In a midterm election marked by unusually high turnout, Democrats won control of the House of Representatives Tuesday night, picking up at least 27 seats. But Republicans claimed victory as well, adding to their narrow majority in the Senate.
Democrats also captured several governorships that had been held by Republicans—in Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, and Wisconsin. But in Florida, which is an important battleground state, Republican Ron DeSantis narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent, Andrew Gillum, the Tallahassee mayor who was trying to become the state’s first African-American governor.
The results provided fresh evidence of the partisan split in American political life: Democrats won in many congressional districts in suburban areas where opposition to President Trump is high. But Republican Senate candidates won in more rural, conservative states.
The Democratic win in the House means a deadlocked Congress—with Republicans in control of the Senate and Democrats in charge of the lower chamber. It’s a setback for the Trump administration, which is likely to face an onslaught of congressional investigations led by Democrats. He’ll also have a much harder time getting his agenda through Congress.
“Tonight, the American people have demanded accountability from their government and sent a clear message of what they want from Congress,” Congressman Jerrold Nadler, the New York Democrat in line to be chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said on Twitter. The president “may not like it, but he and his administration will be held accountable to our laws and to the American people.”
Despite the Democratic takeover of the House, President Trump was upbeat about midterm results.
“Received so many Congratulations from so many on our Big Victory last night,” he tweeted Wednesday morning.
In the closing weeks of the campaign, Trump focused on illegal immigration as a key issue—a strategy that seems to have energized his base of supporters in rural areas but turned off more moderate voters in the suburbs.
Early Wednesday morning Democrats clinched the 218 House seats needed to take control. There were at least 15 additional tossup seats where the races were still too close to be called.
Many political observers had expected Democrats to win seats. It’s the norm for the party out of power to make large gains in midterms. In fact, in 36 of the 39 midterm elections since 1862, the president’s party has lost seats in Congress.
Democratic control of the House could have an enormous impact on Trump’s presidency—and the nation. With Democrats in charge, the Trump administration will be limited in its ability to do the things it’s promised, including building a wall on the border with Mexico, lowering taxes, and curtailing immigration to the U.S. And in this case, the effect of the midterms could be much greater than usual.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether anyone in the Trump campaign worked with the Russians who interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump win. And the president’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, has told a federal court that Trump directed him to make illegal payments to silence two women who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.
With Democrats in control of the House of Representatives, that body is much more likely to launch investigations into these and other matters. The House could also consider impeachment proceedings against the president, a move that many Democratic voters are calling for. Democratic minority leader Nancy Pelosi, who will likely be the Speaker of the House come January, has said that impeachment is not on her agenda. And with Republicans in even firmer control of the Senate, any impeachment vote would face stiff opposition from Senate Republicans, who would be unlikely to support any effort to remove the president from office.
Republicans did notch some important wins Tuesday night. Republican Senate candidates ousted three Democratic Senators in states President Trump won in 2016—Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, and Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. In Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn, a conservative Republican who closely aligned herself with President Trump, soundly defeated Phil Bredensen, a moderate Democrat who was formerly the state’s governor.
And in one of the most closely watched races of the night, Republican Senator Ted Cruz held onto his seat, despite a stronger-than-expected challenge from Democrat Beto O’Rourke. The fact that O’Rourke, a congressman from El Paso who didn’t hide his liberal leanings, came so close to winning is an indication of demographic changes in a state that has been considered a Republican stronghold for decades.
In a number of races, history was made last night. In Colorado, voters elected the nation’s first openly gay governor. Voters in Kansas and New Mexico elected the first Native American women who will serve in Congress. And in Michigan and Minnesota, Muslim women—a Palestinian American and a Somali American—were elected to Congress for the first time. The newly elected Congress will be more diverse than ever before, with a record number of women.