U.S. midterm election results: Dems seen taking majority in Senate, House

The Democrats were seen taking a majority in both levels of Congress as a blue sweep in the midterm electrions largely materialized as projected, initial counting showed early-Wednesday.

As of 01:33 ET (06:33 GMT), the Democrats had achieved a majority in the Senate with 53 seats, while the Republicans were at 42 seats, counting by the Associated Press showed.

33 Senate seats were up for re-election, with five still left to be called, as of writing.

The Democrats also won a massive majority in the House, where all 435 seats were up for election. AP data showed the Democrats at 220 seats, and the Republicans at 129 seats. 86 districts still remained to be called by the AP.

In the Governorship race, where 36 seats are up for election, the Democrats took 24 seats, while the Republicans took 19. Seven seats were remaining to be called.

In the Senate, the Democrats flipped about seven seats from the Republicans.

Texas– a hotly contested senate seat– was seen leaning largely towards Democrat James Talarico over Republican Ken Paxton. Other potential Democrat victories include North Carolina flipping to Democrat Senator candidate Roy Cooper, and Annie Andrews beating incumbent Republican Darline Graham– the sister of the late Lindsey Graham– for the South Carolina Senate seat.

Georgia flipped to Democrat Keisha Bottoms in the Governor race, while Kathy Hochul took the New York State governorship.

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed was seen pulling ahead of Republican Mike Rogers in the Michigan senate race, which was another hotly contested ballot.

The results pointed to a blue wave across Congress, with opinion polls leading up to Tuesday’s vote all heralding a difficult race for President Donald Trump and the Republican party.

Voters were seen as being largely dissatisfied with Trump’s first two years in office, where the Republicans held slim majorities in both levels of Congress.

Surging fuel costs, increased government corruption, rising inflation, and a prolonged war with Iran, despite promises to the contrary, were all points of discontent among voters.

A Democrat sweep in Congress now presents more scrutiny for Trump in enacting any future policies. New Democrat-backed legislation is also expected to be directed towards investigating Trump and his family for suspected corruption.

Wall Street futures fell sharply amid early vote counting, as markets prepared for potential gridlock in future U.S. legislation, given that the remainder of Trump’s term will likely be under a Democrat-led Congress.

But they pared losses as the results poured in and offered markets some clarity on U.S. policy.

Nasdaq 100 Futures had earlier tanked over 2% on fears that the Democrats will closely scrutinize the artificial intelligence data center buildout, amid growing backlash against more data centers from voters and communities.

The dollar fell nearly 0.4% against a basket of currencies.