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    What will Democrats do with the blue tsunami? – Stateside with Kai and Carter

    The historic Democratic victories in the 2026 midterm elections were more than just a rebuke of Donald Trump and his Maga movement – they are a five-alarm fire for the Republican party itself, which may be on the verge of collapse. The sweeping wins in GOP strongholds like Texas, Iowa and Kansas reveal an electorate that is fed up and eager for change. But that anger could turn on Democrats – quick. Now that they run Congress, what can the fractured Democratic coalition achieve? And will they do enough to keep voters on their side in 2028? Kai Wright and Carter Sherman break down what we know about this once-in-a-lifetime election and how this new Congress has the potential to be the most consequential since Reconstruction Continue reading… More

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    The great sleeping giant of America has awakened | Robert Reich

    The real question in my mind is whether Democrats will take advantage of the new age of populismThe great sleeping giant of the US has awakened, taken a hard look at what’s become of the nation, and roared a thunderous “NO!”What occurred on Tuesday was not – as some are saying – the inevitable midterm swing of the pendulum against the party in power. Texas hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1988. The last time Kansas elected a Democratic senator was 1932.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK Continue reading… More

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    The Guardian view on the US midterms: joy for Democrats, a rout for Republicans and a reprieve for democracy | Editorial

    Voters have delivered a damning verdict on Donald Trump’s presidency with this Congressional landslideBitter experience made Democrats wary of believing that the blue wave predicted by polls would materialise. What arrived was not just victory but a rout: control of Congress and a Republican wipeout. It was an astounding humiliation for a president whose political brand is power. Donald Trump won it back in 2024 by promising voters lower prices and no foreign wars. He lost it by launching an illegal conflict that hit them in the pocket and imposing hefty tariffs too. He urged voters to pretend that he was on the ticket and they delivered a verdict that could not have been more damning.Two years ago, retaking the House looked like a genuine fight for Democrats, and the Senate a long shot. On Tuesday, they needed to flip four more seats to gain a 51-seat Senate majority. Within hours of polls closing, they had 54, with two more races in the balance, and had easily passed the 218 seats needed for a House majority. This appears to be the biggest congressional landslide since 1976, in Watergate’s aftermath.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading… More

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    ‘Thrilled, scared but hopeful’: readers react to historic Democratic victory in US midterms

    Excitement over midterm election results tempered by worry of return to ‘business as usual’ in Congress and USSend us your questions about the midterm resultsTrack live results from all 50 statesUS midterms 2026 live – latest updatesGuardian readers from around the world have shared their reactions to the results of the US midterm elections on Tuesday night. Here’s what they had to say. Continue reading… More

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    Iran unveils ‘We will kill Trump’ banner – but US president may now be tempted to resume bombing

    Iran celebrates its claimed role in ‘regime change’ amid pressure on Trump to ‘finish the job’ with attackUS midterms live – latest updatesIran this week unveiled a huge billboard and banners over Enqelab Square in central Tehran. The billboard pledged in English: “We will kill Trump” – elevating the degree of personal animus with which Donald Trump is viewed in official Iranian circles.The poster depicts the US president behind bars with his head bowed. And in a sense, given the US midterm election results on Tuesday, Iran has indeed killed Trump, or at least the second term of his presidency. Trump’s reverse is all the more piquant because it comes on the day Iran’s leadership celebrates the anniversary of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, an event that ensnared Jimmy Carter, and a reminder of how Iran has ruined the prospects of more than one US president. Continue reading… More

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    Democrats’ blue wave and a bad night for Trump: key US midterms takeaways

    Republicans suffered historic losses, Democrats won control of Congress – and Trump backed away from losing candidates Democrats swept key US midterm races on Tuesday evening, flipping long-held Republican seats and securing a majority in Congress after voters rebuked Donald Trump’s policies at the ballot box.In an unexpected performance, Democrats defeated incumbent Republicans candidates for historically conservative Senate seats in Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas. Continue reading… More

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    ‘Democrats need to not blow it’: our panel reacts to the historic midterms | Panel

    Democrats should take the right lessons from their great night – but will they?Trump has been a disaster for our country. His economic plans are incoherent, the Iran war is making inflation worse, and his complicity with Israel’s crimes in Gaza and other acts of lawlessness, from the extrajudicial killings in the Caribbean to the kidnapping of Maduro, have been combined with a continuing coarsening of American culture.Bhaskar Sunkara is the president of the Nation, the founding editor Jacobin, and the author of The Socialist Manifesto: The Case for Radical Politics in An Era of Extreme InequalitiesOsita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnistJill Filipovic is an American author Continue reading… More

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    Red and blue America have united in their hatred for Donald Trump | Ben Davis

    This election represents a wholesale rejection of Trump and the Republican party, by every single segment of American societyIn a few years, there’s a good chance we look at Tuesday night as the death knell of Trumpism and the Maga movement. He has indelibly changed the face of American politics, and the basic structure of American institutions. And people are sick of it.Fundamentally, nearly everyone’s lives are worse than they were a decade ago. People were willing to tolerate, or even welcome the coarseness, the attacks on American democratic norms, and the global foreign policy order.Ben Davis works in political data in Washington DC. He worked on the data team for the Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign Continue reading… More