Let the 2020 White House race begin.
Tuesday's elections sounded the starting gun for a long, crowded, expensive and no doubt dramatic race for the presidency.
Democrats, riding a wave of momentum from their gains in the US House of Representatives, enter the presidential cycle without a clear front-runner for the first time since the start of the 2004 campaign.
More than two dozen possible contenders, including former Vice President Joe Biden, Liberal Democrat Bernie Sanders and a gaggle of senators, governors, mayors and business leaders, have been jockeying for months to line up donors and evaluate their shot at the party's nomination.
Awaiting the winner will almost certainly be President Donald Trump, a Republican whose approval ratings have been mostly stuck below 50 percent since he took office but whose popularity within his party will make any potential challenge from another Republican the longest of longshots. Trump loomed over Tuesday's midterm elections, fueling turnout among Democrats eager to reject him and driving many Republican candidates to pledge support for him or else face a backlash from their conservative base.
Democrats are already wrestling with questions about which candidate, strategy and approach are most likely to beat Trump on Nov 3, 2020.
Democrats said the midterm campaign offered plenty of encouraging signs for the 2020 race, as grassroots enthusiasm to resist Trump led to a new majority in the House of Representatives, a flood of first-time candidates up and downstate ballots and an explosion of left-leaning advocacy groups and grassroots protests. Even the losing campaigns of unabashed liberals Andrew Gillum, who lost his bid to be the first African-American governor of the swing state of Florida, and Beto O'Rourke, who became a grassroots sensation but fell short in his US Senate bid in conservative Texas, offered lessons on how to run strong races on Trump-friendly turf, Democrats said.
"The model for 2020 is Andrew Gillum and Beto O'Rourke. The nominee is going to have to produce large-scale grassroots support and go everywhere and reach out to everybody," said Neera Tanden, president of the liberal Center for American Progress.
The midterm campaign also showed the power of Trump and the #MeToo movement to motivate women, sparking an unprecedented number of female candidates and encouragement for women considering a 2020 run such as Senators Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Amy Klobuchar.
Biden was the early leader for the Democrats in a Reuters/Ipsos Election Day opinion poll at 29 percent. He was ahead of Sanders, who registered 22 percent. Both beat Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup.
Meanwhile, Trump is primed for the fight. He already has a campaign slogan, "Keep America Great" - following "Make America Great Again" in 2016 - and has raised $106 million for re-election, financial reports show.
Democrats have no illusions about the race. Trump, who has shaken up the status quo with his Trumpism, has repeatedly shown his ability to dominate opponents and turn controversies into rallying cries for his base.
This time, Democrats say they must be the agents of change.
"If we are in a race where voters are deciding between Trump and someone who is defending the Obama years, we'll be in trouble," Tanden said.
Firsts in US Polls
African American woman in Congress
Ayanna Pressley (Democrat, Massachusetts), She fought her election as part of a need for better representation in the era of the #MeToo movement.
Muslim women in Congress
Ilhan Omar (Democrat, Minnesota), a Somali refugee, whose family fled civil war and spent four years in a camp in Kenya. Her family settled in Minnesota in 1997.
Native American women in Congress
Rashida Tlaib (Democrat, Michigan), a Social worker born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrant parents.
Deb Haaland (Democrat, New Mexico), Member of the Pueblo of Laguna tribe of New Mexico. A well-known community activist.
Sharice Davids (Democrat, Kansas), Member of a Native American tribe in Wisconsin. Openly lesbian in a state that is conservative.
Youngest woman in Congress
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (Democrat, New York) Won her congress seat aged 29.
Openly-gay governor
Jared Polis (Democrat, Colorado), Polis is the first to campaign as openly gay and win a seat.
Source: AFP