The Democratic Party has regained control of the upper chamber of the United States Congress in the 2026 midterm elections, according to projections from The Associated Press news agency.

The Senate was called in the party’s favour late on Tuesday, marking a dramatic shift in legislative power.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 3Who decides the US midterms?
• list 2 of 3In Pictures: US midterm elections in 20 photos
• list 3 of 3Texans vote in most expensive Senate race in US history

Democrats needed a net gain of four seats in the 100-member chamber to wrest control from President Donald Trump’s Republicans. As of late Tuesday, they had flipped at least seven seats.

Some of those gains were dramatic. In South Carolina, for instance, Democrat Annie Andrews, a paediatrician, took a seat held by Republican Darline Graham, the sister of longtime Senator Lindsey Graham, who died in July. The last time a Democrat won a Senate seat in the state was 1998.

Neighbouring North Carolina saw a similar flip with Democrat Roy Cooper, a former governor, beating his Republican rival Michael Whatley.

In Texas, a Republican stronghold, Democrat James Talarico, a state legislator and seminary student, delivered an upset against state Attorney General Ken Paxton. The last time a Democrat won a statewide election in Texas was 1994.

Democrat Sherrod Brown defeated Republican Senator Jon Husted in Ohio, flipping that seat as well. In Kansas, Adam Hamilton, the Democratic pastor of a megachurch, beat another sitting senator, Republican Roger Marshall. In Maine, Democrat Troy Jackson unseated longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins. And in Iowa, Paralympic gold medallist Josh Turek defeated Republican Ashley Hinson in a race that drew hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising spending.

In the outgoing 119th Congress, Republicans held a 53-seat majority. The Democrats had 45 seats, and two independents caucused with them.

With Tuesday’s results, Democrats have secured at least 54 seats, enough to take the majority, with the outcome in a handful of races still to be determined.

The results will also end the Republican “trifecta” achieved in the 2024 election when the party won control of the Senate, the House of Representatives and the presidency.

Trump acknowledged the Democrats “did a good job” and had “fought hard” in the elections. Speaking to Fox News, he said he thought the US-Israel war on Iran played a role in the Republican losses as voters probably weren’t ready for “the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline”.

But in a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump distanced himself from the results, saying, “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington, DC, said the Democrats’ “monumental victory” will create “a whole new political landscape, with Trump having to work with a very hostile Congress”.

‘We’ll work together,’ Trump says

The Senate was projected to be harder to flip than the House in Tuesday’s midterm elections, given the smaller number of seats on the ballot.

Senate terms last six years, unlike the two-year terms of members of the House of Representatives. And elections for senators are staggered, meaning that only about a third of all Senate seats are voted on at a time.

This midterm election cycle saw 35 Senate races: 33 regular elections and two special elections in Ohio and Florida. Those two states were left with Senate vacancies when Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined Trump’s second administration in January 2025.

At least seven Senate races on Tuesday were considered key toss-ups. They included contests in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Michigan.

States like Texas and Kansas rarely fall within the toss-up category because they are considered Republican strongholds. The last time a Democratic senator was elected in Kansas was 1932.

“How did this happen? How did a Democrat win in Kansas, a deeply red state, for the first time in nearly a century, especially in a state where only 25 percent of the people are Democrats?” Senator-elect Hamilton said in his victory speech.

“First of all, I think the people in Kansas – Republicans, independents and Democrats – were saying, ‘What’s happening in Washington is not OK.'”

The Democratic Party also successfully defended several seats, including Jon Ossoff’s in the swing state of Georgia. Mark Warner, who has represented Virginia in the Senate since 2009, won a fourth term.

In the key swing state of Michigan, progressive Democrat Abdul el-Sayed became the first Muslim to be elected senator, winning a hotly contested race against Republican Mike Rogers.

Trump said he would work with Democrats in the next Congress, even though he expected them to propose legislation he called “insane”.

“They’ll send over things that are insane, and I’ll veto them,” Trump said. “And after a couple ⁠of months of vetoes, they’ll call and they’ll say, ‘How do we get this stuff done?’ ⁠And we’ll work together.”

Fisher said Trump understands “he needs to work with Democrats if he’s going to have a legacy beyond Mr Veto.”

“He wants to be remembered fondly and if all he does is kill bills, then it’s not going to go very far,” Fisher said.