"Trump Earthquake"! All hand-picked Republican Senate candidates in 4 states lost

In the U.S. midterm U.S. Senate elections, the Republican Party lost many key seats. In particular, the candidates personally selected and supported by President Trump all lost in South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas and Michigan. Senior Republican strategists bluntly said that the results of this election were a "Trump earthquake."

Reuters reported on the 4th that Trump has reshaped the Republican Party with the "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement for more than a decade, often dominating the party's primaries, preferring loyalists or allies consistent with his ideology over traditional conservatives with stronger local organizations and proven electoral records. He is betting that his endorsement will be enough to overcome candidate weaknesses. However, the election results on the 3rd revealed that he was unable to persuade a wider spectrum of voters to support his choice.

One of the most surprising election results was that of South Carolina, where Darline Graham, the sister of the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, lost to Democrat Annie Andrews despite being supported by Trump. South Carolina has not elected a Democratic U.S. senator since 1998, and Trump won the state by 18 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.

In Texas, although the current four-term Republican Senator John Cornyn is also a Trump ally and is considered a stable candidate by some in the party, Trump intervened in the primary and supported the scandal-ridden state Attorney General Ken Paxton. As a result, Paxton was defeated by his Democratic opponent James Talarico on the 3rd. The Democrats won the Texas Senate for the first time since 1988.

In North Carolina, Trump-backed Michael Whatley was defeated by former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper. In Michigan, Trump's pick, Mike Rogers, also lost to Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who is expected to become the first Muslim U.S. senator in the United States.

These electoral defeats came as Reuters/Ipsos polls showed that Trump's approval rating before the election was lower than after the Capitol Hill attack in January 2021, fueling Republican concerns that he would be a drag on the party he reshaped.

Senior Republican strategist Doug Heye pointed out voters' dissatisfaction with tariffs and high prices caused by the Iran war, calling this election a "Trump earthquake." He said, "Trump has spent this year telling voters what is important to him, not what is important to the voters."

Thomas Kahn, a professor at American University, pointed out that Trump's intervention in the Texas Republican primary caused the Republican Party to lose a safe seat, and it would have won a big victory if Cornyn was nominated. North Carolina is another obvious example. After the state's current Republican Senator Thom Tillis publicly fell out with Trump last year, he chose not to seek re-election. "He basically gave this seat to the Democratic Party" because "If Tillis runs for re-election, Cooper will not run."

As the results of the vote came out, Trump posted on the night of the vote, "I was not on the ballot. If I had been, we would have won an overwhelming victory!" A White House official who requested anonymity said, "Trump has done a better job of boosting the election of many candidates than the candidates themselves."