrants to come here and contribute to our economy, make us richer and stronger as a nation and we should pass a pathway to citizenship for our neighbors who have been here for years and decades and they can come out of the shadows.”

Talarico also reiterated his campaign message of leading with a focus on loving fellow Americans.

“I’m called to love all of my neighbors, not just my neighbors who look like me, or pray like me, or vote like me. And that’s what this campaign was built on: a deep love for all of our neighbors,” Talarico said, adding, “I think it’s a model for what politics can look like in our state and in our country in the years ahead.”

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

How Democrats flipped the Senate blue: The ABC News Voter Poll tells the story

How Democrats flipped the Senate blue: The ABC News Voter Poll tells the story

Democrats rode a wave of discontent — both for the economy and President Donald Trump — and gained control of the Senate once again, making gains in places that just two years ago would have been unthinkable.

Kansas, South Carolina, Iowa are just a few of the Republican strongholds where insurgent Democrats not only won but did so with notable margins – with notable shifts in key demographic groups and voting blocs.

Here’s how we got here:

 

Georgia

 

Democrat Jon Ossoff is projected to win reelection to the U.S. Senate, according to ABC News Voter Polls. Ossoff, who narrowly won his Senate seat in a runoff election in 2021, earned more support from Georgia voters in this year’s race, winning the support of around 6 in 10 voters across the state.

Ossoff was able to improve his vote margins among white voters by about 10 percentage points compared to Democrat Raphael Warnock’s victory in 2022.

Younger voters helped propel Ossoff to victory in the 2026 Georgia Senate race, according to ABC News Voter Polls. Voters under 30 widened their support for a Democrat, from 21 points in 2022 to 69 points now. While 45 to 64-year-olds supported the Republican candidate by 8 percentage points in 2022, they supported Ossoff by a similar margin this year, according to ABC News Voter Polls. Ossoff was able to win solidly among independents, who make up 3 in 10 voters in the Georgia electorate, according to ABC News Voter Polls. Roughly 6 in 10 independents voted for Ossoff over his Republican challenger, Collins.

Ossoff built support among white voters in the 2026 election compared to Warnock in 2022. Roughly 4 in 10 white voters backed Ossoff in this year’s race (39%), while 29% supported Warnock back in 2022.

About 3 in 10 Georgia Senate voters say they are angry about the way things are going in the country today according to ABC News Voter polls. Around 9 in 10 Georgia gubernatorial voters who said they were angry about the country’s state of affairs supported Ossoff.

According to ABC News Voter Polls, about three-quarters of Georgia Senate voters rate the economy negatively, including about a third who say the economy is poor. Roughly 9 in 10 voters who describe the nation’s economy as poor voted for Ossoff in the 2026 Senate election.

According to ABC News Voter Polls, about 6 in 10 Georgia Senate voters disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job as president, including about half of voters who strongly disapprove. Roughly 9 in 10 voters who disapprove of Trump backed Ossoff in this year’s race.

 

South Carolina

 

Democrat Annie Andrews is projected to have defeated Republican Sen. Darline Graham, who held the seat after her brother, longtime Sen. Lindsey Graham, died in June.

Black voters in South Carolina supported Andrews over Graham by an 83% to 14% margin, according to ABC News Voter Polls, almost identical to the margin that Matthews had over Scott in 2022 when Black voters made up 22% of the electorate.

But white voters shifted heavily toward the Democrat this year. In 2022, white voters supported Republican Tim Scott by 54 percentage points. This time they supported Graham by only 14 points.

Women backed Andrews over Graham by just over 10 percentage points, according to ABC Voter Polls. In 2022, women backed Scott by 18 percentage points. While Graham won men this year, her margin was in the single digits — compared to a 34-point margin in favor of Scott four years ago. Among white men, in particular, Graham’s margin was around 20 percentage points — down from a 58-point margin for the Republican in 2022.

Roughly 4 in 10 South Carolina voters are 65 and older, and they backed Graham by 10 percentage points over Andrews, according to ABC Voter Polls. But that margin is much narrower than the 32 point margin that Scott held among these older voters in 2022.

Roughly 1 in 10 Trump voters in 2024 crossed over to vote for Andrews this year. Almost none of Kamala Harris’s 2024 voters supported Graham, according to ABC News Voter Polls.

College graduates backed Andrews by a margin of 17 points, according to ABC News Voter Polls. That was a flip from 2020 when 57% of college graduates voted for Lindsey Graham. In 2022, Scott won college graduates by 23 percentage points.

Suburban voters in South Carolina broke toward Andrews by 8 percentage points according to ABC News Voter Polls. In 2022, suburban voters favored Scott by 24 percentage points. Urban voters backed Andrews by a 27 point margin, more than double the margin from 2022.

 

Iowa

 

Josh Turek is projected to win the Iowa Senate race, becoming the first Democrat to represent Iowa in the upper chamber since Tom Harkin was elected in 2008. His victory was propelled by strength among independents and by peeling off enough Trump 2024 voters.

Self-identified independents in Iowa prefer Turek by around 20 percentage points, according to ABC News Voter Polls. Party-switching among Democrats and Republicans is relatively muted, though Turek captured more Republicans than Democrats who voted for GOP candidate Ashley Hinson.

About 1 in 10 Iowa Senate voters who backed Trump in 2024 crossed over to Turek, while few Harris voters supported Hinson, according to ABC News Voter Polls.

Male voters in Iowa back Hinson by about 10 percentage points, while women support Democrat Josh Turek by a similar margin, according to ABC News Voter Polls. In 2022, Republican Chuck Grassley carried men by 24 points and women by 3 points.

In 2022, Iowa Senate voters under 30 were the only age group to back Democrat Michael Franken over Grassley by 9 percentage points. This year, voters aged 18 to 29 supported Turek by around a 2-to-1 margin, according to ABC News Voter Polls. Voters aged 30 to 44 also prefer Turek by about 10 points, those aged 45 to 64 back Hinson by around the same margin, and voters 65 and older are roughly evenly split between the candidates.

 

Ohio

 

Democrat Sherrod Brown is projected to win the Ohio Senate seat over Republican John Husted and retake the seat he lost in 2024. Here’s how he built a winning coalition.

Ohio voters tonight were extremely negative about the state of the economy, frustrated with Trump’s tariffs and concerned about high costs, which a majority blamed on Trump, according to ABC Voter Polls. And Brown won big among the more economically disenchanted. He was also able to capitalize on the roughly 6 in 10 who said Husted was too supportive of Trump, gaining ground relative to his 2024 margins among most key demographic groups.

Brown won female voters in Ohio by roughly 15 percentage points over Husted, according to ABC Voter Polls. In 2024, women split about evenly between Brown and Republican Bernie Moreno. While Brown narrowly lost men, the margin was somewhat smaller than the 9 points by which he lost men in 2024.

Brown won voters under 30 by more than 40 percentage points, according to ABC Voter Polls — a sharp reversal from 2024 when voters under 30 backed Moreno by 4 percentage points. He also won voters ages 30 to 44 by roughly 30 points, compared with his 2-point margin in 2024. He carried those ages 45 to 64 by a very slim margin — a group he lost by 10 points two years ago. This year, though, he lost ground among voters ages 65 and older compared with 2024.

Independents backed Brown over Husted by 26 percentage points, according to ABC Voter Polls. This is a sizable increase over his margin with this group in 2024 (+9) and 2018 (+12), according to Edison. Brown also won nearly all Democrats and around 1 in 10 Republicans.

White Ohio voters supported the Republican Senate candidate by at least 10 percentage points in each of the last two cycles. But tonight, white voters broke nearly evenly according to ABC Voter Polls — returning to margins last seen in the 2018 midterms.

Brown’s margin among Black voters also increased from 71 points in 2024 to 82 points this year, according to ABC Voter Polls.

Ohio voters with a college degree backed Democrat Sherrod Brown by about 20 percentage points, according to ABC News Voter Polls. This is a slight improvement over his 14-point margin with this group in both 2024 and 2018. While he lost voters without a college degree to Republican John Husted by single digits, this improved substantially over the 14 points by which he lost this group in 2024.

 

Kansas

 

Democrat Adam Hamilton is projected to become the first Democrat to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Kansas since 1932. Here’s how he beat incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall to win the seat.

Four in 10 Kansas Senate voters say they are angry about the way things are going in the country today, according to ABC News Voter Polls, and they supported Hamilton over Marshall by roughly an 80-point margin. Another roughly third are dissatisfied and they split their vote according to ABC News Voter Polls.

Nearly 6 in 10 Kansas Senate voters disapprove of Trump, including about half who strongly disapprove and they widely supported Hamilton over Marshall, according to ABC News Voter Polls.

About 4 in 10 voters in Kansas are Republicans and over 8 in 10 of them voted for Marshall, according to ABC News Voter Polls — but 12% of them split off to vote for Hamilton and nearly all Democrats supported Hamilton. Independents split for the Democrat by a more than 2-to-1 margin, according to Voter Polls.

Women supported Hamilton by a 10-percentage point margin and men supported Marshall by a 2-point margin, according to ABC News Voter Polls. In the 2022 election, both men and women supported Republican Jerry Moran by double-digit margins and he won his third term to the U.S. Senate by a wide margin. In 2020, when Marshall beat Democrat Barbara Bolinger for the U.S. Senate, men supported Marshall by 22 points, but Kansas women were about evenly split.

Essentially all of the Kansas voters who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 supported Hamilton, according to ABC News Voter Polls. Trump voters were not as united around Marshall, with 10% of them peeling off for Hamilton.

 

Texas

 

Democrat James Talarico, an educator and member of the Texas House of Representatives, was projected to defeat Republican Ken Paxton. Talarico was propelled to victory by younger voters. Roughly 8 in 10 voters ages 18-29 (79%) supported Talarico in this year’s race, compared with about half of 18 to 29-year-olds who supported Democrat Collin Allred in 2024.

In the Texas Senate race, 58% of female voters supported Talarico, while men were roughly evenly split in their vote, according to ABC News Voter Polls. In the 2024 Texas Senate race, male voters favored Republican Ted Cruz by an 18 percentage point margin over Allred while women were about evenly split between candidates.

Talarico gained among Black and Hispanic Texans during his 2026 Senate victory, according to ABC News Voter Polls. Nine in 10 Black voters and two-thirds of Hispanic Texans supported Talarico over Paxton. This is roughly 10 percentage points higher than the shares Allred received from these groups during his 2024 candidacy for Senate.

Roughly 7 in 10 Texas Senate voters (71%) rated the economy negatively, including 34% who rated the economy as poor according to ABC News Voter Polls. Among voters who evaluated the economy negatively, 72% voted for Talarico.

About 4 in 10 Texas Senate voters (41%) said the economy was the top issue facing the country, while 29% said the state of democracy, according to ABC News Voter Polls. Voters who viewed democracy as the most important issue favored Talarico by a roughly 3-to-1 margin, while Talarico won economy-focused voters by a double-digit margin.

Nearly 6 in 10 Texas Senate voters disapproved of Trump, including half who disapproved strongly, and those voters supported Talarico by wide margins.

About twice as many Texas Senate voters said they were worse off (43%) than better off (20%) compared with two years ago, according to ABC News Voter Polls. Among voters who said their financial situation has worsened, 77% voted for Talarico.

-ABC News’ Sofi Sinovich, Bianca DiJulio, Alauna Safarpour and Will Lennon contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

ABC News Voter Polls explain how Democrats won the US House: Voter Poll analysis

ABC News Voter Polls explain how Democrats won the US House: Voter Poll analysis

Democrats are projected to retake the House for the first time since 2020 in an election where President Donald Trump’s shadow loomed large over the proceedings.

Democrats made small but substantive improvements in their share of the vote across many groups and benefited from Trump’s deep unpopularity and voters’ negativity about the economy.

According to ABC News Voter Polls, about 6 in 10 Americans who voted on U.S. House races disapprove of Trump’s performance as president, including 53% who strongly disapprove.

Voters who strongly disapproved of Trump supported Democrats for the House by an 89-percentage point margin. Just 2 in 10 voters in U.S. House races strongly approved of Trump and they supported Republicans by a 96-point margin.

And more than half of voters for U.S. House strongly disapprove of Trump’s performance as president, according to ABC News Voter Polling, that’s the highest strong disapproval share for any president dating back to the 2008 election when George W. Bush was president and Barack Obama was elected. 

About two-thirds of those who voted in House races say Trump has the wrong priorities and a similar share says he prioritizes his own personal interests over those of the country. These voters chose Democrats for the U.S. House over Republicans by 69 percentage points and 73 points, respectively, according to ABC News voter polling.

More Americans who voted in U.S. House races say their vote was to express opposition to Trump rather than support for him in ABC News voter polling, 43% to 16% and 96% of them voted for Democrats.

Three-quarters of these voters rated the state of the economy negatively and they supported Democrats by 40 percentage points. Among the roughly one-third of voters who rated the economy poorly, they supported Democrats by 71 points.

About 7 in 10 Americans who voted on House races say the U.S. economic system generally favors the wealthy rather than being fair to most Americans and they supported the Democrats by about a 3-to-1 margin.

More say their family’s financial situation has gotten worse than better in the past two years by more than a 2-to-1 margin and they largely supported Democrats.

About 8 in 10 Americans who voted in House races felt inflation had caused their family severe or moderate hardship in the past year, with most of them supporting Democrats. And 62% of these voters blamed Trump’s policies for higher than usual prices rather than factors outside of his control, according to ABC News Voter Polls.

The Democratic Party held a slight advantage in favorability over Republicans — 47% vs 41% — and also won a 25-percentage point lead among the 15% of “double haters” who are unfavorable of both parties, per ABC News Voter Polls.

ABC News Voter Polls find that Democrats improved on their typical wide lead among voters in House races who are under 30, winning roughly three quarters of their votes today, compared with just more than half in 2024.

About a third of voters don’t identify with either major political party but they backed Democrats in U.S. House races by a 56% to 39% margin, according to ABC News Voter Polls.

In the previous two elections, independent voters split roughly evenly between the two parties, according to Edison Research.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Trump says he was ‘a little bit surprised’ after Democrats’ big win in midterms

Trump says he was ‘a little bit surprised’ after Democrats’ big win in midterms

President Donald Trump on Tuesday at points lashed out, made excuses and appeared resigned after Republicans suffered resounding losses in the midterm elections.

In some of his first public remarks following the Democrats’ victories, Trump said in an interview on Fox News that he was “a little bit surprised” by the results.

“I thought we would do better,” Trump said. “We had tremendous rallies, thousands of people outside let alone inside that couldn’t get in.”

In other remarks, Trump put some of the blame on Republican candidates and high gas prices from the war in Iran — and also said he was willing to work with Democrats.

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Trump posted on his social media platform shortly after Democrats were projected to take control of the House.

During a flurry of campaign stops across states and districts he won handily in 2024, Trump had implored Republicans to vote as if he were on the ballot.

“But they didn’t agree, and they didn’t like the candidates in most cases, just one of those things,” Trump said a phone interview with Politico. “There were plenty of people elected too, but, you know, not enough.”

Trump played an outsized role in several key races, such as the Texas Senate race, where Trump endorsed Ken Paxton over incumbent John Cornyn in the GOP primary, and in the special election in South Carolina where Trump endorsed Darline Graham for a full term to fill her late brother Lindsey Graham’s seat.

Both Paxton and Graham were projected to lose their races on Tuesday.

Asked if he thought there were candidates he thinks didn’t do enough, Trump said: “I don’t want to blame anybody. I just want to say, you know, it was — it was a very interesting period of time. I watched with great interest, learned from it.”

After results rolled in showing that Democrats would take the House and then later the Senate, Trump used his social media platform to lash out at the incumbent Republican governor of Texas, who had lost his bid for a fourth term. 

“If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost,” Trump said in one of the posts, using the term for “Republican in Name Only.”

“He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty,” Trump added. 

Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa was projected to defeat Abbott, who was running for his fourth term.

In his initial set of remarks, Trump said he would work with Democrats — but also emphasized his ability to veto legislation.

In the Politico interview, Trump said he was willing to work with Democrats to “make sure things go well for our country.” 

“I’d consider doing whatever I think is appropriate and good for the country,” he told Politico when asked if he would consider striking an immigration deal with Democrats.

However, in another post on his social media platform on Tuesday night, Trump posted a picture his signature red hat with the word “VETO” displayed across it.

Ahead of the results, Trump had projected confidence that Republicans would defy the polls but said that he would be “Mr. Veto” if Democrats were to regain control.

Speaking to Fox News, Trump said Democrats are “in control, but they’re really not in control because they can send over, you know, 50 different great bills that they’re all excited about, and I send them back with a nice stamp veto.”

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Democrats projected to take Congress in blue wave fueled by Trump, economy discontent

Democrats projected to take Congress in blue wave fueled by Trump, economy discontent

Democrats will win enough seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to gain control of the lower chamber of Congress — propelled by a wave of discontent with the economy and the president, according to ABC News projections and Voter Polls.

Democrats flipped at least six Senate seats, including in Republican strongholds like Kansas and South Carolina, ABC News projects. And they flipped at least a dozen House seats as well as several governor’s seats — also in traditionally red states, making history in several cases.

In Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa denied Gov. Greg Abbott, a close ally of the president, a fourth term.

A shift in the balance of power could curb the executive influence of President Donald Trump and could have meaningful implications for domestic and foreign policy amid a generally unpopular U.S. war with Iran, climbing inflation and record-high fuel prices that have strained American households.

Two weeks ahead of the midterm elections, Trump’s approval rating dipped to 37%, the lowest of this presidential term, and his 62% disapproval rating is a record high over both presidential terms, according to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.

About two-thirds of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the economy (65%) — a record high over both of Trump’s presidential terms and roughly the same as then-President Joe Biden’s worst economy rating in ABC/Post polling in September 2023 (64%). 

Trump, who urged Americans at rallies across the country to “pretend I’m on the ballot” when they vote in the midterms, wrote on X Tuesday night that he was “not on the ballot.”

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Trump claimed.

The president told The New York Times in a phone interview on Tuesday night that he will accept the results of Tuesday’s elections and said that he is willing to work with Democrats.

“I am absolutely willing to accept those results,” Trump said.

“We’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll, you know, look forward to working with them. We’ll probably work something out,” he added.

But he also posted a hat on social media with the word “VETO” on it.

Key Senate victories

As votes are tallied across the country, Democrats secured several key wins in consequential Senate races in both battleground states and red states that voted for Trump in 2024. 

Thirty-five Senate seats are in play during the 2026 midterms, but the outcome of a few races in both battleground and traditionally Republican states will determine which party will control the upper chamber of Congress next year.

Texas: Democrat James Talarico will win the Texas Senate race, defeating Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and becoming the first Democrat to win a Texas statewide race in over 30 years, ABC News projects. The last time a Democrat won a U.S. Senate election was in 1988. Talarico, a former state representative and Presbyterian seminarian, ran against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton waded into the culture wars in his attacks against Talarico, while the Democrat has kept his message on the economy front and center and criticized the attorney general over a series of political scandals that have embroiled Paxton’s career.

South Carolina: Democrat Annie Andrews is projected to win the South Carolina Senate race, flipping a seat blue after it had been held by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham for the past 23 years. 

Andrews, a pediatrician, ran against incumbent Republican Sen. Darline Graham, who was appointed to the Senate by Gov. Henry McMaster and succeeded her brother after he died unexpectedly in July.

Darline Graham was the first woman to represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate, but Annie Andrews is projected to become the first woman elected in that position.

North Carolina: Democrat Roy Cooper, the state’s former governor, will win the North Carolina Senate race, ABC News projects, flipping the seat blue.

Cooper ran for the open seat against Republican Michael Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chairman who was endorsed by President Trump. The seat is held by outgoing Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, a Trump critic, who announced his retirement last year.

Georgia: ABC News projects that incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff will win reelection in Georgia’s race for U.S. Senate against Republican Rep. Mike Collins, who represents Georgia’s 10th congressional district.

Ossoff, who is the only Democratic senator up for reelection this cycle in a state that Donald Trump won in 2024, was once viewed as one of the most vulnerable incumbent Democratic senators.

But polls showed a close race as Collins’ campaign has been marred by several controversies and the congressman has also faced some heat over his support for the generally unpopular war in Iran. 

Maine: Democrat Troy Jackson’s campaign spokesperson Maggie Amjad told ABC News that Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate who was elected in 1996, called and conceded the Maine Senate race. Collins said in a statement on Tuesday night that she called to congratulate Jackson. “It has been the honor of my life to serve the people of Maine in the United States Senate. I’m proud of all I have been able to accomplish for our state and for our country in the past 30 years,” she said.

Kansas: Democrat and megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton will win the U.S. Senate race in Kansas, ABC News projects, defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall.

Republicans currently hold 53 seats, while Democrats have 45 seats, in addition to independent senators Bernie Sanders and Angus King, who also caucus with the Democratic Party, giving them a total of 47.

Democrats needed to win four additional seats to shift the balance of power, while Republicans can afford to lose up to three seats and keep the majority, with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President JD Vance.

A promise of ‘change’ in the House

All 435 seats of the House of Representatives are on the ballot on Tuesday for two-year terms in the 120th Congress, but 14 of those seats that ABC News rates as toss-ups are crucial to determining the balance of power in the House next year.

Key races were in states like Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, while a handful of other consequential races were in congressional districts that were redrawn by Republican legislatures in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and Virginia.

To shift the balance of power, Democrats needed to gain at least three seats.

The Republican caucus, led by Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, currently holds a slim majority over Democrats with 220 seats, while Democrats have 215.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who will become the first Black speaker of the House if he is elected to lead the party in January, vowed that “change” is coming.

“We’re going to push for dramatic reform of the Supreme Court,” Jeffries said at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Atlanta in August.

“The Supreme Court, the conservative right-wing majority on the Supreme Court, has become basically a subsidiary of the MAGA Republican Party. The status quo is acceptable. It’s not,” he added. Democrats, who last controlled both chambers during the 117th Congress in Trump’s first term (2021–2023), are also aiming to make history by electing at least 100 Democratic women to the House, which would set a new record.

Out of 435 seats in the House, 125 are currently held by women, including 95 Democrats and 30 Republicans.

In the 14 toss-up races, seven Democratic women are running against Republican opponents.

ABC News’ Juhi Joshi, Oren Oppenheim, Nicholas Kerr, Emily Guskin, Devin Dwyer, John Parkinson and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

These candidates made history in the 2026 midterm elections

These candidates made history in the 2026 midterm elections

The 2026 midterm elections made history for several candidates, as voters are projected to have elected the country’s first Black, Native American and Hispanic female governors and more major firsts.

All eyes are on the results Tuesday night in the high-stakes election, in which House and Senate races will determine the balance of power in Congress.

But the midterms have also seen an expansion of representation among America’s lawmakers, with several candidates celebrating groundbreaking wins.

This story will be updated as more wins are projected.

Keisha Lance Bottoms

Democratic candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms is projected by ABC News to become the next governor of Georgia — beating billionaire Rick Jackson in the closely watched race.

The projected win for Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, flips the Georgia governor’s mansion blue in a state that President Donald Trump won in 2024.

In the closing stretch of the race, Bottoms often repeated on the campaign trail that Jackson “may have the money, but the people still have the power.” Before the end of the cycle, Jackson had spent more than $200 million of his personal fortune on his campaign.

Georgia hasn’t elected a Democrat for governor since 1998. The seat is currently held by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who was term-limited this year.

This is a major win for Georgia Democrats, who have targeted this seat for years, falling short in 2018 and 2022 with Democrat Stacey Abrams. In 2018, Abrams lost to Kemp by a 1.4-point margin.

Deb Haaland

Deb Haaland, the former U.S. Secretary of the Interior, is projected to win New Mexico’s gubernatorial race, becoming the first indigenous governor in U.S. history.

“Thank you, New Mexico! It is the honor of my lifetime to be elected your 33rd Governor,” Haaland wrote on X. “Tonight, you made history. You chose a future where New Mexico comes first, where working families have a chance to get ahead, and where every New Mexican has a voice.”

She is a member of the Laguna Pueblo, a federally recognized tribe in the state.

Haaland’s projected win on Tuesday was against former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull.

Rep. Gina Hinojosa

The Texas gubernatorial race is also projected to see a historic first, with Democratic Rep. Gina Hinojosa becoming the state’s first Hispanic governor.

Hinojosa was running against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who was aiming to win his fourth term.

The stunning projected win for Hinojosa, who served in the Texas state House, comes after running on education reform and criticizing Abbott over AI data centers.

“This is our last best chance to take back Texas for the people,” she wrote on X ahead of the election.

Rep. Byron Donalds

Republican Rep. Byron Donalds is projected by ABC News to win the gubernatorial race in Florida, becoming the state’s first Black governor.

“I am humbled and grateful beyond measure,” Donalds said in a victory statement posted to X. “As your Governor, I will give you everything I have.  We are going to make life in Florida more affordable. We are going to keep our streets safe. We are going to invest in our young people so that they can attain the Florida Dream that all of us love so dearly. Florida is the envy of the nation. I will fight day and night to keep it that way and to lift our state to even greater heights.”

His campaign made headlines in September when Donalds’ website was updated to remove some prominent references to Trump. According to the Miami Herald, Donalds removed at least eight references to Trump from his website.

Shortly after the changes, however, Donalds posted a statement on X touting his endorsement of the president.

“I am proud to have President Trump’s endorsement. While everyone is focused on our website, check out our policy proposals to make life more affordable for Floridians,” Donalds wrote at the time.

Dr. Amy Acton

Dr. Amy Acton, the former director of the Ohio Department of Health, is projected to defeat GOP opponent Vivek Ramaswamy for the Ohio governor’s seat.

Acton will become the first woman elected governor in Ohio and the first Jewish governor in the state’s history.

The defining moment of this campaign came with an ad made by the Ramaswamy campaign that tried to use Acton’s estranged mother, who fled the state with a husband who was indicted for raping Acton as a child, to call Acton a liar. The ad prompted major backlash and an influx of support and visibility for Acton.

Rep. Chris Pappas

In New Hampshire, ABC News projects that U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas will win the Senate race, becoming the first openly gay senator.

He is projected to beat former Sen. John Sununu, a Republican backed by President Donald Trump, in the race that was seen as a must-hold for the Democrats.

Pappas campaigned with major Democratic figures such as former Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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