US midterm election results are coming in thick and fast. Held at the half-way point of a president's term, this is as a measure of how happy Americans are with Donald Trump's presidency so far.

First securing a majority in the House of Representatives, the Democrats have also won the Senate after a series of victories in Maine, Iowa, Ohio, Kansas and Texas.

Democrats won Senate races in states like South Carolina, Kansas and Texas - seats that have been held by Republicans for decades. Kansas hasn't had a Democratic Senator for almost 100 years.

With James Talarico winning the Senate and Gina Hinojosa being elected Governor, Democrats have two-state wide victories in Texas that, for almost two generations, has been as red as they come.

Democrat Annie Andrews' Senate defeat of Republican incumbent Darline Graham - sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham - wasn't on anyone's radar and is a shocking upset for Republicans.

America has spoken pretty loudly in rejecting Donald Trump's last two years in office, says our North America editor Sarah Smith. Tonight is not just a Democratic wave - we are looking at a seismic shock.

Dialling into Fox News, the US president said he was "a little surprised" but that the opposition "did a good job" and said there are "many, many things" that he could work with them on.

Votes are still being counted in key Senate races like Michigan, and Alaska - where polls only closed a short while ago.

A government controlled by the Democrats could have a real impact on the president. Congress could launch investigations into his finances or even try to impeach him for a third time

It's hard to overstate how upset many Republicans are feeling in the wake of what has turned into a stunning defeat for the party at the polls.

Most Republican acquaintances and contacts I spoke to during the day yesterday expected losses, but were cautiously optimistic that perhaps they'd be able to maintain the House of Representatives and eke out victories in races that they expected to be tight.

"This was worse than I thought," one Republican staffer texted me not long ago. "It's a disaster."

The coming hours and days, another Republican contact told me, will involve "a lot of soul searching" to determine what went wrong.

A surprisingly muted President Trump earlier laid the blame squarely on the candidates themselves, even if he acknowledged that high petrol prices played a role.

But inside the party, some senior figures are reportedly also already pinning the blame on officials that pushed Trump to go to war in Iran. Others have suggested Trump is to blame for his party's woes.

"The president said going into in that the election was going to be a referendum on him [and] act like he's on the ballot," conservative commentator Ben Shapiro said on his podcast. "I think that, you know, the president was kind of on the ballot."

Trump has no public events on his schedule for Wednesday, although it's likely we will hear from him on Truth Social or through further media interviews.

(Source: BBC)