After two years of a Republican majority, Democrats took back majority control of both congressional chambers after the 2026 midterm election, Associated Press reported.
This midterm election, voters across the country elected 234 Democratic candidates and 139 Republican candidates to the United States House of Representatives, making for a Democratic-led chamber with several still left to be called. Democrats flipped seven seats in the United States Senate, making for a 54-44 majority, with two races yet to be determined.
In an interview with The Eastern Echo, Eastern Michigan University political science professors Joshua Koss and Jeffrey Bernstein explained the potential impacts of the newly gained Democratic control.
Joshua Koss has expertise and interest in Congress,
Joshua Koss has expertise and interest in Congress, presidency, elections, political media and political communications. During the current fall 2026 semester, Koss teaches American Government and a political analysis of “Star Wars” course.
Jeffrey Bernstein has expertise and interest in American government and politics, campaigns and elections, and voting behavior and public opinion. During the current fall 2026 semester, Bernstein teaches Introduction to Political Analysis.
Koss and Bernstein co-taught a course, Politics in the Time of Trump, during the winter 2025 semester. The class centered around analyzing political parties and legislative-executive relations in the time of President Donald Trump’s prominence.
Q: What does this election’s blue wave mean for the future of our country?
A: I think it means, at the very least,
A: I think it means, at the very least, for the next 2 years, you’re going to have a very interesting dynamic within the federal government. You’re going to have Trump with a strong opposition in both chambers of Congress. In terms of how much of this is going to curtail him, we’ll see. And he’s been willing to act unilaterally before, but I think this is going to make that a lot more difficult. I think that you’re probably going to see a lot more investigations of the executive, and other priorities that are pushed, that are at his expense, even though he has threatened to veto a lot of things. I think that this is going to potentially cascade into 2028, as well, depending on how he responds to this in the next 2 years.
Q: What does this tell us about how voters are feeling right now?
A: I think it’s really clear that the voters are incredibly dissatisfied with the status quo. I think that this is very clearly a rebuke of a lot of the things that happened under the Trump administration, whether it’s the rise in the cost of living more broadly, the rise in gas prices — especially in the past 6 months to a year. I think, not only is there just disapproval of economic conditions, other things, such as ICE, seem to have kind of died down relative to the economic conditions as a main concern. I think it also speaks to their inability to really kind of provide an alternative. I think their view was basically just like: “Well, just trust us, and things will actually get better,” or just pretending that these issues don’t exist at all.
Q: What could this mean for the 2028 election?
A: [It has] a lot of far sweeping implications. It’s going to make it harder on Trump … in terms of building out whatever his agenda remains to be. Then in terms of nominating the successor, I think that a Republican successor is going to be someone who would still need his support for the primary. But in the general, that is clearly going to be a killer, especially when he’s not on the ballot himself, for the Democrats. This really, I think, expands their bench. You have a lot of Democrats who are now proven winners in states that you wouldn’t expect before, whether these states might even vote for a Democratic president is certainly possible. And we’re seeing states that have been red for a long time — Kansas, Texas. Texas is in play for a presidential race that completely changes the electoral college map. It makes it extraordinarily difficult for a Republican to win if Texas votes Democratic for 2028 as well.
A: Well, I mean, it’s for me, policy standpoint
A: Well, I mean, it’s for me, policy standpoint. You continue to have a president who, in many ways, has been governing alone, working through executive orders working through in many ways, non-legislative means. So, you’re not likely to see a tremendous change in the short-term, obviously things like the budget have to go through Congress, and the Democrats are going to be far more empowered than they were to deal with those issues. It’s going to be really different when it comes to any presidential appointments that would have to happen. The Senate obviously approves cabinet officials, ambassadors and judges. Trump obviously no longer has a friendly senate to work with, so I think a lot of what has been done, has been done with executive orders. That’s not likely to change, but in terms of appointments, and some other things, I think you’re going to see a very big difference. On matters like that, this White House is going to have to figure out how to deal with a Congress controlled by the opposite party, and controlled by a pretty large number of members of the opposite party. This is not a small house majority, or a small senate majority; he’s dealing with a significantly sized opposition in Congress.
Q: What can we infer from sudden change in candidate victories in states like Texas?
A: It took a significant confluence of factors: an economy that is struggling. In a situation where so many of the economic wounds that we have right now are clearly self-inflicted by the Republican party — the war in Iran, for instance, and what it has done to the price of oil, or tariffs, and what that has done to the cost of living, it’s often very hard to pinpoint blame. When the economy goes south in this case, I think it was easier than most, so I think you had that.
I think you have a president who, while
I think you have a president who, while in his sixth year of the presidency, is wrapping up about his 11th year or so of really being the day-in-day-out, dominant story in American politics. And I think that act wears thin after a while. So, I think you’ve got that going on as well. He’s obviously quite unpopular. I mentioned the economy struggling, and you have a unique combination of some very, very strong democratic candidates. U.S. Senate-Elect James Talarico of Texas comes to mind as one example, U.S. Senate-Elect Adam Hamilton of Kansas comes together as another, and some very remarkably weak Republican candidates. If Trump keeps his hands off Texas, and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn gets the Republican nomination, I don’t think Talarico wins. If Ralph Norman had gotten the nomination for the Republicans in South Carolina, I think he wins. So, I think you’re seeing a whole massive confluence of factors coming together in one wild night
A: I think worried, in some cases. I think economic worries really weigh heavily on voters. I think that the opposition to Trump is a fairly intense opposition. There are voters who are just really not happy with the current party, not happy with, as I said, where the economy is going. I think you’re picking up that mood, and I think you are picking up a mood where many people who might not have been inclined to vote Democrat — many states that, I mean, you couldn’t imagine voting Democrats — this confluence of factors really, really drove that. Kansas hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932. This is weird.
Q: What could this mean for the 2028 presidential election?
A: Democrats won the Senate election in North Carolina by close to 20 points tonight. There is a very real possibility that North Carolina could be blue. Democrats have swept the upper Midwest: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. It widens the map. I think it makes a path to 270 electoral votes look a little bit easier for the Democrats. I think it gets a lot of people thinking, “Maybe I’m the person who should be running.”
On the Republican side, where I think loyalty
On the Republican side, where I think loyalty to Donald Trump had been considered a very clear positive, and almost prerequisite for moving ahead, I think that might change the equation a little bit. Tonight was a significant defeat for Donald Trump — for a candidate who’s really had some significant triumphs — tonight was a significant defeat. I don’t know, going forward, how this plays out, but candidates who have built their brand on being loyal backers of Donald Trump may have suffered at least a temporary hit based on the results tonight.
Q: How could this blue wave impact higher education?
A: I would imagine you’re going to see the blue wave impacting education, mostly at the state and local level. You have more states now that have Democratic governments. Governors and state legislatures that have turned over Democrat have typically been more supportive of higher education. In terms of funding for higher education, when you have unified Democratic control in states — or even just no longer having unified Republican control — I think that can have a significant impact. And I also imagine many states have begun to pass legislation that really cuts at issues of academic freedom, cuts at issues of giving professors the ability to teach the way they think their courses should be taught. I’m referring to things like SB1 in Ohio, and obviously many other similar laws. Having more Democratic state control could mean repealing, weakening or doing other things to those kinds of laws that I don’t think have been very good for higher education.
