The Democrats have swept to victory in the US midterm elections, taking control of Congress.
While the incumbent president’s party generally tends to have a bad night in these elections, the scale of the Republican defeat is being viewed as a resounding rejection of Donald Trump’s two years in the White House.
From angry voters to an unpopular president, here are five reasons why the Republicans lost so many seats.
1. Soaring cost of living
From coast to coast, voters across the US have been grappling with the soaring cost of essentials. That anger was palpable on the ground in key races.
“Gas prices, grocery prices, everything’s going up,” one North Carolina voter told the BBC ahead of the elections, adding that she had switched her vote from Republican to Democratic this election.
Prices increased by 3.7% in the year to September, driven higher by fuel and energy prices. Average US retail diesel prices in early October were just shy of the record of $6.52 (£4.83) per gallon seen in September, according to government data.
Almost eight in 10 voters (79%) said inflation had caused them and their family a severe or moderate hardship in the past year, according to data from voter polls.
And more than six in 10 respondents laid the blame for that at the feet of Trump, saying they thought higher than usual prices were because of the president’s policies.
2. Unpopular Iran war
A major factor in surging prices has been the war with Iran which the US and Israel launched in February.
Fuel prices then shot up after Tehran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation, strangling a key artery for the passage of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
US voters have been paying the price at the petrol pump ever since.
The war has proved broadly unpopular with most Americans. For Maga Republicans it also felt like a broken promise in Trump’s America First campaign agenda in which he pledged there would be no more wars.
Around six in 10 (63%) of those asked in a voter poll said the US made the wrong decision to take military action against Iran.
Separately, three-quarters of voters (74%) said the conflict was a crucial or major factor in their vote for Congress.
The morning after the election, Trump conceded the war had played a role in the defeat but insisted in an interview on Fox that he had no choice but to intervene to stop Iran getting a nuclear weapon.
3. Disciplined message from Democrats
The scale and breadth of this Democratic wave was made possible by some strong candidates who came across as authentic, especially in traditional Republican heartlands.
They stuck to a disciplined message about the cost of living and healthcare access.
Former teacher James Talarico and pastor Adam Hamilton also talked about their faith in a way that struck a chord in Texas and Kansas respectively.
In South Carolina, Democrat Annie Andrews pulled off a shock upset. A former paediatrician, her focus on health care affordability resonated in a country where many see the system as broken.
Former public health official Abdul El-Sayed, who triumphed in Michigan to keep that seat Democratic, made getting “money out of politics, money in your pocket” a key slogan.
Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, who won re-election in Georgia, made the cost of living and corruption a central message. The 39-year-old’s comfortable victory in a state Trump won twice will only fuel rumours of a 2028 presidential run.
Even Trump himself praised the Democrats, telling Fox News they “did a good job”.
Conversely, some Republican candidates like Ken Paxton in Texas were criticised for running poor campaigns that were not focused enough on voters’ concerns.
4. Trump’s unpopularity a drag on Republicans
Two of the issues voters were most unhappy with – rocketing prices and the Iran War – were directly linked to the president.
His approval ratings had even fallen among Republican voters, which made some of these states which backed him in 2024 especially vulnerable.
He urged voters to imagine he was on the ballot in an effort to galvanise his supporters.
But after more than a decade as the central figure in American politics, some see these results as evidence that the glitz may be wearing off Trump’s brand.
Against a backdrop of increasing anger, making himself the focus of the Republican campaign was risky and appears to have backfired.
In the months leading up to the vote, polling indicated that many Americans wanted Trump to focus more on their concerns about rocketing prices.
In his final campaign speech on Monday in Washington DC, he talked at length about his controversial renovation project of the Reflecting Pool behind him.
5. Hispanic and black voters shift again
Two years ago a move towards Republicans among some Hispanic and black voters helped Trump secure a decisive win. That seems to have reversed in these midterms.
Democrats claimed all three House races in the overwhelmingly Hispanic congressional districts along the Texas-Mexico border.
Majority-Hispanic counties moved more than 22 percentage points against Republican Senate candidates, compared with the 2024 presidential election, according to a New York Times analysis.
The change is more than any other major demographic group in the country, data reporter Jeff Adelson said.
The shift comes amid widespread anger at immigration enforcement, with a majority (56%) of Americans saying they have an unfavourable opinion of ICE, according to the Pew Research Center.
Counties with a black majority also moved significantly towards Democratic candidates in Senate races.
The Senate race is on a knife-edge in Mississippi, which has the largest share of black voters of any US state with around 37%.
If Scott Colom can win, he would become the first Democrat elected to the Senate in Mississippi since 1982.
By BBC News
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