WASHINGTON — The Democratic wave on Tuesday did not stop at Congress. Democrats won full control of state governments in five more states, and in Texas they took the governor’s office and a majority in the state House for the first time in more than two decades, according to results tracked by the Associated Press and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). The state gains came on top of the party’s wins for control of both chambers of Congress.
What “full control” means
Full control — called a trifecta — means one party holds the governor’s office and both chambers of the state legislature. A party with a trifecta can pass its agenda into law without needing votes from the other side.
Democrats earned new trifectas in five states:
- Michigan: Democrats flipped the state House. They already held the state Senate and the governor’s office, so the party regained the full control it lost in 2024.
- Minnesota: The state House, tied between the parties since 2024, flipped to Democrats, restoring their trifecta.
- Nevada: Aaron Ford won the governor’s race in a state where Democrats already held both legislative chambers.
- Pennsylvania: Democrats flipped the state Senate for the first time since before the 1994 elections, adding it to the governor’s office and the state House.
- Wisconsin: Both legislative chambers flipped from Republican to Democratic control for the first time since 2010, and the governor is a Democrat.
The Texas flip
The biggest change came in Texas. Gina Hinojosa defeated Gov. Greg Abbott to become the first Latina elected governor of Texas, according to Reuters. Democrats also won a majority in the Texas House, flipping more than 20 Republican-held seats in a chamber Republicans have run since 2003, according to the AP’s race calls. Republicans kept the Texas Senate, so power in the state capital is now split, and the Republican trifecta there is broken.
Texas was one of four states where a Republican trifecta broke on Tuesday, according to the NCSL and Reuters. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governor’s race, and Democrats were leading in the contest for the state House, which Republicans have held for more than 20 years. In Iowa, Rob Sand won the governorship. In Ohio, Amy Acton won the governorship, and Democrats broke the Republicans’ supermajority in the state House — the two-thirds majority that lets lawmakers override a governor’s veto.
The wider map
Democrats now hold 28 governorships to the Republicans’ 20, with two races still uncalled, according to the NCSL. It is the first time Democrats have held most of the nation’s governorships since before 2010.
Democrats also ousted incumbent Republican secretaries of state — the officials who run elections — in Georgia, Indiana and Ohio, according to Reuters. Texas and Georgia elected Democratic attorneys general for the first time in more than a decade.
Why it matters
State governments write many of the rules people live under every day: pay, health care, abortion, schools and taxes. They also run elections and draw the district maps for Congress, which is why these results can shape national politics for years, policy experts told Reuters. The new Democratic-led states can now move on their own agendas without Republican votes, and the broken Republican trifectas mean governors in Texas, Georgia, Iowa and Ohio must share power.
What Republicans say
Republican leaders blamed the losses in part on the war in Iran. Vice President JD Vance said the war hurt Republicans in the midterms, and President Donald Trump acknowledged that it played a part in the party’s losses. Political scientists also note that the president’s party usually loses ground in midterm elections. Republicans made a similar sweep of state offices in 2010, during Barack Obama’s first midterm, as Michael Berkman of Penn State University pointed out to Reuters.
What is not final yet
These results are projections based on AP race calls and unofficial counts. They become official only after each state certifies its results, which happens over the coming weeks. A small number of close legislative races were still uncalled on Wednesday, so final seat counts in some chambers could still shift.
Read more: Texas Democrats win Senate seat and governor’s race · Election 2026: the winners in every state
