The 2026 midterms have been dubbed a referendum on President Donald Trump, and voters have decided.

Republicans have lost their control of the House and Senate, with Democrats so far winning 54 Senate seats and flipping seven of those seats. Meanwhile, Republicans’ slim House majority was wiped away, as Democrats have won 228 seats, flipping 25 seats, and Republicans are at 139 seats.

Here are the top six surprises from Tuesday’s election night.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, was ousted from her seat by Democratic candidate Troy Jackson, a fifth-generation logger, who campaigned on abolishing ICE and establishing Medicare for All.

Jackson’s victory marks the end of Collins’ nearly three-decade tenure as a bipartisan moderate. Collins previously broke ranks with Republicans on major votes such as Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act and Trump’s second impeachment trial.

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She is Maine’s longest-serving member of Congress and chaired the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, a position that gave her significant influence over federal spending and funding for Maine projects.

Meanwhile, Jackson, who has been involved in Maine politics since the 2000s, entered the campaign in July after former Democratic nominee Graham Platner dropped out of the race following allegations of sexual assault, which he denied. Platner’s campaign was riddled with controversy for months, following old Reddit posts from an account belonging to him in which he made disparaging remarks about poor White people and referred to himself as a «communist.» He also faced criticism for a tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol.

Abdul El-Sayed won the swing state of Michigan, becoming the first Muslim to be elected to the Senate.

The former Detroit Health Department leader faced pushback from a coalition of Jewish voters and Democrats concerned about his rhetoric on Israel and his ties to controversial political streamer Hasan Piker.

In his victory speech, El-Sayed invoked the Arabic phrase «alhamdulillah,» which means «praise be to God.»

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The progressive candidate also issued a warning shot to his defeated opponent, former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers.

«Enjoy your retirement,» El-Sayed said of the Republican candidate. «You chose hate, and Michigan chose hope. May we never have to see the likes of you in this state again.»

El-Sayed ran his campaign on a two-point agenda, consisting of Medicare for All and getting corporate dollars out of politics. While not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), El-Sayed campaigned with socialist heavyweights, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

Meanwhile, Rogers was joined by President Donald Trump on the campaign trail, who warned that an El-Sayed victory would be detrimental to the country.

«If Abdul and the Democrats win, they will open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadis to our shores, creating a nightmare of violence and terror until you cannot even have a Christmas,» Trump said at a rally last month.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas lost his re-election bid to Democratic candidate Gina Hinojosa, a state representative, ending his more than a decade in office.

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«It has been the joy of my life to be the governor of the state of Texas,» Abbott said to a crowd of supporters.

His defeat followed years of delivering key conservative priorities, including the nation’s largest school voucher program, expansions of gun rights, stronger border enforcement, restrictions on abortion access and major property tax cuts. With affordability top of mind for voters, Abbott centered his re-election campaign on ensuring the cost of living remained low in Texas.

Meanwhile, Hinojosa framed the race as a fight against an affordability crisis being fueled by «the billionaires and the corporations,» a message that carried her to victory and ended 36 years of Republican control of the governor’s office.

Her key campaign promises included implementing moratoriums on data centers, rolling back the tax breaks Abbott gave to data centers and ending the school voucher program.

«Everything is bigger in Texas, including the shock of this win,» Hinojosa said to a crowd of supporters. «We shocked the world tonight. With a Texas chip on our shoulder, we show that anything is possible.» 

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, who has been an ally of Abbott since 2016, blamed Abbott for losing his seat on X.

«If Greg Abbott, the Governor of Texas, hadn’t become a RINO in the last six months of his Political Life, he wouldn’t have lost,» Trump wrote. «He went back to his original formula, and it wasn’t pretty!»

James Talarico will become the first Democratic senator to represent the Lone Star State in close to 40 years, defeating Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was backed by Trump.

The upset comes as national Republicans and supporting PACs poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Paxton’s campaign.

Trump and Paxton sought to portray Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, as a far-left candidate, targeting his support for transgender minors and labeling him a «communist.» Trump also dubbed him «Talafreako.»

Paxton’s defeat comes as Trump took a gamble in endorsing him a week before the May runoff race against incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

Trump dubbed Paxton a «true MAGA Warrior,» and said Cornyn was a «good man,» but said the incumbent was not always behind him when «times were tough.»

Darline Graham, the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., lost her election bid to Democratic challenger Annie Andrews, a pediatrician.

Andrews’ victory marks the first time a Democrat has been elected to represent South Carolina in the U.S. Senate since 1998.

The loss came despite two Trump campaign appearances and Graham’s name recognition as Lindsey Graham’s sister. Her brother has held the office since 2003.

«She’s smart and incredible. She’ll never let you down,» Trump said as he praised Darline at an Oct. 21 stop in Upstate South Carolina.

After Lindsey passed away in July, Gov. Henry McMaster appointed his sister to fill out the remainder of the late senator’s current term, which concludes at the end of this year.

Lindsey had already won his primary race, so Darline ran in the special election following encouragement from Trump.

Democratic strategist Mally Smith told Digital that «South Carolina bows to no king.»

«President Trump tried to handpick his successor in South Carolina, and the voters emphatically rejected his choice. Americans are sick of electing MAGA puppets to higher office who enable Trump’s erratic behavior and blatant corruption,» said Smith.

A Democratic candidate won the U.S. Senate seat for Kansas for the first time in 94 years, as megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton defeated first-term Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.

Prior to the election, Marshall shared with Digital that he predicted if he wasn’t able to win his re-election bid, then he believed Republicans wouldn’t be able to maintain control of the Senate.

«I think that, you know, I’m not a political expert, I’m a physician, but if we lose Kansas, I don’t see how we keep control of the Senate,» Marshall told Digital in an interview before the election.

And Marshall’s pre-election prediction came true as Democrats reclaimed control of the Senate.

Political strategists have said Hamilton’s name recognition as the leader of the largest United Methodist church helped him in the state, while Marshall remained closely aligned with Trump, who joined him twice on the campaign trail weeks before the election.

«He was able to bring Republicans, independents and Democrats together to pull a stunning upset. The combination of a blue environment, a scandal-plagued incumbent and a strong Democrat like Hamilton made this upset possible,» Democratic strategist Mally Smith said of Hamilton to Digital.

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Explosive reactions to the 2026 midterm elections quickly spread online as it became clear that Democrats had routed Republicans in key contests, reclaiming control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate early Wednesday morning.

While Republicans quickly looked for a source of blame, jubilant Democratic reactions ranged from calling the moment the end of Trump’s MAGA movement to aggressive predictions of what the party could accomplish with their newfound majorities.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., summed up his vision for Senate committees in only one word.

«Subpoenas,» Wyden said in a post on X.

‘LAWYER UP’: DEMS IMMEDIATELY PUT TRUMP ON NOTICE AMID REPUBLICANS’ MIDTERM BLOODBATH

Democrats like Wyden have long promised to summon members of the current administration, former officials and business leaders before lawmakers for questioning if they captured a majority.

In the House, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., echoed Wyden’s thinking with a brief post of his own.

«LAWYER UP,» Garcia wrote.

Still other voices in the Democratic Party expressed the magnitude of the victory in more colorful terms.

«WE’RE GONNA PUT YOUR ASS IN JAIL EVERYONE GET MORE WORK RIGHT NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!» Hasan Piker, a progressive streamer and socialist, said in a post to X.

Piker, who aligned himself closely with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in the 2026 midterms, supported several candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). He also campaigned with Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, who won his race against Mike Rogers, a former congressman.

«GOD IS NONBINARY NOW MFS!!! IT’S LAW!!!» he wrote in another post, referring to James Talarico’s Senate victory in Texas over Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Talarico received widespread criticism from Republicans for past comments where he described God as «nonbinary» — an instance Republicans used to characterize Talarico as too progressive to represent a Republican-leaning state like Texas.

DEMS SEIZE THE SENATE AS BLUE TIDAL WAVE CRASHES DEEP INTO TRUMP COUNTRY, TOPPLES GOP STRONGHOLDS

After Decision Desk projected victories by Talarico and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa over Gov. Greg Abbott, other progressives cast the wins as a symbol of Democratic momentum.

«TEXAS IS BLUE. THIS IS HISTORY,» Dean Withers, another progressive political commentator, wrote in a post to social media.

«MAGA IS DEAD. THEY’RE F—ING DEAD. WOKE HAS NEVER BEEN MORE BACK,» he added.

On the other side of the aisle, Republicans and conservatives took to social media to vent frustrations and begin identifying where they thought the party had lost traction with the public.

To Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who lost a primary earlier this year to a Trump-backed challenger, the midterm outcome boiled down to a set of unfulfilled promises: broken pledges to stay out of foreign conflicts and commitments to bring transparency around Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced businessman who had died in prison while awaiting trial.

«Tonight’s outcome isn’t about placing faith in Democrats or socialist principles; it’s about holding Republicans accountable for betraying their promises. All Republicans had to do was: 1. put Americans First 2. not start another war 3. prosecute sex traffickers,» Massie wrote.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former congresswoman who resigned her seat earlier this year over disagreements with the administration, delivered a similar message.

«Trump’s biggest betrayal to the American people isn’t what he failed to do. It’s what he promised NOT to do… and did it anyway,» Greene wrote in a post to X.

«We gave President Trump our support, we gave him our money, we gave him our vote and gave him our time and we got behind him publicly, and he didn’t deliver,» she added.

Conservative political commentator Matt Walsh offered similar criticisms of Trump, focusing on the U.S. conflict with Iran.

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«The Iran War is the greatest political blunder in the last two decades at least. A catastrophically stupid decision. An unforgivable betrayal of America First principles,» Walsh said.

«There’s no way to soft-pedal this. It’s a political catastrophe of historic proportions. The Republican Party needs all new leadership. None should be spared from blame, starting at the top,» Walsh added in a separate post.

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«Hola, chicos, ¿español?».

Aquella pregunta llegó en un momento en que Olvin David Banegas y sus compañeros buscaban desesperadamente una representación diplomática que pudiera ayudarlos a salir de la situación en la que se encontraban en Moscú.

Después de escapar, los hondureños intentaban localizar el consulado de su país, pero no conseguían encontrarlo. En medio de esa búsqueda estuvieron a punto de ingresar a la sede diplomática del Congo, que consideraban una posible alternativa de escapar a dicho país.

Olvin recuerda que volvió inmediatamente la mirada, después de los momentos difíciles que habían atravesado, encontrar a alguien que hablara su idioma representaba una oportunidad de recibir ayuda.

La mujer se identificó como Julia. Les preguntó de dónde eran y, al saber que se trataba de hondureños, les contó que anteriormente había trabajado en el consulado de Honduras junto al entonces cónsul y que posteriormente había pasado a trabajar en el consulado de El Salvador.

Pero Julia tenía algo que podía resultar determinante: el número telefónico del actual cónsul hondureño, Freddy Zelaya.

Se comunicó con el diplomático y le explicó que tenía frente a ella a cinco compatriotas que buscaban desesperadamente la representación de su país y necesitaban ayuda para salir de la situación en la que se encontraban.

Sin embargo, encontrar ayuda diplomática no significaba que pudieran regresar inmediatamente a Honduras. Todavía tenían que superar uno de los principales obstáculos: habían escapado sin sus pasaportes.

Tres meses de espera antes del regreso

Después de establecer contacto con la representación hondureña, comenzó otra etapa de incertidumbre. Los compatriotas necesitaban resolver su situación documental y conseguir un documento que les permitiera abandonar Rusia.

Durante aproximadamente tres meses permanecieron en una iglesia ortodoxa, donde encontraron un lugar para resguardarse mientras avanzaban las gestiones para su retorno.

En ese período realizaron trabajos de campo y mantuvieron comunicación constante con el cónsul, quien daba seguimiento a su situación y buscaba alternativas para facilitar su salida del país.

La ausencia de sus pasaportes representaba uno de los principales impedimentos. Por esa razón, entre las gestiones consulares se incluyó la tramitación de un salvoconducto, documento de viaje que permite acreditar la identidad y nacionalidad de una persona y facilitar su retorno cuando no dispone de pasaporte.

La espera se prolongó mucho más de lo que probablemente imaginaron cuando consiguieron escapar. Después de abandonar el lugar donde temían ser trasladados a una base militar, permanecieron tres meses en territorio ruso antes de emprender el camino de regreso.

Olvin reconoce que el acompañamiento del cónsul Freddy Zelaya fue fundamental durante ese tiempo. La comunicación constante y el seguimiento de su caso les permitieron conservar la esperanza de volver a Honduras y reencontrarse con sus familias.

El clamor de una madre

Mientras los hondureños permanecían en Rusia, una madre de dos de ellos, vivía sus propios meses de angustia. Durante aproximadamente tres meses no tuvo certeza de lo que ocurría con ellos. Recibía fotografías en las que aparecían junto a otros compatriotas, pero algo en aquellas imágenes le hacía sospechar que no estaban bien.

«La madre siempre tiene un presentimiento», expresó al recordar aquellos días.

La mujer observaba las fotografías y les preguntaba por qué aparecían tristes. Insistía en saber si algo estaba pasando, pero sus hijos respondían que todo estaba bien.

La realidad era diferente. Dos de los hondureños, hermanos, habían decidido ocultarle que estaban huyendo porque conocían sus problemas de salud y temían que contarle lo que vivían agravara su preocupación.

«No le quisimos decir por no preocuparla, porque usted vive enferma», fue la explicación que recibió posteriormente. Para aquella madre, las fotografías no eran suficientes. Necesitaba saber que sus hijos estaban a salvo y que existía la posibilidad de volver a abrazarlos.

La advertencia que no fue escuchada

La preocupación de la mujer no comenzó cuando perdió la comunicación con sus hijos. Desde antes de que emprendieran el viaje, había intentado convencerlos de que no aceptaran aquella oferta laboral.

Les advertía que no confiaba en lo que les estaban ofreciendo y que viajar a un país involucrado en una guerra implicaba riesgos que no debían ignorar.

Recordó las conversaciones en las que les pedía que desistieran de la idea y les expresaba su temor de que terminaran atrapados en medio del conflicto armado.

Ella no comprendía cómo una oferta económica podía parecer más importante que los peligros de aquella decisión. “No, mucho dinero, le dije yo, mucho dinero para una oportunidad de esas”, recordó.

Con el paso del tiempo, sus temores terminaron teniendo fundamento. Ante la falta de respuestas y el temor de recibir noticias devastadoras, la mujer encontró en su fe una manera de sobrellevar la angustia.

Contó que acudía a los cultos de madrugada, ayunaba y oraba por sus hijos, pero también por los demás hondureños que habían viajado con ellos. Pedía protección para todos, incluso para aquellos compatriotas a quienes no conocía personalmente.

Durante aquellos meses, la oración se convirtió en una forma de mantener viva la esperanza de volver a ver a sus hijos. Su preocupación no terminaba con las noticias que recibía de ellos: también pensaba en los otros hondureños que permanecían lejos de sus familias.

El regreso y las consecuencias de lo vivido

Después de volver a Honduras, Olvin tuvo que enfrentarse a una realidad económica y emocional distinta. La experiencia había cambiado sus condiciones de vida y todavía debía responder por sus responsabilidades familiares.

Hoy se describe como un hondureño desempleado que continúa buscando la manera de salir adelante.

Durante la entrevista explicó que esperaba recibir visitas y acompañamiento de representantes de gobierno, para gestionar posibles ayudas. También manifestó preocupación por el estado de su madre, a quien describió como una mujer emocional y psicológicamente afectada por todo lo sucedido.

Su regreso había puesto fin a meses de incertidumbre para su familia, pero las secuelas de aquella experiencia seguían presentes.

Y mientras Olvin intentaba reconstruir su vida, en Honduras había una mujer que todavía recordaba cada uno de los días en que temió no volver a ver a sus dos hijos.

Volver a casa sin recuperar la vida que dejaron

El reencuentro con su madre puso fin a una de las etapas más angustiosas para la familia, pero no borró las consecuencias de lo vivido.

Olvin enfrenta nuevamente las dificultades económicas que tenía antes de viajar, además de las secuelas emocionales de una experiencia que cambió su vida.

«Si yo tuviera dinero de ese viaje, le puedo asegurar que yo no estuviera en esta situación», manifestó.

Su testimonio también deja una advertencia para quienes reciben propuestas laborales con salarios elevados y condiciones que parecen difíciles de rechazar: detrás de algunas ofertas puede existir una realidad muy distinta de la prometida.

Los dos hondureños que no regresaron con el grupo siguen sin aparecer y sus familias continúan esperando respuestas. Olvin y su hermano pudieron reencontrarse con su madre, aquella mujer que durante meses les pidió que no se fueran y que nunca dejó de orar por su regreso.

Para ella, volver a verlos fue recuperar la posibilidad de abrazar a sus hijos. Para las familias de los otros dos, esa esperanza todavía no se ha convertido en realidad.

Corresponsal:Desde Tegucigalpa, Honduras