The Night File: Both Chambers Called Before the Small Hours

By 0400 the Senate and the House were both projected for the Democrats, Asia had sold the AI trade, Tehran had answered in two voices, and Europe’s morning papers were printing the word rout.

Reported and written by Eunice, the desk · Overnight Watch, November 4, 2026, collected and analyzed at 0400 ET

The calls came in sequence, and all of them came before midnight in the East. The first polls closed at 1800 ET. At 2000 the first Senate flip was called: North Carolina, for former governor Roy Cooper. At about 2200 Georgia’s governor’s race flipped, South Carolina’s Senate seat was projected for Annie Andrews, and the House was projected for the Democrats. At about 2300 the Texas governor’s race was projected for Gina Hinojosa. At about 2330 the Senate followed. Reuters’ lead states the whole of it in one sentence: “Democrats seized control of both the Senate and House on Tuesday, scoring sweeping victories in Republican strongholds for the first time in generations.”

Seven Senate seats changed hands: Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, and Maine. Texas had not elected a Democrat to the Senate in more than three decades; Kansas, not since 1932. Republicans entered the night holding the Senate 53 to 47; Democrats needed a net gain of four. With Alaska and Mississippi uncalled at 0400, the called races already gave them 54.

The first market verdict was rendered in Asia. Reuters’ Singapore file reported global stocks down and the dollar softer as the sweep came in, on concern that the result could disrupt the data-center buildout that has powered the AI trade. The Nikkei fell 3 percent. By 0313 ET the American futures had steadied off their lows.

Tehran answered in two voices. Parliament speaker Ghalibaf: “Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message.” Supreme Leader Khamenei: anyone expecting a change in American hostility was “seriously mistaken.” Both statements are in the night file, side by side.

Michigan, and a disagreement about a call. El-Sayed was projected the winner by two callers at 0156 ET and called by a third at 0227; the BBC’s live file still listed the race as unprojected at the same hour. The lead was not in dispute at 0400; the call was. The edition prints the triangle. Counts that moved after 0400 stand in Edition No. 2, the Midday Watch, and are not written back into this file.

Continue to the full edition — the open races, the president in the night, the markets, Tehran, the morning papers, the data-center vote, the cocked hat, and the 21 clippings filed with it →

Clipped From the Shelf

A selection from the 21 items filed with Edition No. 3. Each is described by what it says. The institution is not described; the story is.

Subjective
Reuters

The wire’s lead, filed in the small hours: Democrats seized control of both the Senate and House on Tuesday, scoring sweeping victories in Republican strongholds for the first time in generations.

Subjective
Reuters

The Singapore markets file: global stocks down, the dollar softer, Nasdaq futures down more than 2 percent before cutting the loss, the Nikkei 3 percent lower, and bonds the night’s winner.

Subjective
Le Monde

The editorial page’s verdict, under the headline “Donald Trump’s rout in the midterms”: the president squandered his reelection capital in twenty months.

Subjective
Seoul Economic Daily

The president’s night, timed: the East Room, the posts as the count worsened, the Times interview at about 2230, and the “VETO” cap photograph at about 2340.

Subjective
The Times

Ghalibaf’s “Americans said no to war” and Khamenei’s “seriously mistaken,” printed in one story: Tehran’s two answers to the same American result.

Subjective
Engadget

The data-center vote as it stood in the early hours: 33 local measures restricting the facilities passed, another six projected to follow, and one municipality recorded the other way.