Democrats win control in Pa. and D.C.; Trump celebrates ballroom after stunning losses; Boyle won't challenge Fetterman

At least in Southeastern Pennsylvania, the blue wave was not fueled by a surge in voter turnout.

Although some votes are still being counted, Tuesday’s turnout in Philadelphia and the four suburban counties is on track to come in slightly lower than in 2022, the last presidential midterm election cycle.

In Philadelphia, where more than 99% of ballots had been counted as of Wednesday afternoon, turnout among registered voters was about 44.6%. Four years ago, about 47.4% participated.

Standing outside Small World Coffee Shop in downtown Princeton, the Democratic governor told reporters she knew Cape May Mayor Zack Mullock had what it took to unseat incumbent Republican Jeff Van Drew in the 2nd Congressional District.

“Zack Mullock — oh, my gosh, guys — N.J. 2. Everyone in New Jersey knew we could get it. Nobody outside of New Jersey thought we could win that race,” Sherrill said.

“So we all came together and now we have a great public servant, a mayor, somebody who’s a small-business owner. His parents are small-business owners, has a family, knows what families are going through. These are the kinds of people we need in Washington.”

The final tabulations will take a while, but evidently the voter turnouts in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey topped those of the 2022 midterm elections.

In New Jersey, about three million cast ballots in Tuesday election, said Ashley Koning, director of the Rutgers University Eagleton Institute Center for Public Interest Polling. That would be represent a more than 400,000 increase over 2022. The turnout figure, around 45%, would be a four percentage point increase over four years ago.

The bump, said Koning, was “absolutely all about” President Donald Trump.

At the governor’s residence Wednesday afternoon, Josh Shapiro congratulated legislators who took the Senate while he enjoyed his own reelection.

Shapiro connected the Pennsylvania wins with a larger national blue wave that altered the political landscape.

“Voters said last night with a resounding vote they no longer want to be governed by small and selfish men who are plundering our nation and raising our costs.”

U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Phila.) said Wednesday he would not run for U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s seat in 2028, opting instead to focus on serving as chair of one of the most powerful committees in Congress after Democrats’ dominant victories to regain control of the House.

Boyle, who will begin his seventh term in January, is set to take the reins of the House Budget Committee, the first Pennsylvanian to do so in nearly four decades.

“For months, many of my supporters have urged me to consider running for U.S. Senate in 2028. I have always said that after the November 2026 election, I would make a decision based on one simple question: Where can I have the biggest impact on public policy?” Boyle said. “After months of consulting many whom I respect, including current senators and past committee chairs, it is quite clear that I can have a much bigger impact on policy as Budget Committee chairman rather than as a freshman member of the Senate.”

Local

National

While Democrats have already won control of both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, a few high-profile races have yet to be called.

After a bludgeoning at the ballot box that resulted in Republicans losing control of any chamber in Congress or Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania Republican Party will be assessing the results and "ensure we are prepared for the challenges ahead," its chairman said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

"Elections bring both victories and setbacks, but our responsibility to the people of Pennsylvania doesn’t change," said Greg Rothman, the state GOP chairman and state senator. "We have work to do."

The Pennsylvania Republican Party also acknowledged state Treasurer Stacy Garrity for her "tireless campaign" for governor. The state GOP initially cleared the field for Garrity by endorsing her unprecedentedly early in September 2025. But ultimately, the party and other top GOP groups were facing strong Democratic headwinds that led them to provide Garrity little support, until the final days of the election. Other top GOP groups, like the Republican Governors Association, never got involved at all.

After historic election losses across the country, President Donald Trump's mind was on kitchens and ballrooms.

"The kitchen is underneath ... If I put the kitchen on top, you would lose three walls," Trump said at the construction site of his controversial White House ballroom Wednesday afternoon.

Trump promoted his "top-of-the-line" ballroom one day after losing both the House and Senate to Democrats, wiping out Republican control in a "blue tsunami" that swept across the U.S.

Local county activists in New Jersey's 2nd District stressed their ground game, and said Zack Mullock was poised to upset U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew despite the lack of involvement from national Democrats, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, until late in the game. Even then, the DCCC did not contribute financially.

“We did it without Washington,” said Michael Suleiman, a former chair of Atlantic County’s Democratic Party. He said the DCCC should examine how they evaluate races, as it almost entirely overlooked the 2nd District.

Suleiman supported Van Drew when he was a Democrat, then “drew a line in the sand,” and demanded Van Drew vote to impeach Trump.

Voters across the country, in a stunning display of dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump, threw their support behind Democrats in historic fashion on Tuesday, deliverig the opposition party widespread control from Harrisburg to Washington after lifting Trump’s GOP to power just two years ago.

The decisive wins were up and down the ballot, with strategists on both sides of the aisle declaring a “blue tsunami.” Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, including a clean sweep of four battleground districts in Pennsylvania. Republican stalwarts like U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Scott Perry went down. New Jersey looks poised to send only one Republican to Washington.

The party flipped at least seven seats in the U.S. Senate, including in states long seen as deep-red territory such as South Carolina and Kansas, securing a commanding majority that was unthinkable just a few months ago.

All precincts in the 1st Congressional District, which includes all of Bucks County and a portion of Montgomery County, shifted toward U.S. Rep.-elect Bob Harvie, a Democrat, handing him a monumental victory on election night, according to an Inquirer analysis of voting data.

Harvie improved on former Democratic candidate Ashley Ehasz’s performance against Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick in 2024 — Fitzpatrick went on to beat Ehasz that year by double digits.

The representative-elect saw his highest vote margins in a precinct in Solebury Township, New Hope Borough, a precinct in Montgomery County slightly north of Horsham, and in a precinct of Harvie’s stomping grounds in Falls Township.

Midterm election results made for a wave of firsts, elevating members of historically underrepresented groups into high office, bringing new generations into the political fold, and turning over longtime strongholds.

From the country’s first Black female governor, to the first Muslim U.S. senator, the first Gen-Z woman in Congress, and a first Black speaker of the House poised to take over soon, a mix of mostly Democrats and some GOP wins are collectively pushing the envelope.

Here’s an overview of some of the major breakthroughs:

In failing to weather Tuesday’s blue wave, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick conceded to Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie on Wednesday.

“I wish Bob Harvie success as he assumes a responsibility that is both extraordinary and humbling. The responsibility to represent every person in our community, whether they voted for him or not. To lead with independence, to welcome differences of opinion, and to remember the people we serve must always come before party.”

Harvie, 55, mounted a campaign against one of the toughest incumbents in the country, the five-term Fitzpatrick, who has survived several blue wave elections, boasts hefty fundraising coffers, and enjoys family-name recognition. For years, Fitzpatrick has been known as a Republican who appealed to many across the political spectrum.

After U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew conceded to Cape May Mayor Zach Mullock in Tuesday’s general election, he told reporters “everything came together the wrong way.”

In January the incumbent Republican will end his eight years representing New Jersey’s 2nd congressional district, which covers most of South Jersey and almost all the Jersey Shore towns.

At an election night party, Van Drew attributed Tuesday's loss to a "wave election" sweeping people away "who didn't do anything wrong," including himself.

President Donald Trump said he was "a little surprised" by Tuesday night's sweeping election results, where Democrats took control of both the House and Senate.

"I thought they'd do better," Trump said during a phone interview with Fox News late Tuesday night, referring in some cases to candidates he picked and endorsed. "I thought that I could transfer those people into candidates... but in certain cases they didn't win."

As for why Republicans suffered such steep loses, Trump said he didn't blame himself or his cabinet. He did take aim at voters upset over the high price of gasoline stemming from the conflict in Iran.

Democrats have flipped four U.S. House seats in Pennsylvania, a clean sweep of the state’s competitive congressional elections.

Two of the ousted GOP incumbents won their seats with President Donald Trump’s help just just two years ago. The other two, including U.S. Brian Fitzpatrick in Bucks County, are longtime Republican lawmakers with long tenures and distinct political brands.

The sweeping wins in Pennsylvania – along with Democratic wins in New Jersey — helped put the party in control of the House for the first time in four years and for the remaining years of Trump’s presidency. As of Wednesday morning, the Associated Press called 228 House seats for Democrats, 10 more than they needed to take over the majority.

Gov. Josh Shapiro cruised to reelection on Tuesday, trouncing his Republican opponent Stacy Garrity in a decisive victory that strengthens the Democrat’s prospects for a 2028 presidential run.

The Associated Press called the race for Shapiro shortly after polls closed across the state. The resounding win for Shapiro, 53, of Abington Township, cements his dominance in the critical battleground state that voted for President Donald Trump just two years ago.

But a more substantial test of Shapiro’s strength is still to come in the following hours and days, as he’s staked his reputation on helping Democrats win up and down the ballot. The move could bolster his national standing at a time when the Democratic Party searches for a new leader to carry it into the post-Trump era. Shapiro invested $10 million of his campaign war chest to flip four congressional seats and to win a Democratic trifecta of control in Harrisburg for the first time since 1993, in races that had yet to be called on Tuesday evening.

(Left to Right) Volunteers Christina DeLullo, Vicky McCaffrey, and voter Keith Franchetti at the polls at Barry Playground polling place, on Election Day, in South Philadelphia.Read moreJessica Griffin / Staff Photographer

By the time polls opened just after daybreak on what turned out to be a magnificent Election Day with the weather evoking a spring primary, the sunlight had turned the foliage on the treetops to fire.

Whether that somehow lit a fire among those who voted was arguable, but a certain energy was evident at the polls as voters cast ballots that potentially could change the balance of power in the U.S. House and the Pennsylvania Senate.

Of several congressional seats considered up for grabs, the race in solid purple Bucks County between GOP incumbent U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and Democratic challenger Bob Harvie was among the most closely watched in the nation as talk of a Democratic “blue wave” had been building.