Hello, friends. Wow, what a night. As I settled in for my election night coverage, I was expecting it would take a few days before we’d know anything substantive.

Then the House and Senate majorities were both called before the clock struck midnight. It was, by all accounts, a massive night for Democrats and a major rebuke for Republicans. And tucked between all the results were historic moments, surprising upsets and a midterm cycle that will have lasting effects for the rest of President Donald Trump’s term.

Let’s dig into it all.

— Cami Mondeaux

If you’re anything like me and stayed glued to your TV watching midterm results last night, it was a shocking turn of events.

And don’t just take that from me. I had sources, both Republican and Democrat, who were texting me throughout the night who felt the same way. The vibes, though, were completely different.

Democrats were feeling really good early on. And Republicans, well, let’s just say they had some pretty honest assessments for me: “It’s a bloodbath” and “We got obliterated” were two text messages I got from those in the GOP conference.

Let’s break down what exactly happened — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

First, the Senate. Heading into Tuesday night, Democrats didn’t hold a single Senate seat in a state that Trump won in all three of his presidential campaigns. By the time I woke up on Wednesday, Democrats flipped six of those.

Five of those were states that Trump won by double digits in 2024.

The biggest surprise for me came when Democrats flipped South Carolina. Republican Sen. Darline Graham currently holds that seat after being appointed to replace her late brother Lindsey Graham after his sudden death earlier this year. While the race was somewhat competitive, Republicans were fairly confident they’d hold on.

After all, the last time a Democrat won a Senate seat in South Carolina was 1998.

But Democrat Annie Andrews flipped the seat — offering an early indicator of how the night might go.

Meanwhile, Democrats also flipped the Senate seat in Kansas, which became a sleeper race late in the midterm cycle, and the Senate seat in Mississippi is astonishingly close. As of Wednesday, Democrat Scott Colom was leading GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by just over 60 votes.

That seat wasn’t even considered in play at the beginning of the 2026 cycle.

In the House, Democrats are on track to nab up to 255 House seats or more. For context: Republicans started out this Congress with 220 seats — so Democrats will have a far more comfortable margin than what their GOP counterparts have been working with.

As of Wednesday, Republicans haven’t won any of the competitive seats that would have been needed to keep their majority. The handful of seats they flipped were the result of district maps being redrawn in their favor.

Speaking of which — remember the nationwide redistricting push from Republicans to boost their chances of winning the House? That backfired.

Democrats held on to all four of the redrawn seats in Florida. Rep. Don Davis in North Carolina is projected to keep his seat that was reconfigured — and on top of that, Democrats are on track to flip six Republican-held seats in the state. That’s massive.

Democrats also won three of the four Republican seats in Iowa, where Democratic candidate Josh Turek also flipped the Senate seat.

There were major victories for Democrats in Texas for both the House and Senate as well. James Talarico made history as the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Texas since 1988.

And, again, remember when Republicans redrew the map looking for a five-seat gain in the House? By my count, they’re only on track to win one of those.

The redrawn map in California by Democrats, however, had the intended result. All five of the seats they wanted to flip from red to blue were won by the Democratic candidates.

And at the end of the day, there were some major historical moments and a lot of “firsts” for this incoming Congress. Sen. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., will be the first openly gay senator; Annie Andrews, D-S.C., will be first elected female senator from South Carolina; Penny Flanagan in Minnesota will be the first female Native American senator; and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan will be the first Muslim senator.

Those historical moments extended to governor’s races as well.

On Tuesday, we witnessed Florida elect its first Black governor with the win of Rep. Byron Donalds; Keisha Lance Bottoms will be the first Black female governor in U.S. history after winning in Georgia; Gina Hinojosa will be the first Latina governor in Texas history; Deb Haaland in New Mexico will be the first Native American female governor; Xavier Becerra will be the first Latino governor of California; Aaron Ford will be the first Black governor of Nevada; David Crowley will be the first Black governor of Wisconsin; Sen. Marsha Blackburn is the first woman to win the governor’s race in Tennessee; Sen. Amy Klobuchar will be the first female governor of Minnesota; and Amy Acton will be the first female governor of Ohio.

It was a midterm election for the books.

— Cami Mondeaux

Sen. John Curtis on the lake's funding gap

In Washington, John Curtis is working to turn a presidential funding promise into money Congress will approve.

He explains the question his colleagues want answered before backing $1 billion for the Great Salt Lake—and why federal money alone isn't the solution.

Hear the full conversation on the Deseret Voices podcast at Deseret.com/Voices, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube.com/@DeseretNews or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hear the full conversation: deseret.com/voices

Now that we’ve gotten most of the results and implications from election night out of the way, what about the rest of this year?

What needs to get done — and can it be accomplished?

As one of the first items of business, Congress still needs to fund the government. They had punted the Oct. 1 deadline until after the midterms so they could focus on campaigning and whatnot, so now the deadline is Dec. 11.

(An interesting wrinkle: The top Republican appropriator handling these negotiations in the Senate, Sen. Susan Collins, lost her reelection fight.)

Republicans are also sure to try and push some last-minute policy things through in the lame duck, given it’s their last opportunity to get anything partisan to Trump’s desk for the rest of his term. But attendance could be an issue — motivating lawmakers who lost reelection might be a tall task.

The Senate will want to get a jump on its bipartisan permitting reform deal before it’s too late; the House may or may not take up the college sports package. It’s all a big TBD.

They’ll have just five weeks of legislating before the end of the year and the new Congress comes in. From there, Washington is going to look a whole lot different.

— Cami Mondeaux

From the Hill: Romney blames GOP midterm losses on ‘bad policy, bad character.’ … Ben McAdams is back. What his return means for Utah Democrats — and Republicans. …

From the White House: Trump says he was ‘a little bit surprised’ by Democratic midterm wins across the country. … Trump says Israel will lose $4B in U.S. aid by year’s end. … Trump raises national security alarm over imported robots.

From the courts: Supreme Court appears likely to side with Denver Catholic preschools in funding fight.

The House and Senate (finally) return next week, both gaveling in on Monday.

As always, feel free to reach out to me by email with story ideas or questions you have for lawmakers. And follow me on X for breaking news and timely developments from the Hill.

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