Our correspondent Jon Sopel notes that some Democrats in the new House have been around for a long time.

As post-mortems on the elections continue to roll out across the US media, commentators are pointing to signs of a nation more divided than ever.

In the Washington Post, Dan Balz wrote that the stakes for the presidential election in two years' time were now higher than ever., external

Politico's John F Harris believes that Republican successes in Florida and Ohio, and a stalemate in Wisconsin, mean that President Trump's path to victory in 2020 is still plausible., external

But he warns that the loss of the suburban middle class is a danger for the Republicans.

"The midterms offered redundant evidence... that the party’s base is predominately rural in a country growing more urban and suburban, predominately white and culturally conservative in a country growing more diverse and culturally tolerant.

"Do Republicans really think that losing a majority of people who voted... but clinging to power through institutions designed to buffer democracy like the Senate and Electoral College is a wise strategy long-term?"

President Trump is continuing to tweet his reaction to the US mid-term results.

In one post, he hit out at the prospect of Democrats using their oversight powers to investigate him. Then just 25 minutes later he lavished praise on Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

Maggie Haberman, White House reporter for the New York Times, categorised his mixed messages this morning as "whiplash-inducing".

Now the Democrats have a majority in the House of Representatives, talk is increasing about the possibility they will target the president's elusive tax returns.

Mr Trump has defied decades of precedent by not releasing his personal filings, despite intense scrutiny in US media of his family's wealth and his business affairs.

US media reports say the House Ways and Means Committee intends to use its powers to try to get hold of the documents.

Democratic Representative Richard Neal, who is expected to chair the committee, has already told the Wall Street Journal they would be a focus, external.

If he resists, legal observers say a law passed in 1924 will allow the House to obtain and possibly reveal them without his consent.

Kellyanne Conway, a senior Trump aide, shrugged off the suggestion during an appearance on CNN on Wednesday morning.

Earlier this week, when asked if he was concerned about the prospect their release would be forced, Mr Trump replied: "No, I don't care. They can do whatever they want and I can do whatever I want."

How have media in the US reacted to the election results?

Opinion writers in the New York Times, a paper long critical of President Trump, saw the Democrat victory in the House as moderately encouraging, but not a knockout blow for the adminstration.

Columnist Frank Bruni said the result, which came despite low unemployment and a booming economy, was a "vital safeguard" against the president's worst impulses., external

But he wondered why the swing to the Democrats had not been bigger.

"Too many Democrats still haven’t figured out the difference between talking to and talking down to Americans, and too many engage in a kind of oppression Olympics that turns off voters in the middle," Bruni wrote.

But ultimately Mr Trump made himself the focus of the election, he said.

"Americans weighed in on him, and if it wasn’t quite the spanking he had coming, it certainly wasn’t a hug," the columnist concluded.

It wasn't just congressional candidates on yesterday's ballots.

From a tax on tech, to abortion restrictions, to transgender rights - read about the other issues people were voting for.

There has been more reaction to the mid-term results by President Donald Trump on Twitter.

In a tweet, he praised candidates who had worked with him and again hit out at the media.

Mr Trump is scheduled to give a press conference at 11:30 EST (16:30 GMT).

Image source, Getty Images

President Trump has congratulated Republican Ron DeSantis - who narrowly clinched the governor election in Florida.

The governor-elect tied his campaign closely to the president, who appeared last week at an event with him.

In one primary ad, Mr DeSantis' wife jokingly assured voters there was more to the candidate than his relationship to the president.. before he was shown helping his children "build a wall" and reading them The Art of the Deal book.

The candidate was criticised heavily during the campaign for an interview he gave on Fox News where he encouraged Florida voters not to "monkey this up" by choosing his opponent Andrew Gillum.

A spokesman denied the phrase had anything to do with his African-American opponent's ethnicity, but Mr Gillum and other Democrats deplored the comment as a racist dog-whistle.

President Trump's first tweet on the morning after the election mentions congratulations from foreign partners of the US.

But it is not clear who he is referring to.

America's east coast awakes to the reality of a nation split down the middle.

Image source, CBS

A Republican candidate described by his own children as a racist and a homophobe has lost his battle for a seat in the Missouri state legislature, media reports say.

Steve West, who hosts a right-wing radio show, lost to Democrat incumbent Jon Carpenter in Kansas City by nearly 4,000 votes.

Mr West has said that homosexuality and paedophilia are "absolutely linked", but has denied antisemitism, despite controversial comments about Nazi Germany.

The Missouri Republican Party has repudiated his "abhorrent rhetoric".

How could the Democrat victory in the House of Representatives affect Donald Trump?

The BBC's Anthony Zurcher looks at the fallout for the president and his plans for the next two years.

Image source, EPA

This year's crucial mid-term elections saw more women and LGBT people running than ever before.

The results have also seen a number of historic victories for women and minority candidates.

You can read more about them here.

We now know how things are shaping up, but there are still races in play across the country:

• The Republicans have control of the Senate with 51 seats. Four seats remain undeclared, including Florida's, but Republicans are leading in all of them and are set to increase their majority
• Only 412 of the 435 House seats are confirmed - but the Democrats already have a majority
• There are three state governor races yet to be finalised - Alaska, Georgia and Connecticut

Follow our live updates on the remaining races here.

Image source, Getty Images

Celebrity endorsements of candidates were flying all over social media in the days before Tuesday's vote.

But the support of music's biggest stars wasn't enough to sway the result in key races.

The Senate candidate Taylor Swift endorsed in Tennessee lost against the Republican Marsha Blackburn. On Instagram, Swift accused Ms Blackburn of "fear-based extremism" and said her voting record on LGBT and women's issues appalled and terrified her.

Rihanna appealed to her Florida fans to vote for Andrew Gillum for governor, but he narrowly lost out to Republican Ron deSantis. An initiative she supported to restore voting rights to ex-convicts did pass, though.

On election day itself, Beyonce came out in favour of Democrat Beto O'Rourke in the Texas Senate race - but he ended up losing to incumbent Ted Cruz.

She's not the only one who wanted Beto to win - rapper Travis Scott also hit the campaign trail for him and he had endorsements from other celebrities including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ellen DeGeneres and Jim Carrey.

Image source, Getty Images

The outgoing Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, has said "history has repeated itself", with the chamber swinging to the Democrats.

"It is always hard to see friends and good colleagues work so hard and fall short," Mr Ryan said in a statement.

"We don’t need an election to know that we are a divided nation, and now we have a divided Washington," he went on.

"As a country and a government, we must find a way to come together to find common ground and build on the successes of this Congress."

Ryan did not run for re-election in his Wisconsin congressional seat. It instead went to Republican Bryan Steil, who had worked for Mr Ryan and was endorsed by him.

His job is now likely to go back to Nancy Pelosi - who became the first female House Speaker in 2006.

Image source, Reuters

The man who lost against Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential campaign is back.

By winning a Senate seat in Utah, Mitt Romney becomes the first US politician in modern history to make his debut in Congress after running for the presidency.

As former governor of Massachusetts, Mr Romney will also be the first modern US politician to hold major office in different states.

He replaces Orrin Hatch, the longest serving US senator in history.

But the spotlight may fall on Senator Romney for a different reason. During the 2016 presidential campaign he was an outspoken opponent of Donald Trump, at one point calling him a phoney and a fraud.

Analysts will be watching to see if he now becomes a focus of Republican opposition to Mr Trump in the Senate.

Somalian-American Ilhan Omar has spoken about becoming one of two Muslim women elected to Congress in a night of historic firsts.

The 36-year-old, who came to the US as a child refugee, ran on Tuesday for the Democrats in Minnesota.

Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, also won her congressional race in Michigan.

Victory speeches, shattered dreams and a bizarre shout out to everyone called Terry.

The drama of an action-packed US election night condensed into two minutes.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Image source, AFP

The Democrats have clawed their way back to a measure of power in the US federal government. The era of unified rule for Donald Trump and the Republicans is over.

Calling just two years an "era" may be a stretch, of course, but in the age of Trump even days and weeks can seem like an infinite and expanding series of news cycles.

For the duration of his presidency, Mr Trump has benefited from a friendly Congress - generally supportive of his words and deeds, accommodating of his policy priorities and deferential when it comes to oversight.

In two months, when the new Democratic-controlled House arrives in Washington, all that will change.

Read more from Anthony on what the results mean for the president.