Texas has elected Democrat James Talarico to the Senate for the first time in 38 years, Keisha Lange has become the first Black woman to serve as governor, Abdul al-Sayer is the first Muslim senator and Deb Haaland is the first Native American woman to become governor. Both the House and the Senate are once again firmly in Democratic hands. A blue wave has swept across the Republican party and the MAGA right, leaving no one standing.

The most significant message came on X from former US president Barack Obama, who commented on the Democrats’ midterm election victory:  “Tonight, the American people sent a clear message — they want a politics that brings people together rather than divides them, and leaders who offer concrete solutions to the challenges they face”. His words sounded like a warning – not merely the beginning of the end for Donald Trump (“If my name was on the ballot, we would have won big!” was the president’s first reaction) and Trumpism, but for the entire global populist movement, from Milei to Meloni. “While this administration has another two years in office, our job now is to roll up our sleeves, make changes wherever we have the power to do so, prevent further damage, and lay the groundwork for the future”, Obama added.

The results are overwhelming. At the time of writing, projections indicated the Democrats had elected 54 senators, well over half the seats, while in the House of Representatives, 255 of 435 members had been elected. The evening began with a string of major victories: Senator Ossoff secured re-election in Georgia, Ray Cooper wrested North Carolina from the Grand Old Party and Chris Pappas held on to the Democratic seat in New Hampshire, becoming the first openly gay man to win a Senate seat. Then came the sensational result in South Carolina.

But the night’s defining moment came from Texas, where James Talarico soundly defeated his opponent, polling 1.1 million more votes than conservative Ken Paxton, and definitively placing the Christian Democrat (some have even labelled him a ‘Catholic communist’ due to his left-wing views, openly inspired by the Gospel) in the running as a future candidate for the White House. By this point, Trump had realised that the political shift to the left was inevitable and conceded that he would “accept the election results”. He nevertheless vowed to fight back with presidential vetoes, thereby also missing his last chance to act in a presidential manner and declare his willingness to work with the new Congress.

There is considerable apprehension in Washington. From today, the Democratic Party will wield significantly more power. Democratic senators and members of Congress can issue subpoenas compelling administration officials to testify before Congress. They could also launch impeachment proceedings against Trump administration members over funding cuts and staffing reductions, particularly in environment-related sectors. Democrats will also have control over budget spending. This could even lead to the reinstatement of some funding for energy and climate resilience programmes that the Republicans have sought to cut.

Even moderately pro-environment senators such as James Talarico – who, to win in Texas, had to back an all-source energy strategy aimed at safeguarding jobs in the oil and gas sector whilst promoting the development of renewable energy – are in favour of new emissions legislation. As a state representative, Talarico drafted and introduced the Texas Climate Action Act in 2021. Although the bill failed to progress, it sought to set greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets and establish energy efficiency standards, with a particular emphasis on local resilience.

Many of the newly elected members of Congress, meanwhile, oppose the invasion of mega data centres. At least three legislative seats have gone to Democrats after they fiercely criticised incumbent Republican senators for their overly favourable stance towards data centres. Democrat Sherrod Brown defeated Republican Senator Jon Husted in the Ohio Senate special election, after state Democrats put up billboards bearing the message: “See that data center? Jon Husted did that”. Democrat Paige Cognetti defeated Republican Congressman Rob Bresnahan in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District after running television adverts linking him to data centres and comparing technology companies to polluting mining corporations. It later emerged that Bresnahan owned shares in companies operating in the data centre sector. And in the South Carolina Senate race, voters handed Annie Andrews a surprise victory over Senator Darline Graham after she highlighted the fact that a new data centre-friendly super PAC had spent 1.5 million dollars on advertising in support of her opponent, whom she had nicknamed “Data Center Darline”.

Cover: celebrations to mark Governor Kathy Hochul’s re-election in New York. Photo by Michael Nigro/Sipa USA, IPA Agency