Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Republicans faced the “worst-case scenario” in Tuesday's midterm elections, when Democrats rode a blue tsunami to flip control of the House and Senate amid challenging headwinds propelled by President Donald Trump’s approval rating. Republicans were dealt a major blow in the midterms, losing numerous seats that Trump won by double digits in the 2024 election. Democrats were poised to flip at least seven seats in the Senate and more than 25 seats in the House, penetrating deep into conservative territory in a stunning defeat for the GOP.
DeSantis, who has been mentioned as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, addressed the losses during a press conference Wednesday morning as Republicans grappled with the election results. In a post on X, he warned that Republicans are going to have a difficult time recovering their majorities in Congress. "Looking at the Senate map and considering such a massive House margin, it is very unlikely Republicans will recapture the Congress in 2028.
Might not have a shot at Senate control until 2032.” DeSantis pointed to losses in Texas as especially painful for the GOP as Democrats swept statewide offices, including the Senate and governor races, despite the state’s longtime reputation as a conservative stronghold. Newsweek reached out to the Republican National Committee for comment via email. Democrats flipped Republican-held Senate seats in Iowa, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.
GOP-held seats in Alaska and Mississippi have not been called. In the House, Democrats flipped at least 25 seats, with some races too close to call. Data from The New York Times indicates that Democrats were on track to post a 13-point victory in the national popular vote, though there were still many votes left to count.
That would mark a notable polling miss in favor of the Democrats. As of Tuesday, RealClearPolitics' polling aggregate showed Democrats up 8.8 points. The blue tsunami, however, wasn’t quite big enough for Democrats to flip Florida, a former battleground that has shifted rightward over the past few decades.
Republicans narrowly held on in the Senate and governor’s race, both of which were quite close. The GOP leads in all of the House seats they hold in the state, but it is unclear as of Wednesday morning if they will flip any Democratic seats despite redistricting that put several Democratic incumbents in tougher districts. Shawn Donahue, professor of political science at the University at Buffalo, told Newsweek that an influx of more conservative residents under the DeSantis administration is a reason why Florida may not have moved as much as other states.
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