Democrats have successfully flipped at least 12 seats in their favor since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, and they are hoping to flip a few more as the November midterms approach. Some of their victories have come in Republican strongholds like Iowa, Florida, Texas, and Mississippi, suggesting that some voters in these traditionally red states have grown dissatisfied with the Trump administration and the GOP, as recent national approval ratings show. Democrat Brandon Dukes is expected to bring another win to his party today, as with less than 5 percent of ballots left to count, he appears to have an edge over Republican Scott Timko on Tuesday night in the Pennsylvania State House 12th District special election.
As of Wednesday morning, 50.26 percent of the votes counted went to Dukes; Timko got 49.74 percent. Should Dukes be confirmed the winner, he would take credit for a historic feat, flipping a seat Republicans had held since 1999. Provisional and overseas ballots still need to be counted as of now.
The result remains unofficial. Newsweek has contacted Dukes' campaign for further comment via email. Timko could not immediately be reached for comment.
Newsweek has contacted the Pennsylvania Republican Party for comment via an email sent outside regular business hours. Since Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, the following seats controlled by Republicans flipped to Democrats, according to Ballotpedia: Since the beginning of the year, the following seats also changed from Republican to Democratic control: Dukes’ potential victory in Pennsylvania, which has already been celebrated by the state’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro, could become the 13th Republican-to-Democrat flip since 2025. Ballotpedia’s tracker of state legislative special elections in 2025 lists no seat which changed from Democrat to Republican control, showing that Democrats have obtained one-way gains.
Democrats are hoping that growing frustration with the rising cost of living and the Trump administration’s ongoing war in Iran would lead to a blue wave taking over the country in the November midterm elections. After the brutal reckoning that followed Kamala Harris’ defeat in 2024 and nearly two years of feeling relatively powerless, the Democratic Party will have a chance to take back control of Congress and put a spanner in the Trump administration’s work. Democrats would need to flip only four seats to take control of the Senate.
And the party is generally feeling positive about the upcoming elections. She added: “While Trump and Republicans leave Americans grappling with their reckless tariffs and a deadly and costly war with Iran, Democrat candidates are on the ground, showing up and listening to voters about the issues that matter most. Since Trump took office, Democrats have been aggressively organizing and investing across the country to help our candidates win up and down the ballot—and that’s why Democrats are going to sweep this November.” Despite Trump’s plunging popularity among voters and recent electoral defeats, Republicans’ confidence appears unshaken ahead of November.
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