Republicans entered the Midterms holding 53 Senate seats. The Democrats had a difficult path to reclaiming the Upper Chamber, given all the metrics they needed to break. At the start of this year, it was improbable that the Democrats would achieve that victory.
The Democrats needed a net gain of four seats to reach a majority (assuming their existing seats remained intact). The Democrats did not just win.
Barack Obama Back in 2024 Creative Commons Photo
Barack Obama. Creative Commons Photo.
They took the victory, spiked the football, and then bought the proverbial stadium.
Consider this: the Democrats won the states everyone assumed they’d win.
Then the Democratic Party turned Texas, Kansas, Iowa, South Carolina, North Carolina, Ohio, and Maine blue.
This victory showed that the American people were fed up with the Republican Party–specifically, Donald J. Trump–and their repeatedly demonstrated incompetence.
Meanwhile, the Democrats held on to the once-ruby-red Georgia, New Hampshire, Michigan, and Minnesota.
Everything Is Bigger In Texas–Including Democratic Wins
One of the most stunning parts of the Democratic victory was how Texas went blue. If this isn’t a demonstration of a true national political recalibration, I don’t know what is.
State Representative James Talarico defeated Trump-endorsed, MAGA Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton to become the first Democrat elected to the United States Senate from Texas since 1988.
To be clear: for James Talarico’s entire life, the Senate seat from Texas has been held by Republicans (Talarico was born in 1989).
That demonstrates two things: the American people are sick of the Republican Party and their orthodoxy on war and taxes.
At the same time, there is a simultaneous generational change underway, the likes of which have not been experienced in a long time in American politics.
Indeed, one can find some glimmers of this in the 2006 Midterm Election, when Americans overwhelmingly “thumped” the Republican Party over the unpopular Middle East wars they were waging.
That 2006 victory set the table for Barack Obama’s dynamic victory in 2008, when most voters again questioned Republican foreign and economic policies.
And, in Obama’s 2008 election, many Millennials voted for the first time (overwhelmingly for Barack Obama).
We could be seeing not just a wildly historic Midterm election cycle for the Democratic Party in 2026.
We are likely witnessing a shift toward the Democratic Party in 2028. Given the quality of the Democratic candidates compared to the GOP, and the way Democrats won back popular support after the last decade, Republicans are likely to struggle for many years to come.
Texas has remained reliably Republican for decades, although before the 1980s, the state was always a Democratic bastion.
Remember, one of the most iconic (and controversial) Democratic presidents in modern history, Lyndon B. Johnson, was the kingmaker in Texas before he ultimately became president following John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Between demographic shifts, the unpopularity of the GOP nationally (because of the GOP’s horrific policies supporting war and tax cuts for the wealthy), the Lone Star state just might be reverting to its old form.
Bleeding Kansas (Again)
Kansas is another place where an historic upset occurred for the Republican Party. Adam Hamilton, a popular Methodist pastor in Kansas, defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall.
This was a race that the Republicans were meant to win in their sleep.
And the GOP acted like it: they sleepwalked through the whole campaign and only woke up when they realized this wasn’t a slam dunk (and by then, it was too late).
Hamilton became the first Democrat elected to the United States Senate in 94 years.
In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews defeated Republican candidate Darline Graham, sister of the late Lindsay Graham, whom Trump and the GOP establishment essentially coronated as the Republican senator from South Carolina.
It’s the first time since 1998 that a Democrat has been elected to the United States Senate.
What made the Kansas and South Carolina examples so incredible is that these two states (along with Texas) had strongly supported Donald Trump in the previous presidential election.
Democrats have expanded their victories across the American Midwest and Southeast.
Saying Goodbye to Republican Chances In the Southeast and Midwest
In Ohio, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown beat Republican Sen. Jon Husted (the man whose rear end became the stuff of bizarre fixation with Donald Trump at public rallies in the campaign’s closing weeks). Vice President JD Vance previously held this seat.
In Iowa, Democratic State Representative Josh Turek overcame Republican Ashley Hinson in their bid to replace retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.
North Carolina’s former Gov. Roy Cooper beat Republican Michael Whatley
In Maine, Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who’d been in office so long she basically became a state institution, conceded to Democrat Troy Jackson after 30 years in the Senate seat.
Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff also beat Republican Rep. Mike Collins.
This means President Trump is effectively a hostage in the White House to the Democrats after the new Congress is sworn in.
Voter dissatisfaction compounded this election to give the Democrats not just a victory, but the potential to reshape the electoral map–to totally take the reins of power–over the next two years, thereby ensuring a protracted Democratic victory.
Republicans could not resonate with voters this time.
And it was all because of the war and its concomitant economic fallout.
No matter what Republicans tried–talking about immigration or ridiculous cultural issues–the Democrats held strong, and the American people did not care about those issues as much as the kitchen table ones.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert is the Senior National Security Editor. He also manages The Weichert Brief on Substack. Weichert is the co-host of The Mario Nawfal Show on Twitter/X. He is the author of four bestselling national security books, most recently A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine (Encounter Books). His next book, Fortress Americas: A New Monroe Doctrine (Tucker Carlson Books), is due out December 8. Follow him via Twitter/X @WeTheBrandon.
