US midterms: Democrats projected to take House, Republicans to keep Senate

US networks projected Wednesday that the Democrats would take the House of Representatives or Congress while Trump's Republicans would keep control of the Senate. 

The US midterm elections — in which all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 seats in the 100-member Senate, and 36 governorships were up for grabs — are being seen as a referendum on Trump's unconventional presidency. 

A Democratic House would upend the current Washington power balance.

Trump has spent months ahead of the midterms deriding the Democrats as bent on destroying the US economy and allowing criminals to run riot.

But with the party leading the House, Trump would be forced to compromise more — or risk presiding over an ever more divided country. Democrats, still smarting from Trump's extraordinary upset win against Hillary Clinton in 2016, would likely use their ascendancy to exact payback.

Democratic leadership of the House's powerful investigative committees would breathe new wind into probes of Trump's opaque personal finances, Russian interference in the 2016 election, and even calls for his impeachment. 

(With inputs from AFP)