President Trump on Saturday ordered the Justice Department to look into Democrats for “threatening a lot of people” with impeachment and other punishment, four days after his party lost both chambers of Congress.
In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump called the Democratic lawmakers “extortionists” and said their conduct was a “criminal act,” Al Jazeera reported. He offered no evidence. “This is extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable for this,” he wrote, adding that some cabinet members had been threatened with impeachment.
He named Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, saying she had gone after donors over their political views, again without proof. He also said Democrats were threatening his own donors, whom he described as “some of the most respected people anywhere in the World.”
Representative Robert Garcia of California, who is expected to lead the House Oversight Committee, posted “LAWYER UP” once it was clear Democrats had won the House. Democratic lawmakers and newly elected candidates have said they will investigate the Trump family’s finances, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Todd Blanche. Starting in January, they’ll have the power to subpoena documents, call administration officials to testify and hold hearings.
Mr. Trump has pushed for investigations of opponents before in his second term, including James Comey, the former FBI director, and Letitia James, the New York attorney general.
Tuesday’s vote also went against data centers. Voters were on track to reject development in 40 of 41 local ballot measures, according to Data Centers on the Ballot, a project run by Redbud Consulting, as Andy Hirschfeld wrote for Al Jazeera. Two were still being counted. The lone exception was Harwood, N.D., a town of fewer than 800 people, which voted down a measure that would have required independent reviews of large industrial projects. In a September poll, 70 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans favored limits on new construction.
The fight reached statewide races. In Ohio, which held 21 of the 47 data center votes nationwide this year, the Democrat Sherrod Brown flipped a Senate seat after attacking Senator Jon Husted, the Republican incumbent, for backing the facilities. “One guy has led the charge on these,” Mr. Brown told NBC. In Texas, Gina Hinojosa, who supported a moratorium on new approvals, defeated Gov. Greg Abbott.
James Talarico, another Texas Democrat, flipped a Republican Senate seat on a promise of tighter rules, including closed-loop water systems. He carried drought-stricken Corpus Christi, where the reservoir had fallen to 8 percent of capacity, by 12 points. A 2026 working paper from the Dallas Fed estimated that data centers had pushed wholesale electricity prices up 6.9 percent.
Bhaskar Chakravorti, the dean of global business at Tufts University, said voters were seeing the results “in their energy bills.” Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, talking about scrutiny of the AI industry, said, “They are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we’ll be printing.”
Mr. Talarico had drawn notice well before the race for refusing money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “I’ve never taken money from AIPAC, and I’m not taking money from AIPAC in this campaign,” he said in a podcast clip that went viral. “Seeing what’s happening in Gaza makes me sick to my stomach as a teacher, as a Christian, as a human being.”
AIPAC, its super PAC and allied groups spent about $84 million this cycle, and roughly $55 million of it went to candidates who lost, according to the Quincy Institute, Umar Farooq reported for Al Jazeera. About $30 million backed Representative Haley Stevens’s failed bid for the Michigan Senate nomination. Senator Susan Collins of Maine got more than $4.8 million and lost to Troy Jackson, a Democrat.
The group’s money still went to plenty of winners. AIPAC said on Nov. 4 that 234 candidates it supported, from both parties, had won. Representative Wesley Bell of Missouri, backed by about $3 million, took more than 81 percent of the vote.
In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed, who wants U.S. aid to Israel halted, beat Ms. Stevens in the primary and then Mike Rogers, a Republican who drew roughly $9 million in support, in the general. “Thank you for giving me the opportunity to beat you twice,” Dr. El-Sayed told the lobby in his victory speech. He filed a leadership PAC days later.
AIPAC said in October that it would stop endorsing candidates and giving to them directly after this cycle. “We have entered a new era,” said Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute. In a post on X, AIPAC said its members “are determined to expand their political activism in the cycles ahead.”