Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, pushed for Congress to "confirm" that Mr Whitaker is recused from overseeing the investigation. Mr Cummings is due to take over the chair of his committee in January when Democrats take control of the House.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, highlighted Mr Whitaker’s previous public criticisms of the reach of special counsel Robert Mueller, the man leading the Russia investigation.

In an interview with CNN in July 2017, Mr Whitaker suggested that a replacement to Mr Sessions could slash Mr Mueller’s budget so the investigation "grinds to almost a halt". 

He told the network: “I could see a scenario where Jeff Sessions is replaced with a recess appointment, and that attorney general doesn’t fire Bob Mueller, but he just reduces his budget to so low that his investigation grinds to almost a halt.”

Republican senator-elect Mitt Romney said it was imperative that the Russia investigation continued unimpeded.

Within minutes of the announcement, leading Democrats were calling for a probe into what prompted Mr Sessions’ departure and assurances that Mr Whitaker would not interfere with the Russia investigation.

Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, demanded immediate "answers" for "the real reason" for the "termination" of  Mr Sessions.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader. called the timing of Mr Sessions’ departure "very suspect" and said it would spark a "constitutional crisis" if Mr Trump forced out Sessions as a "prelude" to ending or limiting Mueller’s investigation.

John Dean, President Richard Nixon’s former lawyer, said Mr Session’ dismissal seemed to have been "planned like a murder".

"It appears to me these are men who understand what the obstruction of justice statute is, and they’re trying to figure out how to get around it without violating it," he told KCBS radio.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, said the firing of Mr Sessions appears to be a "blatant attempt" by Mr Trump to undermine and end the Russia probe.

However Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who once said there’d be "holy hell to pay" if Mr Trump fired Mr Sessions, called the relationship "dysfunctional" and said he thought the president had the right after the midterm to select a new attorney general. 

Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General, is due to arrive at the White House any minute. There were reports earlier this year that Mr Trump was on the verge of firing him, after it emerged that he had joked about recording the president. 

Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General, has resigned. Mr Sessions has repeatedly provoked the ire of Donald Trump after recusing himself from the federal investigation into potential Russian collusion in the presidential election.

Mr Trump blamed the decision for opening the door to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, who took over the Russia investigation and began examining whether Mr Trump’s hectoring of his chief law enforcement officer was part of a broader effort to obstruct justice.

Mr Trump announced in a tweet that Mr Sessions’ chief of staff, Matthew G Whitaker, will serve as acting Attorney General.

In his resignation letter, Mr Sessions made clear he was standing down at the president’s "request". 

Mr Whitaker, who is expected to temporarily oversee the Russia probe, has previously suggested that a replacement to Mr Sessions could slash Mr Mueller’s budget so the investigation "grinds to almost a halt".   

He replies:

Donald Trump is asked about the violence that preceded the vote – the pipe bombs, the Pittsburg shooting.

Donald Trump is asked yet again about the future of John Kelly, and his Cabinet members.

He jokes that people get exhausted, and he understands them wanting to leave.

He says you come into the White House, serve for a short period of time, and emerge years older…

He doesn’t answer whether Putin has called him.

Donald Trump is asked whether he has seen any meddling in the election.

He stunned the UN general assembly in September when he announced that they had evidence of China attempting to influence the midterms.

But he doesn’t say whether they have seen any attempts to damage the process.

Trump is asked why he doesn’t put an end to the Mueller investigation.

"I could," he says. "I could fire everyone right now."

He adds:

He’s asked about the Mueller investigation.

He says he has no regrets of describing the caravan as "an invasion".

He continues:

He is asked about the campaign advert which was so divisive even Fox News refused to air it.

He then turns on CNN’s reporter, Jim Acosta.

In news which will cause sleepless nights for Jeff Sessions, maybe Wilbur Ross, he replies:

He is asked whether John Kelly will stay on as chief of staff, and replies that it’s normal to have a shake-up after the midterms.

Is Ryan Zinke, his scandal-hit interior secretary, safe?

Trump says:

He raises the possibility of infrastructure reform, and says that he plans on "sending something up there that Democrats can support, and sending something up there that Republicans can support."

He singles out Carlos Curbelo (who lost his seat as representative for Florida) and Mia Love (who lost her seat as representative for Utah).

He continues naming them – Republicans who turned on him. It’s quite a remarkable scene.

He says they did so against "staggering opposition".

He says his 30 rallies in the last 60 days helped – "the candidates I supported achieved tremendous success."

Of 11 candidates he campaigned with in the last week, nine won, he says.

He then lists his wins – Indiana, Florida, North Dakota – and singles out Tennessee and Utah.

"And Arizona is looking really good."

He continues: "In the House, Republicans are looking really good, despite a large number of retirements."

He praises people who worked "very, very hard – like Oprah Winfrey, who I like. She may not like me, but that’s OK."

– he was due to start at 11:30am.

It’s now 11:50am, and the East Room of the White House is packed with people. Everyone is waiting.

Ah, Ivanka – ever the diplomat…

Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Senate, has had a good night.

His party’s grip has increased – 96 of the 100 seats have been declared, and 51 are now Republican, 41 Democrat (with two independent). Before Tuesday, 43 were Democrat.

He’s asked if he’s worried that the Democrats in the House will use their new majority to cause trouble for Mr Trump.

He replies:

He’s asked what impact he feels Trump’s rhetoric has had, and dismisses the question.

And he outlines his concerns for the next session, which begins in January.

He stresses that they have a lot of work still to do in this session.

And a concession.

So what will he do now?

He referred to the question of birthright citizenship as "an interesting legal question".

Senator Bill Nelson’s campaign has announced that his race against his Republican challenger Rick Scott, the current governor of Florida, is headed to a recount.

Of the 8.1 million votes cast, Mr Scott leads by just 34,537 votes, which is less than one-half point, the threshold for a state-mandated recount.

"We are proceeding to a recount," said Mr Nelson in a statement.

The three-term Democratic senator released a statement at 1am ET on Wednesday morning announcing that he was disappointed in the election night results.

Now, all of Florida’s 67 counties need to recheck tally totals.

The deadline for the process is noon on November 10.

We are still waiting for all the votes to be counted, but it’s believed that 113 million people voted yesterday.

That is 49 per cent turnout – high for a midterm.

In 2014, 83.3 million went to the polls.

The previous high was in 2010, when 96.5 million voted to deliver their verdict on Barack Obama’s first two years.

Absolutely not – despite what he’s likely to say in the next few hours.

Having oversight from Congress – something he is not really used to – is likely to prove a shock. And, if you see my colleague Ben Riley-Smith‘s tweet (12:40pm), there is a daunting list of damaging proposals being drawn up.

With the midterms out the way, there is some speculation that Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, could also make some significant moves.

Maggie Haberman, the White House correspondent for The New York Times, also thinks that many of the Trump Team may not want to weather the coming storms.

Who could be leaving?

She mentions:

• John Kelly, chief of staff
• Jeff Sessions, attorney general
• Wilbur Ross, secretary of commerce
• Ryan Zinke, interior secretary
• Betsy DeVos, education 

Donald Trump has already called Nancy Pelosi, we’re learning.

It’s a sign that he realises he needs to maintain relationships with her; she wields a lot of power.

She is the senior Democrat in the House, and likely to be elected as Speaker.

It was a big night for Texas, with Beto O’Rourke’s attempt to unseat Ted Cruz in the Senate dominating national headlines.

The hype got people to the polls.

The Texas Tribune reports that turnout this year topped eight million — which is near presidential election levels.

In the 2014 midterm, for example, just 4.6 million Texans showed up to the polls.

In 2016 – a presidential election year – nearly nine million Texans voted.

By the end of early voting this year, turnout in the 30 Texas counties that are home to 78 per cent of the state’s registered voters had already surpassed turnout from the 2012 presidential election.

Just in from Bookmakers.tv – they think the money is on Beto O’Rourke for 2020, despite his failing to beat Ted Cruz in the race for the Senate.

They claim:

One of the most interesting things to watch will be how Donald Trump copes with having a hostile House.

Until now the House has been controlled by Republicans, who have helped him along. That’s all changed.

One of the ways he may try to get around that is through the use of executive orders. Mr Trump loves them – signing them with great pomp and ceremony even when they are not necessary (as with the ending of the child separation policy – that didn’t need an executive order, but he signed one anyway, in a televised performance).

Our data journalist Patrick Scott has pulled together the statistics on his use of executive orders.

Our US correspondent David Millward writes:

For the first time in American political history a congressional election is poised to go to a run off. In sparsely populated northern Maine  neither Republican Bruce Poliquin nor Democrat Jared Golden secured more than 50 per cent of the vote.

The outcome will be decided on voters’ second preferences. This is because Maine’s electorate backed the introduction of a system known as Ranked Choice Voting in a referendum in 2016.

Mr Poliquin has refused to rule out challenging the result should he lose in the run off despite having won more votes than his opponent on the first preferences. As things stand he polled 46.1 per cent and Mr Golden 45.8 per cent. 

Despite its remoteness, the district is of some additional interest because Maine is one of two states – the other is Nebraska – which splits the presidential electoral college vote. Northern Maine went for Donald Trump in 2016.

My colleague Rozina Sabur explains:

Tuesday’s midterm elections marked two years since Donald Trump’s shock election victory – the first test of how his Republican party is faring in the eyes of the American public.

The midterms is the name given to the combination of elections for the US Congress, governorships and other state-wide races that take place every two years.

Before Tuesday, Republicans controlled the House of Representativesand the Senate – the two chambers which make up the US Congress. But a so-called “blue wave” saw Democrats poised to take control of the House.

A liberal base hoping to derail Mr Trump’s agenda has energised activists in key races, out-fundraising and out-polling a host of Republican incumbents.

Although Mr Trump is not on the ballot, in many ways the results will be seen as a referendum on his accomplishments and how voters feel about the US president.

The battle for Georgia governor was one of the toughest, and nastiest, in the country.

Stacey Abrams is hoping to become the first black woman to govern a US state.

At 5am ET (10am UK) 99 per cent of the votes have been counted, but Abrams is refusing to concede – she wants to wait until all the absentee ballots are counted.

Under state law in Georgia, the leading candidate must receive more than 50 per cent of the vote to avoid a runoff election

Her rival, Brian Kemp, has already declared victory.

Given the expected deadlock in Congress now that the two chambers of government are split, Mr Trump could be tempted to wield his executive pen even more.

Global shares are mixed this morning, reflecting uncertainty over the implications of the midterm elections.

While the outcome of the vote was largely expected, it does potentially complicate Mr Trump’s legal troubles and policymaking agenda. It was unclear how the divided Congress might impact Trump’s pursuit of an "America first" trade strategy that has drawn the world’s two biggest economies into a trade war.

"European and U.S. futures are struggling to make up their mind as investors digest the implication of the midterm election," said Naeem Aslam of Thinkmarkets.com.

"One thing is for certain, the midterm election was mainly about Trump. President’s policies have divided the country and this was the first major political test of his presidency," he said in a commentary.

Europe seemed encouraged by the results: France’s CAC 40 rose 1.3 percent to 5,141.65, while Germany’s DAX added 1.2 percent to 11,620.55. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained nearly 1.0 percent to 7,110.71. Futures advanced, with the contract for the Dow up 0.6 percent at 25,783.00 and S&P 500 futures surging 0.7 percent to 2,779.50.

You can follow all the latest news from the markets via our live blog. 

The European Union’s deputy chief executive hailed Democratic victories, taking a clear swipe at what he called "rudeness" and "racism" under President Donald Trump.

Frans Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister who is first vice president of the European Commission led by Jean-Claude Juncker, tweeted:

Campaigning is getting under way in Europe for May elections to the European Parliament, in which Timmermans is leading the campaign for the centre-left.

A fellow Socialist commissioner, former French finance minister Pierre Moscovici who oversees economic affairs, also tweeted an ironic comment about Trump, who had earlier declared on Twitter that the election was a "tremendous success".

"The Democrats win the House of Representatives for the first time in eight years despite powerful Republican gerrymandering," Moscovici wrote. "Donald Trump is right: ‘Tremendous success tonight’."

US singers and actors have been reacting to the results from the midterms.

John Legend celebrated the restoration of voting rights for some felons in Florida.

 Bon Iver congratulated Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat who was re-elected Senator in Wisconsin. 

Billy Eichner, the comedian and actor,  was delighted by the election victory of Jared Polis, who became America’s first openly gay governor in Colorado.

 And Bette Midler gave her verdict on the re-election of Ted Cruz in Texas.

White House aides have called on Democrats to work with Republicans in the next Congress.

White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway said:

Mr Trump called House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, a conversation that her office said included congratulations and a nod to her pitch for bipartisanship.

In addition to his conversation with Ms Pelosi, the president called Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, as well as a number of candidates he backed during the race, the White House said.

It’s official – Democrats have won a House majority.

Democrats picked up at least two dozen House seats on Tuesday, capturing the 218 seats needed to break Republicans’ eight-year hold on the House that began with the tea party revolt of 2010.

While Republicans retained control of the Senate, the Democratic win in the House ends the GOP monopoly on power in Washington and opens a new era of divided government.

Democratic candidates flipped seats in a host of suburban districts outside Washington, New York, Philadelphia, Miami, Chicago and Denver, including many that were won by Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Democrats also made inroads in Trump country, winning several races dominated by white working-class voters.

The Nevada race has been called for Jacky Rosen, offering Democrats pickup in the Senate to offset their losses so far, writes Rob Crilly.

Some factors behind the result: The day was marked by very high turnout. All the signs suggested voters were highly mobilised.

At the Republican party tonight, I spoke to a number of people who said they were worried that Donald Trump’s hardline immigration rhetoric would not play well in Nevada, with its high Hispanic population and immigrants working in the hospitality industry.

The Democrats had a very effective vote machine in the form of the Culinary Union Local 226, who deployed hundreds of workers to make sure that registered Democrats turned up and voted.

All of it suggests that Democrats are on course – largely through Demographics – to turn the Sun States, such as Texas and Arizona, blue in the years to come. 

In another gubernatorial contest, the close fought race in Georgia, where Democrat Stacey Abrams was seeking to become the first black woman to be elected governor of a US state, remained too close to call early on Wednesday.

 Abrams, 44, was locked in a tight battle with Republican Brian Kemp, the state’s secretary of state. There was a minor party candidate also in the race, and under Georgia law, if no candidate exceeds 50 percent of the vote, the top two finishers advance to a December runoff election.

By 2 a.m. EST (0700 GMT), Kemp held a three-point lead, but Abrams told her supporters that she expected a runoff once all votes were counted.

"I promise you tonight that we are going to make sure every vote is counted," she said. "We are still on the verge of history, and the best is yet to come."

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been defeated by Democrat Tony Evers, denying the polarising Republican and one-time presidential candidate a third term.

Evers’ win on Tuesday is a huge victory for Democrats, who couldn’t find the recipe to take out Walker in three previous elections, including a 2012 recall.

Evers campaigned on the promise of cutting middle-class income taxes, eliminating a tax credit programme for manufacturers and possibly raising the gas tax to pay for roads.

Evers is a former teacher who’s been state schools superintendent since 2009. He turned his understated personality to his advantage in the campaign, arguing that voters were tired of divisiveness and yearned for more collegial politics.

The Democrats’ gains tonight have big implications for the Russia investigation, and for Silicon Valley, writes Laurence Dodds.

Being in control of the House of Representatives gives Democrats the power to appoint committee heads. Previously, the House intelligence committee was chaired by Devin Nunes, a Trump loyalist who has continually battled the Mueller investigation and who has received campaign donations from executives at Oracle, one of the more Right-leaning tech companies. 

Now it will be Adam Schiff, a Democrat who has been much more outspoken about the Valley’s role in misinformation. (Mr Schiff has also received donations from Oracle, but not from the executives who gave to Mr Nunes.) He has called on companies such as Facebook and Twitter to hire more moderators to police their services, and accused them of doing "the minimum amount necessary" to handle the problem. He has also warned that more needs to be done to stop foreign interference and that social media companies must go against their "economic interests" to be "good corporate citizens". 

When the US Senate called Mark Zuckerberg and other tech titans to testify earlier this year, it made headlines. Perhaps now the House will seek a bigger piece of the action.

Of the remaining seven Senate seats yet to be called, four are classed as toss-ups: Arizona, Florida, Montana and Nevada. Florida and Montana are projected to turn Republican, according to US networks, as the Democrat incumbents struggle to hold on in states Donald Trump won in 2016.

In the House, the Democrats have won at least 208 seats with more than 30 still to be counted.

An estimated 114 million votes were cast in the House election, smashing the 83 million cast in 2014 according to the New York Times. Senate results currently show that 40.7 million votes have been cast for the Democrats while the Republicans have 31.6 million. These numbers may change as more results come in through the morning.

Beto O’Rourke gave an emotionally charged concession speech at his election night event at a baseball stadium in El Paso, Texas, Nick Allen writes.

Mr O’Rourke said he had called Ted Cruz to congratulate him and quieted boos from the crowd at the mention of Mr Cruz’s name. He said he had promised to help Mr Cruz in any way possible to represent Texas. To a large cheer Mr O’Rourke then told his supporters: "I’m so f—— proud of you guys."

He added: "No-one thought this was possible to create a campaign for people from all walks of life. This campaign has a special place in the history of this country. "I’m forever change in the most profoundly positive way. I believe in you, I believe in Texas, I believe in this country.

"I’m as inspired, I am as hopeful as I have ever been in my life. This country is in no way diminished at this moment. I know we will continue to work to come together." To chants of "Beto, Beto" he left open the possibility of a future electoral campaign. "I love you more than words can express," he said. "We’ll see you out there down the road." Mr O’Rourke left the stage to John Lennon’s Imagine. Some of his supporters left the baseball stadium in tears.

In a night of political firsts, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have become the first two Muslim women to be elected to the US Congress. Ms Tlaib called Donald Trump’s election a "bat signal" for women when I interviewed her last month, you can read the full piece here.

Elsewhere, Democrat Janet Mills was elected Maine’s first female governor, defeating Republican Shawn Moody and putting seat back in Democratic hands. South Dakota also voted in its first female state governor with Republican Kristi Noem defeating Democrat Billie Sutton. 

New Mexico Democrat Deb Haaland and Kansas Democrat Sharice Davids were elected the first two Native American women to serve in Congress.

Women will break the current record of 84 serving at the same time in the House of Representatives.

With ballots still being counted across the country, women have won 75 seats and are assured of victory in nine districts where women are the only major-party candidates.

The majority of gains are among the Democrats. From the Women’s March opposing President Donald Trump the day after his inauguration in January 2017, through a stream of sexual assault accusations later that year that sparked the #MeToo movement, outrage and organising by women have defined Democratic Party politics this election cycle.

More than 230 women, many of them first-time candidates, were on the general-election ballots in House races.

Despite the gains, men will continue to hold the vast majority of House seats.

Laurence Dodds writes:

I’m at an election night party in a cinema in Oakland, California, a liberal neighbour city of San Francisco where the Black Panthers once had their stronghold.

It would be hard to find a pro-Trump party in this city, but California in general is not just a lock for the Democrats. Republicans are defending the 10th House district, east of San Jose, and the 25th, where the Republican incumbent had distanced himself from his party’s hard line on immigration. Other blue targets include Orange County outside Los Angeles, which has become competitive due to the arrival of more Asian and Latino Americans, and the 50th district outside San Diego, where Republican Duncan Hunter was made vulnerable by allegations of misusing campaign funds.

In the cinema, there were huge cheers and whoops for Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who look very likely to become the first Muslim women in Congress. Ms Omar came to America decades ago as a refugee from Somalia, while Tlaib is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants.

There were also loud boos for the narrow victory of Ron DeSantis over Andrew Gillum in the race to be governor of Florida – and for Diane Feinstein, the Democrat who many Leftists feel is not too centrist (My girlfriend observes: “It’s like a pantomime!”).

“We’ve been so much on the defensive, so hopefully this puts us in a position if being more offensive, more strategic,” said Democrat supporter Emma Ishii.

It could be some time yet before we know the outcome of the Senate race here in Nevada, Rob Crilly writes. This was supposed to be the big seat for Democrats – a state they won in 2016 giving them the best chance of unseating a Republican incumbent. But we already know that Republicans will hold the Senate, whatever the result here.

Voting was supposed to finish almost two hours ago. But there were long lines at polling centres, delaying the close of voting.

Dean Heller, the Republican senator, just addressed his supporters here in Las Vegas, thanking the president for making multiple visits to Nevada.

“Our message is good,” he said. “Our message here in America is good. Look at what this economy is doing thanks to this president and this Republican Congress that put American and Nevada back to work.”

Republican Josh Hawley wins Missouri Senate race, ousting Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill. Another heavy loss for the Democratic party in the Senate.

It was as much relief as celebration, Rob Crilly writes. After days of quietly fearing the worst, Republicans in Nevada are beginning to think this could be a good night.  The quiet hum at their party in the South Point Hotel and Casino in Law Vegas gave way to whoops and cheers as Fox News called the Texas Senate race for Ted Cruz, which effectively means the party retains control of the Senate.

"Depending on how our local races go, this could be a good night," said Joe Ludwig, who works in medical customer services. "Just breaking even feels good at this stage. There’s no wave and a few extra seats in the Senate could help the president, even if he loses the House."

Nancy Pelosi, the most senior Democrat in the House, is speaking at the party’s headquarters in Washington. 

"We’ve all had enough of division," she says to loud cheers. Mrs Pelosi went on to promise "accountability", saying Democrats will strive for bipartisanship.

“Thanks to you we owned the ground,” she says. “Thanks to you tomorrow will be a new day in America. Remember this feeling. Note the power to win.”

Donald Trump has praised the "tremendous success" for his Republican party in tonight’s results. However the White House has called a lid for pool reporters, meaning the president will not speak tonight. 

Andrew Gillum has conceded defeat in Florida’s governor race against Republican Ron DeSantis, in what was one of the most vicious campaigns of the year.  Mr Gillum, the former Tallahassee mayor, had been hoping to become the state’s first African American governor. The bitter campaign had included accusations of dog whistle politics, but Donald Trump made several trips to the state to stump for Mr DeSantis.

This is an important result for Mr Trump, Florida is America’s most populous swing state and governors have huge sway over mobilising party activists and raising donations for the 2020 presidential race.

The Texas senate result was called while a band was on stage at Beto O’Rourke’s election night party, Nick Allen reports. The crowd was listening to an accordionist as news spread by way of social media on phones. When the band finished a silence fell. There were some, rather half-hearted chants of "Beto, Beto."

It was a shock for a lot of the first-time voters who had packed into a baseball stadium in El Paso firmly believing their candidate was about to pull off an historic upset. Not long before the race was called Ted Cruz’s campaign had indicated they thought they were in for a long night. When the result came his supporters at an event in Houston burst into chants of "We want Ted! We want Ted!"

Democrat Heidi Heitkamp has lost her senate seat in North Dakota, losing to Republican Kevin Cramer. This was a crucial target for Republicans in a state that voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Ms Heitkamp became one of the most endangered Democrats in the Senate after she voted against Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination.

Many of tonight’s results were predictable. The Democrats have done well in the House, which was inevitable given Trump’s low approval rating, two years of controversy and the continued shift of suburban voters to the Democratic column. But the Republicans have also done well in the Senate – in part thanks to Democrats defending incumbencies in states that favoured Trump (Indiana, North Dakota etc). In other words, the Republicans have had luck and math on their side.

One notable exception is here in Pennsylvania where it looks like the Republicans have been cut down from 15 out of 18 House seats to a paltry 6. This was due in part to a court-ordered redistricting.

Both sides will have to confront substantial challenges. Would the Democrats have done even better if they had moved to the centre? It has been suggested that Beto O’Rourke could have won Texas if he had courted Ted Cruz’s voters, but he didn’t. He went pro-immigration, pro-impeachment, pro-gun control. 

As for the Republicans, what do they do about Trump? He has identified and energised a populist coalition that snagged him the presidency – but he has also placed limits on where the Republicans can win state-by-state. The exit polls suggest large parts of the country resent his rhetoric on immigration and feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. Given that the economy is so strong, they presumably mean it is becoming too divisive and violent.

We’ll see where things stand in the morning. I’m going to try to sleep but there’s a party in the tavern downstairs. I’m using CNN as white noise to drown it out.

Rob Crilly writes:

I’ve arrived at the Republican election night party in Las Vegas. It’s the same place they saw in the 2016 election result – I wonder if they are superstitious. There’s a degree of realism in the air. Most expect to lose the House tonight. But limiting Democrats to a majority of 15 or fewer, and holding the Senate would go down as a good result.

Rising left-wing rock star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made history on Tuesday as the youngest woman elected to Congress, in a safe Democratic Party stronghold in New York.

The 29-year-old has championed her working class and Puerto Rican roots, moonlighting as a bartender until defeating a Democratic grandee in a party primary earlier this year, capturing imaginations around the country.

On Tuesday, she trounced Republican opponent Anthony Pappas in her constituency, a Democratic stronghold in a diverse part of Queens and the Bronx.

The Telegraph’s US Editor, Ben Riley-Smith, spent a day out on the campaign trail with her earlier this year. Read his profile of the young Congresswoman here.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s win beats the previous record held by Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a former White House aide to president George W Bush who was first elected to an upstate New York constituency in 2014 aged 30.

Before that, the last record was last set by former Democratic representative Elizabeth Holtzman in Brooklyn, who won a seat in the House in 1972 when she was 31 years old and took her seat in 1973.

Women occupy just 23 percent of the seats in the current US Senate and 19.3 percent in the House of Representatives, comparatively low rates in the developed world.

Republican Ted Cruz has held onto his senate seat in Texas, defeating Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. 

Democrat Jared Polis has been elected Colorado’s governor, defeating Republican Walker Stapleton. Mr Polis is the country’s first openly gay male governor.

Having picked up two new Senate seats, NBC is predicting the Republican will maintain their control of the chamber. Meanwhile Democrat Heidi Heitkamp is projected to lose her senate seat in North Dakota. If this is true, it extremely unlikely the Democrats can take the Senate.

Republican Marsha Blackburn wins Tennessee Senate race, defeating Democrat Phil Bredesen. Ms Blackburn is replacing former Republican senator Bob Corker.

Republican Mitt Romney has won a senate seat in Utah after returning to front line politics, defeating Democrat Jenny Wilson. Mr Romney has been something of a thorn in Donald Trump’s side, frequently criticising the president in public.

He ran against Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election and took a back seat from national politics for a while after his defeat.

Speaking outside the White House, press secretary Sarah Sanders appeared to be conceding Republicans may have lost control of the House. Asked about that possibility of a Democratic takeover, she said: "The president’s agenda isn’t going to change regardless of whose party is there."

Three Democratic senators have held onto their seats.

Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin has won a second term, defeating Republican Leah Vukmir; Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota has won a third term, defeating Republican Jim Newberger; and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico has also won re-election, defeating Republican Mick Rich. 

Nick Allen has an update from Texas:

With 58 per cent of the vote in Ted Cruz and O’Rourke both have more than 2 million votes – and O’Rourke is ahead…by just 79. This could be an absolute nailbiter.

The suburbs of Houston are still to come in and could be good for the Democrat. But Cruz has been campaigning a lot there, and he lives in Houston. He’s also got a lot of reliably red rural areas to come in.

O’Rourke has hired out a baseball stadium in El Paso for his election party. Supporters, many of them very young, are pouring in to the stands and a DJ is playing on a stage erected on the outfield. It’s an untraditional election night event.

The USA appears – touch wood – to have made it through the midterms without a major cyberattack targeting election infrastructure, Laurence Dodds writes.

Matthew Prince, chief executive of the cybersecurity firm Cloudflare, said his company hadn’t seen any such incidents. Perhaps it helped that the Pentagon had given US government hackers authority to retaliate against any nation which attempted one.

But the vote has not been free of foreign "information operations" – that is, political campaigns run using deceptive methods such as bots, fake accounts and false identities. Although most such activity now comes from Americans, Facebook said this morning that it had blocked around 30 accounts after a tip-off from authorities involving "foreign entities". 

Separately, an app created by the comedian Samantha Bee which allows users to report attempts at voter suppression has received 800 such reports, including claims of "vigilantes" hanging around the polls trying to intimidate people.

Fox News has projected a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. Whether this projection, so early in the night, will hold true remains to be seen.

Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly has lost his senate seat in Indiana, the home state of Vice President Mike Pence. The winner, Republican Mike Braun, has picked up another crucial seat for his party. This was a key target for the Republicans and Mr Trump campaigned in the state multiple times, returning again on his final day of rallies on Monday.

Early results are showing the Republicans holding on to some House seats Democrats had hoped to flip, suggesting the predicted ‘blue wave’ is failing to materialise.

Governor races

Republican businessman Bill Lee is elected Tennessee governor, defeating Democratic former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. But in Illinois, Democrat JB Pritzker has managed to unseat the incumbent Republican governor Bruce Rauner. 

In more predictable results, Republican Greg Abbott of Texas, Democrat Andrew Cuomo of New York, Democrat Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania re-elected and Republican Larry Hogan of Maryland were all re-elected as state governors. Republican Mark Gordon will by Wyoming’s next governor. 

Senate races

Republican John Barrasso of Wyoming has been  re-elected to the Senate. Democrat Bob Casey of Pennsylvania has won a third Senate term, beating Republican challenger Lou Barletta.  Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi has also won re-election, defeating Democrat David Baria.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has been re-elected in West Virginia, defeating Republican challenger Patrick Morrisey. This was the most pro-Trump state of the 2016 election, and a key target for Republicans this year. This is a personal loss for Mr Trump, who campaigned in the state multiple times in the run up to Tuesday’s election.

 Democrat senator Kirsten Gillibrand has been re-elected in New York. Ms Gillibrand has been touted as a future presidential candidate.

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey has been re-elected to third term, defeating Republican Bob Hugin. It was a surprisingly close race given the state is traditionally blue. Mr Hugin had distanced himself from the president, calling his plan to end birthright citizenship "wrong". 

Greg Pence, the brother of Vice President Mike Pence, has been elected to Congress in Indiana. 

He was running in the Vice President’s former seat in Indiana’s 6th district, a staunchly Republican area.

Polls have closed on America’s east coast, with a number of battleground House and Senate races remaining competitive. What are the results so far?

Democrat Sherrod Brown has been re-elected to the Senate in Ohio, defeating Republican Jim Renacci. In his victory speech, Mr Brown said his win should be “the blueprint for our nation in 2020” – prompting speculation about the 2020 presidential election.

Republican Charlie Baker has been elected to serve a second term as Massachusetts governor. He defeated Democrat Jay Gonzalez, who was hoping to become the state’s first Hispanic governor. 

Elsewhere Republican Asa Hutchinson has won a second term as Arkansas governor, defeating Democrat Jared Henderson. In Rhode Island, Democratic Governor Gina Raimondo has won a second term, defeating Republican Allan Fung. Mr Fung was hoping to become the state’s first Asian governor.

This analysis from Joshua Wilson on our data team:

According to the latest exit poll from CNN, the top issue on voters minds as they headed to the ballot box on Tuesday was health care, with 41 per cent of voters listing it as their top issue.

In previous years the economy has been the top issue which has played to the strengths of the Republicans, but health care favours the Democrats much more strongly and they have campaigned heavily on this topic. 

Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Murphy of  Connecticut, Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, Tom Carper of Delaware, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island have all been re-elected for another six-year term, according to the Associated Press.

Democrats have seized a House seat in Virginia with Jennifer Wexton predictably defeating incumbent Republican Barbara Comstock. Virginia 10  is a district which Hillary Clinton won in 2016. 

This is a key signal of how the Democrats are going to fare in the suburbs. Our own Nick Allen visited Virginia 10 last week to see how Donald Trump’s Republican party was going down with suburban, female, college-educated voters. Read his dispatch here.

Elsewhere in Virginia, Tim Kaine, Mrs Clinton’s running mate in 2016, has been re-elected to the Senate. Mr Kaine comfortably beat Republican Corey Stewart. 

Bernie Sanders, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, has been re-elected as a senator in Vermont. Mr Sanders ran as an independent candidate with the Democratic party’s backing, as he has done in previous years.

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are watching the results at the White House with friends and family.

This in from Sarah Sanders, the White House Press Secretary:  “As President, Donald J Trump has headlined an unprecedented 50 rallies — 30 in the last two months alone — and he has campaigned for dozens of candidates at all levels of government. The President has energised a staggering number of Americans at packed arenas and in overflow crowds at rallies across the country.

"Under President Trump’s leadership, the Republican National Committee has raised more than a quarter billion dollars, fueling an extraordinary ground game geared toward defying midterm history and protecting the GOP’s majorities.

"He has made the choice clear to the American people: Tonight, we can continue down the path of American prosperity and security or we can go backwards. The President and First Lady look forward to watching the results come in with friends and family in the White House residence.”