Key points

  • US media project that Democrats have won a majority in the House of Representatives in the 3 November 2026 midterm elections, Reuters reports, with CNN and CNBC among the outlets making the call.
  • The Senate remains undecided, CNN reports, even though Democrats have flipped seats in North Carolina and South Carolina and held Georgia and New Hampshire.
  • In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governor's race, becoming the first Black woman elected governor in US history, Gulf News reports, ending 24 years of Republican control of the office.
  • The projections are media calls, not certified results: counting continues in many districts, and the final size of the Democratic majority is not yet known.

Democrats are projected to retake control of the United States House of Representatives, ending two years of Republican control of the chamber. Reuters reports that US media projected on Tuesday that Democrats were on track to win majority control, putting them in position next year to challenge President Donald Trump's agenda. CNN says Democrats have flipped control of the House, and Gulf News reports that CNBC made the same projection. If the calls hold, the opposition will gain the power to block the president's legislative agenda and to launch sweeping investigations into his administration during its final two years, Gulf News reports. Read more: US Senator Chris Murphy hospitalised after stroke, his office says — and he is awake and alert

What a House majority would change

All 435 House seats were contested on Tuesday, Reuters reports, and a party needs 218 seats for a majority. With that majority comes control of the chamber's committees, including the power to call hearings and demand documents — the tools of oversight that the minority party does not have. CNN has previously reported that House Democrats, led by Hakeem Jeffries, would also gain leverage over government spending, including the must-pass funding bills and a debt-ceiling increase expected in 2027.

That power has clear limits, and CNN's own pre-election analysis set them out: the president can veto legislation, and any measure Democrats want to become law would still need Republican votes in the Senate, where Democrats are not expected to win a filibuster-proof majority. A Democratic House can pass partisan bills as a statement of its priorities, but it cannot govern alone.

The dome of the United States Capitol in Washington, DC
The dome of the United States Capitol, photographed in July 2012, a file photo. Photo: Mike Peel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Source file · Licence

The Senate is still undecided

The Senate picture is more open, and it is where the night's biggest surprises landed. Democrats flipped two Republican-held seats, CNN reports, defeating candidates hand-picked by Trump: former governor Roy Cooper beat Michael Whatley in North Carolina, and paediatrician Annie Andrews beat Darline Graham in South Carolina — the first Democratic Senate win in South Carolina since 1998, according to Times Now's live results blog. Democrats also held crucial seats, Gulf News reports, with Jon Ossoff re-elected in Georgia and Chris Pappas defeating former senator John Sununu in New Hampshire.

Republicans entered election day with a 53–47 Senate majority, Gulf News reports, leaving Democrats needing four net gains to take control, Reuters reports. CNN says it is too early to say whether Democrats will win a Senate majority, and that millions of votes remain to be counted. The Associated Press's live results page showed just over half of House precincts reporting when this article was written, a reminder of how much counting is still to come.

The governor's races told a similar story of a divided map. Bottoms's win in Georgia made history and flipped a seat Republicans had held for 24 years, Gulf News reports. In Florida, by contrast, Republican Byron Donalds won the governor's race, Moneycontrol reports, holding one of the night's biggest state prizes for the president's party.

The key figures

Key figures
MeasureFigureSource
House seats contested435Reuters
Seats needed for a House majority218CNN
Senate balance before the election53–47, RepublicanReuters; Gulf News
Net Senate gains Democrats needFourReuters
Georgia governorKeisha Lance Bottoms (Democrat)Gulf News
Florida governorByron Donalds (Republican)Moneycontrol

What happens next

What happens next is, first, counting. CNN's House tracker notes that vote counting will continue well beyond election day, with several races too close to project, and that procedures vary by state, so some races may take days to settle. Only after state counts are certified will the exact size of the Democratic House majority — and the identity of the Senate majority — be known for certain.

The United States Capitol building in Washington, DC
The United States Capitol building, photographed in May 2005, a file photo. Photo: Ed Brown / Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Source file · Licence

For the president, the election was the first nationwide verdict on the first two years of his second term, Reuters reported before polling day. A Democratic House does not end his presidency, but it ends the period in which his party controlled both chambers of Congress — and it opens two years in which every spending bill, every investigation and every confirmation fight will be negotiated across a divide.

Updates & corrections

Published 4 November 2026.

House control is a media projection at the time of publication, not a certified result; Senate control is undecided and counting continues. No corrections have been made.

Sources

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