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WASHINGTON — Democrats quickly racked up dramatic victories Tuesday night in the battle for control of the Senate, putting Republicans in a once-unthinkable position to lose the upper chamber.
Shortly after polls closed, incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) waltzed to victory in what was once seen as a key pickup opportunity for Republicans.
Then former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) was declared the winner for the Old North State, in a flip for Dems. While Democrats had been expected to win both of those seats, they were called remarkably quickly.
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And in a dramatic upset, Democrat Annie Andrews took down Republican Darline Graham in the deep red state of South Carolina, in the seat the late Sen. Lindsey Graham had held more than two decades.
“Brutal,” Fox News anchor Sean Hannity remarked on air after the stunning defeat.
Worsening matters for Republicans was the fact that by 10 p.m. ET, Democrat James Talarico had a sizable lead over Attorney General Ken Paxton in Texas.
“This is what happens when you combine the volatility of a wave with local dynamics and weak candidates,” said Michigan Republican strategist Dennis Lennox. “Republicans may lose everything in Texas tonight because Trump picked Paxton.”
Republicans were also trailing in Kansas and Nebraska, which was once an unthinkable scenario for the GOP.
While there is still a path for Republicans to hold the Senate — albeit a rapidly narrowing one — the night marked a remarkable turnaround from just a few months ago when the GOP was seen as the favorites to hold the upper chamber.
“S—y,” one GOP operative simply told The Post about the vibe of the night.
There have only been two other midterm cycles — 1994 and 2006 — when a single party managed to flip both the House and Senate in the same election over the past 70 years.
Raising the stakes for the Senate contest was the fact that Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, 76, and Clarence Thomas, 78, decided against retirement. Alito was hospitalized in March.
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Even though the GOP had to defend 22 seats compared to the Democrats’ 13, Dems had the tough job of trying to flip four Senate seats in red states, and Republicans had a considerable cash advantage against them.
High prices at the gas pump, dissatisfaction over the conflict with Iran, President Trump’s low approval ratings, affordability concerns, and more created a dicey national environment for Republicans that put a drag on them in Senate races across the country.
As time went on, red-leaning states such as Alaska, Ohio, Iowa and Kansas became competitive battlegrounds.
Democrats focused heavily on candidate quality in their recruitment efforts. While they had a misfire in Maine, with oyster farmer Graham Plater being forced to drop out of the race due to rape accusations, Democrats managed to keep Republicans on their toes elsewhere.
This included former Rep. Mary Peltola (D) in Alaska, who won a statewide congressional race in 2022, and former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who served three terms in the Buckeye State seat and only lost by 3.6 percentage points in 2024.
Kansas Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton and Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek also kept Republicans on their toes in those once-reliably red states as well.
Perhaps the costliest headache for Republicans was the Texas Senate race, in which the two parties splurged some $500 million in ad spending.
Trump endorsed scandal-scarred Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), resulting in a monstrous race in the Republican stronghold state.
The money pit in Texas sucked up considerable resources from elsewhere on the Senate map that could’ve been put towards defending Sen. Susan Collins’ (R-Maine) seat or going on offense in the open Michigan seat.
Trump mounted a midterm blitz in October, hoping to mobilize the base and reverse the national headwinds against the GOP, while Democrats brought out former President Barack Obama as their closer.
