Schumer exults over Democratic Senate: ‘Wow, wow, wow’

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is now poised to become Senate majority leader, exulted Tuesday night over the blue wave that has flipped at least six Republican seats and put Democrats firmly in control of the Senate next year.

“Oh man! Wow, wow, wow! Against all odds we Democrats have won the Senate,” Schumer declared at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) headquarters shortly before midnight after election trackers predicted that Senate Democrats would gain at least six seats.

“We have five words for the American people: Relief is on the way,” he said.

Schumer argued that this week’s election had produced “generational remake of the Senate map that is going to change America now and into the future.”

“Americans voted for change and now Democrats must deliver,” he said.

Schumer triumphantly observed that few political prognosticators gave Democrats any chance of winning back the Senate majority in the 2026 cycle as the electoral map favored Republicans as many of the races were in deep-red states such as Texas, Kansas and South Carolina.

“People rolled their eyes. They said it couldn’t be done. How did we win? First and foremost we focused on American families and their pain and their needs. Their suffering. They’re not having a good life and they’re worried about the future for themselves and their children. We focused on what they needed and what they wanted. What they asked for,” he said.

Schumer said voters across the country were sick of high costs and corruption in Washington.

He also lauded the “great candidates” that Democrats recruited in key battlegrounds such as North Carolina, Iowa and Texas.

But he argued that Republicans’ failure to distance themselves from an unpopular president was another key ingredient in the wave of support that pushed Democrats to victory in GOP-leaning states such as South Carolina and Texas.

“The Republicans embraced Trump, the worst president ever. Republicans made a choice and followed Trump over the cliff as some of the time he talked about extraneous things that were ridiculous but much of the time he implemented things that raised their cost, on electricity, on health care, on goods,” he said.

Democrats were projected to flip Republican Senate seats in six states, many of them with strong track records of electing GOP candidates, when Schumer made his comments.

Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) and other election trackers concluded Democrats had won GOP-held seats in North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Ohio, Kansas and Iowa.

Senate Democrats also think they have a good chance of flipping Republican Senate seats in Maine and Alaska as well.

Democrats also protected their vulnerable Senate seats in Michigan, Minnesota, Georgia and New Hampshire.

That would give them a Senate majority of between 53 and 55 seats in 2027.

Sen. Cindy Hyde Smith (R-Miss.) and Democrat Scott Colomb were locked in a near tie in the Mississippi Senate race with more than 95 percent of the vote counted in the state, according to DDHQ.

A senior Democratic strategist, however, said there are enough outstanding provisional ballots in Mississippi that Colomb still has a chance of closing the gap.

Asked if he took personal credit for the Democratic wins, Schumer replied: “I give my caucus credit for taking back the majority.”

“We had great unity, great leadership. We focused on what the American people wanted. We found great candidates and as a result we won. Our whole caucus was everywhere, as was I,” he said.

Asked about President Trump’s threat to become a “veto president” once Democrats take control of Congress, Schumer said he’s willing to work with the White House to deliver results for the American people.

“I heard tonight he said he wants to work with us. Look, we’re going to deliver for the people of America, with or without the president,” he said.

He said the new Democratic majorities’ “number one focus has to be producing for the American people in terms of their number one need: the high costs that Trump has imposed on them.”

He said that the second priority would be to “go after the corruption.”

“This is the most corrupt administration in American history,” he said.