Democrats Win Senate and Are Projected to Take House in US Midterm Elections

Democrats won control of the US Senate and were projected to win the House of Representatives in Tuesday's midterm elections. Republicans lost seven Senate seats, 25 House districts and five governorships, based on counts reported by Wednesday morning. Republicans had held 53 of the 100 Senate seats, and 35 were on the ballot. Democrats needed to flip at least four seats and surpassed that. Wins included Texas, Iowa, Ohio and Maine, plus Kansas, which had not elected a Democratic senator since 1932, and South Carolina, which last did so in 1998. CBS News projected the House result just after 03:00 GMT Wednesday (22:00 EST Tuesday). Alaska remained a toss-up, and CBS said Mississippi was close. In Florida, Democrats held districts 14 and 25 and won district 22 despite Republican redistricting that had made them Trump-majority. Hispanic voters appeared to be a key group there.

The Guardian US, on the left, frames the result as a Republican failure. It says Republicans did not turn out amid high fuel prices and dissatisfaction with the president, and it stresses that the Senate majority lets Democrats block Supreme Court or cabinet appointments. It supplies the loss totals, county-count progress and Cook Political Report tossups. The Daily Mail, on the right, offers only a headline and excerpt, which call the outcome a Democratic 'demolition' of Republicans and describe a 'critical night for Trump.' It gives no figures or explanation for the result. Both agree Democrats made sweeping gains and present the story through maps and charts. The Guardian adds causes and consequences, while the Daily Mail stresses the scale of the defeat. BBC News largely matches the Guardian's results but adds detail on state upsets and the Florida redistricting.