Friday, November 06, 2026

US midterms election results: Pressure builds on Trump to fire Hegseth

By Leila Minkara, Tracy J. Jawad and Urooba Jamal

The Democrats have pledged to focus on “affordability and accountability” after seizing control of Congress in a rejection of President Donald Trump’s policies.
Abdul El-Sayed will become the first US Muslim senator after winning a seat representing Michigan as the Democrats also make gains in the Republican strongholds of Texas, Iowa and Kansas.
Trump says he accepts the election results, acknowledging his war on Iran was partly to blame for the Republican defeat. He has ruled out replacing Pete Hegseth as defence secretary despite voter dissatisfaction with the war.
Most races have been called, but counting continues for some seats.

1m ago
(20:16 GMT)
Market plunges as Democrats’ win sparks fears of data center moratoriums, infrastructure slowdown
By Kristen Saloomey
Reporting from New York, US
Related stocks are leading the declines in the markets, with investors concerned that Democrats’ sweeping victory could lead to more moratoriums on data centers and slow the construction and the buildout of infrastructure expansion here in the United States.
So we’re seeing right now the S&P 500 down more than 4 percent. That’s the worst it’s been since April of last year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down more than 3 percent, and the Nasdaq down more than 5 percent. That’s just one day after surging to a new record high on Wednesday, the first day after the election.
Initially, what we saw was investors looking for opportunities with the new Democrats in office. They were investing in things that might benefit from Democratic policies. We saw health-related fields surge on the market. We saw solar companies also gain. Of course Donald Trump was very against renewable energy. There was hope that this would lead to a turnaround in the solar industry, but AI-related companies are increasingly very much a part of these market indexes. And so we’re seeing Nvidia down, Microsoft, Apple also lower, erasing the gains from yesterday and leading to billions of dollars lost in these market indexes.
We’ve also seen a big shift in oil prices. They were down on Wednesday, back up again today. Remember, rising fuel costs tied to the war with Iran were a huge issue for many voters in this election.
18m ago
(20:00 GMT)
Dems flip another House seat, this time in Arizona
The Associated Press has called the race for Arizona’s 6th Congressional District for Democrat JoAnna Mendoza, beating out Republican incumbent Juan Ciscomani.
Mendoza won with 53 percent of the vote.
33m ago
(19:45 GMT)
Musk’s record spending in the midterm elections shows little pay-off
Elon Musk’s record expenditure of nearly half a billion dollars on Republican candidates in the midterm elections has yielded very little for the world’s richest man.
Three of the 37 candidates who were backed by Musk won their House races, compared with 33 who lost. One race has yet to be called, though the Republican candidate appears to be leading.
Of the seven Senate Republican candidates Musk backed, six lost and one race, Alaska, hangs in the balance, with Democrat Mary Peltola narrowly leading with 74 percent of the votes counted.
Musk attends the ‘A New Golden Age’ summit, Washington, DC, October 8, 2026 [Evan Vucc
48m ago
(19:30 GMT)
[Al Jazeera]
1h ago
(19:15 GMT)
AI stocks plunge after the midterm elections, driving down markets
United States markets slid on Thursday, with losses in US chip and data centre-related stocks fuelling pressure on the technology sector following Democrats’ sweeping midterm election wins.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 4.8 percent in midday trading, while the S&P 500 fell 3.6 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 2.8 percent.
US markets jumped on Wednesday following the midterm election, with Democrats’ sweeping wins signalling limits on policy shocks from a Congress at odds with the White House. Markets were also reassured by US President Donald Trump’s remarks that he would accept the election results.
Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks – which have driven much of the market’s growth – led the plunge in the tech sector that drove down markets on Thursday.
Read more here.
US markets tumbled on Thursday, led by a selloff in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector [File: Timothy A Clary/AFP]
1h ago
(19:00 GMT)
AP survey shows Iran war affected voters’ decisions but was not the top issue
A survey of more than 100,000 voters nationwide from The AP Voter Poll suggests the US war in Iran was not the top issue for most voters.
About one-third of voters said the Iran war was “crucial” in deciding how they voted for Congress — well below the roughly half who said that about the cost of living or government corruption.
However, about six in 10 voters said the US made the “wrong decision” in taking military action against Iran.
Nearly all voters who backed the Democrat in their local House race said the Iran war was the “wrong decision”, compared with about eight in 10 who backed the Republican and said it was the “right decision”.
The survey reports that about six in 10 voters said they were “very concerned” about the cost of petrol and diesel and about two-thirds of that group voted for the Democratic candidate in their House race.
Both President Trump and Vice President Vance have blamed the war for the Republican Party’s extensive losses in the midterm elections.
1h ago
(18:45 GMT)
Steve Scalise warns Republicans to brace for Democratic ‘retribution’
A letter obtained by Fox News shows House majority leader Steve Scalise advising Republican committee chairmen on how to prepare for Democratic “retribution” before elected officials take office in January.
“You all will be a key line of defense in this fight, and we must maximize our remaining days in power to prepare for what is coming,” Scalise wrote.
One recommendation includes “identifying administration officials, programs and authorities, and external allies, including conservative partners and industry leaders likely on their target list”.