As of 11 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday night, the party was on track to gain control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as several state governments. The party's strong performance, driven in part by voters' anger over inflation and the war in Iran, reached into traditional Republican strongholds like Ohio and South Carolina. A sweep would have profound consequences for climate action in the United States, even with President Donald Trump still in the White House.

Flipping control of Congress would allow the Democrats to hinder Trump's numerous attempts to roll back federal climate policy. In the first two years of Trump's term, party leaders could do little more than write strongly worded statements to administration officials. They were powerless to stop the suspension of clean energy funding, the elimination of climate rules for power plants and motor vehicles, and the hollowing-out of agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. F