How the midterms have just transformed American politics

Analysis - A friend in Texas messaged me tonight, quoting a John Lennon lyric - "I may be a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."Texas, a deeply Republican state for decades which just elected Democrats as governor and US senator tonight, is leading the wave of Democrat victories today.The Democrats have taken control of Congress in today's midterm elections, which is going to make Donald Trump's life very interesting for the next two years.The Democrats won control of the House of the Representatives, the lower house, lining up Hakeem Jeffries to be the first Black Speaker of the House and second in line for the presidency.The powerful upper house, the Senate, has also flipped to Democrats, who have picked up wins in Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, North and South Carolina.Michigan, Maine and Minnesota Senate races remain too close to call - but anything seems possible tonight. Even places like Mississippi and Louisiana have been shockingly close Senate races.It will take a few days for the dust to settle, but something big has happened today in America.This isn't just a "blue wave" for the Democrats, but as many are calling it, it's a blue tsunami, a seismic convulsion among the American electorate that is a huge rejection of the way the country is being run.Democrat James Talarico (R) and Gina Hinojosa react at a midterm campaign event in Austin, Texas on November 2, 2026. Talarico has won the US Senate seat and Hinojosa elected Texas's first Hispanic governor today.RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFPJames Talarico, a 37-year-old who's come out of nowhere to be the first Democrat elected to Senate in Texas since the 1980s, struck the tone that many winning Democrats have taken today - optimism.Blame whatever you like for Republican losses - the Iran war, the high cost of living, petrol prices, the rise of AI data centres or, perhaps, it's also a rejection of the overall dark and nasty tone that's pervaded politics for some time in America.Take someone like Ohio Republican governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who published a shocking ad which featured Democrat Amy Acton's long-estranged elderly mother calling her a liar. Acton was the victim of childhood sexual abuse by her late stepfather, and had not spoken to her mother since 1978, when she and her brother were removed from her custody.Ramaswamy's controversial ad drew condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats, and he lost tonight. It felt like a low bar was reached for decency in politics.Kansas is a very Republican kind of place, but Democrat Adam Johnson pulled off a victory there in his Senate race. A fifth-generation Kansan and pastor of the nation's largest Methodist church, he called for an end to the bitter divide in Washington: "This is not a Republican or Democrat thing. It's a human decency thing."Maybe a little less grifting, insults and cruelty is what Americans were seeking today. Time will tell.A series of firsts have been seen - the first Black woman governor in American history was elected in Georgia, California and Texas have new Hispanic governors, and the first out gay man was elected US senator in New Hampshire. If Abdul El-Sayed wins the Senate Race in Michigan, the first Muslim Senator will be elected. There are now four Black American state governors in Georgia, Wisconsin, Maryland and Florida.Donald Trump immediately posted on TruthSocial that he would've won if he was on the ballot, but it's very hard not to read today as a major repudiation of the way his second term in office has unfolded. But, he also told The New York Times he would accept the results, which is reassuring for those fearing more apocalyptic outcomes today.The 2028 presidential election race begins tomorrow, basically, and like it or not, Trump's time in power is going to eventually end.The particulars of how big the new majority is and how presumptive Speaker of the House Jeffries will work with the White House remain to be seen, but it's going to be a big shift after two years of a president who has been given very little pushback.Donald Trump will still be president after tonight, of course, but it's going to be a quite different political environment for him to navigate for the rest of his term in office.It's likely to be a wild ride.