The most important developments at a glance:
After the clear Republican defeat in the midterms, President Trump congratulated the Democrats on their victory. However, he did not see the defeat as a personal defeat.
Former US President Barack Obama viewed the Democrats' clear victory in the general election as a "clear message" from the American people. "They want policies that bring people together rather than drive them apart, and leaders who offer concrete solutions to their problems," Obama wrote on the online platform X.
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has won the race for the Michigan Senate seat. This is the result of calculations by the AP news agency. El-Sayed becomes the first Muslim senator of the United States.
"Politically, it is clear that the majority is there - but there can still be days of counting because individual seats remain open, but that is no longer important in terms of the majority," says ARD election expert Jörg Schönenborn. The gap between the Democrats and the Republicans in the House of Representatives is growing from hour to hour.
Using Texas as an example, he explains why the Republicans suffered such heavy losses. In the state that has been sending Republican senators to Washington for years, Democrat James Talarico prevailed.
Poll numbers showed that Hispanics, the state's largest group, voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, Schönenborn said. Trump was very successful with this group in the presidential election two years ago. 66 percent of Hispanics now voted for Talarico.
Among 18 to 29 year olds - also Trump supporters in 2024 - 79 percent voted for the Democratic candidate this time.
In addition to Minnesota, Tennessee also elected a female governor for the first time. Republican U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn defeated Democrat Jerri Green. Blackburn has represented the state in Congress for decades. She is considered a staunch Trump supporter.
The Democrats have won the majority in the House of Representatives. In addition to the majority of seats in the Senate, they also won the majority in the larger chamber of Congress, data from the AP news agency shows. This makes governing more difficult for President Trump. In the future, the Republican will have to work with a Congress in which the opposition has the majority.
Democrat Troy Jackson, who entered the election campaign late, has secured the seat for the US Senate in the state of Maine. Jackson defeated longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins, AP data shows. Collins admitted defeat. She was elected to the US Senate in 1996 and was one of the most influential members of the Republican Party.
How did the US vote? A summary from Washington correspondent Katharina Fuß:
It is a sensation, even if many surveys supported it. The Democrats managed to win over some of the states in the Senate race that are actually considered deep red, i.e. Republican. Among other things, the Democratic candidates were ahead in Kansas and Texas. Kansas hasn't had a Democrat in the Senate in 94 years. No Democrat has won in Texas in more than 30 years.
Particularly bitter for the US President: Many of the Republicans who lost in the Senate race were his personal preferred candidates. Donald Trump expressed different opinions about the results. He told the New York Times that he would accept the results of the midterm elections.
On his Truth Social platform, he wrote that he wasn't on the ballot; if he had been on it, the Republicans would have won a landslide victory.
In addition to the congressional elections, 36 new governors will also be elected in the USA. Here too, the Democrats were able to take some positions away from the Republicans. In Georgia, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms was the first black woman elected to office in US history.
In the US, everything points to historic results across the country. Voters elected, among other things, for the first time a black (Georgia) and an indigenous female governor (New Mexico) and the first openly gay US senator (New Hampshire).
US President Trump has acknowledged that the Iran war played a role in his Republicans' losses in the congressional elections. The war has caused problems for the Republican candidates, said Trump in an interview with the US broadcaster Fox News. However, voters generally supported his approach to the conflict. "I think part of it was Iran, but at the same time people understood the importance of what I did in Iran," he said.
Trump also prepared for a confrontation with the Democrats, who are expected to have won majorities in both chambers of Congress. They would present him with bills that he considered "insane" and he would veto them, said Trump.
According to surveys, many US citizens blame Trump and his party for the high cost of fuel and living costs. The background is the Iran war and the president's aggressive tariff policy.
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms will apparently become the first black woman in 250-year US history to become governor of a state. The former mayor of Atlanta ran in Georgia against Republican Rick Jackson, a billionaire businessman. She will also be Georgia's first immigrant governor. All 83 of Georgia's previous governors have been white men.
ARD election expert Jörg Schönenborn analyzes the distribution of votes in the US Senate and House of Representatives. The first results showed that the election campaign was heavily dependent on individual candidates and personalities, said Schönenborn. Also interesting: 62 percent of US citizens who voted said they were dissatisfied with President Trump. Only 37 percent have the feeling that Trump is doing something for people like them.
"Donald Trump is experiencing his blue miracle: These election results are more than the expected reminder. This is a historic defeat that heralds a kind of Twilight of the Gods. The Trump method apparently no longer works," explains ARD correspondent Torben Börgers from the USA.
Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been re-elected to the US House of Representatives. The 44-year-old won the election in the state of Minnesota, as data from the AP news agency shows. The Somali-born politician belongs to the left wing of the party and is a frequent critic of President Trump.
Department of Homeland Security investigators searched her apartment in October. Trump verbally attacked her several times during the election campaign, while his supporters called for the representative to be deported abroad. Omar spoke of attempts at intimidation. But she will not allow herself to be silenced.
ARD correspondent Sandra Ratzow reports from the Democrats' election party in Austin. "It's a historic victory. It hasn't been possible to send a Democrat to the Senate since 1988," said Ratzow. The defeat in Texas was particularly painful for the Republicans - the state is traditionally considered a Republican stronghold.
The opposition Democrats won the majority in the Senate in the US midterm elections. According to data from the AP news agency, they captured Senate seats previously held by Republicans in Texas, Iowa and South Carolina, among others. They thus achieved more than half of the total 100 seats in the Senate.
In the race for the Senate, the Republicans have taken two more important seats from the Democrats, according to data from the AP news agency. In Ohio, Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown defeated Republican incumbent Jon Husted. In Kansas, Democrats won the Senate seat previously held by Republicans. Democrat Adam Hamilton defeated Trump candidate Roger Marshall.
US President Donald Trump says he wants to accept the results of the midterm elections. “We will work with the Democrats and look forward to working with them,” Trump said in an interview with the New York Times newspaper. "We'll probably come to an agreement," he continued.
The Republican denied responsibility for an emerging defeat in the midterms. “I was not on the ballot,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. He also claimed that if he had stood by it, it would have been a landslide victory.
During the election campaign, however, Trump repeatedly asked voters to imagine that he himself was on the ballot. Despite his weak approval ratings, he said he wanted it to have a positive effect on the election results.
For the first time in almost 40 years, Democrats won a Senate seat in Texas. According to data from the AP news agency, Democrat James Talarico prevailed against Republican Ken Paxton.
Democrat Annie Andrews surprisingly won South Carolina's Senate seat, according to AP news agency data. The pediatrician prevailed against Darline Graham Nordone, the candidate chosen by President Donald Trump.
Trump's party won the state two years ago by almost 18 percentage points. Andrews is the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in South Carolina in 28 years.
In Pennsylvania, in Allentown, votes are still being counted, but it is already clear: voter turnout will be historically high. “We especially see a lot of young people going to the polls,” said Joshua Siegel, district mayor in Lehigh County, to ARD. "It's about their future, they are suffering the most from the affordability crisis."
Republicans and Democrats were each able to defend a few seats in the Senate election. According to calculations by the AP news agency, Shelley Capito won in West Virginia and Harriet Hageman prevailed in Wyoming. Kevin Hern won the Senate seat in Oklahoma, Andy Barr won in Kentucky.
For the Democrats, John Hickenlooper in Colorado and Ben Lujan in New Mexico secured their seats. This meant that the Senate seats remained in the hands of the same party.
Georgia has a black woman as governor for the first time. According to the AP news agency, Democrat Keisha Lance won the governorship previously held by Republicans. She is the first Democrat since 1998 to win a gubernatorial election in Georgia.
ARD correspondent Torben Börgers reports positive signs for the Democrats. This can be seen, for example, in the victory of the Democratic Senate candidate Roy Cooper in North Carolina.
Overall, the election went relatively smoothly, but there were occasional difficulties. In New York state, ballots had to be taken to other polling stations to be counted because of a software problem. In Kansas, only 100 ballot papers were accidentally ordered instead of 1,000, so there was a temporary shortage there. It was initially reported that 100,000 would be needed. In the state of Florida, 20 polling stations had to be relocated due to severe weather.
In the struggle for the majority in the US House of Representatives, the first positive signals are emerging for the Democrats. According to calculations by the AP news agency, the Democratic candidate Jamie Ager won a seat in a district in North Carolina that was previously held by Republicans.
Several Democrats were also able to defend their seats in the state of Florida. The Republicans had previously redrawn the boundaries of electoral districts in the state in their favor. They wanted to capture several seats that had previously been held by Democrats in order to compensate for expected losses in other parts of the country. They were unable to do this.
Polls before the election had shown that the Democrats had a good chance of winning the majority in the House of Representatives. So far, the Republicans have had a wafer-thin majority there: they held 218 of the 435 seats. All seats in the House of Representatives will be re-allocated in the congressional elections.
In addition to the Senate and the House of Representatives, the governors of numerous states are also being re-elected in the USA. According to data from the AP news agency, an ally of US President Donald Trump won in Florida. The Republican Byron Donalds prevailed against his Democratic competitor. He will be the first black governor in the state's history.
Against the background of dissatisfaction with Trump's policies, the Democrats had hoped for success in these elections. Florida is traditionally a Republican-leaning state.
The relationship between the US television channel Fox News and US President Donald Trump has taken another turn. On his Truth Social platform, Trump accused the channel of spending too much time reporting on the Democrats.
He also criticized an allegedly offensive survey. “Every question is a smear campaign, and every answer is bullshit,” the president fumed. In the survey, 62 percent of respondents blamed Trump's policies for the increased prices in the USA. Another 56 percent denied that Trump was a strong leader, according to Fox News.
In the US state of New Hampshire, Republican hopes of capturing a Democratic Senate seat have been dashed, according to projections. According to AP news agency data, Democratic candidate Chris Pappas defeated Republican John Sununu. Longtime Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen did not run again.
In Florida, however, the Republicans were able to maintain their seat. According to AP data, Ashley Moody defended US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's former Senate seat.
According to calculations by the AP news agency, the Democrats captured one seat from the Republicans in the midterm elections in the USA. Roy Cooper defeated Republican Michael Whatley in North Carolina. Cooper replaces Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who announced his retirement after a falling out with Trump.
To win control of the Senate, Democrats must win four additional seats.
According to the AP news agency, other Democrats have secured a seat
