Democrats have won the Senate majority, a feat that seemed unreachable last year but that came to fruition with Republican candidates failing in states won just two years ago by President Trump, whose failing approval ratings was a huge drag on the GOP.

Victory in the Senate will deliver additional oversight powers to Democrats, who will now have a much bigger say on administration and judicial nominations.

They will also set the schedule for the Senate and have new powers to call in administration officials for hearings.

The string of Democratic victories sets the stage for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to return as majority leader in 2027 and for hardball negotiations with Trump on an array of issues, including on federal spending levels.

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[–] 2 points 16 hours ago*

One thing Nate Silver pointed out during his livestream coverage was that in most of the battleground contests, the Democrats brought pretty strong candidates. Those candidates made their decisions to run and campaigned expecting to have hard fights. The Republicans often didn't have the most-competitive candidates they could have in a number of races that turned out to be up for grabs because normally these were places where it wouldn't matter; the Republican candidate winning would be pretty much a certain thing. Trump's deep unpopularity inducing such a large, late shift away from the Republican Party among voters meant that a lot of contests that the Republican Party would have considered safe seats were unexpectedly battlegrounds.

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