From The New Yorker · Benjamin Wallace-Wells · · 2m
A Blue Wave Just Crashed on Trump
Democrats win control of the House and flip Republican strongholds in a midterm rejection of Trump's first two years.
In brief
Democrats win control of the House and flip Republican strongholds in a midterm rejection of Trump's first two years. Democrats won control of the House and flipped Senate seats in Ohio, Michigan, Texas, South Carolina, Iowa and Kansas, rejecting Trump's policies on immigration, tariffs and foreign intervention…
A memorial becomes a voting booth
In Minneapolis, voters placed their stickers on a memorial for Alex Pretti, a nurse killed by federal agents during a deportation campaign, suggesting the midterms held unusual moral stakes.
Trump faced little resistance for two years
After winning reelection in 2024 with a narrow majority, Trump pushed the DOGE program, tariffs, migrant crackdowns and an Iran war with minimal institutional opposition.
Democrats flip deep red strongholds
Democrats won Senate races in Ohio, Michigan, Texas, South Carolina, Iowa and Kansas, breaking a pattern where Texas had not elected a Democrat statewide since 1994.
Conservative counties shift dramatically
In southwestern Kansas, counties where Trump won by about thirty-five points two years ago, Finney County, Seward County, Ford County, voted narrowly for the Democrat in the Senate race.
Multiple issues drove voters away
Immigration raids in South Texas, Iran war effects on diesel and fertilizer prices in Kansas, and weak Republican candidates across regions all contributed to the rejection of Trump.
Younger Democrats emerge as new faces
Jon Ossoff in Georgia, James Talarico in Texas, and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan represent a younger generation of Democrats who challenge oligarchic and authoritarian elements of the status quo.
Trump calls it just a moment in time
Trump called into Fox News after midnight, saying of his 2024 victory: "It's just a point in time. There was a mood in the air, I guess."
“It's just a point in time. There was a mood in the air, I guess.”
The 2024 victory now looks like an aberration
Democrats won control of the House around eleven PM when Fox News called it. Trump's 2024 win, once framed as a historical pivot, now appears more like wishful thinking by those who benefited.
A different country emerges
Elon Musk spent nearly two hundred million dollars to keep Texas red and Republicans lost it anyway. The country looks different this morning than it did two years ago.
The essence
Democrats won control of the House and flipped Senate seats in Ohio, Michigan, Texas, South Carolina, Iowa and Kansas, rejecting Trump's policies on immigration, tariffs and foreign intervention.
