Nation Divided

The midterms delivered a split decision that primes both parties for battle.

Democrats, she said, “have taken back the House for the American people!”

The message was met with relief more than triumph.

Democrats had hoped the country would deliver a decisive verdict to President Trump and the Republicans, but it did not. Pelosi’s party took the night’s biggest prize, flipping about 30 GOP-held seats to take over the House of Representatives. Democrats won large majorities of women, young people and nonwhite voters, according to exit polls; ran up the score among voters with college degrees.

But a President who turned the election into a referendum on himself saw plenty to like in the results as well. The GOP gained ground in the Senate, easily defeating Democratic incumbents in Indiana, Missouri and North Dakota, states that Trump won in 2016 and that he campaigned in just days before the midterms. Much of the country’s deep-red interior got redder

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