Democrats win majority in the Senate, flipping control of upper chamber

Washington — Democrats won control of the Senate in the 2026 elections, CBS News projected, after a raft of victories over Republicans in key races, cementing the new majority and flipping party control of the upper chamber.

Democrats were projected to flip seats in Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Kansas and Iowa, winning in states which had become surprisingly competitive in the final stretch of the campaign, while holding on to seats in Georgia and New Hampshire. The size of Democrats' majority remains to be seen.

Republicans currently control a six-seat majority of 53 seats in the Senate, while Democrats hold 47. Democrats needed to win four seats to win the majority. And heading into the cycle, where more than a third of the chamber was up for grabs, the Senate map appeared to work in their favor. While the GOP was defending more seats than Democrats, most of those seats were in states that President Trump had won by comfortable margins in the last election. But in the final months of the campaign, the unpopular war with Iran and high gas and diesel prices put more states in play for Democrats. 

Republicans spent hundreds of millions of dollars defending seats in states like Texas, Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and Ohio, where the president had won by double digits just two years earlier. But even with a spending advantage, Democrats secured enough seats to flip the Senate.

Democrats last won a majority in the Senate in 2022, before Republicans went on to win control of the chamber in 2024. The victory will have implications for control of Washington, as Mr. Trump enters his final two years in office. With the majority, Democrats can block the president's nominees and control what measures receive votes on the floor, severely limiting his ability to get anything done legislatively.

CBS News also projected that Democrats would take control of the House.