Democrats who will take control of both chambers of Congress in January began mapping out an agenda Wednesday built on lower prices, health care and ending the war in Iran. Allies who helped deliver the midterm landslide warned that they will turn on the party if it fails to follow through.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Democrats had won 237 House seats, far more than the 218 needed for a majority, after flipping 29 Republican-held seats. In the Senate, they flipped seven seats, lifting Democrats and the independents who caucus with them to 54.
The new majorities give Democrats leverage over much of President Donald Trump's agenda, including his judicial nominees. They also gain the power to investigate the first two years of his second term, from his business ventures to his war decisions and mass deportation campaign.
Rising inflation and record fuel prices dogged Republicans throughout the campaign. Voters blamed Trump for higher costs in stores and at the gas pump as his war in Iran reached its ninth month and sweeping tariffs on imports stayed in place.
United Auto Workers leader Shawn Fain called the election a mandate for change but said it is not a win for anyone until lawmakers produce results, vowing the union would be first to call out Democrats if they fall short. The union, with roughly 1 million active and retired members, 350,000 of them in Michigan, backed Abdul El-Sayed, who won Michigan's Senate race Wednesday.
Leaders set their priorities
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is poised to lead the chamber again, described the results as a generational remake of the Senate map. The New York Democrat named three priorities: lowering the cost of living, cleaning up corruption in government and checking what he called Trump's chaos at home and abroad, including the Iran war.
Schumer hinted that Democrats could use the power of the purse to end the war and sidestepped a question about scrapping the filibuster. Asked whether Senate Democrats would work with Trump, he said they would push to bring costs down with the president or without him.
Whenever Trump defies the will of the American people or the law, we will launch investigations, take him to court, and entangle him in legislative razor wire
Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader
In the House, Rep. Ted Lieu of California, vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said Democrats would pass a bill reversing the Medicaid cuts in the GOP's tax and spending law, which strip roughly $1 trillion over 10 years. He also pledged to restore the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits that expired in December 2025, and to pass bills halting Trump's tariffs and the Iran war.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said voters picked House Democrats because they want a dramatic change in direction, starting on Day One. If a majority of House members elect him speaker, Jeffries would become the first Black person to hold the gavel.
Republicans' mid-decade redistricting push fell flat, with Democrats winning in several districts the GOP had redrawn. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene of Washington said every redistricted Frontliner, the committee's label for its most endangered incumbents, will return, and warned Republicans against trying more gerrymanders next year.
Progressives push for more
Rep. Greg Casar of Texas, who chairs the roughly 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the group will work with Jeffries but cautioned that the vote was no endorsement of the status quo or of tinkering around the edges.
Will Lawrence, a Sunrise Movement co-founder who unseated Republican Rep. Tom Barrett in Michigan's 7th Congressional District, said Trump voters there regret the Iran war after Trump promised no new wars. He argued Democrats now have a mandate to pass a war powers resolution restraining further hostilities.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington said the party remains unpopular despite its wins, and that its task for the next two years is proving it can deliver the bold populist change its candidates campaigned on.
