Donald Trump humiliated as Republicans endure nationwide collapse in crushing midterms defeat
Democrat candidates won in Texas and South Carolina, states Donald Trump won by double digits just two years ago and where the blue party had not won for decades
Donald Trump’s MAGA movement has been dealt a stinging rebuke from voters(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
American voters handed Donald Trump a stinging humiliation in last night’s midterm elections, subjecting his Republican party to a national collapse.
Democrat candidates won in Texas and South Carolina, states Trump won by double digits just two years ago and where the blue party had not won for decades.
The results surpassed even the most optimistic predictions of a “blue tsunami”. A Democrat source told the Mirror : “It’s beyond my wildest hopes.”
Trump, whom many feared would try to subvert or deny the result, seemed to recognise such a move would be futile with a defeat on this scale.
“I wasn’t on the Ballot,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “And if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”
Follow the Mirror’s live coverage for the latest results, reaction and fallout from across America.
In every speech Trump gave in the run up to the election, he urged voters to pretend he was on the ballot – believing that would boost turnout for Republicans, despite his approval ratings being historically bad.
Calling in to Fox News late last night, Trump congratulated the Democrats. He said: “They did a good job. They’ve been looking for this one for 11-years and they’ve finally got it. But I don’t view it as a hit on me, we’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency.”
He admitted he’s “a little bit surprised” at the result, saying he had held “tremendous rallies” in the build-up to the elections.
It was also a torrid night for Elon Musk, who became the largest political donor in any single election in US history by pumping $445million into a doomed ‘rescue mission’ for Republican candidate.
America PAC, the Political Action Committee Musk has sole control over, poured more than $33m into support for Ken Paxton’s doomed campaign in Texas. Musk also made a contribution of $168m to the Senate Leadership Fund, which backed Paxton’s campaign.
On the night, Democrats flipped Senate seats in Texas, Iowa, Kansas, North and South Carolina and Ohio. They held on to Senate seats in New Hampshire and Georgia, with Abdul El Sayed, the party’s candidate in Michigan expected to win that state’s vacant seat comfortably.
In Texas, James Talarico defeated Trump-backed MAGA Republican Ken Paxton by 20 points – making him the first Democrat elected to the senate in the Lone Star State since 1988, the year before Talarico was born.
The night’s other big shock was deep red South Carolina, where Darline Graham, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who died earlier this year, was fighting to keep hold of his seat. She lost to Democrat Annie Andrews by around 100,000 votes.
In Ohio’s Governor race, Democrat Amy Acton defeated MAGA darling Vivek Ramaswamy, who had faced a furious backlash over a grim attack ad.
The ad against featured Acton’s own mother branding her a liar. But it was quickly revealed that Acton, a survivor of child sexual abuse at the hands of her late stepfather, has been estranged from her mother for 50 years.
And in Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms – the daughter of Northern Soul legend Major Lance, made history by becoming the first black woman to be elected Governor in US history.
The last time they saw each other in person was in court after her stepfather was arrested, charged and indicted. Her mother stayed with her abuser, and the pair fled the state, evading prosecution until the stepfather died before he could be brought to justice.
Ramaswamy stood by the ad, and Trump and Vice President JD Vance backed him. It may well have cost him the race.
Meanwhile, senior Democrats were hinting at how they’ll use their new dominance in the House and Senate.
Congressman Robert Garcia, will chair the House Oversight Committee in the new Congress, posted a two-word message to Trump’s family members and business associates on X: “Lawyer up.”
Trump will likely become a one-man roadblock for any legislation the Democrats try to pass, threatening in recent days that he would “veto everything.”
But in return, the new Congress can refuse to pass Trump’s budget measures, making it harder for him to pursue his priorities and engage in military adventures overseas.
Trump’s demand for $1.7 trillion in funding for the armed forces next year is deadlocked in Congress, something unlikely to change with Democrats in charge.
