What is the Blue Wave? Breaking down the 2026 midterm election craze so you don’t have to.

By Morgan Lane, Editor-in-Chief

President Donald Trump is currently sitting at a historically low 38% approval rating, one of the worst ratings of a sitting president in a midterm election exit poll.

The 2026 Midterm Elections results created a surge of blue-elected leadership, better known as the “blue wave,” across the nation.

In short, many historically red states are seeing residents run to the polls and vote for democratic candidates, flipping that state’s number of representatives from majority republican to majority democratic.

As a result, the Democrats will regain control of Congress at the halfway point of the second Trump administration.

Here are the numbers to back it up.

County and state results 

Maryland Governor Wes Moore received over 1 million votes in Maryland’s gubernatorial race and is set to be reelected for office, AP says. 

Moore leads the polls with 1,165,429 votes, compared to Republican Candidate Dan Cox’s 617,673. Even with only 78% of estimated votes counted, it’s statistically impossible for Cox to pull out a win.

Democratic Attorney General Anthony Brown was also elected to a second term in office, and in Baltimore County, Julian Jones clinched a victory as its first Black county executive.

National need-to-knows

Democrats regained control of the Senate, snagging seven previously red seats. The Senate now seats 54 Democrats and 44 Republicans. Results from Mississippi and Alaska are currently too close to call.

The House of Representatives is also now majority blue, with the Democrats occupying 242 seats and the Republicans seated in 151.

There are still 42 seats too close to call.

Seven red states flipped blue for the first time since, at earliest, the 2024 election. Several states also had historical gubernatorial outcomes.

Georgia: Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms made history as the first Black woman in the U.S. to be elected as governor.

Iowa: Democratic Auditor of State, Rob Sand, was elected as governor. He beat republican candidate Zach Lahn by 150,000 votes.

Nevada: Attorney General Aaron Ford clinched a victory in the state’s gubernatorial race, beating Republican Governor Joe Lombardo by less than 100,000 votes.

Texas: Representative Gina Hinojosa secured the state’s first democratic gubernatorial win in over 30 years. Hinojosa is also the first ever Latina elected to the role in Texas.

Senate-elect James Talarico secured Texas’ first democratic senate win since 1994.

Other notable results

– New Mexico democratic Governor-elect Deb Haaland will become the first Native American to take on the role in the U.S. 

– Florida was on the cusp of a party flip, but Republican governor-elect Byron Donalds won by 100,000 votes. Donalds will be Florida’s first Black governor. 

– Michigan Senate-elect Abdul El-Sayed will become the first Muslim U.S. Senator.

All information used in this article was pulled from NBC Decision ‘26 and The Associated Press.