Overview:
Following historic midterms losses, the Republican party is embroiled in an internal blame game, with Donald Trump and JD Vance pointing to the conflict in Iran while Democrats celebrate sweeping victories across both chambers of Congress.
By Elissa Fitzgerald with wires
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-11-05/us-midterms-daily-news-briefing/107347184
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(ABC-Australia) The Democrats have emerged victorious from the midterm elections, claiming massive gains in both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate.
Here’s what you need to know today
- GOP blame game: In the aftermath of their huge losses, Republicans have turned to examining what went wrong. “I don’t blame anybody,” Trump told Politico. Earlier, he acknowledged that the Iran war played a role, but stood by his decision to attack Iran — something Vice-President JD Vance has echoed. “The reason we lost is the war,” Vance said on X. “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so.” Trump also said if he had been on the ballot “we would have won”. “But they just, you couldn’t transfer that love. There was such love at those rallies, it was incredible, and we weren’t able to transfer the love to candidates,” he said. But with Trump’s approval rating sitting below 40 per cent since April, many Republicans feel differently. “Trump spent the year telling voters what was important to him, not them,” veteran Republican strategist Doug Heye told Reuters.
- A potential dummymander: Going into the election, Trump encouraged Republican states to redraw their electoral maps in a bid to give the party an advantage in House races, leading to a proverbial arms race between the two parties. For the most part, that gambit failed to net Republicans any extra seats. But there’s also a chance it may have cost the party a once-safe seat where a comfortable majority was shaved down to bolster other areas. At the time of writing, the race for Tennessee’s fourth congressional district is separated by just 280 votes, with the Democrats in the lead. Still, experts have said the new maps had some impact, stifling Democrats’ abilities to flip even more seats across the country.
- Looking ahead: The new Congress is scheduled to be sworn in on January 3, but the work starts now. Parties in both chambers are expected to choose their leadership teams when Congress returns next week. Hakeem Jeffries, who is currently the House Democratic leader, is expected to remain the party leader for the chamber for the next two years. That would make him the first Black speaker in the 237-year history of the House. The current speaker, Mike Johnson, has announced he will not serve as House minority leader next year, opening the way for a Republican leadership bid. In the Senate, Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are expected to remain leaders of their respective parties.
Democrats stormed to victory in the midterms, winning control of both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate as tens of millions of voters delivered a scathing rebuke of Trump.
The party scored sweeping victories in several Republican strongholds for the first time in generations, including in Texas and Kansas.
In the Senate, Democrats have flipped at least seven seats. Mississippi could become an unexpected addition to the party’s spoils as the count continues in an extraordinarily tight race that has at times been separated by less than 50 votes.
Going into the election, almost all forecasters had tipped the House would turn blue, making the Democrats’ emphatic victory somewhat less of a surprise. Still, the party has won at least 237 races — 19 more than the minimum needed to form the majority.
Once seated next year, Democrats are expected to use their new power to investigate Trump’s administration and family.
Despite concerns from Democrats that Trump might seek to overturn the results of the election, as he did in 2020, the president accepted the outcome and congratulated the party in an interview with Fox News.
How popular is Donald Trump today?
US President Donald Trump might not be up for election at the midterms, but his popularity has had a strong influence over the outcome.
The president’s party almost always loses House seats in midterm elections and that trend gets steeper when the president is unpopular.
Historic polling data collated by analytics firm Gallup shows presidents with approval ratings below 50 per cent have seen their party lose an average of 37 House seats.
Presidents with approval ratings above 50 per cent have netted smaller loses, with an average of 14 seats.
ABC/Reuters