US midterms: Democrats gain control of House and Senate from Republicans

The Democratic Party gained control of the House and Senate, delivering a stinging rebuke to US President Donald Trump and his Republican Party. Follow DW's live updates. Welcome to our coverage of the US midterm elections , particularly if you're outside US time zones and were tucked up in bed as the poll-closing drama unfolded overnight.

Here's the lay of the land stateside in what's now the early hours of the morning-after the vote which many saw as a referendum on President Donald Trump. The Democrats have fared better than polls predicted, at least based on what should now be reliable projections. They have comfortably taken control of the House of Representatives and claimed a majority in the upper chamber of Congress, the Senate.

In a major blow for the Donald Trump administration, they have swung at least seven of the 35 Senate seats up for grabs — in North Carolina, South Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Texas and Maine. Some of those states were Republican -held for decades; Kansas' two Senate seats had been reliably Republican since before World War II.