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‘Historic change’: what the 2026 US mid-term election results mean for science
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Paediatrician Annie Andrews, a Democrat, won a US Senate seat in South Carolina in a surprise victory on 3 November. Democrats had not won a Senate seat in the state since 1998.Credit: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty
The US mid-term elections swept the Democratic party to power in both chambers of the US Congress, raising hopes that lawmakers will now push back against disruptions to science introduced by the administration of Republican President Donald Trump.
The results will mark the end of nearly two years in which the Republicans controlled the presidency and both congressional chambers — and many scientists around the world are celebrating the change as an opportunity to protect the country’s research system.
How the US mid-term elections could shake up science
“This is a big win,” says Megan Peters, a cognitive scientist who moved in 2025 from the University of California Irvine to University College London in part because of worries about US science. “It’s a demonstration that US [voters] are dissatisfied with what the current administration has been doing.” Scientific research “is America’s superpower, and it’s been cut at the knees”.
Those hopeful for change include researchers affected by the shuttering of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) early in Trump’s presidency. “I’m cautiously optimistic,” says Quarraisha Abdool Karim, an epidemiologist at the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in Durban, South Africa, which had partnered with USAID on clinical trials. “What we’ve seen in the past 24 hours is that democracy and democratic principles, with individuals turning out to vote, can make a huge difference.” But, she adds, “we will not see overnight changes”.
As of 2.15 p.m. EST on 4 November, Democrats had secured at least 237 seats in the 435-seat US House of Representatives and 54 seats in the 100-member US Senate, giving them decisive majorities in both, with votes still being counted in some states. These majorities will give them the power to craft legislation that counteracts Trump’s science agenda, although there will still be obstacles. For instance, given that Democrats haven’t won two-thirds of the seats in either chamber of Congress, the president can veto those bills.
Trump initially told The New York Times that he would accept the mid-term election results and that he would “look forward” to working with Democrats. Later, however, he posted an image of a red hat with the word ‘VETO’ to Truth Social, his social media platform.