Not every important 2026 result was a flip. In New York, Colorado and New Hampshire, Democrats held seats that were essential to their national gains, and those holds were as important as any upset elsewhere.
Without them, the flips in Ohio, South Carolina and North Carolina would not have mattered, and the Senate majority fight would have ended before it began.
In New York, Democrat Kathy Hochul was re-elected governor, keeping one of the country’s largest states under Democratic control.
Her win also kept New York’s large House delegation in play for Democrats as they built their House majority, and it denied Republicans a symbolic victory in a state they had hoped to make competitive.
In Colorado, Democrats won both top races on the ballot. John Hickenlooper was re-elected to the Senate, and Phil Weiser won the governor’s race, confirming Colorado’s steady move toward Democrats in recent cycles.
In New Hampshire, Democrat Chris Pappas won the Senate race, becoming the first out gay man elected to the US Senate, a historic first that drew national attention beyond the seat’s effect on the Senate tally.
Holding these seats mattered because the Senate majority fight was so close. A single loss in any of them would have ended the Democratic path to control before the flips elsewhere could matter.
It would have turned a night of gains into a night of damage limitation, and it would have changed the story of the midterms from a Democratic wave to a missed opportunity.