Kansas, a state that has not sent a Democrat to the US Senate in nearly a century, has just done it, and so have Texas and South Carolina.

They were among at least seven Republican-held Senate seats that Democrats took in Tuesday's midterm elections. US networks have now projected that the party controls both the House of Representatives and the Senate, a result that changes the balance of power in Washington for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term.

CBS News projects that Democrats have at least 54 Senate seats, with races in Mississippi and Alaska still too close to call. In the House, the broadcaster estimates the party will hold between 251 and 268 of the 435 seats. NBC says that would be the largest Democratic majority in nearly two decades, built on more than two dozen flipped districts, some of which Trump won by double digits in 2024.

The seats that fell

CBS lists these Senate gains for the Democrats:

  • Texas: James Talarico beat state attorney general Ken Paxton
  • Kansas: Adam Hamilton unseated Senator Roger Marshall
  • Maine: Troy Jackson defeated Senator Susan Collins, who conceded
  • Ohio: Sherrod Brown beat appointed Senator Jon Husted
  • South Carolina: Annie Andrews defeated appointed Senator Darline Graham, becoming the first woman elected to the Senate from the state
  • Iowa: Josh Turek beat Republican congresswoman Ashley Hinson for an open seat
  • North Carolina: former governor Roy Cooper beat Michael Whatley for an open seat

Democrats also held battleground seats in Georgia, New Hampshire and Michigan, where Abdul El-Sayed won. In Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colom was leading Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by just over 1,000 votes at CBS's latest update, with absentee and affidavit ballots still to be counted. Alaska's race between Senator Dan Sullivan and Mary Peltola could take weeks.

There were historic firsts too. Deb Haaland was elected governor of New Mexico, the first Native American woman to lead a US state, while Minnesota's Peggy Flanagan became the first Native American woman elected to the Senate.

'Legislative razor wire'

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who is set to become majority leader, promised to "entangle him in legislative razor wire" whenever Trump defied the public or the law, pointing to investigations and court challenges. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has written to colleagues launching his bid to become Speaker.

On the Republican side, CBS reports that Speaker Mike Johnson told staff he will not seek another term as party leader.

Trump, who had warned before the vote that he would "veto everything" if Democrats took Congress, told Fox News the losses were not a referendum on him and blamed weak candidates and high oil prices. "If I were on the ballot, we would have won," he said, though he added that he would "probably" get along with Democrats.

What happens next

The new Congress sits in January. Most bills still need 60 votes in the Senate and Trump keeps his veto, so Democrats cannot rewrite policy on their own. Al Jazeera reports that their focus will be "affordability and accountability": the cost of energy, housing and healthcare, subpoenas into the Trump family's business dealings and pressure over the eight-month war with Iran.

For Kenyans, that last point matters most. The war has pushed up global fuel prices, and a Congress able to squeeze war funding could shape how long that pressure lasts. US markets rose after the results came in.

Photos: Al Jazeera/AFP (Hakeem Jeffries and DCCC chair Suzan DelBene); US Senate Photographic Studio/Jeff McEvoy via Wikimedia Commons (public domain, Chuck Schumer). Thumbnail design: HAMASTA MEDIA.