Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. In case you fell asleep early, yesterday evening resonated as an extinction level-event for Donald Trump’s Republican Party, a worst-case scenario for the GOP that even the starkest polls might’ve underestimated. Democrats defended a crucial Senate seat in Michigan and won the likely pickups in Maine and North Carolina. They then proceeded to flip five more seats in states that would normally be considered unquestionably red: Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, South Carolina, and — the biggest prize of them all — Texas. As of Wednesday morning, Democrats have secured 54 seats in the Senate. A closely-watched race in Alaska is yet to be called. And the Senate contest in ruby red Mississippi is down to the wire, with Democrat Scott Colom leading by just a few dozen votes as the final ballots roll in. The Democrats have already secured 228 seats in the House, ten more than needed for a majority, and could realistically run up the score to 240 seats or more