“They did a good job,” President Donald Trump told Fox News in a phone interview, congratulating Democrats on winning the U.S. midterm elections. Two days later, however, President Trump alleged that the election was fraudulent.
The Democrats secured control of both chambers of Congress in the November 3 elections. They won at least 54 Senate seats to the Republicans’ 44, and surged to more than 250 seats in the 435-member House of Representatives—their largest haul in two decades, according to Detik news.
The ballot also included 35 of the 100 Senate seats, as well as governors and other local leaders across the country.
Trump’s Initial Concession
Trump initially accepted the results, telling Fox News: “Congratulations to the Democrats.”
The president acknowledged that the protracted conflict with Iran may have contributed to the Republican loss.
Trump praised the Democrats for their work, saying they had waited 11 years for this moment, but two days later accused the election of being fraudulent and blamed the stock market drop on their victory. In a separate post on his Truth Social account, Trump claimed the Republicans lost because he was not on the ballot: “My name is not on the ballot and if it were, we would definitely win totally!” In his online rant, he also dragged Fox News, the leading U.S. media outlet known for its strong support of Trump and the Republican Party.
Historic Democratic Gains
Adam Hamilton won a Senate seat in Kansas—the first Democrat to do so there since 1932—while James Talarico ended a 38-year Democratic losing streak in Texas statewide elections. In Maine, incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins conceded to Democrat Troy Jackson, and in South Carolina, Annie Andrews defeated the Republican who had been appointed to fill her late brother-in-law’s seat. Keisha Lance Bottoms was elected the nation’s first Black woman governor, and Democrats were projected to win 245 House seats to the Republicans’ 166.
The Democrats seized at least six Senate seats to secure the majority. In Texas, Talarico defeated Republican candidate Ken Paxton. Democrats were also projected to win in Virginia and Indiana. Two years earlier, Trump had won the presidency with 48 percent of the vote, but he then governed as a leader, pushing sometimes unpopular policies on trade and immigration, and launching a war against Iran that most Americans opposed.
From Conciliation to Fraud Claims
Vice President JD Vance also blamed the Iran war for the defeat, writing on X on November 4: “The reason we lost is the war.” He outlined four priorities for Republicans: ending the war, focusing on inflation, prioritizing America First, and changing U.S.-Israel relations, as reported by Kompas.
“Our elections are very rigged, you can’t imagine,” he said.
Vance’s roughly 600-word statement, posted on X on November 4, acknowledged that some voters who backed Trump in the 2024 presidential election had abandoned the Republican Party in the midterms. “I already knew that when making the decision, and we stopped them from having nuclear weapons, and they will never have nuclear weapons.” Vance is expected to be a potential candidate for the 2028 presidential election, though he has not made a formal decision to run, and Trump has not yet said whom he will endorse as the Republican nominee, having praised both Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio without confirming support for either.