United States: Trump and Republicans routed in mid-term elections

The Democratic Party won sweeping victories in the United States midterm elections on November 3, in a dramatic refutation of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party he controls.

These results were not a vote of confidence in the Democrats but were a rejection of Trump and Trumpism. The majority of US voters do not trust either party.

Going into the elections, Republicans held small minorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

All 435 members of the House are elected every two years and the Democrats won a decisive majority of 254-256 seats with a few results still to be finalised at the time of writing.

One-third of the 100-seat Senate is elected every two years for a six-year term and the Democrats now hold a majority of 54-56 seats.

This is the biggest change in Congressional seats since 1974, when the Democrats swept to victory and Republican President Richard Nixon was driven out of office, in a scandal resulting from him sending thugs into the Democratic Party headquarters.

The Democrats also made sweeping gains in state and local elections.

In Texas, considered a Republican stronghold, Democratic candidate and Mexican American Gina Hinojosa was elected governor — the first Latinx elected to this office in any state.

In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim ever elected to the Senate, despite facing a virulent Islamophobic campaign against him, where Trump called him a “terrorist”.

Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first African American woman elected as governor in Georgia, in the nation’s “deep South”.

Native American Deb Haaland was elected governor of New Mexico and Minnesota’s Peggy Flanagan became the first Native American elected to the Senate.

The first openly gay Senate candidate, Chris Pappas, was elected in New Hampshire.

In Mississippi, African American Senate candidate Scott Colom leads by a narrow margin in a race too close to call, and in Alaska, Native American Mary Peltola has a slight lead in the race for the Senate.

Eight candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) were elected to Congress, including Chris Rabb (Pennsylvania), Rashida Tlaib and Donavan McKinney (Minnesota), Melat Kiros (Colorado), Angela Gonzales-Torres (California), Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York).

DSA candidate Nithya Raman won the race for Mayor of Los Angeles, Janeese Lewis George won the mayoral race in Washington DC and Claudia Jimenez in East Bay, California.

The DSA grew rapidly following Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and on the wave of support for self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders ‒ who is not a member of DSA. DSA seeks to strengthen the progressive wing of the Democrats and is criticised by the revolutionary left for advocating progressive reforms within the capitalist system, rather than its overthrow. Nevertheless, Trump labels DSA and left Democrats as “communist” and the Democratic Party as “socialist”.

A large turnout from young people eager for progressive change, and from the Black and Latinx communities were key to the Republican defeat.

Black community organisers led in Southern states. They made it clear they were making the elections an act of defending Black people from the Republican drive to go back to “Jim Crow-type” oppression in the South.

There is no mass (even mini-mass) working class electoral party, or parties of the oppressed nationalities in the US and the Green Party is weak. So there is no other choice in elections than between two capitalist parties, and results have to be analysed in that reality.

Some of the main factors for the anti-Republican vote include that the Trump administration is the most corrupt in US history. Add to that the Iran war, Trump’s cruel anti-immigration policy against Latinx communities, and Trump’s tariffs on imports that have driven up inflation, outpacing wage rises and impacting living standards and affordability.

At the same time, Trump and his billionaire friends have gotten richer, as have millionaires and capitalists in general. Trump has increased his own wealth by more than $3 billion and his immediate family by another $3 billion, since he took office in 2025.

Trump’s tariffs have cost working class families, on average, a minimum of $1000 ‒ which continues to rise.

Trump’s war on Iran has made the price of petrol and diesel skyrocket. Farmers, whose equipment largely runs on diesel, turned against Trump and voted against him.

The cruelty of masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents grabbing people who have brown skin and herding them ‒ including little children ‒ into mass, inhumane detention centres is a factor in why more Latinx candidates were elected to Congress, making the Latinx caucus the largest ever.

Trump doesn’t hate all immigrants. If they are white, especially white racist South Africans like Elon Musk, they are especially welcome.

Trump labels other African countries as “shit holes” and won’t issue visas to their citizens. He has singled out Somali populations in Minnesota and other states for ICE assaults, even threatening to deport Ilan Omar, a Somali Congressional Representative from Minneapolis.

The civil rights commission of his Department of Justice doesn’t defend people of colour (the real population suffering discrimination), but pursues cases of alleged discrimination of whites because of programs to further diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Trump has outlawed DEI by fiat.

What will the Democrats do when the new Congress takes office in January? What will they really change?

Will they end Trump’s unilateral war against Iran or will they demand Iran agree to violations of its sovereignty and submit to US (and Israeli) domination? Will they reinstate DEI? Will they champion the interests of working people? Unlikely.

It remains to be seen just what they will do.

Trump’s response to the election was to appoint Stephen Miller ‒ the openly white nationalist bigot and architect of Trump’s racist campaign against immigrants ‒ as his new chief of staff.

This indicates Trump is going to double down on his anti-immigration policies and racist targeting of Latinx communities, unleashing ICE and Border Force agents against them. He will also likely confront the Democrat-controlled Congress and veto any (even mildly) progressive laws it passes.