US midterm elections 2026 live updates: Vance blames Iran war for Republicans’ brutal midterms losses as Democrats retake Congress

Vice-president says ‘it’s obvious to almost everyone’ that Iran war is ‘reason we lost’; Mike Johnson won’t seek House leadership role

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Full report: Democrats win control of Congress

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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.