Democrats also win the Senate and take full control of Congress, NBC and Decision Desk HQ project
Democrats also won the United States Senate and took full control of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, according to projections by NBC News and Decision Desk HQ shortly before 11:30 p.m., followed minutes later by CNN. The result completes the Democrats' election-night victory, after the networks had already projected that the party would retake the House of Representatives.
Democrats needed a net gain of four seats to take the majority from Republicans, who entered the election with 53 senators against 47 in the Democratic bloc. According to USA Today, which projected Senate control at 11:30 p.m., Democrats flipped at least six Republican-held seats: North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Ohio, Kansas and Iowa.
Those wins include former Governor Roy Cooper in North Carolina, pediatrician Annie Andrews in South Carolina, James Talarico in Texas, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Adam Hamilton in Kansas and Josh Turek in Iowa. Hamilton will be the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Kansas since 1932, and Talarico the first in Texas since 1988, according to the cited projections.
NBC and CBS put Democrats at 51 seats, the number needed for a majority, a net gain of six. The Senate race in Michigan, between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers, was still undecided at the time of the projection, but would not change control of the chamber, according to USA Today.
The result ends two years of unified Republican control in Washington and gives Democrats the power to block much of President Donald Trump's legislative agenda, oversee his administration and launch investigations from Congress when the new Congress takes office on January 3.
These are projections by the networks' decision desks, not certified official results, and The Associated Press had not yet announced its own projection of control of either chamber at the time of this article.
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