We all feel lighter today. Enjoy the moment
Democrats’ sweeping midterm victory gives them control of Congress, but the harder test now is whether they can turn voter anger over costs and Trump into governing results.
🔍 WHY THIS STORY MATTERS
Democrats’ control of Congress creates new leverage over Donald Trump, but voters’ concerns about prices, economic security and government integrity mean electoral victory will quickly become a test of whether the party can deliver tangible results.
KEY TAKEAWAYS...
● Democrats won control of both the House and Senate in the 2026 midterms.
● Voters cited high living costs, inflation and government corruption among their major concerns.
● Democratic victories in traditionally Republican states exposed the electoral risks of candidate selection and close identification with Trump.
● Trump retains substantial presidential power, including the veto, meaning Democratic control of Congress does not guarantee enactment of its legislative programme.
A s the old song goes, “What a difference a day makes.”
I think many of us feel “lighter” after yesterday’s election results. American politics will not change overnight, of course, but it definitely will be different.
Let’s all enjoy it for a moment.
Okay, moment’s over.
Let’s now hope the Democrats don’t blow the opportunity they’ve been given.
First, the results as we know them at the moment: The Democrats will hold a decent majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Neither allows them to ensure laws will be enacted, especially since President Trump is promising to the be Veto President.
But decent laws can be proposed so that Trump either is forced to show us if he really can make a deal or so that Democrats can demonstrate strategically what they’ll deliver if they take the White House in 2028.
The voters have spoken loudly and clearly: they want their challenges overcome; not lip service from either party but a political system that they say needs to show them the money. In their paychecks. In their potential to own a home. In jobs for their kids who paid for college only to move into their parents’ basements.
Not “show me the bribe” as Trump attempted. Show me the money in my paycheck. Focus on me, not your own selfish, corruption-driven efforts to pad your own bank account.
Lower gas prices, lower inflation. James Carville is still right from back when Bill Clinton ran for President. Carville said, “it’s the economy, stupid.”
Politicians still haven’t learned Carville’s simple message.
While Trump already is saying that if he was on the ballot it would’ve have been a landslide – he’s not reading the rock pile.
It was a landslide – and it landed squarely on him. He wanted it to be a referendum on him, as he told his base the last few weeks. He got what he asked for.
He chose the policies. He chose to start another unwinnable Middle East war. He chose the Reflecting Pool for his closing election argument. He even chose many of the candidates who lost Republican seats yesterday.
Paxton in Texas. Graham in South Carolina. Democrat won everywhere – even in Kansas where no Democrat has won a Senate seat in nearly 100 years. Until yesterday. Until Trump.
Democrats, too, may have learned a political lesson. That fellow who ran in Kansas, Adam Hamilton, was a Republican until earlier this year, is a minister at the largest Methodist congregation in the country, and reflected Kansas values. Too often Democrats pick the shiniest jewel as their candidate, not the person who reflects the electorate.
The other thing working in the Democrats favor is that Donald J. Trump believes his own words – thinking he’s a political genius because he had the good fortune to run against Hillary Clinton and, mostly, Joe Biden (I like Biden, he just didn’t keep his word and serve just one term).
No, Trump believes he knows better than anyone so he picked candidates he thought would be loyal to him, forgetting the voters get a say in that. The voters want a politician to be loyal to the voters, not the President.
So, the GOP could have won Texas, but Trump didn’t like the incumbent so chose a candidate so wounded politically and morally, he should have been committed to the therapy not to run for a Senate seat.
Similar in South Carolina, Trump plucked the late Lindsay Graham’s sister to fill out his term - a nice thing - and then wrangled her into running for a full term. She had literally no experience to run but was a good two-month place holder after her brother’s death. Trump, though, saw an opportunity for, who else, Trump? Not for the people of South Carolina.
Moving forward, what happens? Many are singing it’s a new day today and it is, just not the day they long for. Trump is still President. Still wields much power.
And still is a narcissistic ass.
He could try to play deal maker, but he hasn’t proven as President that he can cut a deal good for the American people. If he wanted to salvage a better reputation in history, that’s what he’d do.
He won’t, of course, because he is Donald J. Trump.
He also faces a court system that has not supported many of his authoritarian/strong-President instincts recently. The court system overall has held up against Trump's anti-Constitutional efforts.
And he faces a Republican minority in the Congress who the voters have given permission to speak out against him more and not suffer the consequences of lame duck Trump’s wrath.
If any of them have the smarts to do that.
🔮 WHAT MATTERS NEXT...
🎯 WHAT TO WATCH NEXT:
● Watch how quickly Democrats turn their congressional victory into an affordability agenda: the election reflected substantial voter frustration over high prices and the economy.
● The eventual size and cohesion of the Democratic majorities will determine how much room congressional leaders have to legislate, investigate the administration and negotiate with the White House.
● Republican behaviour will be another test: Trump-backed candidates suffered significant defeats, creating an incentive for some Republicans to reconsider how closely they align themselves with a lame-duck president.
● Inflation remains an immediate political pressure point: wholesale inflation remained elevated in October, meaning the economic dissatisfaction that shaped the election will not disappear with a change in congressional control.
🎯 MOST LIKELY OUTCOME:
● Divided government is likely to produce substantially stronger congressional scrutiny and more legislative confrontation, while Trump’s veto power limits Democrats’ ability to enact major measures without Republican or presidential cooperation.
🎯 WHAT COULD CHANGE THE PICTURE:
● A meaningful improvement or deterioration in household economic conditions, escalation of the Iran war, internal Democratic divisions or a willingness among Republicans to break with Trump could substantially alter the political dynamics before 2028.
🎯 WHY THIS MATTERS:
● Democrats have won the institutional opportunity voters gave them; their larger challenge is demonstrating that control of Congress can produce credible responses to the economic and political grievances behind that victory.
GOING FURTHER
After two years of unchecked Trump we’ll now see if Congress can reassert its democratic role | Europeans TODAY
‘Epic’ blue wave helps Democrats take Congress in overwhelming rebuke to President Trump | Europeans TODAY
The national scolding | Europeans TODAY
Mid-terms are not the final answer | Europeans TODAY
Democrats win the US House and Senate as voters deliver a strong rebuke to Trump and Republicans | Associated Press
Takeaways: Voters punish Trump, and the GOP suffers historic losses | Associated Press
Pastor Adam Hamilton ousts GOP Sen. Roger Marshall, Democrats' 1st Senate win in Kansas in 94 years | Associated Press
Wholesale inflation declined last month yet remains stubbornly elevated | Associated Press
Sources:
▪ This piece was first published in The Screaming Moderate and re-published in Europeans TODAY on 14 November 2026 under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. | The author writes in a personal capacity.
▪ Cover: Dreamstime/KORWEN.
