Weekend Joe: The Midterms
Well, here we are! Can you name anyone who predicted the totality of the “26 Blue Tsunami”? (A few races have not been called yet.)
Macro Level
US Senate
Democrats (including two independents who caucus with them) hold 55 seats to Republicans' 44 seats, reflecting a net gain of 8 seats for Democrats. The remaining seat, Alaska, is moving toward a conclusion with Democrat Mary Portola near victory. With Alaska, the final net gain will be 9 seats for Democrats.
Democrats successfully defended all 13 of their seats up for election—including key battlegrounds in Georgia (Jon Ossoff), Michigan (Abdul El-Sayed), and New Hampshire—while flipping nine (including Alaska) Republican-held seats across the map.
Among the notable flips was Scott Colom’s in Mississippi, whose historic victory marks the first time a Democrat has been elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi since 1982, and makes him the state's first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction.
In Maine, Troy Jackson defeated Susan Collins who held the seat for 30 years and in Iowa, Josh Turek became the first Democrat in the seat for 18 years.
US House
Democrats will now appoint the Senate Majority Leader and Speaker of the House. We hold a decisive numerical edge in the Senate and House. In practical terms, that means Dems will hold the leadership positions on every single committee and Dems will hold voting majorities on each committee and will set the working agenda for each committee.
Democrats have won 256 seats and Republicans have won 169 seats out of the 435 voting districts, well past the 218-seat threshold needed for a majority. Ten contests are not decided.
Jamie Ager flipped NC 11 to the Democratic column for the first time since 2010.
US Governors
Dems now control 30 statehouse seats (up from 24) and Republicans 20 (down from 26).
The 2026 general election results significantly expanded both gender and racial representation among the 50 U.S. state governorships. Eighteen (36%; 15D, 3R) are women. This is the first time women will hold at least one-third of all U.S. governorships.
The ethnic breakdown is: 5 (10%; 4D, 1R) are Black, one governor prior to the 26 midterms was Black. Keisha Lance Bottoms (D-GA) won to become the first Black woman governor in U.S. history. Byron Donalds (R-FL) became the first Black Republican elected governor.
At least 2 Hispanic/Latino will take office following the midterms (there was 1 before the midterms). Xavier Becerra (D-CA) won to become California's first Latino governor since 1875, and Gina Hinojosa (D-TX) won to become Texas's first Latina governor. One Native American, Deb Haaland (D-NM, Laguna Pueblo) won to become the first Native American woman governor in U.S. history.
Total governors of color across the 50 states will more than double from 3 to 8.
Takeaways
We will have a new, younger, more diverse leadership nationally
Ossoff - 39, El-Sayed - 41, Turek - 47, Pappas - 46, Flanagan - 47, Jackson - 58, Strattan - 61)
The so-called “Southern Red Wall” was shattered in the 2026 midterms
Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina experienced major partisan shifts.
Micro Level/ North Carolina
Roy Cooper won a US Senate Seat, the Dems first since 2008. The NC delegation to the US House was 10 Republican/4 Democrat and after the midterms now stands at 9 Democrat and 1 Republican with 4 seats still uncalled. Of course, Democrat Jamie Ager is the newly elected 11th Congressional representative.
North Carolina House of Representatives: Democrats gained control of the state House for the first time since 2010, winning a working majority. House Minority Leader Robert Reives is the leading contender to become the next Speaker of the House. This shift ends the era of unilateral Republican legislative dominance in the lower chamber.
North Carolina Senate: Republicans retained control of the state Senate with a narrow majority, but lost their 30-seat supermajority.
Micro Level/Henderson County
Henderson County voted blue for US Senator, Congressional District 11, the NCSC seat and the three state Appellate seats and state House seat 117. Democrats were also elected in Fletcher and Hendersonville. That is definitely a blue wave.
Joe Elliott
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