Democrats seized control of House while Republicans fortified their hold on the Senate as voters stormed the polls Tuesday to render the first electoral judgment on the tumultuous presidency of Donald Trump.
Riding a wave of discontent that drew hordes of first-time voters, Democrats picked up House seats in blue states, red and purple ones _ from New York to Oklahoma, New Jersey to Colorado, Florida to Minnesota and Texas.
Democrats had claimed at least 23 of the seats needed to seize control of the chamber even before results came in from California, which had a half dozen contests considered too close to call.
The takeover marked the third time in 12 years that the chamber traded partisan hands, a level of volatility unmatched since the years after World War II.
The party also picked up governorships in Illinois, Kansas and Michigan.
The Senate presented a contrasting picture, reflecting the different political battlefields _ mostly rural versus mostly urban _ of Tuesday's congressional contests.
The GOP beefed up its narrow 51-49 Senate majority with victories in North Dakota, where Rep. Kevin Cramer defeated freshman Democrat Heidi Heitkamp, and Indiana, where businessman and former state lawmaker Mike Braun beat first-term incumbent Joe Donnelly.
In Tennessee, Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn defeated the state's former governor, moderate Democrat Phil Bredesen, to hang onto the seat of the retiring GOP incumbent, Bob Corker.
All three Republicans ran as unswerving supporters of the president, who carried each of their heavily rural states by comfortable margins. Democrats steadily chipped away at the GOP majority in the House while Republicans fortified their hold on the Senate as voters stormed the polls Tuesday to render the first electoral judgment on the tumultuous presidency of Donald Trump.
Riding a wave of discontent that drew hordes of first-time voters, Democrats picked up House seats in blue states, red and purple ones _ from New York to Oklahoma, New Jersey to Colorado, Florida to Minnesota and Texas.
Even before the polls closed in California at 8 p.m., Democrats had claimed nearly all the 23 seats needed to seize control of the chamber.
The party also picked up governorships in Illinois, Kansas and Michigan.
The Senate presented a contrasting picture, reflecting the different political battlefields _ mostly rural-vs- mostly urban _ of Tuesday's congressional contests.
The GOP beefed up its narrow 51-49 Senate majority with victories in North Dakota, where Rep. Kevin Cramer defeated freshman Democrat Heidi Heitkamp, and Indiana, where businessman and former state lawmaker Mike Braun beat first-term incumbent Joe Donnelly.
In Tennessee, Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn defeated the state's former governor, moderate Democrat Phil Bredesen, to hang onto the seat of the retiring GOP incumbent, Bob Corker.
All three Republicans ran as unswerving supporters of the president, who carried each of their heavily rural states by comfortable margins.
In West Virginia, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III, a prime target in a state Trump won by 40 percentage points, defeated Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to win his second full term. Democratic incumbents also held on in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin _ states that were key to the president's 2016 victory.
Although Trump was not on the ballot, he loomed large on Tuesday _ the way presidents historically have in midterm elections _ and many voters seized the opportunity to make their feelings known.
About two-thirds of those interviewed in exit polling said Trump was a major factor in their vote, with 40 percent of those saying they cast their ballots in opposition to the president and 25 percent expressing support.
For Republicans such as Charles Cooke, who cast his ballot in McAllen, Texas, it was a chance to deliver a big thumbs-up for the kind of non-politician he said the country needs.
"The things that have happened in the past two years are good," Cooke said outside the Fireman's Pumphouse polling station in Fireman's Park. "The jobs, the economy is better than ever, a lot of manufacturing, companies are coming back to the United States."
Many, however, looked past the strong economy. Even though two-thirds of those interviewed said the economy was in good shape, according to an Associated Press exit poll, 6 in 10 said the country was nevertheless headed in the wrong direction _ suggesting they weighed other factors apart from their pocketbook.
Arriving at his polling station in Fayetteville, Ga., Christy Jindra said he felt a little uneasy about his vote in the state's fiercely fought gubernatorial race between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp.
"I'd probably not vote for Abrams if Donald Trump wasn't president," the 54-year-old attorney said. "Quite frankly, the Republicans have got to be slapped down a bit."
Jindra used to consider himself a conservative, but voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 because he didn't think Trump was presidential material. His opinion has not changed.
"You don't believe anything he says," he said. "It's horrible."
For the most part, the election went off with no major glitches.
There were reports nationwide of broken voting machines and confusion at polling places. But nothing out of the ordinary for Election Day, and many of the problems stemmed from unusually long lines, which pointed to a higher-than-usual turnout for a midterm election.
Weather also played a part. In portions of the Deep South storm-related blackouts, including one in Knox County, Tenn., left several polling places without electricity, forcing voters there to resort to paper ballots.
Contrary to Trump's warnings of possible nefarious acts, elections officials did not report any widespread voter fraud or irregularities.
Tuesday's balloting culminated two years of anger and political agitation, which began virtually the moment Trump took office.
Protesters flooded the streets in nationwide demonstrations the first weekend after his swearing-in, forging an army of dissenters who swelled the ranks of Democratic candidates and volunteers and filled the party's coffers with a flood of campaign cash.
Republicans responded by rallying fiercely behind the president, overcoming any qualms about his tweets and temperament to battle critics and fight the so-called Democratic resistance.
The result was a midterm campaign that consumed and convulsed the nation like few non-presidential elections have in recent times.
"A great deal is at stake," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who could be restored as House speaker, told reporters during a swing last month through Florida, a perennial political battleground. "Our fundamental belief in our Constitution. The great respect we should command for everyone in our community. Fairness."
Republicans agreed, at least as far as the import of Tuesday's contests.
"This election is a choice between Republican results and radical resistance," Trump told supporters at a pre-election rally in Columbia, Mo. "It's a choice between greatness and gridlock. It's a choice between jobs and mobs."
To a greater degree than usual, issues such as the robust economy, which stood to benefit Republicans, and expanding healthcare, a part of the Democratic platform, took a back seat to raw emotion.
The searing fight over Brett M. Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation deepened antagonism on both sides. Domestic terrorist attacks, including the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue and a spate of mail bombs directed at Trump's critics, including Clinton and former President Barack Obama, put the country on edge.
Trump heightened tensions in the final days of the campaign by focusing on the fraught issue of immigration and, in particular, a migrant caravan inching its way to the U.S.-Mexico border; it reminded both sides what they love and hate about the president.
But passion alone did not rule the election; so did the hard-and-fast realities of geography. The fight for control of the House and Senate amounted to separate and distinct contests.
In House races, the political terrain tilted heavily in Democrats' favor, with the key battlegrounds sprinkled throughout cities and the nation's suburbs, home to millions of female voters, college graduates, Latinos and other minorities at the vanguard of the Trump opposition.
The Senate map, by contrast, unfurled across Trump country: rural, mostly white, older and heavily conservative. Democrats were forced to defend 24 seats _ 10 of them in states the president won _ compared with just nine for Republicans, only one of them for a state that Clinton won.
Even before the polls close, one thing seemed certain.
The country is more deeply split than it has been in years. A pre-election Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 90 percent of those surveyed believe that political division is a problem for the country. Tellingly, when asked whom they held responsible, most partisans blamed the other party.
Nothing done or said during the long, venomous campaign or in Tuesday's results suggests attitudes will change any time soon.
