US midterm elections ۲۰۲۶ live: all eyes on last two razor-thin Senate races as Democrats vie to expand blue wave

Today, our team of Guardian political reporters will also be answering your questions about the historic blue wave that swept through these midterm elections.

We’ll dig in to how Democrats managed to pull off this seismic win for control of Congress, and what’s next for the party and for Donald Trump.

Submit your questions and join us from noon ET.

Tom Phillips

Flávio Bolsonaro, the far-right politician who lost Brazil’s presidential election last month, has insisted his defeat is not “the end for Brazil” as he battles to maintain political relevance after fleeing to the US.

Bolsonaro absconded early last week shortly after losing the ۲۵ October election to the leftwing incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by more than ۴m votes.

On Thursday night Bolsonaro made his first major public appearance since arriving in the US, speaking at a rightwing gathering at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property where he claimed “great things” were still to come.

“I know this wasn’t the end for Brazil and I know it wasn’t the end for America,” Bolsonaro, ۴۵, told a gala dinner at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)’s four-day “gathering of visionaries” event, where the former British prime minister Liz Truss is also due to speak.

“Even when what seems like the end isn’t what we’d hoped for, we must thank God and have even more faith that this isn’t yet the end,” he added. “No one shuts the door that he opens – and the door he shuts, no one opens.”

Earlier, in his first post-election interview, Bolsonaro made a series of unsubstantiated claims about election fraud and insisted he received “help from absolutely no one” to flee.

“It was all me,” Bolsonaro told the New York Times, contradicting reports that he was helped by the Trump adviser Jason Miller and Santiago Caputo, a close aide to Argentina’s rightwing president, Javier Milei.

He said he would “take to the grave” the full story of how he had fled Brazil, where he faces federal police investigations for money laundering and corruption. Bolsonaro is a member of congress who has held elected office for more than ۲۰ years but he will lose parliamentary immunity early next year when his term ends, meaning he could then be prosecuted.

Donald Trump will begin the day in Washington today.

He has closed door meetings for much of the day, and will take part in a Diwali celebration at the White House at ۱:۳۰pm ET. While that’s currently not open to the press we’ll let you know if that opens up.

Trump will then head to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for remarks at the Kennedy Space Center at ۶pm ET. We’ll bring you the latest as that gets going.

The US jobs report shows that employers added ۱۶۵,۰۰۰ jobs in October – a significant increase, defying expectations. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate saw a slight drop to ۴.۱%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the latest US jobs report at ۸.۳۰am ET today. Analysts have predicted a slight increase in October job numbers, while predicting that unemployment will stay around ۴.۲%.

A reminder that the last report before the midterm elections saw US employers add only ۲۹,۰۰۰ jobs in September, a sharp drop from August’s gains, and unemployment rose slightly.

We’ll bring you the latest as we learn more.

Mark Sweney

European stock markets have fallen sharply as a rout in US tech stocks spread across the Atlantic, after the Democrats’ midterms victory sparked fears of a slowdown in the AI industry.

A sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday was followed by sharp falls in Asian stocks markets on Friday morning. The investor sentiment then reached London, where the market is poised for its worst day since March.

The FTSE ۱۰۰ index, which tracks blue-chip shares listed in London, was down ۲۰۷ points, or ۱.۹%, at ۱۰,۵۷۵ points in mid-morning trading.

Germany’s Dax index fell by ۱.۹% in morning trading, France’s Cac ۴۰ dropped by ۱.۵% and Spain’s Ibex lost ۱.۱%.

Susannah Streeter, the chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said: “The tech sell-off has intensified, with the pain of the brutal sell-off on Wall Street carried straight through to Asia and knocking sentiment in Europe.

“Big worries are colliding – the build-out of datacentres looks set to slow, which risks shredding the spending spree underpinning the boom, right at the time that investors have become super nervous about returns on this massive investment.”

Read more:

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has issued a statement on his Truth Social app calling on US states to embrace artificial intelligence (AI), or “superintelligence” as he prefers to call it, arguing that those which attract AI companies, data centres and investment stand to become enormously wealthy. As my colleague Graeme Wearden writes, global markets have been rattled by a Wall Street selloff in AI-related stocks, amid concerns that the prospect of tighter regulation following the US midterm elections could add to worries over the sector’s mounting debt and spending.

Trump wrote:

As President, I am ۱۰۰% in favor of Super Intelligence (SI), and will work with the many States in the U.S. that want to become RICH by having them. They are GOLD, and only foolish leadership will say “NO” to the riches they bring!”

His comments followed an earlier all-caps post in which he declared:

I JUST WASN’T ON THE BALLOT. IF I WERE, WE WOULD HAVE WON IN A LANDSLIDE!”

Musk’s wealth has fallen by $۱۱۳bn since midterms

Graeme Wearden

The post-midterms market rout has been particularly painful for Elon Musk.

Musk (who put $۴۴۶m of support into Republican campaigns), has lost around $۱۱۳bn of wealth in the last two days.

This is because his two largest companies have both been badly hit in the sell-off.

Tesla fell ۳.۳۴% on Wednesday, as investors reacted to the Democrats’ electoral success, then ۱۰.۷% on Thursday. Musk owns ۱۷.۷% of the carmaker.

SpaceX lost ۳.۸% on Wednesday, then ۹% yesterday – which also hurt Musk as he owns ۱۰.۳% of it.

In total, Musk’s paper wealth fell by $۳۳.۵bn on Wednesday, and then by another $۷۹.۷bn yesterday, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

Despite this, Musk is still the world’s richest person with a paper wealth of $۷۸۵bn, more than double Jeff Bezos in second place with $۳۷۰bn.

For the latest economic and financial news, you can follow our live blog here:

Ed Pilkington

Tuesday night’s explosive rout of the Republican party was supercharged by the fury of Hispanic Americans who turned out in record numbers in key battlegrounds to protest the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant assault on their communities.

“Trump went against us,” said Benny Melendez from Weslaco, Texas. “He made us the target of ICE operations, so we decided to punish him by voting against his party. That’s what happened.”

Melendez, the owner of a small housebuilding company in south Texas, voted for Donald Trump in the presidential election two years ago, attracted by his promise to secure the Mexican border and improve the economy. But on Tuesday, he cast his vote for the Democrats in a display of pure anger.

Two of his cousins and up to ۱۵ of his building workers have been picked up and deported to Mexico by ICE. When Melendez voted for Trump in ۲۰۲۴ he expected the immigration raids would focus on those with criminal records, he said, not his relatives and employees.

“They’re taking our neighbors. They’re taking our friends. They’re they’re taking our workers, and they’re taking our family members. This is an attack against our community.”

Melendez’s rage, replicated in the millions across Texas, Florida and other critical swing states, itself tells a story. It speaks to how Trump first wooed, and then alienated, the backing of many Latino voters, effectively shooting himself in the foot.

Read more:

Following a difficult set of midterm results for the Republican party, Donald Trump has spent much of this week talking up his renovation projects in Washington. Thursday brought the first official action of his post-midterms presidency – a proclamation designating the gold-adorned Oval Office and Cabinet Room as a national monument.

Here’s the signing:

With the dust still settling on the midterms, attention is already turning to the Republicans who might seek to lead the party into the next presidential race in ۲۰۲۸. JD Vance, Ted Cruz and Ron DeSantis are among those in the mix, as the Republican party begins to reckon with the fallout from its midterms performance.

In this report, my colleague Ariana Baio looks at the early jockeying, the potential contenders and what the midterm results could mean for the party’s future:

Welcome to our live coverage of the US midterm elections – here are some of the latest key developments.

• A number of closely watched contests in the midterms are still to be called, including the final two US Senate races – in Mississippi and Alaska. The Democratic candidates are hoping to oust Republican incumbents to bolster their new majority in Congress. Right now, Democrats have a ۱۰۶-seat majority in Congress as we await final results.

• Democrats flipped another eight House seats, strengthening their majority in the lower chamber. Democrats are now leading Republicans ۲۵۳ to ۱۵۷, with ۲۵ races left to call, as a number of GOP representatives felt the weight of the blue wave that has swept their party out of power. Republicans held on to two House seats in the west as congressman Mike Kennedy won re-election in Utah and Amanda McKinney won in Washington.

• Democratic socialist Nithya Raman was elected to serve as the mayor of Los Angeles, eking out a narrow win over incumbent Karen Bass, in a major shake-up in local politics that reflects the growing dissatisfaction with the direction of the city. The progressive urban planner had served on LA’s city council since ۲۰۲۰.

• Harmeet Dhillon, a key Trump ally, resigned from her position leading the justice department’s Civil Rights division. Attorney general Todd Blanche said he accepted her notice. Dhillon is the first high-ranking justice department official to leave after the midterm elections. Democrats are expected to use their power in taking control of Congress to aggressively investigate executive agencies, including the justice department.

• Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic senator-elect in Michigan, said the new majority in the upper chamber needed “action” from their leader. On the campaign trail El-Sayed refused to back Senator Chuck Schumer, who currently serves as the minority leader. Speaking to CNN, El-Sayed reiterated that Senator Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat, would be an “amazing Senate majority leader”, but didn’t completely rule out supporting Schumer.

• Joining the chorus of Republicans who blasted their party’s midterms performance is Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who said the GOP were handed an “ass-kicking” in losing control of Congress. “It was not simply a bad ۲۰۰۶ midterm election, it was a Watergate-level repudiation,” he said on his podcast.

• The Nasdaq share index had its worst day in ۱۹ months after slumping ۵.۵% on Thursday amid growing signs the artificial intelligence industry will face tougher regulation because of the midterm results.

• Donald Trump signed a proclamation that preserves the Oval Office and Cabinet Room as national monuments in his first official action after the Republican wipeout.