
ArmInfo. Following the U.S. midterm elections on November 3, representatives of the Democratic Party secured control of both chambers of Congress, winning elections even in states and districts that had voted Republican for many years. President Donald Trump congratulated the Democrats on their victory, making it clear that he would not challenge the results of the elections, which proved disastrous for the Republicans. The BBC reports this.
Although the counting of votes is still continuing in several dozen districts in the elections to the House of Representatives and in two states in the Senate elections, the preliminary count in other areas already provides a general picture of the results, which are unlikely to change fundamentally.
According to preliminary data, the Democrats are securing a convincing majority of seats in the House of Representatives, where they needed to overcome the threshold of 218 seats. This symbolic threshold has already been surpassed, despite the fact that the results in approximately 70 districts have not yet been finalized. Ultimately, according to estimates by the BBC’s American partner, CBS, the Democrats may win at least 245 seats in the House, while the Republicans may win at least 166. This was made possible in part by Democratic candidates winning in more than 20 districts where voters had previously supported Republicans.
It can also already be concluded that the Democrats are gaining control of the upper chamber of Congress. In the Senate, Democratic representatives already have a solid majority: 54 of the 100 seats. In the previous composition, the Democrats held only 47 seats.
It became clear that the Democrats would gain a majority in the upper chamber after Democratic candidate, Paralympic basketball player and three-time Olympic champion with the U.S. national team Josh Turek won the election in Iowa, giving the Democratic Party its 51st seat in the upper chamber.
It soon became clear that Republican Senate candidates had lost in most of the states where their positions had traditionally been strong. In several states, these results overturned a decades-long trend of support for Republican candidates.
Thus, in Kansas, Democrat Adam Hamilton was elected senator, defeating incumbent Senator Roger Marshall. This is a symbolically important victory for the Democratic Party: Democrats had not represented the state in the Senate for nearly 100 years.