Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in the 2026 US midterm elections, according to results reported by Corriere della Sera, ending two years of unified Republican government under Donald Trump. The party's Senate gains included six seats taken from Republicans, among them Ohio and North Carolina, and it held two seats the GOP had targeted in Georgia and New Hampshire. The president said he would accept the outcome, telling Politico he did not want to spend two years vetoing legislation.
Why it matters
A Democratic Congress changes the balance of power in Washington on the issues that shaped the campaign: inflation and tariffs, the war in Iran, health coverage, and the oversight of tech and artificial intelligence investment. Corriere della Sera notes that markets have generally preferred divided government, citing Fidelity analyst Denise Chisholm, who argues that a split Congress means fewer new laws and therefore steadier rules. With one party now holding both chambers, that calculus shifts.
The result also carries symbolic weight. Trump won the presidency in 2024, and Corriere della Sera frames the midterms as voters reversing course two years later. The paper quotes novelist Andrew Sean Greer, speaking from San Francisco, who said the outcome shows the country is correcting a choice rather than having lost its bearings.
Texas falls, and so do other Republican strongholds
The most striking Democratic win came in Texas, where James Talarico, a 37-year-old former seminarian, defeated Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. According to Corriere della Sera, Talarico is the first Democrat to win a statewide election there since 1994, in a state Trump carried by 14 points in 2024. Addressing supporters in Austin, Talarico described the victory in biblical terms, saying the people of Texas had been his sling and that "tonight we defeated Goliath." He went on to say the campaign had shown that a politics of division cannot compete with a politics of love, and that no amount of billionaire money can outmatch the state's voters.
Corriere della Sera reports that Democratic gains also landed in South Carolina, Iowa and Kansas — states Trump had won by double-digit margins two years earlier. In South Carolina, pediatrician Annie Andrews defeated Darline Graham, who was appointed to the Senate in July after the death of her brother Lindsey Graham. Andrews will be the first woman elected to represent the state in the US Senate. "This seat does not belong to a family, a party or Washington," she told supporters, according to the paper.
In Kansas, the Reverend Adam Hamilton became the first Democrat elected to the Senate from that state since 1932. Roy Cooper, a former governor, won in North Carolina, and former senator Sherrod Brown defeated Republican Jon Husted in Ohio. Corriere della Sera also reports that Florida stayed in Republican hands, with Ashley Moody beating Angie Nixon by roughly three points, a far narrower margin than Trump's 13-point win there in 2024.
An economy that cut both ways
Corriere della Sera's analysis ties the result to household finances. Inflation has stayed above 3% for seven months, the paper reports, driven by tariffs and above all by the war in Iran, while diesel prices rose almost 70% over a year and gasoline about 38%. Public debt has passed 40 trillion dollars, with interest costs of 3 billion dollars a day, fueled by tax cuts and defense spending.
Other indicators were stronger. Unemployment stood at 4.2%, and the economy grew 3.4% in the third quarter. But the paper notes that gains were unevenly shared: workers received 52.9% of the wealth produced in wages, the lowest share since 1947, while a growing portion went to capital and investors. Since Trump's 2024 victory, the S&P 500 has risen 26.2% and the Nasdaq more than 31%, lifted by enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, though the rally has lost momentum amid worries about overinvestment and uncertainty over the election.
Voters also weighed in directly on abortion. According to RaiNews, referendums in Virginia and Missouri protected abortion rights, a further setback for the president's allies.
Trump accepts the result, with reservations
Trump told the New York Times he was "absolutely willing to accept the results," and later told Politico he did not want to sit for two years vetoing everything, according to Corriere della Sera. In the same reporting, the paper says he argued that had his name been on the ballot the party would have won, and he criticized Fox. Corriere della Sera also reports that he proclaimed an "Anti-Communism Week."
Greer, the novelist, told the paper he was curious how the Iran war would end, noting that no one had been able to block the decision by the president and the defense ministry. He also welcomed Democratic proposals to help Americans who struggle to afford health coverage, saying he spends large sums on his own insurance.
What to watch next is how quickly a Democratic Congress moves on spending, tariffs and oversight, and whether the promised checks on the White House translate into legislation or into two years of confrontation.
