Democrats win House and Senate in US midterm elections

Democrats won control of the US Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, taking both the Senate and the House of Representatives, according to France 24 and Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera said it was the first time in 20 years that a Republican president had lost both houses.

Al Jazeera reported that Democrats flipped Republican-held seats in Texas, South Carolina, Iowa, Michigan and Kansas. All 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats were contested. Special elections were also held in Florida and Ohio for seats vacated by Marco Rubio and JD Vance, and voters in 36 states chose governors, state legislators and local officials.

Citing the Associated Press tally, Al Jazeera said Democrats had won 228 House seats so far and led in 34 others. In the Senate it put Democrats at 54 seats won, with a lead in one more, against 44 for Republicans and a lead in one. Democrats have flipped 25 House seats from Republicans, more than the 21 they took in 2008. Democrats now hold 28 governorships and Republicans 20, with two states uncalled.

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed defeated Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan and became the first Muslim elected to the US Senate. Al Jazeera quoted El-Sayed as saying: "We don't need to be great again." Al Jazeera also quoted Trump on El-Sayed: "He would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the Senate."

Other firsts were reported. Juliana Stratton won the Illinois Senate race, so three Black women will serve as senators at once for the first time. Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in the US. According to AP projections, Deb Haaland became the first Native American woman elected a state governor. In Kansas, Democrat Adam Hamilton defeated Republican incumbent Roger Marshall.

On Wednesday Trump acknowledged that the US-Israeli war on Iran played a role in his party's defeat. "I think a part of it was Iran," he told Fox News, and he also praised the Democrats' campaign. France 24 reported that he said he would accept the results and blamed the candidates themselves for the losses.

DW Urdu reported that Trump announced shortly before the vote that US annual aid to Israel would end after this year. It said a memorandum of understanding providing 3.8 billion dollars a year in military aid does not expire until September 2028.