Democrats Win Control of Both the House and Senate

Constitution Partners will circulate a full post-election analysis – including an outlook of the 120th Congress policy priorities – once remaining races are resolved.

Voters delivered Democrats unified control of Congress, according to projections from NBC News, CNN’s Decision Desk, and CBS News – the first time the party will control both chambers during President Trump’s second term, for its final two years. Republicans entered the night holding the House 219–214 and the Senate 53–47, per NBC News; by Wednesday morning, NBC’s Senate board stood at 54–44 with seven flipped seats, and Bloomberg Government reported Wednesday morning that Democrats had won at least 228 House seats, with Republicans at 139 and 68 districts still to be called.

The night reached well beyond Congress: Democrats swept every statewide office in Texas, flipped five governorships, and – per NBC News – now hold a majority of the nation’s governorships for the first time since 2010. NBC News notes the practical ceiling on the new congressional majority: the President retains the veto and has said he would use it if the election went Democrats’ way.

NBC News projects Democrats will win control of the House on an analysis pointing to at least 252 seats – an estimate NBC cautions could still move by a few seats in either direction, but comfortably past the 218-seat threshold and potentially the party’s largest majority in nearly two decades. CNN separately reported Democratic sources anticipating more than 240 seats, and by Wednesday morning Bloomberg Government reported at least 228 Democratic seats won, 139 Republican, and 68 districts outstanding. Newsweek’s tracker counted 17 marquee Republican seats lost by Wednesday, with Democratic flips in Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Kentucky, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Colorado – among them House Administration Chair Bryan Steil in Wisconsin and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa, per Roll Call and Newsweek. Per CNN, the result puts Hakeem Jeffries on a path to the speakership, subject to a floor vote in January.

GOP Turmoil in North Carolina. Per WHQR, Democrats flipped at least five of the state’s U.S. House seats – the 6th, 9th, 11th, 13th, and 14th districts – every one of them drawn to deliver comfortable Republican margins, and 11-term Rep. Virginia Foxx ended election night trailing Democrat Chuck Hubbard by 99 votes in the 5th. Jamie Ager took the 11th by roughly 16 points, and High Point Mayor Cyril Jefferson won the 6th by about 2.3 points. A delegation Republicans drew to elect 10 of 14 members has, at minimum, flipped to Democratic control – the clearest display of Roy Cooper’s coattails anywhere on the map. WRAL noted Cooper’s turnout operation was lifting candidates well down the ballot.

As of Wednesday morning, NBC’s board showed 54 Democratic seats to 44 Republican – a net gain of seven – with only Alaska and Mississippi uncalled. Overnight, Democrats added their seventh flip in Maine, where Troy Jackson defeated Sen. Susan Collins; the AP reported the win early Wednesday, and Collins conceded, closing out a 30-year Senate tenure. Mississippi, meanwhile, has become the morning’s cliffhanger: NBC’s board shows Democrat Scott Colom and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith tied at 48.9 percent with 96 percent counted – Newsweek put Colom’s lead at 28 votes as of 2:56 a.m. – in a race headed toward the closest of finishes; Mississippi notably has no recount mechanism in state law. Hyde-Smith chairs the appropriations subcommittee funding Transportation-HUD programs so the outcome ripples straight into next year’s spending bills. Margins below come from NBC News’s live board unless another source is noted.

Texas Scorecard reports Democrats swept every statewide office in Texas, ending 32 years of Republican control, and Texas Monthly’s live desk put it plainly: every Texas Democrat running statewide this year appears to have won. James Talarico defeated Ken Paxton for Senate – the first Democratic U.S. Senate win in Texas since 1988, per the Kerr County Lead – and Gov. Greg Abbott, seeking a record fourth term, conceded to Gina Hinojosa on election night, per the Dallas Express. Vikki Goodwin unseated Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, becoming the first Democrat elected to that office since 1994, per KUT.

Down the ballot, the AP called the attorney general’s race for state Sen. Nathan Johnson over Mayes Middleton (51.8–46.7 per the Kerr County Lead), Sarah Eckhardt defeated incumbent Comptroller Don Huffines (50.8–47.0), Benjamin Flores unseated Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham (50.8–47.8), Clayton Tucker won agriculture commissioner over Nate Sheets (50.8–47.5), and Jon Rosenthal defeated Bo French for Railroad Commissioner (52.0–46.3) – with Democrats sweeping the statewide judicial races as well, per Texas Scorecard. Rosenthal will sit as the lone Democrat on the three-member commission that regulates Texas oil, gas, and pipelines, alongside Republicans Christi Craddick and Wayne Christian – a seat with direct consequences for energy producers, midstream operators, and infrastructure developers. Texas Scorecard also notes a special election will follow to fill Eckhardt’s state Senate seat.

Per NBC News, Democrats flipped five governorships – Texas (Gina Hinojosa), Georgia (Keisha Lance Bottoms), Nevada, Ohio (Amy Acton, called by The Washington Post at 10:52 p.m.), and Iowa (Rob Sand) – and now hold a majority of the nation’s governorships for the first time since 2010. The holds were emphatic as well: Jocelyn Benson won Michigan by roughly 9.5 points over John James to succeed Gretchen Whitmer – the AP called it at 1:45 a.m., per Bridge Michigan, the first same-party succession there since term limits took effect – Hannah Pingree won Maine’s open seat over Bobby Charles, per The Washington Post, and Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro was re-elected by more than 20 points, per NBC News. Kansas remained the morning’s uncalled governorship, with Democrat Cindy Holscher and Republican Ty Masterson locked in a tight count.

The recriminations began before the counting finished. President Trump deflected blame, posting that Republicans “would have won IN A LANDSLIDE” had he been on the ballot, and singled out Gov. Greg Abbott as a “RINO,” per Politico; a Trump adviser blamed “uninspiring” candidates, while other Republicans told Politico flatly that “Trump did this.” Bloomberg Government’s reporting points to the drivers – anger over the cost of living and the war in Iran – and to the choice now facing Democrats between oversight of the administration and an affordability agenda. Hakeem Jeffries previewed both, pledging to “fight to reverse these painful Medicaid cuts” and to “bring accountability,” per Bloomberg Government, while Politico reported progressives claiming vindication after candidates from the party’s left flank – El-Sayed in Michigan, Flanagan in Minnesota – won marquee races.

The night was also a rebuke of the cycle’s biggest spender. Elon Musk put a record $474 million into the midterms – $224 million into Texas alone – only to watch Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott lose, per a CNBC analysis; The Washington Post called it a stunning defeat that raises questions about the limits of his political influence, and Politico described the result as a major blow. CNBC notes the practical consequences: fewer allies in the next Congress and a harder political environment in Texas – where Tesla and SpaceX operate and where Governor-elect Hinojosa campaigned against data-center subsidies – at a moment when data-center and AI-infrastructure politics are moving to the center of energy policy debates.

North Carolina General Assembly. The blue wave ran through Raleigh: per WRAL and WUNC, Democrats flipped the N.C. House for the first time since 2010 – taking roughly 70 of 120 seats, two shy of a supermajority – and picked up four state Senate seats, breaking the GOP’s veto-proof majority there while falling short of control. Paired with Gov. Josh Stein, the result restores real veto power to the state’s Democrats.

Missouri congressional map. NBC News reported that Missouri voters blocked the Republican-drawn congressional map at the ballot box – a development with implications for the national redistricting fight that reshaped several 2026 districts.

State legislatures. Beyond North Carolina, control of several narrowly divided chambers remained in play Wednesday, including the Minnesota and Michigan Houses, where Democrats entered the night needing one and four seats, respectively, to rebuild trifectas, per MultiState.

Congressional committee leadership shakeups. Susan Collins’s defeat vacates the Senate Appropriations chair, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski – the panel’s senior Republican after Collins and the retiring Mitch McConnell – is in line to become its top Republican; Hyde-Smith’s Transportation-HUD gavel depends on the close Mississippi result, David Valadao’s defeat opens the top Republican spot on Legislative Branch appropriations, and Chris Coons is expected to trade his senior Defense appropriations post for the Foreign Relations gavel. We’re also tracking Sheldon Whitehouse’s interest in moving to Judiciary chairmanship, thus potentially opening up the Senate EPW gavel to Jeff Merkley of Oregon. On the House side, Richard Neal is set to retake Ways and Means with a stated agenda of shoring up the Social Security trust fund, restoring expired ACA premium tax credits, and revisiting the energy credits cut in the 2025 tax law, and Jared Huffman is poised to chair Natural Resources. For clients, the appropriations reshuffle matters as much as the majorities: new cardinals mean new earmark priorities and new audiences for programmatic requests.

January brings divided government in reverse: a Democratic Congress opposite a Republican White House. Committee gavels, floor agendas, and oversight and subpoena authority in both chambers shift to Democrats when the 120th Congress convenes, and the House will elect a Speaker on the floor – CNN notes the result puts Hakeem Jeffries on that path. Legislation will face the President’s veto, which NBC News reports he has pledged to use.

Just as consequential is what happens first: current Republican majorities control both floors through early January, so the November–December lame-duck session – including any government-funding measures and other must-pass vehicles – takes on added significance for pending priorities. The first test comes quickly: the Senate’s bipartisan permitting framework heads to the floor when lawmakers return November 9, and the election scrambles its politics – some Democrats, including incoming Natural Resources chairman Jared Huffman, argue the party should renegotiate from its stronger January position, while the deal’s architects and much of the energy industry counter that walking away from a negotiated bipartisan package now would be, in one advocate’s words, “fool’s gold.” Final margins also matter: the size of the House majority, the Alaska and Mississippi outcomes, and a potential 55th Democratic seat will shape committee ratios and the practical math on every vote.

Over the coming days: the Alaska count and the Mississippi margin, where a 28-vote spread could trigger a recount and decide whether Democrats reach 55 seats; the Kansas governorship; the final size of the House majority, including North Carolina’s 5th District; certification of the Texas sweep and what a Democratic Railroad Commissioner, attorney general, and comptroller mean for clients with Texas exposure; the Senate permitting bill’s floor debate beginning November 9 and whether the bipartisan framework survives the election’s new math; the appropriations leadership shuffle, including Murkowski’s expected rise and the fate of the Transportation-HUD gavel; leadership races and committee organization for the 120th Congress; and the shape of the lame-duck agenda.

We will circulate a full post-election analysis, including implications for appropriations, trade, agriculture, and energy policy, once the remaining races are resolved. In the meantime, please reach out to any member of our team with questions about what these results mean for your organization.