Democrats win a large House majority, projected at roughly 255 to 258 seats; Speaker Johnson won't run for minority leader
NBC and CBS track the House calls district by district, including the deep-red seats that flipped and the leadership races that started the next morning.
Democrats will take control of the House in January, both CBS News and NBC News project. Estimates differ slightly and were still moving at the cutoff: NBC's Decision Desk projected at least 258 Democratic seats, a number the party hadn't reached since 1993, while CBS put Democrats on pace for about 256. CBS counted 42 districts shifted to Democrats and two to Republicans, with dozens of races still uncalled.
Notable results include Democrat Cait Conley defeating Rep. Mike Lawler in New York's Hudson Valley, Kristina Knickerbocker beating 23-year Rep. Mike Turner in Ohio, and Richard Ojeda beating Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of the House GOP campaign arm, in North Carolina. Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur kept her redrawn Ohio seat. NBC's exit poll put Trump's disapproval at 62%.
Speaker Mike Johnson told staff he will not run for minority leader, sources told CBS. Democratic Whip Katherine Clark launched a bid for majority leader; Republicans Erin Houchin and Lisa McClain are contesting the GOP conference chair. House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar said Democrats will pass bills on housing, health care, gas, groceries and utilities costs.
Across the spectrum 3
Democrat
Pete Aguilar, House Democratic Caucus chair: In a statement quoted by NBC, Aguilar said: "We won't just roll back the Republican policies that are harming families, but we'll also pass bills to bring down the cost of housing, healthcare, gas, groceries and utilities," and that Democrats will "hold the Trump administration accountable for the corruption that's making life more expensive."
NBC News ↗Libertarian
Liz Wolfe, Reason: Wolfe reads the results "primarily as a repudiation of President Donald Trump and his party" and warns that believing they signal "a paradigm shift" is unwise, since Democrats "didn't put forward much of a cohesive platform or offer much in terms of new ways of governing."
Reason ↗Republican
Rep. Lisa McClain, House Republican Conference chair: In a statement quoted by CBS as she sought to keep her post, McClain said: "We can spend the next two years licking our wounds and waiting for the political winds to shift, or we can get off the mat and go on the offensive. I know which path I'm taking."
CBS News ↗-
1994 United States elections
After exploring Midterms 2026 highlights: Democrats win control of Congress, for the last wave this size in the other direction, see the 1994 United States elections.
The 1994 midterms, in Bill Clinton's first term, are described as the "Republican Revolution": Republicans took unified control of Congress for the first time since 1952.
Wikipedia · Swim · 30 min
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Marginal seat
After exploring 2026 midterm election live updates as Democrats add to their gains in Congress, GOP grapples with stunning losses, the vocabulary behind all those flipped districts is the Marginal seat.
A marginal or swing seat is a constituency held by a small majority in a single-winner election; the opposite is a safe seat.
Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min
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