Getty Images Jennifer Wexton, right, unseated Virginia Republican Barbara Comstock in one of Democrats’ pickups in the midterm elections on Tuesday.
Democrats are poised to take over the House of Representatives two years into President Donald Trump’s tenure, after Americans’ concerns about health care and immigration sent them marching to the polls in the midterm elections on Tuesday.
With election results still rolling in, NBC News and Fox News predicted Democrats would wrest enough seats from Republicans to control the House for the next two years. Newly empowered Democrats are likely to open investigations into Trump’s tax returns, pursue reducing drug prices and try to change campaign and ethics laws, top members of the party have said.
But with Republicans still in charge of the Senate and with Trump in the White House, House Democrats’ most ambitious plans would hit the wall of divided government, ushering in a new era of gridlock in Washington.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YMZ8, +0.32% were up about 66 points at about 11 p.m. Eastern.
In the Senate, Republicans made pickups in Indiana and North Dakota. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz defeated Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke in the third-most expensive Senate contest of the midterms. Other marquee Senate races, such as in Florida and Arizona, have yet to be called.
Read: These are the priciest congressional races of 2018 — in one chart.
House seats to flip include the Northern Virginia district now held by Republican Barbara Comstock, which was won Tuesday by Jennifer Wexton. In Florida, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell defeated the GOP’s Carlos Curbelo. Democrats need to flip 23 seats to gain control of the House.
See: At Wexton victory party, supporters say they didn’t want to leave anything to chance.
Trump campaigned extensively across the country for Republicans, appearing most recently on Monday at rallies in three separate states.
Any midterm election is partly a referendum on the president, yet many candidates left Trump out of their pitches to voters. Democrats and Republicans alike brawled over health care on the campaign trail, as well as immigration and taxes.
Read: Exit polls suggest midterm election voters focused on health care and immigration, not the booming economy.
Late Tuesday night, Trump tweeted, there was “tremendous success” in the midterms.
Tremendous success tonight. Thank you to all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2018
As signs of Democrats’ House victory built, Trump sounded a note about working with the party. Analysts have pointed to possible areas of compromise on infrastructure spending and drug pricing, and the president hasn’t dismissed working across the aisle.
“I would love to get along, and I think after the election a lot of things can happen,” Trump said in an interview with Sinclair Broadcast Group on Monday.
Also see: Trump says he’d prefer a ‘softer tone’ as president.
