Democrats score control of US Senate in stunning midterm victory

WASHINGTON — In a stunning upset, Democrats ousted Republicans and flipped control of the U.S. Senate Tuesday night, effectively establishing a barricade for President Donald Trump’s agenda for the last two years of his term. Democrats will now have the power to block many of Trump’s nominees, both executive and judicial, including if a spot opens on the U.S. Supreme Court bench. The decisive rebuke of Trump became apparent just after 11:30 p.m. Eastern, when The Associated Press called the Iowa Senate race for Democrat Josh Turek, who clinched the open seat over Republican candidate Ashley Hinson. Voters increasingly grew dissatisfied as the midterms approached with high gas and diesel prices, and overall inflation, driven up by Trump’s stalled war in Iran and erratic tariff policies. The economic woes, which also include increasing food prices and skyrocketing healthcare costs, hung over Republican candidates as they campaigned in recent months. Trump immediately posted on Truth Social, “I’m going to become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost!” During a live phone interview with Fox News just after midnight Wednesday, Trump chalked up the widespread losses to him not being on the ballot and to high gas prices. “If I was on the ballot, they would have gotten out. Look, they got out for the rallies. You never saw rallies that big,” he told the Fox hosts. When asked whether he thought the prolonged war in Iran factored into the results, he said, “I don’t think it’s the war.” “I think it’s the gasoline prices. People agree with what I’m doing on Iran, but they really probably weren’t willing to do the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline. And that you know, I understand that,” he said. He ended the relatively brief call by congratulating the Democrats. “Well, I say this: congratulations to the Democrats. They did a good job. They’ve been looking for this one for 11 years, and they finally got it. But I don’t view it as a hit on me. I think we’ve done a, we’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency in terms of the economy, in terms of all the things that we’ve done.” Earlier in the evening a White House official said on background that Trump’s mood remained “defiant.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the results Tuesday night “a generational remake of the Senate map.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said his party will continue “to stop the worst impulses of Democrat extremism.” In an early morning post on X, the South Dakota Republican touted Republicans’ “strong record of accomplishments,” citing closing the southern border and passing tax cuts, among other items. “As we head into 2027, Senate Republicans will not stand idly by as the far-left, socialist wing of the Democrat Party attempts to unwind everything we’ve done,” he wrote. Kansas shocker A political earthquake rattled Kansas, where Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton sailed past incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, marking the first time Kansans have elected a Democrat in nearly a century. Marshall, an OB-GYN, had released his closing argument Sunday in a brief video during which he defended his former medical practice for sending clients who carried unpaid balances to collection agencies. Speaking directly to the camera, Marshall said during the one-minute ad, “To ensure that 40,000 Kansans would still have access to care, we did have to keep the lights on. So we occasionally handed some accounts over to a collection agency, just like nearly every private medical practice does.” The issue had dogged Marshall’s campaign…

Originally published by News From The States.
Read the original article