--- title: Democrats Win the House and Senate as American Men Course Correct History description: Democrats won the House and Senate in the 2026 midterms. See how men voted, why young men swung and what a Democratic Congress means for men. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-04T12:15:47.345Z updated: 2026-11-04T12:22:37.928Z canonical: https://www.richmanmagazine.com/article/democrats-win-congress-how-men-voted image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/unsplash-a6h5e59r15o-1.webp categories: Culture content_type: News region: Americas publication: Rich Man Magazine about: - type: Organization name: US Congress - type: Organization name: Democrats --- Two years ago, American men formed the backbone of Donald Trump's return to the White House. On Tuesday 3rd November, enough of them changed sides to give the Democrats control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and with it the power to hold the President to account for the final two years of his term. The Associated Press [called both chambers for the Democrats](https://www.richmanmagazine.com/article/midterms-2026-democrats-win-what-it-means-for-women) overnight. By 1:30am Eastern time on Wednesday, Democrats had flipped seven Republican-held Senate seats and 16 House seats, while Republicans had not taken a single Democratic seat in either chamber. The AP tally on Wednesday morning gave Democrats 54 Senate seats to the Republicans' 44, with counting still under way in several House districts and two Senate races. ## Senate Seats Flipped From Maine to Texas Kansas elected its first Democratic senator since the Great Depression. In South Carolina, a state Trump won by almost 18 points in 2024, Democrat [Annie Andrews defeated Darline Graham](https://www.richmanmagazine.com/article/democrats-win-house-senate-what-it-means-for-mothers), the candidate the President picked for the seat. In Texas, the largest Republican state, James Talarico won a Senate seat and Democrats removed three-term Governor Greg Abbott. Sherrod Brown returned to the Senate by beating Jon Husted in Ohio. Roy Cooper took North Carolina, Josh Turek flipped Iowa and Troy Jackson ended Susan Collins's nearly three decades in the Senate in Maine. Reuters found that Republicans lost ground in all but a handful of the roughly 1,700 counties where most votes had been counted on election night. Voters delivered that result on maps redrawn to favour Republicans. The AP reported last year that Trump pushed Republican states into unusual mid-decade redistricting so his party could avoid the losses a president's party normally suffers in a midterm. Texas redrew its districts in a plan designed to give Republicans up to five more House seats. Democrats won the House anyway. ## How Men Voted in the Midterms The AP Voter Poll, a survey of about 80,000 voters across all 50 states, shows how far men moved. College-educated white men backed Democratic House candidates by 54% to 44%. Latino men voted Democratic by 56% to 41% and Black men by 85% to 13%. Men who call themselves independents leaned Democratic by 52% to 43%. Men without children split 50% to 49% and fathers split 50% to 46%, which leaves the male vote close to even, two years after men gave Trump his majority. White men without a college degree remained the one large group of men to vote Republican, by 64% to 34%. Women without children backed Democrats by 58% to 40%. An even split among men is enough to win a national election when women vote Democratic by 18 points, and that is the arithmetic behind Tuesday's result. ## Young Men and the Cost of Living The sharpest movement came from the youngest voters. About seven in ten voters under 30 backed the Democrat in their House race, according to the AP Voter Poll, compared with a roughly even split between Trump and Kamala Harris in 2024. In that election, AP data showed 56% of young men voting for Trump. About half of young voters said they were angry about the direction of the country, compared with about a third of voters aged 65 and over. Most young voters said they cast their House vote to express opposition to the President. Money sat at the centre of the shift. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found the cost of living was the top issue for 48% of Americans. Petrol averaged about $4.15 a gallon in the final week of the campaign, roughly $1.11 more than a year earlier, after prices spiked when the Iran war began in February. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll in mid-October, 54% of respondents said the war had not been worth fighting and only 34% approved of the US strikes on Iran. If you are a young man driving to work, saving for a deposit or carrying a student loan, the war reached your wallet at the petrol pump long before it reached the news. The AP Voter Poll found about half of all voters called the cost of living and government corruption crucial to their vote. ## Democracy on the Ballot in the Midterms Roughly three in ten voters named [the state of democracy](https://www.richmanmagazine.com/article/us-midterms-2026-democrats-win-house-senate) as the most important issue facing the country, second only to the economy, according to the AP Voter Poll. About eight in ten of those voters backed the Democrat. Most voters who called government corruption crucial to their vote also chose the Democratic candidate. Voters wanted a brake on the White House. Roughly seven in ten said Congress was doing too little to check the presidency, a view shared by the vast majority of independents and about four in ten Republicans. About six in ten said Trump puts his personal interests ahead of the country's, and about six in ten disapprove of how he is handling the presidency. Trump refused to read the result that way. He wrote on Truth Social that he had not been on the ballot and would have won in a landslide if he had been. ## What a Democratic Congress Means for Men From January, Democrats will chair every committee in both chambers. Hakeem Jeffries is expected to become Speaker of the House. Reuters reports that Democrats are expected to use their new power to investigate the administration, the Trump family and its allies, and to demand concessions on major legislation. The Democratic Senate can also block the President's nominees, including any Supreme Court justice should a vacancy arise. Trump keeps his veto, but he loses the free hand he had for two years. Every budget, [every round of war funding](https://www.richmanmagazine.com/article/us-midterms-2026-what-europe-has-at-stake) and any change to federal election law now needs the agreement of a Congress the voters chose to put in his way. For you, that means decisions on the Iran war and on the costs that reach [your petrol tank, your mortgage and your pension](https://www.richmanmagazine.com/article/us-midterms-2026-oil-dollar-mortgage-rates) will be made in Congress, in public, rather than settled at the White House. Trump cannot run for a third term, and Tuesday's vote means he will spend his last two years in office answering to a Congress that voters chose to hold him to account.