Trump’s endorsement record clashes with blue wave as Democrats sweep in midterm elections

Just the News 02 November 2026

President Donald Trump's endorsement, a near-unstoppable force in this year's Republican primaries, slammed into a Democratic wave Tuesday night as several of his hand-picked Senate and gubernatorial candidates went down and

Democrats claimed control of both the House and the Senate.

Trump-backed Senate nominees Ken Paxton, in Texas; Michael Whatley, in North Carolina; and Darline Graham, in South Carolina, fell short, as did Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa, who lost the GOP-held seat to Democrat Josh Turek.

His picks for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, in Ohio; Rick Jackson, in Georgia; and incumbent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also lost. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs was projected to win reelection over Trump-endorsed Rep. Andy Biggs.

But the night was no wipeout for the president's slate. Rep. Byron Donalds, who Trump backed early in the GOP primary, won Florida's governor's race, an outcome that staved off a worst-case scenario for Republicans in the Sunshine State. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming, another Trump endorsee, won her state's open Senate seat, the Associated Press projects. She will keep for Republicans the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who did not seek reelection.

Not all results are in. Ballots are still being counted in House races across the country, and Alaska's Senate race could go to a ranked-choice tabulation. That means the final word on Trump's general election endorsement record may not come for days.

A primary juggernaut

Tuesday's mixed results stand in contrast to a primary season Trump dominated. His endorsees won 96% of their 2026 primaries, with only 11 losses, though analysts note that figure is padded by uncontested incumbents. Ballotpedia tracks the same record.

When Trump did pick fights, he largely won them. Trump-backed challengers ousted Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. Bill Cassidy and Rep. Thomas Massie this year, reshaping the GOP conference in his image.

History was also working against him. On the eve of the vote, Trump acknowledged the long-standing pattern of a sitting president's party struggling in midterms. He told supporters, "For some reason, the sitting president doesn't win the midterms."

Republicans lost the House in his first midterm in 2018 but expanded their Senate majority.

Trump also told The New York Times he is "absolutely willing" to accept the results. He said he did not regret endorsing candidates such as Paxton who lost Tuesday.

'Mr. Veto'

Whatever a Democratic Congress passes will have a hard time making it past Trump's desk. "I have the ultimate power — it's called 'veto,'" the president told CBS News before polls closed, embracing the nickname "Mr. Veto."

Overriding a veto takes a two-thirds vote in both chambers, a bar Democrats are not expected to reach with the margins they won Tuesday.

Trump framed the veto as leverage rather than gridlock.

"They'll be sending stuff up, you veto it," he said in a New York Post interview, predicting Democrats would eventually come to the table to make a deal. He also cited a Supreme Court ruling that let him fire a Democratic FTC commissioner, saying it expanded his executive authority.

Impeach or legislate?

That leaves Democrats with a choice for the final two years of Trump's term: spend their new majorities trying to impeach him or try to pass legislation.

Impeachment takes only a simple majority in the House. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has said he expects an impeachment push on "day one" of a Democratic majority. But removal requires a two-thirds Senate vote, and Trump was acquitted after both impeachments in his first term.

Legislating runs into the same math. Any bill must survive the president's veto pen or win enough Republican votes to override it. That leaves Democrats to decide whether the next two years are about investigations or deals.

The record prior to midterms

Trump went into election night with one of the most-cited numbers in Republican politics: about 96% of the candidates he endorsed in 2026 won their primaries. But primaries are fought among Republicans, and his picks for Tuesday night faced Democrats and independents.

Trump's success in the primaries was nothing new for the 45th and 47th president. His primary endorsees won 98% of the time in 2020, and even his weakest recent cycle, 2022, ended above 90%. General elections have been slightly weaker, though still considerably high for any politician. In the 2022 midterms, Ballotpedia put his general-election success rate at 78%, well below his primary numbers.

Ballotpedia's tracker counted 313 primary endorsements this cycle with a 96% success rate, and Trump's own graphics claimed 254 wins out of 262. That matches past cycles: 98% in 2020 and 93% to 95% in 2022, depending on who is counting.

A FiftyPlusOne analysis of 267 congressional and gubernatorial endorsements found that 41% of his picks had no primary opponent and 72% were incumbents. In open, contested primaries, his rate fell to 88%. Governor's races were his weak spot, at 17 wins out of 22, with losses in Georgia, Iowa, South Carolina, Minnesota and Wyoming.

Amanda Head is White House Correspondent for Just the News. You can follow her here.