8 charts that explain the 2026 midterms
Democrats swept races in the House of Representatives and Senate during Tuesday’s midterm election. Democrats will control Congress next term and hold a majority in governorships.
The Get the Facts Data Team compiled a list of charts to explain the 2026 midterm election <a href="https://bitcomme.com/nutrien-reports-third-quarter-2026-results/” title=”Nutrien Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results”>results.
Control of the House and Senate
Democrats have won control of the U.S. Senate, holding 54 seats as of Wednesday evening.
Democrats have also gained control of the House of Representatives, holding 237 seats on Wednesday.
Which seats flipped in Congress and states?
Democrats flipped five gubernatorial races and now make up the majority of state governors. It’s the first time since 2010 that Democratic governors held a majority of governorships.
The Cook Political Report rated 12 gubernatorial races as competitive. Democrats flipped five, retained three and Republicans retained two.
Democrats flipped seven Senate seats and will hold a majority in the chamber next year.
The Cook Political Report rated 11 Senate races as competitive, with six of those being toss-ups. As of Wednesday afternoon, Democrats had flipped five of those toss-up seats.
Democrats gained Senate seats in Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, South Carolina and Maine. Some of these states, like Texas, Kansas and South Carolina, had not elected a Democratic senator in decades.
Democrats also flipped Republican-held seats in the House of Representatives. More than 25 House seats shifted to Democrats, including some in districts redrawn to favor Republicans.
What were the closest races?
Sixteen races were within a margin of 1% or less as of Wednesday afternoon, among races with 95% or more of the ballots counted.
In the closest race, Mississippi Democratic Senate candidate Scott Colom leads Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by just 65 votes, per AP. That’s with 95% of the votes counted.
Alaska’s Senate race is also close, with candidate Democratic nominee Mary Peltola leading Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan by just over 600 votes. Only 74% of the ballots have been counted in that race as of Wednesday.
The governor’s race in Kansas is within a margin of 0.6%, and 14 House races are within a margin of 1% or less.
What were the results where redistricting took place?
A mid-decade congressional redistricting battle has played out for more than a year now, reassigning millions of people to new districts.
Both Democrats and Republicans targeted specific districts, starting with the five targeted in Texas when President Donald Trump asked the state to redraw boundaries. California followed in response, redrawing boundaries in favor of Democrats to target five districts.
So far, Democrats have picked up five House seats due to redistricting — four that were targeted in California and one in Utah.
Ten seats targeted by Republicans in redistricting have remained Democrat, including three of the four in Florida, both in Ohio, four in Texas and one in Alabama. One seat targeted in Texas was flipped to Republican.
How was voter turnout different?
About 124 million people voted in the 2026 midterm elections, according to preliminary data from the University of Florida Election Lab. That’s up from the 112 million in 2022 and 118.6 million in 2018.
While the over number of votes cast is up, the voter turnout rate for 2026 still lags behind both the 2022 and 2018 midterms, which saw a 69% and 79% voter turnout rate, respectively. In 2026, the preliminary voter turnout rate was 63%.
Voter turnout was calculated using voter registration data from L2 and the U.S. Census Bureau. Voter registration has increased from 153 million in 2018 to 196 million in 2026.
