By Joseph Ax, Jason Lange and Brad Heath
WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Democrats scored stunning victories in the South Carolina, Texas and Ohio Senate races, seizing Republican strongholds and moving to the verge of winning a Senate majority as tens of millions of voters delivered a scathing rebuke to President Donald Trump.
Democrats were also on track to take control of the US House of Representatives after flipping at least eight Republican seats in states including Kentucky, New Jersey and North
Carolina and showing strength even in solidly conservative districts.
In Ohio, Democrat Sherrod Brown will return to the Senate after defeating Republican incumbent Jon Husted, while Texas Democratic state Representative James Talarico withstood a barrage of outside spending to defeat scandal-plagued Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Both Ohio and Texas voted for Trump by a double-digit margin just two years ago.
In South Carolina, a state that Trump carried by nearly 18 points in 2024, pediatrician Annie Andrews triumphed over Republican Senator Darline Graham, who was appointed to the seat after the death of her brother, Senator Lindsey Graham.
Trump elevated Paxton and Graham ahead of more established candidates despite clear liabilities. Paxton has been at the center of a litany of controversies, including his 2023 impeachment and securities fraud charges, while Graham's admitted inexperience drew negative headlines.
Trump campaigned heavily for Paxton, Graham and Husted as part of a late election blitz that included more than two dozen rallies, and the president told his supporters repeatedly to "pretend I'm on the ballot" in an effort to fire up his base.
On Tuesday night, as it grew clear Republicans were in danger of losing their congressional majorities, Trump wrote on social media, "I wasn't on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter."
The Democratic wave underscored voters' deep frustration with Trump's stewardship of the economy and his decision to launch a war against Iran in February, which drove gas prices up sharply. In poll after poll, voters expressed anxiety about the cost of living and anger at the way Trump has handled the issue.
Along with Roy Cooper's win in North Carolina's Senate race, Democrats have flipped the four seats they need to capture a Senate majority, as long as they hold their own seats in Michigan and Minnesota.
Democrats also retained Senate seats in Georgia and New Hampshire, both races that were once considered competitive but moved out of reach for Republicans amid Trump's declining approval ratings.
A REBUKE TO TRUMP, WINNER SAYS
"In sweeping and decisive victories, the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence of the man named President Donald J. Trump," incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, the projected winner in Georgia, told supporters at a victory party.
In Florida, Republican Senator Ashley Moody fended off Democrat Angie Nixon but was ahead by only about 3 percentage points in a state Trump carried by 13 points in 2024, according to a vote count compiled by Reuters and USA Today, further evidence that even solidly Republican states were shifting dramatically toward Democrats.
Democrats held onto three House districts in Florida that Republican lawmakers had redrawn earlier this year, all of which backed Trump by at least 9 percentage points.
According to exit polls conducted by SSRS on behalf of a consortium of US media outlets including major television networks and the Associated Press, half of voters nationwide said they saw the 2026 midterm elections as an opportunity to rebuke the president, and three-quarters said they are "angry" or "dissatisfied" with the way the country is headed.
In addition, 70% of voters surveyed said they want Congress to provide more checks and balances on the president.
TRUMP DEPLOYS ELECTION MONITORS
Legal observers and Democrats have warned that Trump, who has long falsely claimed that US elections are rigged, may attempt to challenge Tuesday's results if Republicans lose.
The US Justice Department said it had deployed 1,000 election monitors and observers to all 50 states in what it called the largest Election Day monitoring effort in history.
Democrats criticized the plan as potential voter intimidation. In roughly two-thirds of the jurisdictions the department listed, voters supported Democrat Kamala Harris over Trump in the 2024 presidential election, a Reuters analysis found.
Election officials in several states reported no issues with the monitoring effort. New Mexico's secretary of state's office said it had received reports of federal monitors asking "unusual questions" in one county and that the Justice Department offered assurances that the conduct would be addressed.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax, Jason Lange, Brad Heath and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff in Washington and Nathan Layne in Detroit; Additional reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill, Dan Catchpole, Ashraf Fahim, Arafat Barbakh, David Morgan, Mike Spector, Bianca Flowers, Pete Eisler, Doina Chiacu and Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Joseph Ax and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Howard Goller)
