Democrats sweep Congress and take Texas as DeSantis warns of a decade-long hit to Republicans
Exit polls show voters still preferred Republicans on immigration, but anger over prices, tariffs and the Iran war delivered a rout that leaves Canada's tariff fight unchanged.
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Article by Rebel News staff.
Tonight on The Ezra Levant Show: Democrats won control of both houses of Congress and turned Texas blue, a result Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called "the political equivalent of a meteor strike" and one that changes less for Canada than many in Ottawa hope.
Democrats hold at least 54 Senate seats, with Alaska and Mississippi still counting, after flipping seven: Iowa, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, Kansas, South Carolina and Texas. Sherrod Brown returns in Ohio, Roy Cooper won North Carolina and Susan Collins lost in Maine after 30 years. NBC projects 258 Democratic House seats, a number the party has not reached since 1993. Mike Johnson has told his staff he will not run again for Republican leader, and Hakeem Jeffries will be Speaker in January.
In Texas, 37-year-old Democratic state Rep. James Talarico beat Ken Paxton 55 per cent to 43 per cent, the first Democratic Senate win in the state since 1988. On the same ballot, Gina Hinojosa unseated three-term Governor Greg Abbott, becoming the first Democratic governor of Texas since Ann Richards.
President Donald Trump congratulated the Democrats and told the New York Times he accepts the results, then posted a picture of a hat reading VETO. DeSantis struck a different tone in Tallahassee, calling Texas "the crown jewel of Republican politics" and warning that its loss would hurt the party "for the next decade or more."
Exit polls put the economy first at 39 per cent, "the state of democracy" at 33 per cent and immigration at 14 per cent. On immigration, voters still preferred Republicans, 44 per cent to 41 per cent. DeSantis said immigration was a factor in Texas and South Florida but that gas prices, mortgage rates and grocery bills drove the vote. Vice-President JD Vance, who had negotiated with Iran for the administration, said the "real reason" was anger over the Iran war, which began Feb. 28, paused under an April ceasefire and resumed in July. DeSantis had called the war a "big, big drag" on Republicans the day before the vote.
In Canada, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said "Americans hate tariffs" and offered to work with Prime Minister Mark Carney to "leverage" that, while Dominic LeBlanc said Ottawa's "focus hasn't changed." Jeffries has called a bill to rescind the tariffs a first-week priority, but any repeal faces a veto, and an override needs 67 senators. Gavin Newsom, asked by Canadian media whether a Democratic president would lift the tariffs on Canada, replied, "I can't guarantee that." The Globe and Mail ran an editorial headlined "The Democrats are not coming to save Canada." Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs took full effect June 8, and the USMCA, not renewed at the July review, now runs year to year.
Markets split. The Dow rose 1,400 points, but AI stocks fell, with Nvidia, Micron, CoreWeave and Oracle down and data centre builders off as much as 24 per cent. Hinojosa wants an immediate moratorium on new data centres, and Wells Fargo estimates 27 per cent of planned U.S. data centre capacity is in Texas. A slower American AI build-out benefits Beijing, not Canada or Taiwan.
In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed defeated Mike Rogers to become the first Muslim senator in American history. In his Detroit victory speech he said America should send no money for "apartheid, or genocide, or war," after AIPAC spent $42 million against him. His win came a year after New York elected Zohran Mamdani mayor on a similar Gaza message. In Israel, where Benjamin Netanyahu lost his Knesset majority last month, Yair Lapid said the result "eliminate[s] any possibility" of a Netanyahu-led unity government. Vance also cited the "relationship with Israel," raising the prospect that both parties put distance between Washington and Jerusalem. Taipei said Taiwan "continues to enjoy bipartisan support," while Beijing called the vote "an internal affair of the United States."
Florida was the exception. Byron Donalds won the governorship, Ashley Moody held Marco Rubio's former Senate seat with 51 per cent, and DeSantis's property tax cut passed with 62 per cent. DeSantis credited "a record of achievement" and turned on his own party, calling the House Republican vote against releasing the Epstein files "untenable," criticizing congressmen who trade stocks and warning the Senate may not be winnable again until 2032. He put the chance of confirming a successor to Clarence Thomas or Sam Alito under Trump at zero.
Abroad, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said voters rejected "hatred, sexism and climate change denial," though DeSantis called the result "a rejection of Republicans in Washington." The incoming majority also belongs to the party that created the Disinformation Governance Board and whose White House, by Mark Zuckerberg's own letter to Congress, pressured Facebook to remove posts.
COMMENTS
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Bruce Atchison commented 2026-11-04 20:49:13 -0500 FlagWe conservatives win battles but we’re losing the war. Why? Our scruples hobble us. The left have no qualms about using dirty tricks whereas we do. So should we use dirty tricks? No, we must keep pointing out how we have standards while the left have double standards. If there is ANY hope, it’s with the prolls.
