Wall Street surged at the open, after Democrats scored historic victories in midterm elections and secured control of US Congress.

The Dow Jones rose 2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the benchmark S&P 500 both gained more than 1%. That's quite a reversal: Overnight, stock futures fell sharply as investors worried about the prospect of tougher regulation of the AI sector and the impact on economic growth.

The dust hadn't yet settled on a cataclysmic midterm election for House Republicans before one member of the chamber was preparing a leadership challenger, Fox News reported on Wednesday.

The outlet, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported that Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, is planning an effort to oust outgoing Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to take the position of minority leader.

It's wouldn't be the first time that Jordan has gunned for the House Republicans' top job. Jordan previously sought to claim the title after Kevin McCarthy, the previous Republican speaker of the House, lost the job in 2023, but failed to net enough votes from members of the chamber.

In this edition of our Politics Weekly America podcast, and run through the results of the US midterms, on a historic night for Democrats and a night to forget for Republicans.

Reporting from Austin, Texas.

"This is amazing," exclaimed Tiffany Dunsmore, 44, the owner of Austin Scavenger Hunt, as the city skyline gleamed in the distance on a balmy night. "I cannot believe Texas went blue!"

For 32 long years, turning Texas blue had been an elusive prize for Democrats in the US's second biggest state. There were false dawns and broken dreams. But on Tuesday the party's agony finally came to an end.

James Talarico was elected the youngest member of the US Senate, and Gina Hinojosa the state's first Latina governor. The pair delivered the party's first statewide win since 1994 and the jewel in the crown of Donald Trump's midterm humiliation.

The plaza of the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin buzzed like a political festival, packed with taco trucks, craft stalls selling handmade ceramics and vendors stitching bandanas on demand. Expectations had mounted as a giant TV screens showed Democrats storming Republican strongholds across the nation.

Then came a great roar of jubilation when, at 10pm local time, it was confirmed that Democrats had claimed the ultimate prize: the Lone Star State. Supporters wearing Talarico T-shirts punched the air and hugged one another. Nearby cars honked their horns. The weight of three decades had finally been lifted.

The last Democratic senator elected in Texas was Lloyd Bentsen in 1988, the year before Talarico was born, while the state's last Democratic governor was Ann Richards, elected in 1990. Talarico's breakthrough, defeating the scandal-plagued, Trump-endorsed Republican, Ken Paxton, helped power Democrats to retake control of the US Senate. Hinojosa, meanwhile, beat the incumbent governor, Greg Abbott, a titan of Texas politics who was running for a record-fourth term.

Read the full election night coverage from The Guardian's David Smith:

British prime minister Andy Burnham believes the midterm results show that US voters want to "see the world coming together and focusing on the things that matter," such as ending the war in Iran and bringing down the cost of living.

"President Trump has accepted the results, and I feel the world has an opportunity now to unite around the issue that is affecting us all, and that's the cost of living," he said.

"That has been the issue that I have put front and center in my first three months in Downing Street, and we've made moves. But I can't get people's cost of living pressures down until the conflict in the Middle East is resolved. The conflict in Ukraine started by Russia.

"These are the things we have to focus on now, and I hope the world has a moment to do that. And certainly, in my calls with leaders, that is what I will be asking everybody to do."

Asked whether he was worried there might be an escalation in the Middle East following the results, he said: "Well, I'll be working for de-escalation to make it very clear. You know, we want to see a resolution, the strait of Hormuz fully opened again.

"That's what we will be working towards."

Former World Series champion turned Republican politician Mark Teixeira will represent ⁠Texas's 21st Congressional District in Washington after defeating Democrat Kristin Hook in Tuesday's midterm elections.

On Wednesday morning, Teixeira was leading with 54.5% ⁠of the ​votes after 99% of the ballots had been counted.

"Tonight's victory belongs ⁠to the people of Texas's 21st District. I'm not going to Washington for myself, but rather to be a strong, responsive ⁠voice for every family in this district," wrote on X. "Together, we can build a ​better future for our families, ‌our neighbors, and every community ‌across Texas 21. I'm excited to get to work. I will ‌be praying for all of you and for the future of this great nation. God bless Texas, and God bless America."

Teixeira's victory was expected. The seat has been in Republican hands since 1979. It was previously held by Chip Roy, who didn't run for reelection. The district includes deeply conservative parts of Texas in the Austin ‌and San Antonio areas.

Donald Trump and Texas's Republican governor, Greg Abbott, endorsed Teixeira's campaign. Abbott lost his ​reelection campaign against Democrat Gina Hinojosa, and the Republicans suffered sweeping losses across the US in a repudiation of Trump's second term in power.

According to Teixeira's campaign website he aims to "end radical woke indoctrination, defend parental rights, kill DEI, restore patriotic education rooted in American and Texas values … and fight against Cultural Marxism."

Teixeira, 46, was born and raised in Maryland, and he attended Georgia Tech. A first-round draft pick by the Rangers in 2001, he played for Texas ⁠from 2003-07 before stints with the Atlanta Braves (2007-08), Los Angeles Angels (2008) ​and New York ​Yankees (2009-16). Teixeira was selected an All-Star ​in 2005, 2009 and 2015, and he helped the Yankees ​win the 2009 ‌World Series. ​

Cindy Hyde Smith, Mississippi's Republican Senator who is at risk of losing her seat in a seismic upset, may be paying the price for a particularly damaging remark she made to a local news outlet.

Questioned on a regional television network about how Mississippians should cope with the rising price of beef under the Trump administration, Hyde Smith responded by musing: "you know, you have so many proteins to choose from."

Hyde Smith's challenger, Democrat Scott Colom, seized on the comment in a campaign ad, which landed just as affordability was taking center stage as an issue in the 2026 midterms. Instead of picking another protein, the ad insisted, Mississippi voters should "pick another Senator."

It remains to be seen whether Mississippi voters will take Colom up on the offer. But they've already come far closer to doing so than anybody expected going into Tuesday's election.

Lauren Boebert, the hard-right Colorado congresswoman who has been one of Donald Trump's most outspoken allies in the House of Representatives, is at risk of losing her seat in a close race with her Democratic challenger.

With more than 80 percent of the vote in, Boebert trails by one-and-a-half percent in the race for Colorado's 4th District to Eileen Laubacher, a onetime Navy rear admiral and former Republican who switched parties.

Amid a slate of devastating losses for President Trump's, Boebert's ouster would nonetheless represent the rebuke of a congresswoman who was emblematic of the kind of lawmaker Trump sought to cultivate: hard-right, provocative, and fiercely loyal to the Trump brand.

The results of a closely-fought California ballot proposal to impose a one-time tax on billionaires remain too close to call as of Wednesday morning, the Associated Press reported.

If it passes, the measure would hit the state's ultra-wealthy with a one-time 5% tax. It prompted something of an internecine war among California Democrats, winning support from top progressives, but getting blowback from some party leaders including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who fear its passage would force an exodus of the state's ultra-wealthy.

Those same ultra-wealthy have also spent lavishly to campaign against the proposal.

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

In case you fell asleep early, yesterday evening resonated as an extinction level-event for Donald Trump's Republican Party, a worst-case scenario for the GOP that even the starkest polls might've underestimated.

Democrats defended a crucial Senate seat in Michigan and won the likely pickups in Maine and North Carolina. They then proceeded to flip five more seats in states that would normally be considered unquestionably red: Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, South Carolina, and — the biggest prize of them all — Texas.

As of Wednesday morning, Democrats have secured 54 seats in the Senate. A closely-watched race in Alaska is yet to be called. And the Senate contest in ruby red Mississippi is down to the wire, with Democrat Scott Colom leading by just a few dozen votes as the final ballots roll in.

The Democrats have already secured 228 seats in the House, ten more than needed for a majority, and could realistically run up the score to 240 seats or more. They've also flipped governor's offices in Texas, Georgia, Iowa, Ohio, and Nevada.

Republicans, needless to say, are shell-shocked, with the future of the party deeply uncertain, and some sounding the death-knell for a decade of Trump-dominated GOP politics.

Here are some other developments you may have missed last night:

• Trump, uncharacteristically gracious, accepted his party's resounding defeat, congratulated Democrats, and told The New York Times that he was "absolutely willing to accept" the election results. That was very much in doubt after the Trump administration spent months seeking to exert greater influence over the elections process through executive orders and the courts.
  

• Deb Haaland, running in New Mexico, became the first Native American woman elected as governor. Keisha Lanca Bottoms became the first Black woman ever elected governor. Abdul El-Sayed, the victorious Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, became the first Muslim voted into the upper chamber.
  

• Several key congressional races, including contests in Colorado, Michigan, Maine, New York, California, and North Carolina, remain to be called.