Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in Tuesday's US midterm elections, according to counts reported by Clarin.com, in a night that delivered a sharp rebuke to President Donald Trump. With 54 Senate seats against 44 for the Republicans — 51 are needed for a majority — the party's advantage could still grow as tight races in Mississippi and Alaska are counted.
Clarin.com described the outcome as a historic Democratic victory and reported that voters turned out in large numbers against the president's record, punishing him over the economy, inflation, his immigration policies and what the outlet characterized as limited empathy for citizens' needs and interests.
Why it matters
The result reshapes the final stretch of Trump's second term. Losing both chambers gives the opposition control of the congressional agenda and hands Democrats a platform ahead of the next presidential race. The swing was broad enough that Clarin.com reported defeats for the president's party in statewide contests that Republicans had held for decades.
The scale of the loss also drew immediate international reaction. Iran's supreme leader, Mojtaba Jamenei, said on Wednesday that anyone expecting a change in US policy because of the president's electoral setback "is gravely mistaken," according to a statement on his website cited by Clarin.com. The Kremlin, meanwhile, said it hopes Trump will keep up his mediation efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine. "President Trump remains in office and we sincerely hope he will also continue his efforts in favor of peace," spokesman Dmitri Peskov said, according to the AFP agency as cited by Clarin.com.
A collapse in Catholic support
Among the factors behind the defeat, Clarin.com highlighted a sharp decline in support from Catholic voters, which polling put at 30%. The figure is notable because Pope Leo XIV, a US citizen, cast a ballot in these elections as he always has. According to Clarin.com, it is the first time a pontiff has voted in a country's national election.
The outlet reported that backing for Trump has fallen to 30% from 47% at the start of his second term. Among white Americans, support dropped from 54% to 39%. Pew polling cited by Clarin.com shows the shift against the 2024 presidential race, when Trump took 53% of the Catholic vote to Kamala Harris's 43%.
Firsts in the states
The night produced several barrier-breaking results. In Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa became the first Latina elected governor and the third woman to hold the office after defeating Republican Greg Abbott, ending decades of Republican dominance in the state, Clarin.com reported. In Nevada, Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, defeated Republican Joe Lombardo, who was seeking re-election, to become the state's first African American governor. Clarin.com described the Nevada race as one of the most closely watched in the country and a significant gain for Democratic efforts to expand control of state governments in key battlegrounds.
In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim to win a Senate seat, according to the count reported by Clarin.com. The outlet also reported that abortion-rights advocates won in several states, and that voters rejected the president's redistricting efforts while deciding on 145 ballot initiatives across more than three dozen states.
Reaction from abroad
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said American society "voted against policies that only impoverish," and argued the far-right wave is no longer rising but crumbling. "It happened in Brazil. It has just happened in the US. And it will soon happen in Spain," he wrote on X, according to Clarin.com.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he hopes the Democratic win brings Washington and his country closer together after recent bilateral tensions. "The American people have spoken," he said after voting in South Africa's local elections, adding that a change in leadership of both chambers could bring "some changes." He said his country remains ready to maintain good relations with the US and hopes for a meeting of views on geopolitics, trade and investment.
What to watch
Attention now turns to Alaska and Mississippi, where counting continues and could still widen the Democratic Senate majority, while officials in Maine and Alaska work through ranked-choice ballots that Clarin.com reports may delay final results.
