President Donald Trump asked voters to pretend he was on the ballot in the midterm elections and handpicked Republican candidates in some of the country’s most consequential Senate races.
By Tuesday night, voters had rejected them.
Trump-backed candidates in South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas and Michigan all lost, handing Democrats control of the chamber and exposing the limits of Trump’s political power.
Trump has spent more than a decade reshaping the Republican Party around his MAGA movement, dictating primary matchups and pushing aside conservative figures he felt were insufficiently loyal or not aligned with his vision.
Trump repeatedly favored loyalists and ideological allies over more established Republicans with stronger statewide networks and proven electoral track records, betting that his endorsement could overcome their political liabilities.
Tuesday’s results revealed he was unable to persuade the broader electorate to back his choices.
One of the most stunning repudiations came in South Carolina, which had not elected a Democratic senator since 1998 and which Trump won by 18 percentage points in 2024.
Trump backed Darline Graham, the sister of late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. But Democrat Annie Andrews won the seat in a stunning upset.
In North Carolina, Trump endorsed former national Republican campaign official Michael Whatley, who lost in a rout to former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper.
In Texas, Trump intervened in a messy Republican primary election to promote scandal-plagued Attorney General Ken Paxton over Senator John Cornyn, a Trump ally who some in the party considered a safer pick in the general election.
Democrat James Talarico glided to a victory on Tuesday night, delivering Democrats a seat the party had not won since 1988.
Former U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, Trump’s choice in Michigan, was defeated by Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, who will be the first Muslim to serve in the Senate.
The losses came as Trump’s popularity was lower heading into Tuesday’s vote than in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to Reuters/Ipsos polls.
That helped fuel concerns among Republicans that the president had become a drag on the party he remade around himself.
“This is a Trump Quake,” said Doug Heye, a veteran Republican strategist, pointing to voter frustration over high prices caused by tariffs and the war in Iran.
“Trump spent the year telling voters what was important to him, not to them.”
Trump struck a defiant tone as election returns arrived.
“I wasn’t on the ballot, and if I was, we would have won in a landslide!” Trump wrote in a Tuesday night social media post.
One White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump “did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves.”
A senior White House official, also speaking anonymously, told Reuters the administration had polling data as far back as six weeks ago showing Republicans would lose both the House of Representatives and Senate.
He also told Reuters that Trump embarked on a month-long nationwide campaign to try to salvage Republicans’ prospects.
