The White House blamed Republican candidates for the party’s election-night setbacks Tuesday, insisting President Donald Trump should not bear responsibility for losses that included Senate races in three states and the projected loss of the House majority.
A White House official described the administration’s mood as “defiant” as Decision Desk HQ projected Democrats would retake the House and win Senate contests in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
“President Trump was not on the ballot, and it’s proven that Trump voters show up when he is on the ballot,” the official said.
The official also faulted Republican nominees for failing to capitalize on Trump’s campaigning.
“Also, candidate quality matters, and President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves,” the official added.
I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP
( TS: Nov 3 2026, 10:37 PM ET ) pic.twitter.com/sZG6BGvmsL
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) November 4, 2026
Trump offered a similar defense on Truth Social, arguing his own name would have changed the results.
“I wasn’t on the ballot, and if I was, we would have won in a landslide,” the president wrote.
The losses included a South Carolina Senate contest in which Democrat Annie Andrews defeated Darline Graham, Trump’s handpicked Republican nominee and the sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.
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Andrews, a pediatrician, became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the state since 1998, according to the supplied election reporting.
In North Carolina, former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper defeated Michael Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chairman, for the seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. The result marked the state’s first Democratic Senate victory since 2008.
Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff also secured a second term, defeating Trump-backed Republican Rep. Mike Collins. In the state’s governor’s race, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms narrowly beat Republican Rick Jackson.
Republicans suffered another high-profile defeat in Ohio, where Democrat Amy Acton won the governor’s race against Vivek Ramaswamy.
The supplied reports identified Acton as the state’s first woman elected governor and its first Jewish governor. Trump had carried Ohio by approximately 11 percentage points two years earlier.
Early returns also showed close statewide contests in Texas, traditionally a Republican stronghold.
The White House official warned that Democratic voters would regret their decisions if the Iran conflict ended and gasoline prices fell, while Democratic officeholders remained in power.
“Anyone who voted Democrat today is going to have a serious case of buyers remorse when gas prices come down quickly when the Iran conflict is solved but they’re still stuck with list of liberal extremist Democrats,” the official said.
The official promised that the results would not moderate Trump’s approach. “And a final note here: regardless of how today plays out, President Trump’s resolve to stop the Radical Left is only going to become stronger. Buckle up.”
Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem offered a different explanation for Republican losses. Responding to Fox Business host Larry Kudlow’s suggestion that the administration’s achievements were a factor, she endorsed that assessment on X.
“Larry Kudlow is correct. We were too successful the first year of the Trump administration,” Noem wrote.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, warned that Democrats could lose the support they gained Tuesday if they failed to produce results after taking office.
Clinton appeared with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway at a live election-night event for the “Pivot” podcast, where she discussed what Democrats would need to do following a successful midterm election.
“If the Democrats don’t go in with an agenda and have the discipline to enact that agenda, then they’re going to lose the kind of support that they’re going to gain in this election,” Clinton warned.
She pointed to affordability, corruption and investigations into the Department of Government Efficiency as priorities. Clinton argued that Democrats’ ability to carry out an agenda would also matter to their prospects in 2028.
Clinton had separately raised concerns about potential voter intimidation ahead of Election Day, prompting a rebuttal from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
During Monday’s episode of ABC’s “The View,” Clinton cited the Trump administration’s legal disputes with states over election procedures and suggested that immigration officers or other federal agents could appear at polling sites to intimidate voters.
“What I do think they’re trying to do in some places is intimidation,” Clinton said. “You know, having ICE or others show up and just be standing there, staring at people, looking threatening to voters coming in to vote. But I do think, you know, people are tougher than that.”
Clinton said she had spoken Sunday with Democratic Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, who was leading the party’s response on election integrity. She maintained that attempts to intimidate voters would not go unanswered.
Mullin rejected the suggestion during a Tuesday appearance on Fox News with Will Cain. “I don’t understand why Hillary is still relevant,” the Homeland Security secretary remarked.
He said the possibility of immigration officers appearing at voting locations had been raised during his confirmation hearing and insisted their presence would be limited to responding to threats.
“Even in my confirmation hearing, this was brought up, and I made it very clear that ICE agents aren’t going to be around polling places unless there’s a threat,” Mullin told Cain.
“The only reason you’d see the Department of Homeland Security is if there’s a threat that we have to be responding to, not to try to intimidate or be around a polling place,” he continued. “That’s not their job. We’re enforcing immigration.”
