APPLENEWS - STORY ADD
Election 2026 live results: Hakeem Jeffries officially launches bid to be 1st Black speaker of the House
House Democrats will hold leadership elections on Nov. 18.
Democrats won several key races in the high-stakes midterm elections -- with ABC News projecting that Democrats will take control of the Senate and the House.
Key Headlines
- Mississippi Senate race: Democrat Colom leads Republican Hyde-Smith by about 1,000 votes
- Close-race audits for 6 Kansas races, including governor race
- Tom Emmer faces challenge for minority whip
- Hakeem Jeffries officially launches bid for speaker of the House
- NRCC chair concedes North Carolina House race
- Trump says Vance post blaming GOP losses on Iran war is ‘largely true,’ takes no personal responsibility for midterm losses
ABC News Voter Polls explain how Democrats won the US House: Voter Poll analysis
Democrats are projected to retake the House for the first time since 2020 in an election where President Donald Trump’s shadow loomed large over the proceedings.
Democrats made small but substantive improvements in their share of the vote across many groups and benefited from Trump’s deep unpopularity and voters' negativity about the economy.
According to ABC News Voter Polls, about 6 in 10 Americans who voted on U.S. House races disapprove of Trump’s performance as president, including 53% who strongly disapprove.
Voters who strongly disapproved of Trump supported Democrats for the House by an 89-percentage-point margin. Just 2 in 10 voters in U.S. House races strongly approved of Trump and they supported Republicans by a 96-point margin.
More than half of voters for the U.S. House strongly disapprove of Trump’s performance as president, according to ABC News Voter Polling. That's the highest strong disapproval share for any president dating back to the 2008 election, when George W. Bush was president and Barack Obama was elected.
Read more here.
-ABC News’ Sofi Sinozich, Laura Silver and Emily Guskin
Speaker Johnson not running for House minority leader: Sources
Speaker Mike Johnson informed his staff Wednesday that he will not run for House minority leader, according to multiple sources familiar with the call.
Johnson's decision to step aside comes just hours after Republicans suffered deep losses Tuesday night.
Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan indicated to allies that he is expected to run for minority leader, according to sources familiar with the matter.
House GOP leadership elections are scheduled for Nov. 10. Candidates have until Nov. 6 at noon to declare candidacy.
-ABC News’ Lauren Peller, Katherine Faulders, John Parkinson and Jay O’Brien
After Trump called for 5 new seats in Texas, Democrats will net one
After President Donald Trump called for Texas redistricting to give Republicans five new seats, Republicans seem poised to lose ground in that state's house delegation.
Four out of five of those districts will be won by Democrats. Texas's 32nd district will be flipped by Republican Jace Yarborough, per AP calls. He is winning by less than 3 points in a district Trump would've won by 18 points in 2024.
Additionally, Democrats will flip two Republican-held seats, both in heavily Hispanic south Texas districts -- Rep. Monica De La Cruz has lost her seat in TX-15 and Democrat Katy Padilla Stout will win the vacant seat formerly held by Rep. Tony Gonzales in TX-34
Democrats flipped all the major statewide races but only netted one House seat.
-ABC News’ Diana Paulsen
Democrat David Crowley projected to win Wisconsin governor race
Democrat David Crowley will win the Wisconsin gubernatorial race and become the state's first Black governor, ABC News projects.
Crowley will defeat Republican candidate Tom Tiffany and succeed outgoing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.
-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim and Gaby Vinick