Trump blames candidate quality for Republican midterm losses

Donald Trump rejected responsibility for major Republican losses in the midterm elections, blaming candidate quality and his absence from the ballot. He said he would have won “in a landslide” if he had stood, despite urging supporters to treat the election as a test of his leadership. The results matter because Democrats were projected to take both chambers of Congress.

Republicans lost Senate seats in South Carolina and North Carolina, while Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff held his seat against a Trump-backed challenger. Annie Andrews became South Carolina’s first Democratic senator since 1998, defeating Darline Graham despite Trump campaigning there three times. In North Carolina, Roy Cooper won the seat held by retiring Republican Thom Tillis, marking the state’s first Democratic Senate victory since 2008.