By: Brian Trainor

The 2026 Midterms have come and gone and with that we no longer have to witness the fear mongering commercials and campaign ads paid for by unknown corporate PACs. What we are left with however, are the newly elected and returning public officials that have been voted into office in these very important local and state elections. With votes coming in as early as 6 PM on Tuesday November 3rd the country sits and watches the projection maps of both the senate floor and the house of representatives. Prior to this election day Republicans hold the Senate floor 53-47. Democrats would need four seats to flip it which sounds easy enough but only 10 senate seats this year take place in reliably blue states.

The first polls closed in Indiana and Kentucky where Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District, a contentious house seat, was up for grabs. As the 7 o’clock hour came and went, polls closed in another 6 states. Early on heavily Republican favored states such as Florida showed that they would be competitive this year which gave a morale boost to Democrats across the board. At 7:57 it is announced that Jon Ossoff (D) has won a Senate seat in Georgia which is a huge win for the Democrats in a southern state. With the clock striking 8 PM a total of 21 states as well as the District of Columbia have closed their polls and this is where the pace of things really began to pick up. The country awaited key results in Alabama’s 2nd congressional district, Kansas’s Senate and Governor’s race, as well as a Senate race in Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, and Texas which became events to watch.

20 minutes after polls closed in Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro handily won reelection against challenger Stacy Garrity (R) Minutes later another key Senate seat was won by the Democrats as Roy Cooper (D) won the seat in North Carolina. The Republicans picked up a seat as Ashley Moody (R) won in Florida. At this time many news stations began to broadcast the highly anticipated Texas Senate race taking place between James Talarico (D) and Ken Paxon (R). Texas flipped Blue for the first time since 1988 marking a huge turn for the night. Along with that came Sherrod Brown (D) winning a Senate seat in Ohio and Adam Hamilton (D) winning in Kansas. Hamilton was the first Democratic senate win in Kansas since 1932.

In the midst of all of the winning in the Senate it was announced that Democrats have taken control of the House of Representatives and at the time of writing this they are winning BIG with a control of 228-139. Jumping forward to 11 PM, Josh Turek wins a Senate seat for Iowa and shortly after it is announced that the Democrats have won control of the Senate, now holding both chambers of congress. With that comes Minnesota and Maine senate wins for the Democrats earning 2 more key seats in very contentious races.

Finally, at 1 AM the race the entire country was drawn to was called, as Abdul El-Sayed (D) wins a seat in the Senate for Michigan over heavily Trump backed candidate Mike Rogers (R). Late last week Rogers was backed by Democrat Haley Stevens in an unprecedented move that stemmed from her loss to El-Sayed in the Michigan primaries earlier this year. In an exceptional turn of events the Senate has flipped blue and at the time of writing this it currently sits at 54-44 with the Democrats winning 7 key seats. There are still 2 seats up for grabs currently, but it is looking like the final tally will stand at 55-45 in a historic victory.

It was a night worth celebrating for Democrats and certainly one Republicans would hope to forget sometime soon. All of this red and blue talk shouldn’t distract us from many historic elections that have occurred across the board last night. There were plenty of “firsts” last night and in an exceptional wave the country saw its first black female governor, Native American female governor, Native American female senator, as well as the first openly gay US senator and the first Muslim US senator. With the blue wave comes more history as Hakeem Jeffries is primed to potentially become the first black speaker of the House.

With all that and more November 3, 2026, was a historic night for our nation’s political landscape that will potentially shape the rest of this administration’s regime and though the president may not be happy with the results, as his posts on truth social would lead us to believe, rest assured I sure am. While we are unsure what the future may hold for progress to be made, this election night can provide many with much needed hope for the future. Things have the possibility to look up with a new leadership in the halls of congress, but we can only wait and see.

Brian Trainor is a Senior English major with a minor in Philosophy. He is currently enrolled in the 4+1 M.Ed. program with the hopes of teaching after he graduates in 2027. His interests include classic literature, classic rock and all things Philadelphia sports.