breaking-news

What a week. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners!

Democrats have won control of both the House and the Senate. They flipped seven Senate seats, several of them in states the president carried by double digits just two years ago, and CNN projects a House majority of at least 250 seats, the party’s biggest since 2008.

SENATE

Josh Turek, Iowa: His win over Rep. Ashley Hinson clinched the Senate majority on election night.

Adam Hamilton, Kansas: The first Democrat Kansas has sent to the Senate since 1932.

Troy Jackson, Maine: The former Maine Senate president unseated Susan Collins after nearly 30 years.

Sherrod Brown, Ohio: Two years after losing his seat, he’s going back. He’s one of only a handful of senators since World War II to make that kind of comeback.

Roy Cooper, North Carolina: After eight years as governor, he becomes the first Democrat North Carolina has elected to the Senate since 2008.

Annie Andrews, South Carolina: A pediatrician who made history as the first woman ever elected to the Senate from South Carolina, in a state the president won by nearly 18 points.

James Talarico, Texas: The first Democrat to win a Senate race in Texas since Lloyd Bentsen in 1988. He won despite a flood of outside money poured in against him.

Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan: He held a crucial swing-state seat and made history as the first Muslim ever elected to the Senate.

Jon Ossoff, Georgia: Holding his seat and keeping Georgia blue.

HOUSE

Hakeem Jeffries: Now in line to become the first Black Speaker of the House.

Elaine Luria, Virginia’s 2nd District: The former Navy commander won back the seat she lost in 2022, in one of the most military-heavy districts in the country.

Manny Rutinel, Colorado’s 8th District: A state legislator who grew up watching his family struggle to pay the bills. He’s now headed to Congress after flipping a true swing seat.

Teresa Benitez-Thompson, Nevada’s 2nd District: The first Democrat to win this long-Republican seat in Northern Nevada.

GOVERNORS

Gina Hinojosa, Texas: She unseated Greg Abbott to become Texas’s first Democratic governor since Ann Richards and its first Latina governor.

Keisha Lance Bottoms, Georgia: She flipped the governor’s office in a state the president carried in 2024.

Deb Haaland, New Mexico: The first Native American woman ever elected to lead a state.

Democrats also won new governorships in Iowa, Ohio and Nevada, giving the party a majority of the nation’s governorships for the first time in 16 years.

STILL COUNTING

A few races are still too close to call, and every vote deserves to be counted:

  • Mary Peltola leads Sen. Dan Sullivan by a few hundred votes in Alaska
  • Scott Colom leads Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by a razor-thin margin in Mississippi
  • In Kansas, Cindy Holscher leads for governor and Chris Mann leads Attorney General Kris Kobach

To everyone who ran, win or lose, thank you for putting your name on the ballot. And to the volunteers, organizers and poll workers who kept this election running: none of this happens without you.

Now the real work begins.

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