Jon Ossoff appeared to have easily won a second term in Georgia as the 2026 United States Senate elections got underway and Republicans defended a slim majority in the chamber. The called the race for Ossoff and said Chris Pappas would succeed Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, giving Democrats early wins in two states that were central to the fight for control of the US Senate.
The result leaves Democrats needing at least four seats to regain control of the Senate after losing their majority in 2024. They also entered the night with 53 Republican seats in Congress's upper chamber after voters re-elected Trump in 2024.
Georgia and New Hampshire
Ossoff's race in Georgia was one of the Republican targets after Democrats lost their majority in 2024. The said he appeared to have won easily, while in New Hampshire it said Pappas would follow Shaheen, the outgoing senator.
Those calls came as Democrats were re-elected or kept hold of seats in Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Illinois, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. That kept their map alive while Republicans tried to hold the chamber with a narrow edge.
Trump in South Carolina and Texas
Democrats initially saw Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Alaska as their best chances to cut into the Republican edge. They also believed they could compete in Texas, Kansas, Iowa and South Carolina as sentiment toward Trump worsened, and Trump campaigned in Kansas, South Carolina and Texas in the final weeks before the midterms.
Republican candidates had already lost in two of the four Democratic-held states they targeted in Minnesota, New Hampshire, Michigan and Georgia. That left the remaining races to decide whether Democrats could make up the four-seat gain they need.
and Siena
A New York Times and Siena University poll published Sunday found Democrats leading in five battleground states and statistically tied in a sixth. That survey pointed to a broader path for Democrats, but the early calls in Georgia and New Hampshire already narrowed the number of states that still mattered for control of the chamber.
Which Senate races were not yet decided will determine whether Democrats can turn those early wins into the four-seat gain they need for the majority. Until those results land, the chamber still hangs on the remaining contests.
