U.S. Senate

To retake the majority in the U.S. Senate in the 2026 midterm elections, the Democratic Party needed a net gain of four Senate seats.

Under the legislative filibuster, most legislation in the U.S. Senate requires a 60-vote supermajority to overcome a filibuster and proceed to passage.

The legislative filibuster enables a Senate minority to block or delay legislation, functioning as a de facto veto by the minority party.

The U.S. Senate's filibuster rule requires 60 votes to overcome procedural objections and advance most legislation.

Margaret Chase Smith, William Cohen, and Olympia Snowe each served as Republican U.S. senators from Maine, and George J. Mitchell served as a Democratic U.S. senator from Maine.

The federal provision applies retroactively to 2022, allowing U.S. senators whose phone records were seized in 2022 to bring claims under the provision.

The Senate filibuster was introduced in 1806.

A filibuster in the U.S. Senate is a floor tactic intended to halt or delay the advance of a specific piece of legislation.

A federal provision requires service providers to notify U.S. senators if the senators' phone records or other data are seized or subpoenaed.

A federal provision entitles U.S. senators to $500,000 in damages for each violation when service providers fail to notify them that their phone records or other data were seized or subpoenaed.

Under U.S. Senate unanimous consent rules, any single senator can block the passage of a measure by objecting to a unanimous consent request.