Democrats won majorities in both the House and the Senate in the Nov. 3, 2026 midterm elections, fanpage.it reported, handing President Donald Trump a hostile Congress for the final two years of his term and opening the door to Democratic-led investigations into his administration. The party flipped Republican-held Senate seats in states Trump carried in 2024, including Texas and Kansas.
In Texas, Democrat James Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton by 12 points, linkiesta.it reported — the first Democratic Senate victory in the state since 1988, in a seat Trump had won by nearly 14 points two years earlier. In Kansas, Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton unseated incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall by 5 points, the first Democratic Senate win in that state since 1932, where Trump’s 2024 margin had exceeded 16 points.
Every One of Texas’s 254 Counties Shifted Toward the Democrats
linkiesta.it analyzed results from all 359 counties in the two states from 2016 to 2026, cross-referenced with population data. In Texas, the Democratic shift measured about 26 points, and it touched every one of the state’s 254 counties — not a single county moved in the opposite direction. The intensity varied: rural counties in the north and west narrowed the Republican margin by 6 or 7 points, while the Rio Grande Valley swung far more dramatically. Starr County went from Trump +16 in 2024 to Talarico +57 in 2026.
The 20 border counties where Hispanic residents make up more than 75% of the population showed the clearest reversal. They voted Democratic by 22 points in 2020, were nearly tied in 2024 (D+1), and backed Talarico by 45 points in 2026. The five big urban counties — Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin — moved from D+12 to D+37, while the rest of the state went from R+35 to R+12.
Republicans Kept Their Midterm Voters; Trump’s 2024 Voters Stayed Home
Paxton drew 4,249,000 votes, linkiesta.it found, nearly identical to the 4,261,000 that Sen. Ted Cruz received in the 2018 midterm — a difference of 11,000 votes out of more than 4 million. What was missing were the 2 million additional voters Trump had mobilized in 2024 who stayed home this time.
Talarico, meanwhile, received 5,445,000 votes — 35% more than Beto O’Rourke in 2018 and 13% more than Kamala Harris in 2024, in a midterm election where turnout is usually lower.
The Rubber Band Effect Ran Strongest in the Border Regions
Counties that had shifted most toward Trump between 2020 and 2024 swung back hardest toward the Democrats in 2026, on average going beyond their starting point: for every point Trump gained in 2024, Republicans lost slightly more than one point in 2026, according to linkiesta.it’s analysis.
The clearest exception ran through the 20 border counties where Hispanic residents make up more than 75% of the population, where Republicans held better than demographics predicted. The July 2025 Hill Country floods, which prompted a federal disaster declaration for 23 counties, left no measurable trace in the vote: affected counties shifted exactly like demographically similar ones.
Kansas Followed the Same Pattern Across All 105 Counties
Kansas saw a roughly 21-point Democratic shift touching all 105 counties, linkiesta.it reported. Compared with the 2022 Senate midterm, Republican votes fell 16% while Democratic votes rose 50%, and Hamilton edged past even Harris’s 2024 total. In the southwestern meatpacking counties around Garden City, Dodge City and Liberal, where about half of residents are Hispanic, Seward County went from Trump +40 to Hamilton +14, and Ford and Finney counties flipped from 35- to 40-point Republican margins to Democratic wins. The urban areas — Kansas City, Wichita, Topeka, Lawrence and Manhattan, which cast 60% of the state’s votes — moved from D+5 to D+25. As in Texas, the far western gas-producing region along the Colorado border held better for Republicans than expected.
Democrats Now Hold 54 Senate Seats and Control of the House
fanpage.it reported that Democrats had reached 54 Senate seats to the Republicans’ 44, with only Alaska and Mississippi still unassigned — meaning the GOP lost at least seven seats, and up to nine. In the House, Democrats took 240 seats against 147 for the Republicans, with 48 still to be assigned; 218 are needed for control, so the Republican minority cannot be reversed. The 35 Senate seats up for election included 22 held by Trump’s party, and the Cook Political Report had flagged six Republican seats — Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio and Texas — as toss-ups; Democrats won five of the six.
With both chambers, Democrats can now block the president’s legislative agenda, stall Senate-confirmed nominations and launch committee investigations. Rep. Robert Garcia of California signaled the approach directly, telling Trump and his aides to “get a lawyer,” fanpage.it reported, as Democrats prepare to probe the administration and the conflicts of interest of the president’s family.
Questions Readers Are Asking About the 2026 Midterms
Why did Texas and Kansas flip when Trump won them in 2024? The county-level analysis points to a turnout gap plus a swing among Hispanic and urban voters: Republicans matched their 2018 midterm vote, while 2 million of Trump’s 2024 voters stayed home, and border counties that had nearly tied in 2024 swung to Talarico by 45 points.
What can Democrats actually do with control of Congress? fanpage.it reports they can block legislation, block Senate-confirmed appointments and open investigations — and Rep. Robert Garcia has already warned the White House to prepare for inquiries into the administration.
What happens next? The new Congress has the next two years before the 2028 presidential election, the next nationwide test and the last before which this Democratic Congress can act.
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