Democrats will take full control of Congress in January after winning both the House and the Senate on Tuesday night, NBC News projected. Republicans had entered Election Day with a 53-47 Senate majority and a 219-214 House majority.
It will be the first time in Trump’s second term that he hasn’t had full control of Congress. Since returning to the White House, he has dismantled federal agencies through the Department of Government Efficiency, imposed sweeping tariffs on his own authority and rescinded funding Congress had approved, while the Republican-controlled House and Senate mostly looked the other way, NBC reported.
Trump responded on Truth Social: “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!”
The $5,000 promise
In his closing speech at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on Monday, Trump said he had kept every promise he made, then added: “I’ve actually kept far more promises than I made,” the Mirror reported.
One of those promises was cash. At the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas in September, he told the crowd, “If the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000.” In an October Truth Social video, he said he would give $5,000 to “all Adult Citizens” if Republicans won both chambers. He renewed the promise in his last speech before Election Day.
Voters were skeptical. An Economist/YouGov survey found 57% of registered voters doubted Trump would deliver the payments even if Republicans kept Congress. The checks would have cost about $1.22 trillion and would have needed legislation to authorize them either way. Earlier promises of a $5,000 DOGE dividend and $2,000 tariff checks never produced the payments. As results came in Tuesday night, Fox News host Jesse Watters told viewers, “I don’t think we’re going to get our $5,000 checks.”
How Democrats won the House and Senate
Democrats flipped Republican-held seats in states Trump carried. James Talarico beat Ken Paxton in Texas, despite more than $200 million Elon Musk spent to help elect Paxton. Former Gov. Roy Cooper won North Carolina’s open seat. Annie Andrews defeated Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina. Sherrod Brown defeated Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio. Josh Turek flipped Iowa’s seat, and Adam Hamilton won in Kansas, NBC projected.
Democrats needed a net gain of just three seats. In New Jersey’s 7th District, Rebecca Bennett defeated Rep. Tom Kean Jr., and in Virginia’s 2nd, Elaine Luria flipped the seat held by Rep. Jen Kiggans. Manny Rutinel won Colorado’s 8th, and Jamie Ager won North Carolina’s newly redrawn 11th. NBC’s Decision Desk estimates Democrats will finish with about 248 House seats.
The House gives Democrats subpoenas and control over spending bills. The Senate adds control over who serves in Trump’s government. A Democratic Senate can block Trump’s Cabinet nominees and freeze federal judicial appointments, including any Supreme Court pick if a seat opens. Chuck Schumer returns as majority leader, and Senate committees will run their own investigations. Schumer set up a working group in February to look into Epstein-related information the Justice Department has held back.
With both chambers, Democrats can also pass their own bills, including Speaker-in-waiting Hakeem Jeffries’s priorities on Medicaid, Affordable Care Act subsidies, tariff authority and the Iran war. But every bill still needs Trump’s signature, and he has promised to veto them. Overriding a veto takes two-thirds of both chambers, a margin Democrats won’t have.
The subpoenas
Rep. Robert Garcia, the incoming House Oversight chair, marked the win with a two-word statement: “Lawyer up.” He has said his panel will focus on “Trump family corruption,” including the president’s crypto ventures, and administration officials could face subpoenas on “day one”. Corporate ballroom donors and companies that did deals with Trump family members are expected to be among the first targets, Reuters reported.
Those subpoenas have limits. Administration officials could defy them, because a Justice Department led by Trump appointees is unlikely to enforce them, Reuters reported. The House can impeach with a simple majority, but conviction in the Senate takes two-thirds of senators. Jeffries has said Democrats “haven’t ruled anything in and we haven’t ruled anything out” on impeachment.
How Trump plans to govern
The White House is preparing to rely even more on executive power. Asked how comfortable Trump would be governing that way under a Democratic Congress, one person familiar with the planning told Reuters: “very comfortable.” Nathan Gonzales, editor of the nonpartisan Inside Elections, said Trump has largely ignored Congress and governed by executive order. “I think he will only continue if there are Democratic majorities,” Gonzales said.
The size of the Senate majority matters too. If Democrats end up with 51 seats, all eyes will turn to Sen. John Fetterman, MS NOW noted. The White House has blamed the candidates for the losses, The Hill reported.
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