The 2026 midterm’s astounding election results not only shift control of Congress but also portend two years of hostility with President Donald Trump. The blue tsunami also threatens the independence of the Supreme Court.
As Democrats exercise their newfound power in the legislature and build on their majorities in years to come, they will try to interfere with the workings of basic American institutions. Of these promised “reforms,” expanding the Supreme Court may pose the greatest threat to the American system of limited government and natural rights.
The Democrats landslide victory is hard to overstate. As many political observers predicted for a midterm election during a presidents second term, Democrats took control of the House from the governing party. But few foresaw the force of the rejection of President Trump and the Republican Party. With 24 races still to be called, Democrats have won 254 seats, surpassing the 218 needed for a majority, with Republicans left with only 157. The results in the Senate were perhaps even more shocking. Democrats flipped at least seven Senate seats, giving them a 54-44 majority; Democratic challengers narrowly lead the Republican incumbents in the other two races. What was equally amazing was that Democratic victories came in Republican strongholds, such as Kansas (where a Democrat had not won in a century), Texas, Iowa, South Carolina, and Ohio.
TRUMP’S SUPREME COURT MAJORITY FACES LOOMING THREAT AFTER DEM SENATE TAKEOVER: ‘STUCK’
Conservatives are panicking that the shift in control of the Senate will threaten their majority on the Supreme Court. Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush appointed three of the justices (Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito), while President Trump appointed three more (Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett). Presidents Obama and Biden, meanwhile, appointed three (Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson). This 6-3 majority, unified generally by an originalist approach to constitutional interpretation, has delivered some of the highest priorities on the conservative wish list: the overruling of Roe v. Wade and the return of the abortion question to the states; the declaration of the Second Amendments individual right to possess firearms; and the end of racial preferences in government programs and university admissions.
The problem, simply put, is time. Thomas is 78, while Alito is 76. For justices appointed since 1980, the average age at retirement or death in office is 79.8 years. If Thomas or Alito were to leave office over the next two years, which would be in keeping with that average, the Democratic majority would be unlikely to confirm their successors. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has already set a precedent of not filling a Supreme Court vacancy in the last year of a presidential term â he did not allow a Senate vote to fill the 2016 vacancy created by Justice Antonin Scalias death. It would be a small political jump â though a serious change in Senate norms â for Democrats to extend that period to two years. The change in Senate control in January means that no conservative justice is likely to retire until 202
