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Tag: Democrats

  • Mississippi Senate: Colom flips seat in historic upset

    Mississippi Senate: Colom flips seat in historic upset

    Democrat Scott Colom has won the United States Senate race in Mississippi, defeating Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in a result called on Wednesday after more than a week of counting, according to projections by the Associated Press, CNN and NBC News.

    Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney, becomes the first Black senator from Mississippi since the Reconstruction era that followed the US Civil War, and the first Democrat to win one of the state’s Senate seats since John Stennis in 1982. With about 99 percent of the vote counted, he led Hyde-Smith by 49.2 percent to 48.7 percent, a margin of roughly 4,585 votes out of more than 950,000 cast.

    Hyde-Smith, 67, who had held the seat since 2018, conceded in a video message posted on social media, congratulating Colom and saying she respected the decision of Mississippi voters. Colom’s campaign said she had also telephoned him to concede earlier in the day.

    The result gives Democrats an eighth Senate seat flipped from Republicans in this year’s midterm elections, taking their tally in the 100-member chamber to 55 seats, made up of 53 Democrats plus two independents who caucus with them, against 44 for Republicans, with the race in Alaska still to be called.

    The outcome was one of the last to be decided from the November 3 midterm elections, in which Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, according to Reuters. The count in Mississippi dragged on for eight days as election workers tallied absentee and provisional ballots, with Colom’s lead growing steadily as the count went on.

    The upset stunned political observers. Hyde-Smith had consistently led in opinion polls, and President Donald Trump had carried Mississippi by nearly 23 points in the 2024 election. Colom, a seventh-generation Mississippian, campaigned on the cost of living and health care for residents of the state. It was the closest Senate race in the country, according to the Associated Press, decided by just a few thousand votes after days of counting.

    Colom celebrated the win on Wednesday night at Tougaloo College, a historically Black university, opening his victory address with a tribute to Hiram Revels, the first Black US senator, who also represented Mississippi. The state is due to certify the results on December 3.

  • Texas Newcomer Talarico Crashes SNL After Historic Win

    Texas Newcomer Talarico Crashes SNL After Historic Win

    James Talarico has gone from the campaign trail to the comedy stage in a matter of days. The Texas Democratic Senator-elect made a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live, days after his historic election victory over Republican Ken Paxton, stepping into the show’s opening sketch to a roaring crowd.

    According to NBC News, Talarico appeared during the cold open, which celebrated Democrats winning control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections. He walked on stage alongside James Austin Johnson, performing as Donald Trump, and Colin Jost, performing as Ken Paxton.

    Introducing himself to the audience, he said: “Hi, America. I’m James Talarico, the guy who’s been texting you every day asking for $5.” Moments later he added: “It’s clear people want something new. They want something different. I’m talking, of course, about ‘SNL’s’ cold opens.” The jokes landed with a crowd that had followed his campaign closely.

    A campaign built on small donations

    The appearance also drew attention to the way Talarico’s campaign was funded. Rather than relying on large donors, his team built its war chest from small grassroots contributions — the very $5 text-message appeals he joked about on stage.

    Beyond the comedy, his win marked a major shift in Texas politics. Talarico was elected to the US Senate, becoming the first Democrat to win a statewide election in Texas in more than 30 years and the first Democratic senator from the state since 1993. His victory was considered one of the biggest surprises of the 2026 midterm elections.

    For a politician who built his name on small donations and town-hall meetings, the SNL stage was an unlikely next stop — and exactly the kind of national spotlight that turns a state-level upset into a household name. Whether the laughs translate into lasting political capital will be tested when he takes his seat in the Senate.

    During the campaign, he often criticised Paxton, accusing him of abusing his office and using it for personal gain. Paxton has served as Texas attorney general since 2015. The episode itself was part of SNL’s 51st season, hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser with musical guest Jack White — but it was the freshman senator-elect who stole the night.

  • Democrats Plan Probes of Musk and Miller After Midterms

    Democrats Plan Probes of Musk and Miller After Midterms

    Democrats are preparing to open investigations into Elon Musk and Stephen Miller once they take control of Congress in January, a senior lawmaker said on Sunday. The inquiries would target two of the most powerful figures around President Donald Trump, setting up a confrontation between the new House majority and the White House.

    California Representative Robert Garcia, who is in line to chair the powerful House Oversight Committee next year after the Democrats’ midterm election victory, said the inquiries will centre on Musk’s involvement in the Department of Government Efficiency’s firing of federal workers last year and Miller’s crucial role in Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement.

    Miller, newly appointed as White House chief of staff, is expected to press ahead with hardline border security, fuel culture wars and stonewall a Democratic Congress, according to the report. His elevation to the top staff job puts him at the centre of the coming standoff.

    A fight the White House says it is ready for

    The Democrats’ plans go beyond Musk and Miller. On Sunday, Hakeem Jeffries, who will become speaker of the US House in January, said Democrats would back impeachment proceedings against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a congressional process that could remove him from office.

    The Trump administration has signalled it will not cooperate quietly. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the administration is set to battle the investigations, telling reporters: “If that’s what this new incoming leadership wants to do, we are ready.” He added: “If you work in this administration, you have a lawyer. It’s me.”

    Garcia’s committee would have subpoena power, the ability to compel testimony and documents — tools that can turn political promises of oversight into months of hearings. The Department of Government Efficiency’s workforce cuts affected thousands of federal employees, and Democrats argue the public still has not had a full accounting of how those decisions were made.

    The midterm results were described as a monumental censure of Republicans by voters, but with the new Congress not seated until January, both sides now have weeks to prepare. What is already clear is that oversight — of firings, of immigration policy and of the Pentagon — will be one of the first battlegrounds of the new session.

  • Trump Blames Democrats for $2.5 Trillion Market Crash

    Trump Blames Democrats for $2.5 Trillion Market Crash

    United States President Donald Trump has blamed the Democratic Party for a sharp sell-off on Wall Street that wiped trillions of dollars from American stock markets on Thursday, a day after Democrats swept to victory in the midterm elections.

    The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52 percent to close at 24,315.00, its worst session since April 2025, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1,833 points, or 3.44 percent, to 51,523.06, and the S&P 500 dropped 4.36 percent to 7,353.73, according to figures reported by the Associated Press. The sell-off erased about $2.5 trillion in market value from Nasdaq-listed companies and about $2.9 trillion from firms in the S&P 500, both described as single-day records.

    Writing on Truth Social, Trump linked the losses directly to the election outcome. He said the market had suffered one of the worst days in its history because of the results, and warned that retirement savings had been hit. In an earlier post he wrote that the market had crashed because the Democrats had a big Tuesday, telling voters they only had themselves to blame.

    The president insisted the losses were not the fault of his party, writing that it was not the Republicans but the Democrats who were responsible, and he predicted that markets would recover and become bigger and stronger than ever before.

    The sharp reversal came a day after US markets had rallied strongly following the Democrats’ victories in the November 3 midterm elections, in which they won control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Thursday’s plunge wiped out those gains and pushed the Nasdaq into correction territory, more than 10 percent below its October record.

    Market analysts, however, pointed to other forces behind the sell-off. Reports cited growing concern over heavy spending on artificial intelligence, doubts about the returns from data-centre investment, and worries that a Democratic-controlled Congress could restrict the AI industry. Technology shares led the decline, with chipmaker Nvidia falling about 9 percent and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropping around 12 percent.

    According to Reuters, the scale of the fall reflected a rapid reassessment by investors of the outlook for technology companies after the election. Traders who had celebrated the results on Wednesday turned to selling on Thursday as they weighed what Democratic control of Congress could mean for regulation of the fast-growing AI sector.

    Trump’s intervention underlined how quickly the midterm results have become a political battleground over the economy. The president has long treated the stock market as a measure of his economic record, and his posts sought to pin the blame for the losses on his opponents while reassuring investors that a recovery would follow.

    For now, the figures tell their own story. A market that had climbed to record highs in October has suffered one of its sharpest single-day reversals, and the debate over whether politics or the AI boom’s excesses caused the fall is set to continue as trading resumes.

  • Mississippi Democrat eyes historic upset in Senate race

    Mississippi Democrat eyes historic upset in Senate race

    Scott Colom, a 43-year-old prosecutor, is on the verge of becoming an unlikely new Democratic star as he eyes a stunning upset victory in deeply conservative Mississippi’s race for the United States Senate.

    Colom, a Democrat, is leading Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by just over 1,000 ballots with 96 percent of votes counted. Hyde-Smith has been a senator since 2018, and Mississippi has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1982, before Colom was even born.

    A Colom victory would make him the first Black senator from Mississippi in more than 150 years. The last African American senator from the state was Blanche Bruce, a former slave, who was elected in 1874. Black residents make up about 40 percent of Mississippi’s population.

    His possible win would underline a Democratic blue wave that has swept Democrats to majorities in both houses of the United States Congress, including seven Senate seats taken from Republicans, among them Texas, South Carolina and Kansas. Wins in Mississippi and Alaska, where results are still pending, would boost that margin to nine.

    Colom traces his roots in Mississippi back six generations. His mother broke racial barriers as a judge, and his father was a Republican lawyer who worked for Ronald Reagan. He was elected as a local prosecutor in 2015 and has built his campaign around the cost of living.

    His campaign drew backing from former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former transport secretary Pete Buttigieg, and donations surged after a viral campaign advertisement mocked Hyde-Smith’s remark about beef prices, in which she said shoppers had so many proteins to choose from.

    In the advertisement, a voice asks, “Pick another protein?” and Colom answers, “I would rather pick another senator instead.” The exchange became one of the most shared moments of the campaign.

    Colom said he was confident of victory once the remaining ballots were counted. “I am confident that once the process lays out, where we are, where the outstanding ballots are, we are going to win,” he said, adding that the bottom line was that this was the beginning of a new direction for our state.

    Hyde-Smith, for her part, has dismissed Colom’s rise, saying of him, “He thought he was going to be a federal judge and I blocked him.” She has held the seat since 2018 and was counting on Mississippi’s long Republican tradition to carry her through.

    Colom has also spoken about the responsibility he feels as a possible trailblazer, saying, “My point of view is I don’t want to be the last,” and that he did not want anyone to say he had done anything to hurt the next person with the talent, the work ethic and the ability to reach for their dream.

    The race is not yet decided, and the remaining ballots will determine whether Mississippi delivers one of the biggest upsets of the election. But whatever the final count, Colom’s campaign has already redrawn the political map of a state long written off as unwinnable for Democrats.

  • Democrats sweep US midterms, win Senate and House

    Democrats sweep US midterms, win Senate and House

    The Democrats have won control of the United States Senate with 54 seats against 44 for the Republicans, and have also won the House of Representatives, in the 2026 midterm elections.

    According to live election coverage, the Democrats’ victory in both chambers marks a major shift in the balance of power in Washington. The party has vowed to rein in President Donald Trump after what it described as a resounding victory.

    President Trump has accepted the midterm results, blaming the Iran war and inflation for the defeat, according to the same coverage. The outcome comes after a campaign in which the cost of living and the war were central issues for voters.

    At least seven Muslims were elected to the US Congress in the midterm elections, a notable milestone in American politics. Democrats also lead the governor races, with 28 wins against 20 for the Republicans, according to the live results.

    Reactions to the outcome continued through the day. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped the election results would promote regional peace. Meanwhile, with the midterms over, Democrats are turning to a wide-open race for their 2028 presidential nomination, with several contenders expected to emerge.

    Markets also responded to the outcome. The dollar edged lower as the election result cheered global markets, with investors weighing what a divided or Democrat-controlled Congress would mean for trade, spending and foreign policy.

    The results are being closely watched around the world, including in Pakistan and the wider region, because control of Congress shapes American policy on trade, aid and international affairs. Analysts say the new balance of power is likely to limit the president’s room to push through major legislation without bipartisan support.

    The White House has defended the president’s agenda and pledged to defy the odds after the losses, while Republican figures have debated the reasons for the defeat. Some have pointed to voter concerns about prices and the economy, while others have questioned campaign strategy.

    With counting in some races still under way, the final seat tallies may shift slightly, but the overall outcome is clear: the Democrats will control both the Senate and the House when the new Congress takes its seats.

  • Trump shrugs off midterm rout, congratulates Democrats

    Trump shrugs off midterm rout, congratulates Democrats

    United States President Donald Trump has brushed off the Republican Party’s heavy defeat in the midterm elections, congratulating Democrats on their victory and pledging to work with them in the remainder of his term.

    Democrats won control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in Tuesday’s elections, in a result widely described as a blue wave. The outcome leaves Trump as a lame-duck president for the final two years of his presidency, with the opposition now able to block legislation and scrutinise his administration.

    Speaking to Fox News in a phone call after the results, Trump struck an unusually conciliatory note. He congratulated the Democrats, saying they had done a good job and fought hard, and said he looked forward to working with them. He also told the New York Times that he was willing to accept the results.

    At the same time, Trump sought to distance himself from his party’s showing, arguing that the outcome would have been different had he himself been on the ballot. He pointed to the size of his rallies and said his supporters had turned out for those events in huge numbers.

    Trump also acknowledged that the war with Iran had played a part in the defeat, while blaming high fuel costs as another driving factor behind the Republican losses. His vice president, JD Vance, had earlier said the Iran war was the reason for the defeat, a comment that set the tone for the party’s post-election soul-searching.

    In his first public appearance after the election, on Wednesday, Trump visited the construction site of the White House ballroom, where he spoke to workers as the project’s final beam was installed. He talked at length about the building work and only addressed the election results when reporters put questions to him afterwards.

    The Democratic victory, which included flipping seven Senate seats, gives the party control of Congress at a moment of deep voter anger over the cost of living and the Iran war. Democratic leaders are now expected to use their majorities to challenge the administration’s agenda, while Trump has signalled he is open to deals across the aisle.

  • Vance: ‘The reason we lost is the war’ after midterm rout

    Vance: ‘The reason we lost is the war’ after midterm rout

    Vice President JD Vance has blamed the war in Iran for the Republicans’ crushing defeat in the midterm elections, telling supporters in a post on Wednesday that the conflict was the decisive reason voters turned against his party. In unusually blunt language for a sitting vice president, Vance wrote that the reason Republicans lost was the war, and challenged anyone who disagreed to argue openly that losing the Senate for the next six years had been worth it.

    Vance’s remarks came only hours after Democrats swept races across the country, regaining control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The scale of the defeat stunned Republican leaders: voters in conservative strongholds who had propelled President Donald Trump to a second term two years ago swung dramatically toward Democrats, driven, according to early analysis, by deep frustration over the war, anxiety over the high cost of living, and anger at Trump’s stewardship of the country.

    In his post, Vance rejected the idea that weak Republican turnout explained the result. He said his party’s voters did show up, but that many of them voted for Democrats instead. Citing a pollster who had studied voters who backed Trump in 2024 but abandoned Republicans in 2026, Vance listed four issues those voters raised above all others: ending the war, focusing on the cost of living, putting America first, and changing the relationship with Israel.

    The vice president also sought to play down any rift with Trump, saying the president himself had acknowledged on election night that the Iran war cost Republicans the midterms. Trump’s own comments, however, were far more measured. He told the Wall Street Journal that Iran was a piece of the defeat, but insisted he had done the right thing by launching the war and would do it again.

    Exit polling underlined how heavily the war weighed on voters. According to an NBC News exit poll, 74 percent of respondents said the war with Iran was a crucial or major factor in their vote, while only 37 percent said the United States had made the right decision to take military action against Iran. An October poll from the Pew Research Center found 65 percent disapproving of the way Trump has handled the conflict.

    Tuesday’s wave also cost Republicans Vance’s old Senate seat in Ohio, where Democrat Sherrod Brown completed a political comeback by defeating former Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted, a race Vance had described as personal. Vance’s intervention now raises questions about the political direction of the administration, with officials telling reporters that Trump is still weighing whether to restart major combat operations against Iran. For a vice president widely seen as a leading contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, the post reads as an attempt to draw a line under the war and to force an honest reckoning inside his own party about what went wrong.

  • History made: El-Sayed, first Muslim in US Senate

    History made: El-Sayed, first Muslim in US Senate

    Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has won Michigan’s open US Senate seat, becoming the first Muslim elected to the chamber in American history, according to media projections and race calls reported on Wednesday.

    El-Sayed, 42, a former public health official, defeated former Republican congressman Mike Rogers in one of the most closely watched races of the 2026 midterm elections. The Associated Press called the race for El-Sayed, and projections from Fox News and Decision Desk HQ also put him ahead.

    The seat was left open by the retirement of Democratic Senator Gary Peters, and El-Sayed’s victory keeps it in Democratic hands. Republicans held a 53-47 Senate majority going into Tuesday’s midterm elections, with Democrats needing a net gain of four seats to take control of the chamber.

    El-Sayed, who was born in Michigan to Egyptian immigrant parents, previously served as health director for Detroit and Wayne County. During the campaign he focused on lowering costs for working families and reducing corporate influence in politics, and his platform included support for a government-funded universal healthcare programme.

    The contest was one of the most contentious of the election cycle. Rogers, 63, a former congressman and FBI agent, had strong backing from President Donald Trump and national Republicans. He sought to portray El-Sayed as sympathetic to Islamic extremism through alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, claims that El-Sayed denies and that have been described as unsupported by evidence.

    El-Sayed’s campaign also faced turbulence in its final days, when his former Democratic primary rival, Representative Haley Stevens, endorsed Rogers shortly before election day. Despite that setback, polling in the closing days had shown El-Sayed leading by a clear margin.

    In his victory speech to supporters in Detroit, El-Sayed declared victory on election night and criticised Rogers and Trump. Supporters and commentators described the result as a milestone for religious representation in American politics, and a breakthrough for the Democratic Party’s progressive wing.

    El-Sayed will now take his seat as the Senate’s first Muslim member, at a moment when the balance of power in Congress and the direction of the Democratic Party are both under close scrutiny. His win forms part of a wider set of Democratic gains reported in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

  • US midterms: Democrats flip North Carolina Senate seat

    US midterms: Democrats flip North Carolina Senate seat

    Early projections from the United States midterm elections point to an encouraging night for the Democrats, with the party flipping a Republican-held Senate seat in North Carolina while holding key seats in Georgia and New Hampshire. The results, projected by major American outlets on election night, still leave control of both chambers of Congress undecided, with counting continuing in the closest races.

    The night’s first major Senate flip came in North Carolina, where former Democratic governor Roy Cooper was projected to defeat Republican Michael Whatley, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee. The seat had been held by Republicans since 2015 and was vacated by Senator Thom Tillis. Cooper’s victory was described by commentators as one of the most consequential Democratic wins of the night, as the party fights to overturn the Republicans’ 53-47 Senate advantage.

    In Georgia, Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff was projected to hold his seat, defeating Republican challenger Mike Collins, while in New Hampshire, Democrat Chris Pappas was projected to win the Senate race against former Republican senator John Sununu. According to reports, Pappas becomes the first openly gay man elected to the United States Senate.

    Not every early result went the Democrats’ way. In Florida, Republican Senator Ashley Moody was projected to hold her seat against Democrat Angie Nixon, although the margin was reported to be closer than many had expected. In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews was reported to be holding a slim lead over Republican Senator Darline Graham with around half of precincts counted.

    Democrats need a net gain of four Senate seats to take control of the chamber, and early counts showed that target still well out of reach. One live count in the early hours of Wednesday put the Senate at 36 to 31 including seats not contested this year, with neither chamber called. In the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats were contested, early called seats stood at 11 for the Democrats and 8 for the Republicans, with 218 seats needed for a majority.

    There were notable House results too. In North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, Democrat Jamie Ager was reported to have flipped a seat Republicans had held for more than a decade, defeating Republican Jennifer Balkcom. Democrats also claimed victory in Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, an area closely associated with President Donald Trump. In New Jersey, Democratic Representative LaMonica McIver won re-election, and in Pennsylvania, Chris Rabb won the state’s 3rd Congressional District.

    In Illinois, NBC News and Fox News projected that Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton would become the state’s next senator. With many tight races still uncalled, officials and analysts cautioned that final control of Congress may not be known for days, as has happened in previous midterm elections.