🚨 HAPPENING RIGHT NOW 🚨
Democrats seized control of both chambers of Congress overnight, flipping Republican-held Senate seats in Texas, Maine, Ohio, Kansas, Iowa, North Carolina and South Carolina while holding Michigan, as Hakeem Jeffries prepared to become House speaker after Democrats cleared the 218-seat threshold. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared the GOP’s “red brick wall” had been reduced to “a pile of bricks,” while Senate Majority Leader John Thune vowed Republicans “will not stand idly by.” President Trump wrote that he “wasn’t on the Ballot” and insisted Republicans “would have won in a landslide” had he been.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4th, 2026
Before we get to today's news, here's what happened on this date in history. A group of militant Iranian students loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, initially seizing 90 people inside. Weeks later, Khomeini ordered the release of every non-American captive along with the women and minority Americans who'd been held, leaving 52 U.S. hostages whose ordeal would stretch on for 444 days A disastrous rescue attempt the following April left eight American servicemen dead and freed no one. The remaining hostages weren't released until January 20, 1981 — the exact moment Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had just finished addressing a massive peace rally in Tel Aviv on November 4, 1995, when a right-wing Israeli extremist shot him twice at close range Rabin, a former general who'd shared the Nobel Peace Prize two years earlier for negotiating the Oslo Accords with Yasser Arafat, died within the hour. His killer, Yigal Amir, said he acted to stop Rabin from surrendering biblical land to the Palestinians. The assassination shocked Israel and is still regarded as one of the most consequential political killings in the country's modern history.
🤠 'We Just Took Back Texas': Talarico Topples Paxton in Stunning Senate Flip
Democrat James Talarico defeated Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in Tuesday's Senate race, flipping a seat Republicans have controlled for years and delivering one of the night's most jarring blows to the GOP in a state Trump carried easily in 2024.
Talarico, a state senator, told supporters “We just took back Texas” after the race was called, capping a campaign built around attacking Paxton's personal and legal scandals.
Sen. Ted Cruz spent the campaign's final hours attacking Talarico's record on Fox News's election-night live blog, while Paxton's campaign had publicly dismissed polling that showed him trailing.
Paxton had ousted longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in a bruising May primary runoff, only to concede the general election to Talarico early Wednesday, according to Washington Examiner's overnight live coverage.
🦞 Collins' Three-Decade Senate Career Ends as Troy Jackson Flips Maine
Sen. Susan Collins, one of the Senate's longest-serving Republicans, conceded Maine's Senate race to Democrat Troy Jackson early Wednesday, becoming one of the marquee casualties of the Democratic wave.
Jackson, president of the Maine Senate, ran as a populist challenger to Collins, who was first elected in 1996 and had never previously lost a general election.
Collins' defeat was one of several incumbent losses Fox News counted as the “blue tidal wave” crashed into territory Republicans had long considered safe.
The Maine flip was among the seats Democrats needed to erase the GOP's 53-seat Senate majority entirely, according to Fox News's overnight tally.
🍑 NRSC Chair's Own Backyard Flips as Andrews Topples Graham in South Carolina
Democrat Annie Andrews defeated Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina, handing the Democratic wave one of its most symbolically painful seats: the home state of National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Tim Scott.
Graham, who was appointed to finish the term of her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham, had sought a full six-year term with President Trump's endorsement.
One unnamed GOP operative vented to Fox News Digital over the loss: “When the NRSC Chairman loses his home state of SOUTH CAROLINA…”
The South Carolina loss was one of seven Republican-held Senate seats Fox News reported flipping to Democrats overnight, part of a wave that also reached Georgia, Texas and Kansas.
— Fox News
🏭 El-Sayed Holds Michigan for Democrats Despite Haley Stevens' Late Endorsement of Rogers
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's open Senate seat over Republican Mike Rogers, keeping the state in Democratic hands even after Rogers picked up an eleventh-hour endorsement from Haley Stevens, the moderate Democrat El-Sayed had beaten in the primary.
Vice President Vance argued Stevens' crossover endorsement would help Rogers and used Election Day to call El-Sayed “a crazy person.”
Washington Examiner's overnight live coverage confirmed El-Sayed's win as one of the few nail-biters Democrats held onto in a race Republicans had targeted heavily with outside spending.
Because the seat was already held by a Democrat, the result is technically a hold rather than a flip — but it was one of the closest and most expensive Senate races of the cycle.
😤 'Catastrophic Night': Conservatives Blame Trump's Iran War, Gas Prices for Midterm Wipeout
Conservative commentators spent Wednesday morning picking through the wreckage of the midterms, blaming President Trump's Iran war, high gas prices and weak Republican candidates for what one called the biggest GOP wipeout in two decades.
The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh called the Iran strikes “unpopular” and “pointless,” while Washington Examiner's Guy Benson said flatly: “It is a catastrophic night for Republicans.”
The Federalist's Sean Davis predicted the results “will be the biggest national wipeout for Republicans since 2006,” when voters punished the GOP over the Iraq War.
Trump argued he wasn't personally rejected because he “wasn't on the Ballot,” telling reporters afterward, “I think the Democrats did a good job.”
— Fox News