The Democratic Party has won majorities in both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, with the main day of voting taking place on 3 November. This is indicated by preliminary data from CBS News, Fox News and the Associated Press.
As of 11:04 Kyiv time, Democrats hold 228 seats in the House of Representatives and 54 in the Senate. Republicans have 139 and 44 respectively.
Texas and Kansas have elected Democratic senators for the first time in decades — James Talarico and Adam Hamilton. At the same time, Republicans have won a number of key battleground districts in the House of Representatives.
Democratic control will fundamentally reshape the final two years of Donald Trump’s presidency and tie the hands of his legislative agenda, AP believes. Although the US president has already hinted that he intends to veto any decisions he dislikes, there are mechanisms for getting around this.
Before the election, Trump began putting pressure on Ukraine and moving closer to Russia. He also launched a new strike on Iran.
Read more about the decisive day of the US midterms — live from LB.
The campaign was the most expensive in history: according to the independent organisation Open Secrets, around $12bn was spent on it in total, the BBC reported. The largest private donor was businessman Elon Musk, who spent half a billion on Republican candidates. Most of the spending was focused on Texas, where a Democrat was ultimately elected.