US midterms: Democrats win the Senate; Trump says “Iran was a piece of it”

Democrats won the US Senate in Tuesday’s midterm elections, November 3. The Associated Press called the Senate for the Democrats late on Tuesday night, after a campaign dominated by the cost of living, the war in Iran and concerns about corruption, while NBC News projects a Democratic win in the House of Representatives too. Donald Trump admitted on Wednesday, November 4, that the war played a role in his party’s defeat.

Republicans began the year with a 53-47 majority and without particular concern about losing it. Democrats took seats from their opponents in North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, Texas, South Carolina and Kansas, in states where Trump had prevailed in 2024. Roy Cooper took the North Carolina seat, Sherrod Brown returned to the Senate from Ohio, James Talarico beat Ken Paxton in Texas and Annie Andrews defeated Lindsey Graham in South Carolina. In Maine, Susan Collins conceded defeat to Troy Jackson, while Jon Ossoff held the Georgia seat and Chris Pappas the New Hampshire one. In Minnesota Peggy Flanagan won.

What has not been decided yet

The count continues in Michigan, where Democrats want to hold a seat being vacated by a retiring senator of their party, and in Alaska, where they are contesting the seat of Republican Dan Sullivan. The result in Alaska may take days. In the House, NBC News projects that Democrats won the majority with about 255 seats, when 218 are needed for control, with a margin of a few seats either way. The AP, in its Senate report, wrote that it was still early to call the House. NPR, based on AP calls, speaks of full Democratic control of Congress for the first time since 2023. Hakeem Jeffries is expected to become Speaker of the House.

The Iran war and the powers of Congress

The new Congress will be seated in January, and the change directly touches the war in Iran, which began on February 28. Al-Monitor writes that a Democratic Senate may try to limit spending on the war with conditions on Defense Department funding. Senator Chris Murphy said last week that Democrats would have a “mandate” to use their budget powers to end the war if they win both chambers. A new war powers resolution is likely to pass the Senate as a symbolic rebuke of the president. The latest attempt in September was rejected 49 to 50. Even after the elections Trump keeps his veto, so laws passed by Congress will almost certainly need his support.

The war goes on. On Monday, November 2, just before the polls, the US struck Qeshm island and Trump confirmed that the target was an Iranian air-defence installation, while indirect talks with Tehran mediated by Qatar have not produced an agreement. See our reports on the Qeshm strikes and on the Qatari mediation.

Trump’s reaction

In a phone interview with the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, November 4, Trump was asked whether the war contributed to the Republican defeat and answered: “Iran was a piece of it.” He insisted, however, that he did the right thing and would make the same decision again, and considers the rise in fuel prices, not the war itself, the most damaging factor. On Fox News he said the Democrats “did a good job” and put the defeats down to his party’s candidates. On CBS News he congratulated the Democrats and said he is willing to work with them. He repeated, however: “I wasn’t on the ballot. If I was, we would have won.” On Tuesday evening he had posted an image of a red hat reading “VETO”.