Democrats win control of U.S. Senate and House; Republicans sweep Florida's statewide races

The Associated Press projected that Democrats will win control of the U.S. House, Scripps News Group reported at 1:27 a.m. ET on Wednesday, giving the party both chambers of Congress.¹ The size of the House majority was still unknown as counting continued.¹

Democrat Troy Jackson defeated Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, The Associated Press declared at 1:02 a.m. ET on Wednesday, adding a seventh Republican-held Senate seat to the party's gains.² NBC News also projected the result.³

Democrats won a majority in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, according to NPR's tally of Associated Press race calls, and Forbes reported that AP called the chamber with 51 Democratic and 39 Republican contests decided.⁴⁵ Josh Turek's win over Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa gave the party the 51 seats it needed to outnumber Republicans without relying on a tie-breaking vote, which belongs to Vice President JD Vance, The New York Times reported.⁶ Hinson said she called Turek to concede.⁶

Decision Desk HQ projected at about 9:11 p.m. ET that Democrats would win the House, hours before the AP call, The Hill reported.⁷ MS NOW, CNN, NBC News and CBS News later made the same projection, according to Variety, which reported shortly after 11:30 p.m. ET that AP had not yet called either chamber.⁸

The Senate

The Times counted 51 Democratic and 39 Republican seats as of 11:50 p.m. ET.⁶ Republicans started the year with a 53-47 majority, and Democrats needed a net gain of four seats, NPR reported.⁴ Seven Republican-held seats were reported flipped as of 1:14 a.m. ET, each on an AP call:

• **Iowa:** Turek defeated Hinson for an open seat. He led 50.8% to 46.1% with 93% of the vote in.⁶
• **Kansas:** The Rev. Adam Hamilton defeated Sen. Roger Marshall, becoming the first Democrat to win a Kansas Senate seat since 1932.⁶
• **Maine:** Jackson defeated Collins.²
• **North Carolina:** Roy Cooper defeated Michael Whatley.⁹
• **Ohio:** Former Sen. Sherrod Brown defeated Sen. Jon Husted.⁶
• **South Carolina:** Annie Andrews defeated Sen. Darline Graham, who was appointed after the death of her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, in July.¹⁰⁶
• **Texas:** James Talarico won after Republican Ken Paxton conceded. The Times said Talarico will be the first Democrat Texas has elected to the Senate since 1988.⁶

Democrats also held seats in Georgia, where Sen. Jon Ossoff defeated Rep. Mike Collins, and New Hampshire, where Chris Pappas defeated John E. Sununu, PBS News reported.⁹ In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers, The Hill reported.¹¹

Alaska's race was not decided in the latest count we could read: Democrat Mary Peltola had 54.1% and Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan 42.8%, with about 11% of precincts reporting as of 12:56 a.m. ET, KTOO reported. Alaska accepts ballots for several more days, and any ranked-choice tally is set for Nov. 18.¹²

In Nebraska, Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts defeated independent Dan Osborn, The Hill reported; Decision Desk HQ projected the result, according to Bloomberg.¹³¹⁴

The House

The final margin is not known. The Times showed 173 Democratic and 105 Republican seats called at 11:50 p.m. ET, with 218 needed for a majority.⁶ Projections of the final Democratic total differ: at least 255 seats from NBC News, and at least 235 from each of CNBC and MS NOW.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷ Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader, is in line to become speaker, Variety reported.⁸ “America is back,” he told Democrats in Washington, according to the Times.⁶

Florida

Republicans won the state's races for governor and U.S. Senate, News 6 reported.¹⁸ The results were unofficial, with 99% of precincts reporting in the counts below.

• **Governor:** AP projected that Byron Donalds would defeat David Jolly; he will be the first Black person to hold the office.¹⁸ Donalds had 4,118,302 votes (50%) to Jolly's 4,003,990 (49%).¹⁹
• **U.S. Senate:** Sen. Ashley Moody defeated Angie Nixon in the special election, CBS News projected.²⁰
• **Cabinet:** Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson won reelection over Joey Mendoza Atkins, 51% to 49%, News 6 reported.¹⁸ Attorney General James Uthmeier and Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia each had 51%.¹⁹
• **Amendment 3:** The property tax measure had 62% yes (4,896,994 votes) to 38% no (3,000,342); it needed 60%.²¹²²
• **Amendments 1 and 2:** Both failed to reach 60%, The Independent Florida Alligator reported.²²

Governors and ballot measures

AP called these contests, the Times reported:⁶

• **Iowa governor:** State Auditor Rob Sand defeated Zach Lahn.
• **Maine governor:** Hannah Pingree defeated Bobby Charles.
• **Missouri:** Voters rejected a measure to largely outlaw abortion.
• **Texas governor:** State Rep. Gina Hinojosa defeated Gov. Greg Abbott, and will be the first Hispanic person elected to the office.
• **Wisconsin governor:** David Crowley defeated Rep. Tom Tiffany, and will be the state's first Black governor.

Kansas' race for governor remained too close to call early Wednesday, with no AP call. With nearly all precincts counted, the Johnson County Post cited Secretary of State figures of 546,523 votes for Democrat Cindy Holscher and 540,651 for Republican Ty Masterson.²³ Counties will accept mail ballots postmarked by Election Day through Friday, KWCH reported.²⁴

What the president said

President Trump told the Times he was “absolutely willing to accept those results.” He said of Democrats: “We’ll probably work something out.”⁶

What the records do not show

• These counts are unofficial and will change; no state has certified results.
• Different organizations made these projections at different times, and their seat estimates are not official counts.
• The final size of either majority is not known.
• We could not open The Hill's Michigan and Nebraska reports or Bloomberg's Nebraska report, and rely on their headlines; we did not confirm who called the Michigan race.
• We found no AP call in the Alaska Senate race or the Kansas races for governor and attorney general as of 2:15 a.m. ET.