Democrats Break Decades-long GOP Strongholds in Election Shellacking

Pollsters missed the mark, again. They predicted that Tuesday’s elections would go badly for Republicans, but they missed how bad it would get.

The Democrats not only handily took control of both chambers of Congress, but they did so by winning several traditionally Republican seats, even managing to flip two governorships that have been red since before the iPhone was invented.  

They captured a dozen offices that have been in Republican control for at least two decades. And the exit polls and analysis are already clear about the major reason this happened: The shellacking was, in essence, a rebuke to the economic consequences of President Donald Trump’s unconstitutional and unnecessary war against Iran.

Kansas & Texas

The longest streak that Democrats broke was the century-old hold Republicans had on the Kansas Senate seat that incumbent Roger Marshall just lost to Adam Hamilton. Trump held two rallies for Marshall, yet Hamilton still won by five points.

In Texas, the Democrats did something they’ve been dreaming of for a long time: They turned the Lone Star State blue. Texas Democrats won the lieutenant governorship, attorney general’s office, and two Republican-held U.S. House seats. They also took control of the Texas House and took over the statewide 15th Court of Appeals. While they were at it, they flipped offices that haven’t been blue since before the rise of the internet.

The race for John Cornyn’s Senate seat was projected to be a toss-up. Instead, woke James Talarico won it by 12 points. Before Tuesday, Texans had not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1988. His opponent, Ken Paxton, was among the few solid Republican candidates running in the midterms. He had a solid record as attorney general, especially his opposition to all things Covid tyranny, and he worked to stem the tide of mass migration that crashed into Texas during the Joe Biden years. But the Democrats were able to portray him as corrupt thanks to a series of lawfare attacks over the years aided by the Republican neocons in the state Legislature.

Democratic Governors

Texans will also have a Democratic governor for the first time in three decades. Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican incumbent Greg Abbott by seven points. Hinojosa served five terms in the Texas Legislature, where she managed to accrue a bottom-scraping Freedom Score of 17 percent in TNA’s constitutional Freedom Index. Her voting record suggests she’s as woke as they get. But she ran on affordability and said she opposed data centers.

Down in Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms beat billionaire businessman Rick Jackson by eight points and will be the governor of the Peach State. Bottoms is a former Atlanta mayor with a train of scandal and corruption allegations trailing her. But she ran on affordability, and that was all voters needed to hear. She’s the first Democratic governor elected in Georgia since Roy Barnes won in 1999.

Ohioans also elected a Democratic governor, the first time since 2006. Amy Acton beat former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy by seven points. Ramaswamy’s deceitful ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother is said to have played a big role in souring voters on him.

GOP Neocons Replaced

Speaking of family connections, the voters of South Carolina rejected Lindsey Graham’s sister, Darline Graham, who admitted in a debate that she knew nothing of foreign policy. Darline, who fulfilled her brother’s remaining term after he died, was encouraged to run by Trump. On Tuesday, she lost to Annie Andrews by four points. The Senate Leadership Fund, a GOP super PAC, poured $13 million into Graham’s coffers, and Trump threw two rallies for her. But it wasn’t enough. A common observation is the bizarre assumption among Republicans that Darline Graham was fit for office only by virtue of being related to someone who held it for decades. The last time Democrats won a Senate seat in South Carolina was in 1998, when incumbent Fritz Hollings was reelected.

Another seat that will go from neocon possession to socialist occupation is the one Troy Jackson won over five-term incumbent Susan Collins, a Republican with one of the worst GOP Freedom Scores in our index (38 percent). Jackson’s voting record from the terms he served in the state Legislature suggests the Constitution is not even in his vocabulary.

Then there are at least six House races that went blue after decades of GOP control.

Ohio, Indiana, Missouri

In Ohio, Democrat Brian Poindexter upset two-term incumbent Max Miller by nearly 10 points for the 7th District seat. “The race was not initially expected to be close,” The Hill pointed out. The paper noted that Poindexter exploited Miller’s role as a Trump aide. “Poindexter highlighted the connection, hammering home his case that the country’s inflationary trends are the direct result of global tariffs, the Iran war and other specific Trump policies.” The last time a Democrat held this district was in 1939.

Indiana’s 5th Congressional District also hosted an upset, that of three-term Republican incumbent Victoria Spartz. The district has been under GOP control since 1992. Spartz lost by three points to Democrat J.D. Ford.

Over in Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District, voters showed seven-term Republican Ann Wagner the door. Fred Wellman, who won by five points, built support by criticizing Trump. “The win marks the first time a Democrat has won the seat since 1990 when Joan Kelly Horn was elected to the seat,” local media reported.

Virginia, Utah, Wisconsin

In Virginia’s 1st District, Democrat Shannon Taylor narrowly beat Republican incumbent Rob Wittman, who has held the seat since 2007. “Taylor, who first won election as prosecutor in late 2011, has campaigned against Wittman’s support for Trump and accused him of enriching himself while in Congress,” The Washington Post reported. This is the first time the district will send a Republican to Congress since 1977.

In Utah’s 1st District, Ben McAdams made his political comeback by beating Republican Riley Owen by nearly 50 points. McAdams had previously served as a congressman, as well as a state senator and Salt Lake County mayor. The district was redrawn after a court ruled in 2025 that Utah’s congressional boundaries had been illegally gerrymandered to help keep Republicans in power. The last time a Democrat held this seat was 1981.

As for Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District, a three-decade run of Republican domination ended when Democrat Mitchell Berman beat incumbent Bryan Steil by four points. This district, too, has been redrawn over the years.

Why the Blue Wave?

President Trump has remained stubborn and egotistical. He has largely blamed the candidates for Tuesday’s trouncing, although he did lightly concede that his war didn’t help. His vice president, however, made no effort to candy-coat or conceal what happened. In a long post on social media, JD Vance said the problem wasn’t turnout. “The main problem,” he said, “is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.” Why? “The real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone,” he said, referring to the war. Then he listed the top four actions Republicans need to take to get voters back under the GOP tent: end the war, focus on affordability, put America first, and “change our relationship to Israel.”