Democrats Projected To Retake House
Democrats also flip four Senate seats, and Trump says on Truth Social he would have won “in a landslide” had he been on the ballot
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - Democrats were projected on Tuesday night to win control of the US House of Representatives, and they flipped four Republican-held Senate seats, in midterm elections that served as a national verdict on President Donald Trump’s second term. NBC News projected that Democrats will win about 252 of the 435 House seats, well above the 218 needed for a majority, while CNBC and MS NOW estimated at least 235. Control of the Senate had not been called when this was written.
In the Senate, Democrats flipped Ohio, where Sherrod Brown won; Texas, where James Talarico defeated Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton; North Carolina, where Roy Cooper won; and South Carolina, where Annie Andrews defeated Sen. Lindsey Graham, according to NBC News. The Associated Press had projected Talarico as the third Democrat of the night to flip a seat. Democrats also held Georgia, where Sen. Jon Ossoff won, and New Hampshire, where Chris Pappas won. Michigan was too early to call, with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed narrowly ahead of Republican Mike Rogers in the partial count. Republicans held the Senate 53-47 before the vote, and Democrats needed a net four seats for a majority.
Trump watched the returns from the White House East Room, where CNN described the mood as tense. He went silent on Truth Social for about three hours before posting shortly after 10:30 p.m. Eastern. “I wasn’t on the Ballot,” he wrote, adding that he would have won in a landslide if he had been. Earlier he complained on Truth Social about a Fox News poll, saying the network’s polls are “always the worst.” On Monday, speaking at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, he conceded that history was against him, saying “We gave this a very strong shot.” In an interview with The New York Times, he said he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results. He has also vowed to veto every bill from a Democratic Congress.
The vote came after months of public frustration over the cost of living. Gas prices rose to an average of about $4.48 a gallon by May, from under $3 before the Iran war began on February 28, and a Reuters/Ipsos poll in June put Trump’s approval at 35 percent. A 69-year-old retiree in Atlanta told AFP the country’s direction was very bad because of the economy and prices. Trump defended his record in a Fox News interview, according to the text provided, saying the blockade of Iran, tighter borders and tariffs had rebuilt the country.
The vote went largely smoothly, but there were some technical problems. According to the text provided, North Carolina’s elections board extended voting by 15 to 45 minutes at some sites after computer failures, and a Chester County, Pennsylvania, court extended voting by 30 minutes at three polling places. A Justice Department effort to block the counting of some California ballots, and a lawsuit over Alaska’s Senate race, had failed in lower courts before election day.