Trump's lame-duck era, Dem plans, AI backlash

Richard Hall | November 05, 2026

Hello there. Today, we’re covering the fallout from a historic midterm election, starting with a deep-dive cover story on what Democrats plan to do with control of Congress. We also have a story on how a backlash against AI shaped the race.

If you’re desperate for some nonpolitical news after several days of frantic vote counting, you can read about Bob Dylan meeting with the Pope and get some advice on how to deal with your neighbor’s difficult dog.

IN TODAY’S BRIEF

What Democrats plan to do with power
Trump’s fading coalition
The AI backlash
Voters of color fueled a wave
Why Texas changes everything
29 million
Dylan and the Pope

COVER STORY

Inside the Democrats' plans to take on Trump

Nathan Posner—Anadolu/Getty Images

The midterms were a coast-to-coast rout that exceeded Democrats’ high expectations. For the first time since Trump returned to Washington, Democrats will be empowered to do more than stomp and shout. They will be able to set the legislative agenda in both chambers of Congress, compel testimony from Administration officials, investigate allegations of corruption, force Republicans to take difficult votes, and block new Cabinet nominees or federal judges. Party leaders see an opportunity to turn the public's discontent with Trump into a sustained argument for returning Democrats to the White House in 2028.

For this week’s cover story, TIME interviewed more than two dozen Democratic leaders, strategists, and members of Congress in the days before the election and found a party itching to fight on nearly every front the President has opened.

The details:

Democrats are preparing a legislative offensive aimed at reversing some of the Administration's most unpopular policies, including cuts to Medicaid, the expiration of federal health insurance subsidies, Trump's sweeping tariffs, and the war in Iran.
By advocating for policies that command broad public support, party leaders hope to expose divisions among Republicans, force Trump to defend unpopular decisions, and demonstrate what a government fully led by Democrats would prioritize. —Nik Popli and Julia Terruso

Read the cover story here.

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THE CONTEXT

What Democrats’ midterm gains reveal about Trump’s coalition

Ebrahim Noroozi—AP

The 2026 midterm elections saw historic gains for Democrats. The electorate’s leftward swing was diverse and widespread, but three demographic groups key to Trump’s 2024 victory shifted notably toward Democrats on Tuesday.

Young voters

According to the AP Voter Poll, which was conducted Oct. 19 through Nov. 3, about 7 in 10 voters ages 18 to 29 said they supported the Democratic candidate in their local House races, while about 3 in 10 said they voted Republican. This marks a sharp change from the 2024 presidential election, when they were roughly split between Kamala Harris and Trump, who made historic gains among the group.

Hispanic voters

About 6 in 10 Hispanic voters said they chose the Democratic candidate in their local House race in 2026, according to the AP Voter Poll. In 2024, Trump nearly tied his opponent, Kamala Harris, among Hispanic voters. In Texas, Hispanic voters were particularly instrumental in flipping the open Senate seat.

Rural voters

Rural voters still favored Republican candidates in 2026, according to the AP Voter Poll, but the demographic shifted significantly to the left: 57% of rural voters opted for the Republican candidate in the House, versus 41% opting for the Democratic candidate. —Rebecca Schneid

Read the full story here.

TECH TAKE

How AI backlash shaped the 2026 midterms

Jon Cherry—Getty Images

For the past year, a faction of the AI industry bent on unfettered development looked poised to use its wealth to tip the 2026 midterms in its favor. But on Nov. 3, that accelerationist wing could hardly have had a worse night.

An NBC exit poll found that 56% of voters said that AI and data centers were a “crucial or major factor” in their vote for Congress. Democrats spent more than $100 million on broadcast ads casting their Republican opponents as being overly cozy with Big Tech and data centers—and decisively won in many of those races, including Ohio, Kansas, and Iowa.

Data center bans or moratoriums passed in communities across the country, from Edgewater, Fla., to Bloomington, Ill., while the mayors of Piqua, Ohio, and Yukon, Oklahoma, were recalled for their previous support of data center projects.

What comes next:

Don’t expect sweeping federal AI regulation soon. Even with both chambers, Democrats need substantial Republican support to override a potential Presidential veto.
Even without law change, politicians may think twice before siding with the AI industry. “Voters had their say tonight: they are overwhelmingly in support of AI safety and security, and very much against data centers and Flock cameras,” says Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican strategist and the CEO of the Alliance for Secure AI. —Andrew R. Chow and Harry Booth

Read the full story here.

VIEW FROM D.C.

Exclusive: Voters of color were ‘driving force’ behind midterm rout

Mikala Compton—The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images

Tuesday’s blue wave was powered by voters of color. That’s a key takeaway strategists in both parties are clocking as they pore through the results. In a memo obtained exclusively by TIME on Wednesday and soon to circulate among the Democratic National Committee’s bigwigs, two of the Democratic Party’s veteran strategists argue that the blowout would not have been possible without that crucial realignment, one that has enormous consequences for 2028’s presidential field.

“Hispanic and Black voters not only turned out at a massive rate, but also swung back towards Democrats in terms of support levels, relative to the 2024 presidential election,” Tom Bonier and Simon Rosenberg wrote in Wednesday’s memo.

To be clear, every major demographic group shifted left in these midterms, offering a stunning rebuke of Trump and his brand of the Republican Party. But the shift in voters of color proved pivotal in many cases.

“Voters of color were the driving force behind the blue tsunami,” Bonier and Rosenberg wrote. —Philip Elliott

Read the full story here.

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IN FOCUS

What just happened in Texas changes everything

Eric Gay—Associated Press

On an Election Day when national Democrats had monumental momentum, the results in Texas were a breed apart and could reshape the road to the White House in 2028.

Both James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa broke the Republican Party’s hold in deep-red Texas. But the losses didn’t stop there. When all the ballots are counted, Texas Republicans may be on the receiving end of something approaching a wipeout. It’s a stunning turn that proves in one fell swoop that years of Democrats’ optimism in someday flipping Texas were not foolhardy. Even Texas Republicans gifted last-minute gerrymandered districts in U.S. House races were not immune to the national mood.

For Democrats, it was a dividend long invested. Year after year, Democrats kept insisting that this would be the cycle that would break the Republican fever in the state. And year after year, they woke up the day after Election Day feeling like Charlie Brown trying to kick Lucy’s football.

Eight years ago, Democrats went all-in on Beto O’Rourke’s bid for Senate against incumbent Ted Cruz. O’Rourke came within three points of prevailing. Six years later, Cruz won another term by more than eight points.

Still, Democrats have long insisted that Texas is not a state of Republican voters. It’s a state of nonvoters. Tuesday’s results finally proved that thesis.

The shift could have seismic consequences for the 2028 presidential map. Texas has 40 votes in the Electoral College, or roughly 15% of the haul needed to win the White House. If Democrats can sustain their success in Texas, that suddenly means other traditional swing states could prove optional. And both parties may find themselves having to invest heavily in the massive and pricey state to pin down Texas’ electoral votes every four years.

Talarico’s win caps an intense Senate race that broke the nation’s longest statewide dry spell for Democrats, who last won statewide in Texas in 1994. Talarico is also the first Democrat elected to the Senate by Texans since 1988. Hinojosa is the first Democrat to win the Governor’s Office since 1990. That was when the governorship was won by Democrat Ann Richards, who then lost it to George W. Bush, beginning a Republican hold on the state's executive seat that would last for three decades.

Gov. Greg Abbott, a fixture in Texas politics dating to the 1990s who had amassed a massive war chest, lost.

Now, Republicans in Texas—and Washington—face the unenviable task of trying to consider how they could get to 270 electoral votes if Texas’ 40 aren’t a lock. —Philip Elliott

Read the full story here.

ONE NUMBER

29 million

Are you a live-blog follower, a cable-news traditionalist, or a livestream watcher on election night? The "Kornacki Cam”—a rolling stream of NBC’s chief data analyst Steve Kornacki crunching the numbers—recorded a stunning 29 million views across platforms on Tuesday night. His stream lasted a marathon 10.5 hours and was the most-watched election livestream on YouTube.

SOURCE: NBC

A VIRAL MOMENT

Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

Bob Dylan met with Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday at the Vatican. Pope Leo gave Dylan a rosary, and Dylan—who wore a black hooded sweatshirt for the occasion—gave the Pope a copy of his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One. It’s the second time Dylan has had an audience with a Pope, having met John Paul II following a performance in Bologna in 1997.

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