Seven Senate seats that Republicans held before Tuesday’s midterm elections now belong to Democrats, according to results as of Wednesday morning. The party has locked in 54 seats for the next Congress.
Democratic candidates won in Iowa, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas, flipping each of those seats away from Republican control. The tally counts at least seven pickups.
The new roster takes effect when the chamber convenes for the 120th Congress on Jan. 3. At that point, Democrats will hold 54 seats.
Two races still have no winner. In Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colom and Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith sit separated by just 43 votes.
Alaska will take longer. Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola are waiting on a count that could last for weeks, because the state uses ranked-choice voting.
Taken together, the figures break down this way: at least seven Republican-held seats flipped, 54 seats secured for Democrats, and two contests still outstanding.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Brooklyn Democrat, addressed supporters at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headquarters in Washington just before midnight.
“Against all odds, we Democrats have won the Senate,” Schumer told the crowd.
He followed with a message aimed at the whole country. “We have five words for the American people: Relief is on the way,” he said.
Schumer also told supporters that voters had “reduced the red brick wall to a pile of bricks.”
By Wednesday morning, he had moved from the podium to Instagram. There, he posted a photo of himself smiling next to a smoking propane grill.
Burgers and hot dogs filled the grates. Each carried the face of a Republican who lost a race Tuesday. Others bore the faces of President Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
The Vance version showed the bald, puffy-cheeked meme edition of his face.
Schumer attached a caption to the picture. “54 seats and counting. And I learned how to grill…these burgers and dogs are finally cooked,” he wrote.
The photo recalls Father’s Day 2024, when Schumer shared an image of himself standing at a grill covered in raw patties. One of those patties already had a slice of cheese on top.
Both images place Schumer beside a grill. The 2024 version held raw patties, while Wednesday’s held burgers and hot dogs printed with political faces.
Schumer eventually deleted the earlier image after it drew relentless ridicule online. Donald Trump Jr. posted on X that “literally no one puts cheese on a raw beef patty.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee brought the photo back the following May. The group built a National Hamburger Day video around it, titled “We Grill Right.”
Tuesday’s outcome positions Schumer, 75, to reclaim the majority leader post. He held that position from 2021 to 2025.
His return is not guaranteed by the election results alone. Not every Democrat has committed to supporting him in next month’s leadership elections.
Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed appeared on NBC’s “TODAY” program Wednesday. He declined to say whether he would back Schumer.
El-Sayed had previously said he would support Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.
