Democrats Set to Take House as Trump Blames GOP Losses on Ballot Absence

Democrats secured 220 House seats in the 2026 midterms, taking the majority from a pre-election 218 Republicans plus one independent against 214 Democrats. They flipped six GOP Senate seats in Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, North Carolina and South Carolina; Susan Collins conceded Maine to Troy Jackson. James Talarico beat Ken Paxton for the first Texas Democratic Senate win since 1988; Adam Hamilton won Kansas's seat for Democrats for the first time in nearly a century. Trump posted on Truth Social that he was not on the ballot and that Republicans would have won in a landslide if he had been. A White House official told AFP that candidate quality matters and that Trump's resolve against the Radical Left would become stronger, predicting buyer's remorse when gas prices come down when the Iran conflict is solved. Trump told the New York Times he would work with Democrats and told Fox News they did a good job and he accepts the results. Contested: Trump and the official attributed losses to ballot absence and candidate quality; the wire noted criticism because Trump campaigned heavily and urged treating the races as a referendum on him. Democrats' gains could expand oversight in his final two years; the official said his opposition would intensify.