Democrats Will Win Control Of Congress, CNN Projects, Capitalizing On Trump’s Historic Unpopularity

Democrats will flip control of both the House and Senate in the 2026 midterm elections in a resounding and historic victory, CNN’s Decision Desk projects.

According to the news network, Democrats capitalized on President Donald Trump’s historic unpopularity to win a major victory and significant power to check a previously untethered Trump and his administration over the final two years of his presidency.

To win the majorities, Democrats swept through even starkly red territory and won races that haven’t gone Democratic in decades. That included winning a Senate seat in South Carolina, which Trump won by 18 points in 2024, and another in Texas, which hadn’t voted for a statewide Democrat since 1994 and even breaking through in Kansas, which hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1932.

The change in control of Congress completes a whirlwind last 22 months. It featured Trump coming into office like a wrecking ball and gobbling up executive power with the acquiescence of the Republican-controlled Congress and many institutions. It ends with Republicans suffering a major defeat in the midterm elections.

Only twice in the last 50 years had control of both chambers changed in the same cycle.

The main culprits appear to be inflation, Trump’s tariffs, the Iran war, and voters’ concern about Trump’s conduct and self-enrichment.

CNN’s Voter Poll currently shows more than 6 in 10 voters disapproved of Trump, and more than a majority strongly disapproved. Two-thirds said he had made the economy worse with his policies.

Democrats’ victory in the House was largely expected, given they only needed to net three seats to accomplish it, and the president’s party tends to lose seats in midterm elections.

But Democrats ability to flip the Senate caps a remarkable election. In order to do that, they had to win multiple seats that Trump had carried in 2024 by double digits. They wound up winning in South Carolina, Texas, Ohio, Kansas and Iowa.

The exact sizes of Democrats’ majorities is still yet to be determined as the final election results are counted. But Democrats appear set to have some room for error in both chambers. And both Trump’s veto and the 60-vote threshold for most Senate legislation mean they’re very unlikely to be able to pass much of their preferred agenda.

But controlling the chambers does give Democrats more power to investigate what they see fit to and gives them subpoena power for those investigations. Meanwhile, controlling the Senate means Democrats can halt Trump’s judicial picks, including if there is a Supreme Court vacancy.