Majority in Congress, conquest of historic Republican bastions... Visualize the clear victory of the Democrats in the midterms against the camp of Donald Trump

It's a Democratic tidal wave. The midterm elections are a clear and clear sanction for Donald Trump. On the night of Tuesday November 3 to Wednesday November 4, the results quickly showed a large lead for the Democrats over the Republican camp.

Against a backdrop of discontent with the cost of living and against the war in the Middle East which has been going on and on since February, American voters have favored Democratic candidates. Franceinfo returns in graphics to the scope of this “blue wave”, the color of the Democratic Party.

Democrats gain majorities in Senate and House of Representatives

The midterm elections were marked by the swing of the two houses of the American Congress. Until now won by the Republicans, they are now controlled by the Democrats.

In the Senate, the upper house of the American Congress, the Democratic camp now has at least 54 seats (seven more than before the election), a threshold sufficient to have an absolute majority set at 51 elected officials.

In the House of Representatives, where the Republicans until now had a narrow majority (218 seats against 214), the Democrats also regained control. They won at least 228 seats, according to the real-time count.

This shift in the two houses of Congress opens an era of uncertainty for Donald Trump two years before the end of his second term. The American president assured the New York Times that he would accept the result of the elections, while specifying on his Truth Social platform that he will use his right of veto against laws adopted by the Democrats.

Historically Republican states fall into Democratic hands

The Democrats' victory can also be measured on the map. In the Senate, they took back at least seven states that were in Republican hands. Conversely, the GOP (Grand Old Party, the other name of the Republican Party) has not won anything from its political opponents and must be content to keep the states already acquired.

Some states represent historic losses for Donald Trump's camp, such as Texas, where Democrat James Talarico won the seat at stake against Ken Paxton, a close ally of the American president. In this oil and agricultural territory, Donald Trump won with a 14-point lead in the 2024 presidential election. “Tonight, we beat Goliath,” reacted the newly elected Democrat. No Democrat had won a senatorial election in this Republican stronghold since 1988.

In South Carolina, also a historically Republican land, Democrat Annie Andrews becomes the first Democratic senator to be elected since 1998. A surprise victory against Republican Darline Graham, who replaced her brother, Lindsey Graham, who died in July, in the upper house.

The Democrats also managed to flip Senate seats in North Carolina, Iowa and Ohio, all won by Donald Trump in 2024. Among the only consolations for the American president, the Republican candidates in his stronghold of Florida kept the senator and governor seats.

Significant, but not historic, seat losses for the Republicans

In the Senate, Donald Trump's camp experienced what amounts to an electoral rout by losing seven seats (Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio and Maine). For comparison, during the 2018 midterms (after the first two years of Donald Trump's first term), the Republicans gained two seats in the upper house.

The fact remains that mid-term elections are traditionally unfavorable to the president in office. In 2014, Democrat Barack Obama lost nine seats, just like Bill Clinton in 1994. In 1986, Republican Ronald Reagan lost eight. Donald Trump's defeat is also far from the record of Dwight Eisenhower, who lost 12 Republican seats in 1958.

As for the House of Representatives, the 25 elected officials lost by Donald Trump on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday are less important than his previous defeat in the midterms of 2018, where he conceded 41 seats. The figures from the previous mid-term elections also nuance the extent of the defeat of the Republican camp. On several occasions, presidents have suffered major setbacks. In 2010, Barack Obama, for example, lost 63 seats.

“I don’t consider that it was directed against me,” the 80-year-old president reacted Tuesday evening, refusing to take responsibility for the defeat. He said earlier on his Truth Social network that Republicans would have won if he himself had been "on the ballot."