US midterm elections 2026 live updates: Annie Andrews stuns Republicans in South Carolina Senate race amid Democratic surge

Donald Trump has blamed tonight’s election results on the fact that he wasn’t on the ballot.

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!,” the president wrote in a social media post.

Democrat Janelle Stelson has won the race for Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district, beating hardline conservative Scott Perry – the four-term incumbent.

This is a rematch for Stelson, a former local news anchor, who challenged Perry in 2024 and lost by just one percentage point.

Democrat Paige Cognetti has won Pennsylvania’s eighth congressional district, beating Republican incumbent Rob Bresnahan – who flipped the seat in 2024.

It’s another victory for Democrats in the Keystone state, in battleground districts where voters have felt the impact of the US war with Iran and the race to build datacenters in communities.

in Austin, Texas

As it appears likely Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives, Robert Garcia, the California representative who would become chair of the House oversight committee, released a statement telling the Trump administration to “lawyer up”.

Garcia has promised to investigate Donald Trump and his family, the Epstein files and reports of abuse in ICE and DHS.

The White House has told reporters that Republicans’ performance so far tonight is because “President Trump was not on the ballot, and it’s proven that Trump voters show up when he is on the ballot,” CBS News reports, citing a White House official.

The official added: “Also, candidate quality matters, and President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves.”

With polls beginning to close in western states, we’re seeing a number of trends emerging in tonight’s midterm results.

The night has favored Democrats, with three of the president’s Senate endorsements losing their races so far, and with three Democrats holding on to seats even in heavily redrawn districts in Florida. The night has also seen historic firsts, including the election of the country’s first Black female governors.

Here are the top lines:

• Democrats have flipped two Senate seats, with Roy Cooper elected to represent North Carolina and Annie Andrews elected to represent South Carolina. Cooper’s victory marks the first time since 2008 years voters in North Carolina have sent a Democrat to Congress’s upper chamber, and Andrews’ win marks the first time South Carolina will send a Democrat to the Senate since 1998.

• Hakeem Jeffries is poised to become the first Black House speaker. Although The Guardian has not yet called House control for Democrats, following the Associated Press, other outlets have begun to do so.

• In Florida, Democrats Kathy Castor, Jared Moskowitz and Pia Dandiya all won in congressional districts that were re-drawn this year to boost Republicans.

• Democrat Zach Dembo, a former federal prosecutor, has won the US House race in Kentucky’s sixth congressional district, beating Republican Ralph Alvarado, a physician and former state legislator.

• Democrat and union leader Bob Brooks has flipped Pennsylvania’s seventh congressional district. He beat first-term Republican Ryan Mackenzie, who won the seat in 2024 – turning it red.

• Democrat Rebecca Bennett has won the race for New Jersey’s seventh congressional district, flipping a Republican district that congressman Tom Kean has held on to for three terms.

• Jon Ossoff has been re-elected to the Senate in Georgia, defeating Mike Collins, his Republican challenger.

• Chris Pappas, the four-term Democratic congressman, has won New Hampshire’s US Senate race, protecting the open seat from a Republican flip in a closely fought contest against John Sununu, the former senator.

• Democratic senator Mark Warner has won re-election in the US Senate race in Virginia. He fended off a challenge from Bert Mizusawa, a Republican.

• Republican Byron Donalds, a congressman, has won the governor race in Florida, succeeding Ron DeSantis. Donalds beat Democrat David Jolly, a former US representative, after receiving Trump’s endorsement.

• Three of the president’s Senate endorsements have lost so far (in New Hampshire, North Carolina and Georgia), while four have won their races (Kentucky, West Virginia, Wyoming and Florida).

• Keisha Lance Bottoms has won the governor’s race in Georgia, beating Republican Rick Jackson. Her victory means that Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, has made history as the first Black woman ever elected governor in US history. Earlier in the evening, Stacey Plaskett became the first Black woman elected to lead a US territory, the US Virgin Islands.

Democrat and union leader Bob Brooks has flipped Pennsylvania’s seventh congressional district. He beat first-term Republican Ryan Mackenzie, who won the seat in 2024 –turning it red.

The district is one of three central Pennsylvania seats that Democrats are have eyed this cycle as key battlegounds that swung for Republicans in the last election.

Democrat Zach Dembo, a former federal prosecutor, has won the US House race in Kentucky’s sixth congressional district, beating Republican Ralph Alvarado, a physician and former state legislator.

Dembo’s victory means he flipped the seat that is currently held by Republican Andy Barr –who also won his race for US Senate tonight.

in Commerce City, Colorado

As the first results rolled in, showing Democrat Manny Rutinel as the projected winner for the hotly contested toss-up congressional seat in central Colorado, the crowd whooped, hollered and started chanting, “Manny, Manny, Manny”.

The Commerce City event space was decorated with American and Colorado flags and the DJ spun classic rock hits: Joan Jett, Pink Floyd and Queen. Las Dos Americas served up taquitos, flautas and beans and rice.

Throughout his campaign, Rutinel has told his personal story of being raised by a single Latina mother. He worked at McDonald’s as a teen and went on to serve in the US Army Corps of Engineers and get a law degree from Yale. He became a state representative when he was 29 and was serving his second term when he announced he was running for Congress.

Rutinel is set to unseat Gabe Evans, a conservative Republican who has ran a campaign focused on fighting crime and “defending American values”, including the second amendment and freedom of expression.

An astonishing Democratic pickup now …

Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, has won the US Senate race in South Carolina –the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the state since 1998.

Andrews beat Republican Darline Graham, the sister of the late senator Lindsey Graham, who was appointed to complete the remainder of her brother’s seat.

Andrews’ win is a momentous pick up for Democrats this cycle, as it widens their path to reclaiming control of the Senate.

Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, has won his congressional seat in New York’s eighth district.

While his victory was expected, it’s historic for another reason. If Democrats take control of the lower chamber –as expected – Jeffries is set to be the first Black speaker in US history.

MS Now, NBC News and CNN have projected that Democrats will take control of the House, but the Guardian will wait for the Associated Press to officially make that call.

Voters in Virginia have approved a ballot measure that creates a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom”. Abortion rights are on the ballot tonight in three other states: Idaho, Missouri and Nevada.

Virginia’s amendment ensures access to abortion care through the first two trimesters of pregnancy, while allowing some government regulation during the third. It also codifies a right to childbirth, pregnancy care, contraception and fertility treatments.

in Portland, Maine

Muted – and nervous cheers – at the Democrats’ watch party here as CNN’s early returns show the party’s Senate candidate, Troy Jackson, fewer than 800 votes ahead of the Republican incumbent, Susan Collins, with about 12% of ballots counted. It could be a long and tense count.

Almost all polls have now closed in Idaho, Montana, Nevada and Utah.

One of the more under-the-radar gubernatorial races we’re watching is in Nevada, where Democratic attorney general Aaron Ford is hoping to unseat Republican governor Joe Lombardo in the Sun Belt battleground state that Trump won in 2024.

Many polling places in one Oregon county will also close at 10pm ET.

in Overland Park, Kansas

In a surprise to no one, the Adam Hamilton watch party is indeed playing tracks from the Hamilton soundtrack along with other cheery pop hits. (The DJ has also been playing anthems associated with other Democratic leaders – including Obama’s anthem, Signed, Sealed, Delivered by Stevie Wonder, and Bill Clinton’s Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac.)

The mood is high here, with attendees cheering everytime CNN shows positive results for Democrats anywhere around the country. Many are waving miniature American flags or holding posters that say, “It’s time for something different.”

in Des Moines, Iowa

As the polls closed in Iowa at 8pm local time, Iowa’s Democratic party chair, Rita Hart, took the stage at a watch party for the Democratic candidates to commend volunteers and campaign staff for all their work, saying all that was left was to wait on the results.

The Democrats here at the state historical society of Iowa, right by the state capitol in Des Moines, are feeling “nauseously optimistic”, Hart said. Hart knows just how close elections can be here: in 2020, she lost a congressional race in the state’s second district by just six votes. “A six-vote loss is a loss you never forget,” she said.

Iowa voters have been inundated with ads – so much so, Iowa Democrat Micki Henderson said, that her 12-year-old son got a campaign ad pop-up on his school-issued iPad. She’s found other Iowans open to hearing about candidates outside their typical party this year.

“When you’re talking about local things, like water, there’s much more middle ground,” Henderson said.

Alison Meagher, a 22-year-old who has been knocking doors for third congressional district Democratic nominee Sarah Trone Garriott each weekend for the last couple months, said she is feeling both fear and excitement while awaiting the results.

“I will say, selfishly, it is a little nice to be recognized again and be in the news,” Meagher said. “It’s been a little while since we’ve been purple. It’s exciting, it’s a rush.”

As she’s knocked doors, people have been willing to hear about Trone Garriott and other Democratic candidates, often saying they’ll do some more research when they can.

“I think it helps that we all shop at the same gas stations and all shop at the same supermarkets,” she said. “I’m coming to you as a peer.”

Democrat Rebecca Bennett has won the race for New Jersey’s seventh congressional district, flipping a Republican district that congressman Tom Kean has held on to for three terms.

Notably, Kean, was not seen in Congress, or public, for more than three months this year. He also missed 100 votes without explanation – as Trump’s war on Iran piled pressure on the US economy, and the president threatened fresh tariffs on global imports.