US elections 2026 live: Republicans blast their party’s midterms collapse, blaming Iran war and affordability crisis

Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senator-elect in Michigan, said that the new majority in the upper chamber needs “action” from their leader, in an interview in CNN.

On the campaign trail, El-Sayed refused to back Senator Chuck Schumer, who currently serves as the minority leader. Schumer initially backed El-Sayed’s opponent, Congresswoman Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary, before supporting El-Sayed in the general election and blasting Stevens for her “despicable betrayal” in endorsing Republican Mike Rogers.

Speaking to CNN, El-Sayed reiterated that Senator Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat, would be an “amazing Senate majority leader”, but didn’t completely rule out supporting Schumer.

“It seems like [Van Hollen] is quite interested in another goal politically, which, you know, would mean that would be very difficult for him to do that,” El-Sayed said, referring to reports about the Senator’s presidential ambitions. “A vote is a choice between two or more options. I don’t know what those options are. But here’s what I’ll say. We need action.”

He added:

I don’t know who’s stepping up and saying, I want to be Senate majority leader … if we have another option, I’m going to look at that and say, who is best placed to get us action, to get money out of politics, put money in pockets, pass Medicare for All.

The tech industry spent big on the midterms, but it turned out to be a poor investment. Elon Musk poured a staggering $446m dollars into Republican-aligned political action committees (Pacs) and groups since last year, but his efforts didn’t pay off. Democrats won every one of the five Senate races where Musk’s America Pac spent the most money backing Republican candidates.

In today’s episode our Stateside podcast Carter Sherman and Kai Wright are joined by the Guardian’s US tech editor, Blake Montgomery, to ask what the “blue tsunami” will mean for Musk and the wider tech industry. Will this spell the end of AI datacenters? And if so, what could this mean for the US economy?

There are “knives out” at the Pentagon as Trump administration officials reel from the thrashing dealt to the GOP in this week’s midterms – and Trump is looking for someone to blame after his unpopular war on Iran sealed the party’s fate, according to the Washington Post (paywall) this morning.

According to the Post’s sources, rather than place blame with his defense secretary Pete Hegseth, Trump could be more likely to instead sack General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, or Admiral Brad Cooper, who has overseen the war.

Hegseth has survived many a controversy in his short tenure, a number of which – from Signal-gate to alleged potential war crimes – many thought should’ve been career-ending. But he has held Trump’s confidence time and time again, including after reports that he misled the president over the course of the war.

I’m at the US Capitol, where there’s not a lot going on, since lawmakers are not scheduled to reconvene until next week.

But the good vibes Democrats are feeling after their dramatic victories in Tuesday’s midterm elections are real, particularly in deep-blue Washington DC.

A shirtless man just jogged by, pointing at the Capitol and yelling, “we got it back!” A group of what looked like visiting students cheered with him.

Joining the chorus of Republicans – who have blasted their party’s poor performance in the midterms – is sitting senator Ted Cruz, of Texas, who said the GOP were handed an “ass-kicking” this cycle, losing control of Congress.

“It was not simply a bad 2006 midterm election, it was a Watergate-level repudiation,” he said on an episode of his ‘Verdict’ podcast.

He noted, like vice-president JD Vance, that there wasn’t a turnout issue. “Instead, our voters Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, showed up and voted and rejected our candidates, voting Democrat,” Cruz said, noting that economic anxiety appeared to be top of mind this cycle.

“Food is too high, gas is too high, diesel is too high, insurance is too high, life is too high,” he added. “Too many Republican politicians seem like they didn’t understand or they didn’t care.”

Cruz, who is up for re-election in 2030 is also a contender as a Republican candidate for president.

“We need to listen and respond. We need to champion economic policies that make a real difference in working people’s lives, and we need to deal with the consequences,” Cruz added, noting that he called Democratic senator-elect James Talarico to congratulate him on his victory.

Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker and fierce ally of Donald Trump, excoriated his party on social media, as the autopsies of the GOP performance in the November midterms continue.

“The American people were angrier over their own pocketbooks than they were worried about socialism or Islam,” Gingrich wrote on social media. “They wanted to send a message and boy did they ever.”

Gingrich added: “This was a failed performance election and that reality overwhelmed virtually everything else.”

It’s a direct rebuke the campaign rhetoric used by the administration on the campaign trail, that pushed racist tropes and unfounded allegations about several candidates, and largely ignored the impact of the Iran war prices.

The blue wave that swept Republicans out of power across the United States didn’t just strike Congress. In Tuesday’s midterm elections, Democrats gained hundreds of seats in state legislatures across the country, under-the-radar victories that may have major implications for life in America.

Though ballots are still being counted, the party’s success appear to be historic – Democrats haven’t won full control of government in Arizona in 60 years, in Pennsylvania since the 1990s, and Wisconsin since their wipeout in 2010. In Michigan and Minnesota, they regained trifectas they lost after the 2024 election, while in Texas, they will control the state house for the first time since 2002.

The victories are so comprehensive that majorities of Americans are set to live in states with a Democratic governor, and in several states where the party has been locked out of power for years, if not decades, Democrats are expected to embark on aggressive legislative sprees that will have implications nationwide.

“This was the most significant night for state legislative power since the seismic Republican wave in 2010,” said Mandara Meyers, the executive director of the States Project, which supported Democratic seeking state legislative office in the midterms.

The result of their efforts, Meyers said, was the inverse of that pivotal election 16 years ago, when Republicans took over a host of states, then redrew congressional and state legislative maps to prolong their power while enacting conservative laws that linger to this day.

One of the House races we’re watching, that would be evidence of another Democratic flip in the lower chamber, is Colorado’s fourth congressional district.

Democrat Eileen Laubacher is hoping to beat Republican incumbent and Maga firebrand Lauren Boebert.

Libertarian Douglas Mangeris also has about 3% of the vote.

As of now, with more than 95% of ballots counted, Laubacher is leading by more than 2,000 votes. Returns also show that the district has swung by 19 points for Democrats, compared to the 2024 race where Boebert won re-election.

As we continue watching for the remaining results in two US Senate races (Mississippi and Alaska), and several House contests, it’s worth noting that Donald Trump has no events open to the press today.

The president will be in Washington and spend the day in closed-door meetings. We’ll keep an eye on anything opening up last minute. On Wednesday we had an impromptu appearance from Trump as he showed the media around the site of his new White House ballroom project – with little mention of the Republican drubbing in the midterms that saw his party lose control of both chambers of Congress.

With many seats still to come in, the Democrats have taken control of the Senate, House and several key governorships. Find live updating results in full here:

Reproductive rights were on the ballot on Tuesday night as voters weighed in on several abortion-related measures, delivering a largely successful night for reproductive rights advocates encompassed by a historic blue wave.

In Nevada, voters approved an amendment enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, permanently protecting access to abortion through the second trimester after a second referendum on the measure.

Virginia voters also approved a constitutional amendment establishing a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom”.

This measure also protects access to abortion during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. It permits government regulation in the third trimester while preserving access to abortion when necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant woman. The amendment also establishes rights to contraception and fertility care, among other protections.

In Missouri, voters rejected an effort to overturn the constitutional right to reproductive freedom they had approved in 2024. Amendment 3, which would have repealed those protections, restricted abortion, and prohibited gender transition surgeries and certain other procedures for minors, failed by a margin of 55% to 45%.

The proposal, placed on the ballot by the Republican-led legislature, would have banned abortion except in cases of rape and incest during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, or later in cases involving fetal anomalies.

Meanwhile, voters in Idaho, one of the nation’s most conservative states, rejected an effort to repeal the state’s abortion ban. The result leaves in place Idaho’s abortion restrictions, which took effect in 2022 following the US supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, ending the nationwide constitutional right to abortion.

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Ghalibaf also had a message for JD Vance this morning.

Responding to the US vice-president’s lengthy post on X, in which he blamed the Republicans’ heavy midterm losses on the war with Iran, the Iranian parliamentary speaker fired back:

Losing gambler energy, can’t walk away from the table. Boss is prepping the next war phase while America teeters on an Israel-First cliff. Skip the TED talk. Why not say this to your boss?”

An image of Iranians burning a banner bearing Donald Trump’s image captures the depth of anti-US sentiment in Tehran, as Iranian officials seize on the midterm election results as a political rebuke to the US president.

Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf described the election outcome as a rejection of the US-Israeli war on Iran, writing on X: “Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message.”

Crowds gathered in Tehran’s Enghelab square last night to observe the burning of the poster which also featured US vice-president JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

While Trump acknowledged that the Iran war played a part in his party’s electoral defeat, he told reporters: “I would have done it again.”

The photo of Silicon Valley centi-billionaires at Donald Trump’s inauguration – Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg, front row and side by side – now looks like a hitlist for a blue Congress hellbent on making life difficult for billionaires.

The picture symbolized at the time the bending of the knee by the richest men in the world to its most powerful, a symbiosis of the ultra-rich. Already unfathomably wealthy, Silicon Valley tycoons believed a Maga-sized public shift to the right would enrich them even more. It did. For several years, while Trump seemed an everlasting kingmaker and AI’s expansion seemed unstoppable, their fortunes ballooned to values beyond comprehension. Elon Musk’s surpassed $1tn.

In the harsh blue light of Tuesday’s midterms, though, going all-in on Maga seems an unwisely unhedged bet. Democrats took decisive control of the US Congress, flipping seats right and left that in previous years seemed like given wins for Republicans. Governors’ mansions across the country likewise lit up blue as Democrats ascended even in the reddest of states, such as Texas.

Voters concerned about corruption expressed their displeasure at oligarchs’ blatant attempts to create a political environment to their liking. Voting against technocrats drove people into the hands of Democrats and away from Republicans. Tech oligarchs themselves, along with anger over the AI boom, datacenters and Flock surveillance cameras, shifted the tides.

“Voters rejected Republicans in part because they were bought and paid for by AI billionaires. Democrats must hold them accountable instead of cashing their checks,” wrote Texas Democratic representative Greg Casar.

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The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has welcomed the Democrats’ sweeping victory in the midterm elections, expressing hope that the shift in Congress could translate into greater US support for his country.

Speaking to German broadcaster ZDF, he said the Democratic party has been clear about its commitment to supporting Ukraine and strengthening ties between Washington and Europe.

I am also grateful to the Republicans, but the Democrats speak very clearly about supporting Ukraine, about providing aid to Ukraine. They speak of renewing the ties between the US and Europe… That is why there is hope that a balance of power will be achieved and that we will receive more support.”

He added:

If Congress now speaks of strong financial support or military aid, just as Europe is doing and demonstrating today, then that will be a positive development that will influence [Vladimir] Putin.”