Midterm elections 2026 live updates: What’s next after Democrats flip Congress in blue wave

Twelve hours after the first polls closed, Alaska and Mississippi are the only two Senate races in which the AP has yet to call a projected winner.

Democrat Mary Peltola is looking to unseat Alaska’s Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. The race, which has been shrouded in controversy over Democrats’ reported recruitment of a spoiler candidate with the same name as the incumbent, appears neck and neck, with an estimated 72% of the vote in as of 6:10 a.m. ET.

In Mississippi, incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is trying to fend off Democrat Scott Colom, who was considered a long-shot challenger against the political veteran in the ruby-red state.

But with an estimated 96% of the vote tallied, Colom and Hyde-Smith appear to be within a hair’s breadth of each other.

If Colom wins, he would become the first Black senator ever elected by popular vote in Mississippi.

— Kevin Breuninger

Speaking to CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday morning, Greg Swenson, chairman of Republicans Overseas U.K., said the midterm outcome marked a major shift among voters.

“The MAGA base was disappointed that Trump started a foreign war,” he said.

However, Swenson noted that he did not think the president “has to change that much” in the wake of the election.

“He’s not afraid to meet his opposition. I think he’ll be fine working across the aisle,” he said. “However, he will use the veto — he still maintains all of the exec brand which controls the regulatory environment, foreign policy, [and the] military.”

Overnight, Trump posted an image of a red baseball cap bearing the word “VETO” on Truth Social. He also told The New York Times his administration will “work with the Democrats.”

— Chloe Taylor

Shares of Elon Musk‘s SpaceX and Tesla fell in premarket trading Wednesday as the Democrats won a significant victory in the midterm elections.

SpaceX was last trading down 3.8% and Tesla dropped 3.5% amid big losses for Republican candidates Musk had backed.

Artificial intelligence stocks came under pressure overnight as Democrats — seen as proponents of data center moratoriums — won big in midterm elections in key data center hubs.

The Democrats’ victory in Texas is a big setback for Musk, where he heavily backed Republican candidates, and where his companies Tesla and SpaceX are based. Musk spent a record of at least $474 million on the midterms and funneled $224 million into Texas alone, where Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott lost to Democrats.

Read the full story here.

— Kai Nicol-Schwarz, Sarah Min

Democrats’ sweeping midterms victory marked a major rejection of Elon Musk and the artificial-intelligence industry, as a broad backlash against U.S. President Donald Trump and his tech allies put their political influence — and the debt-fueled data center buildout — under sharper scrutiny.

Musk, who spent a record of at least $474 million on the midterms, funneled $224 million, or nearly half, into Texas alone, according to a CNBC analysis of campaign finance records, only to see his favored candidates, Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott, trounced in a Democratic wave.

The defeats rattled markets overnight, sending SpaceX and Tesla shares lower, both of which have long flourished under Abbott’s business-friendly. Meanwhile, broader tech stocks came under pressure as Democrats secured control of Congress.

Read more here.

— Luke Fountain

Democrat Aaron Ford is projected to win Nevada’s race for governor, beating Republican incumbent Joe Lombardo, who was seeking a second term in office.

Lombardo narrowly beat Democrat Steve Sisolak in 2022.

Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to win the state of Nevada since 2004.

— Chloe Taylor, Justin Papp

Incumbent Susie Lee is the projected winner of the race for the House seat in Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District.

Lee — a moderate Democrat who serves on the House Appropriations Committee — was running to defend her Las Vegas House seat, which Trump won in 2024.

Challenger Jon Kamerath, a GOP candidate, was a political newcomer whose campaign site says he is a retired nurse and former chess champion.

— Chloe Taylor, Garrett Downs

Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek is projected to win reelection in Oregon, after a rematch with Republican state Senator Christine Drazan, who she beat by 3.5 percentage points in 2022.

Kotek, a former state House speaker, is defending her record on housing and education, while Drazan, a former House Republican leader, focused on taxes, affordability and homelessness.

The race tightened into a near dead heat despite Oregon not electing a Republican governor in more than four decades.

— Chloe Taylor, Luke Fountain

Pete Ricketts is projected to win the Senate race in normally safe red Nebraska, where Trump won by more than 20 percentage points in 2024.

He faced a strong challenge from independent candidate Dan Osborn, a labor union leader and Navy veteran. Osborn ran against Republican Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024 and lost by roughly seven percentage points.

— Chloe Taylor

Democrat Katie Hobbs is projected by The Associated Press to win reelection in the race for Arizona governor.

Her win marks a defeat for Trump-endorsed Republican Rep. Andy Biggs, a former state Senate president and Freedom Caucus chairman who was subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 committee.

Hobbs, a former secretary of state, narrowly won the governor’s race in 2022.

— Chloe Taylor

Projected wins for the Democrats in both the House and the Senate could intensify Trump’s focus on foreign policy in his final two years in office, experts told CNBC.

Laurel Rapp, director of Chatham House’s U.S. and North America Programme, said Trump would be “somewhat constrained” on matters of oversight and investigation, but on foreign policy “he does still retain a lot of latitude.”

J.C. Lintzenich, visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, said that the president is not a “lame duck.”

“The president of the United States still has lots of power, lots of authority,” he said. “We still have pending action in Iran. We still have an unresolved situation with Russia and Ukraine.”

Read more here.

— Sawdah Bhaimiya

Polls have closed in California, where voters considered a measure that would impose a 5% tax on billionaires in the state. With 83% of precincts partially reporting, Proposition 40 had received 43.7% yes votes, according to the California Secretary of State, far short of a majority.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin contributed $102 million to a nonprofit that fought the initiative. Numerous other tech billionaires also put money towards opposing the measure.

In addition, Proposition 42, which would block new personal property taxes and taxes on past activities, had 54.6% of the vote. Even if California voters approve the billionaire tax, Proposition 42 could get in the way because courts might conclude that it conflicts with Proposition 40.

— Jordan Novet

Residents of several U.S. towns and cities voted against the development of data centers in their jurisdictions, as part of a broad AI backlash. The outcomes followed a Pew Research survey over the summer showing that Americans have soured on data centers due to the environmental and energy costs.

In Ashville, Ohio, residents rejected a resolution that would have approved terms for EdgeConneX to build two data center buildings on 195 acres. In Illinois’ Joliet Township, southwest of Chicago, voters said no to a measure over whether the city council should approve construction of AI data centers.

“These are non-binding measures, but given the size of the Democrats’ victory, adding Texas governorship, and a 29 to 1 lead to restrict data centers, politicians that want to remain employed as politicians are going to heed these messages,” Jim Bianco of Bianco Research wrote in a post on X.

— Jordan Novet