Republicans won big in the Senate. A warning lurks in the purple states.

Republicans celebrated as they took a decisive Senate majority last week: They’d finally figured out how to get past the candidate quality issues that had tanked them for two cycles.

But they still have a purple-state problem.

Even as President-elect Donald Trump swept every swing state, four of those battlegrounds are sending Democrats to the Senate. That’s the highest number of Senate-presidential ticket splits in 12 years, and a warning sign for Republicans as they try to protect and grow their ranks in 2026.