November 4, 2026 - Trump Rebuked, Dems Take House and Senate

On Election Day I spoke with Dan Balz, the Washington Post’s chief correspondent, about a pre-election piece he wrote. One passage stopped me: “Four decades ago, about two dozen states had split Senate delegations in Washington. Today, only three—Maine, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin—have a senator from each party.”

I grew up in a Pennsylvania that elected the real Bob Casey governor while returning Arlen Specter to the Senate. That used to be ordinary. In 1972, 192 House districts, or 44 percent, voted for one party’s presidential nominee and the other party’s congressman. In 2024, just 16 of 435 did. In the 1970s more than a quarter of voters split their ballots between president and Congress. By 2020, nine in ten Biden and Trump voters stayed with the same party down the ballot.

The pattern runs all the way down the ballot. As my friend Doug Sosnik pointed out to me this week, going into yesterday 39 states had one party holding the governorship and both legislative chambers: 23 Republican and 16 Democratic. Only 11 had divided government. In 1992 it was nearly the reverse, with 19 states under one-party control and 31 divided.

Part of the explanation is the South. For decades, Southerners voted Republican for president while sending conservative Democrats to Congress. When that realignment was complete, much of the ticket-splitting disappeared with it.

The South doesn’t explain the rest of the country, though. My theory is that all politics has been nationalized. Local news has been hollowed out, and cable television has outsized influence, especially with primary voters. We judge the parties by their national leaders instead of by our own representatives, so we throw the big lever. Balz agreed, noting that Tip O’Neill’s adage that all politics is local has been going out the window.

Even the recent exceptions call for caution. In 2024, four states chose Trump and a Democratic senator. That looked like a revival, but those races were razor-close, and some Trump voters simply skipped the Senate race rather than crossing over.

Going into yesterday, Balz suspected unhappiness with the president could produce real ticket-splitting, even in deep-red states. Last night was the first test.

Many people say they vote for the candidate, not the party. The returns usually say otherwise.

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Democrats won control of both the House and Senate in a sweeping midterm victory, flipping traditionally Republican strongholds as voters expressed frustration over inflation, the Iran war and government corruption, delivering a major rebuke to President Trump and threatening to derail his legislative agenda.

Associated Press

President Trump said he would accept the results of the midterm elections and was willing to work with Democrats, while blaming Republican losses on his absence from the ballot and defending his decision to go to war with Iran despite voter concerns over rising gas prices.

The New York Times

Independents turned out in record numbers and broke decisively against Republicans in the midterms, powering Democratic victories in Texas, Ohio, South Carolina and beyond — but their support was a rejection of Trump-era politics, not a mandate for Democrats, and they are now demanding access to closed primaries.

Jeremy Gruber

Barton Swaim argues that the rise of early voting has eroded the unifying tradition of Election Day, diminishing the shared civic experience of voting together while increasing the risk that voters make decisions before critical information about candidates comes to light.

The Wall Street Journal

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President Donald Trump announced the US will halt its $4 billion in annual military assistance to Israel by the end of 2026, a declaration that reportedly blindsided Israeli defense and finance officials since the current memorandum of understanding doesn't expire until 2028.

The Times of Israel

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns argues that the United States is facing its fourth great crisis, warning that misinformation, political division, election denial and the erosion of democratic institutions threaten the nation’s founding principles, and urging voters to choose leaders who will uphold the Constitution and hold the executive branch accountable.

The New York Times

The Supreme Court appeared poised to side with Catholic preschools challenging Colorado’s requirement that participating schools admit LGBTQ children and children with LGBTQ parents, with the justices debating whether the state’s nondiscrimination policy violates religious freedom protections under the First Amendment. A decision is expected sometime next year.

SCOTUSblog

Aviation experts say the Learjet pilots may have made a critical mistake by flying into a dangerous storm rather than diverting around it, with an attempted climb to escape severe weather and ice potentially triggering the stall that caused the plane to crash, killing all nine aboard.

New York Post

David Frum warns that Republican defeat in both chambers of Congress could unleash an increasingly erratic and vindictive Trump, whose weakening political influence, mounting corruption scandals, economic setbacks and growing legal vulnerabilities may fuel a chaotic final stretch of his presidency as he seeks to punish those he believes have betrayed him.

The Atlantic

Workers inside Google's artificial intelligence division are pressing executives to release them from non-disparagement agreements, arguing they need to be free to warn the public about the risks of the technology they are building.

The Washington Post