Two years after the tears, the heartbreak and sad piles of redundant confetti at Hillary Clinton’s election party, the Democratic party is back – and millions of Americans are breathing a sigh of relief.

The much-vaunted blue wave was real in the House of Representatives. It swept Republicans away in numerous districts, probably giving the speaker’s gavel back to Nancy Pelosi, ending one-party rule and imposing a check on Donald Trump.

“We rebuked Trump and Trumpism at a critical moment,” Ilya Sheyman, executive director of the grassroots organisation MoveOn wrote in a celebratory email.

Many Democrats will be tempted to see the glass as half empty, engaging in self-flagellation over narrow defeats for some of its rising stars and a worse-than-expected loss of ground in the Senate. But the truth is that in the face of gerrymandering, voter suppression and an economy that continues to stay in the strong shape that Barack Obama bequeathed, the party reclaimed the House majority for the first time in eight years. That is no small achievement.

Sign up for the new US morning briefing

It did so maintaining a disciplined focus on healthcare, notably the threat to protections for pre-existing conditions under Obamacare, as the decisive issue. There was also revulsion towards Trump among women, independents and people in the middle-class suburbs of major cities.

Democrats won Republican-held seats in Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Kendra Horn won a stunning upset over the Republican Steve Russell in Oklahoma. After two years of the White House as chaotic reality TV show, the American people have demanded oversight by giving the Democrats a powerful say again in how Washington works.

Victory in the House was also victory for an alternative to Trump’s vision of America. This was the first time in US history that most of a major party’s nominees were not white men. It was the year of the woman.

Play Video 0:57 'A better world is possible': Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez elected to Congress – video

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 29-year-old Latina, became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Sharice Davids and Deb Haaland became the first Native American women elected to the House. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan became the first Palestinian-American and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota became the first Somali-American in the chamber. And this in a climate where Trump spent his final campaign rallies whipping up fear of and hostility towards a migrant caravan still hundreds of miles from the US border.

A night of firsts: the candidates who made history in the 2018 midterms Read more

Jim Dean, chair of the progressive political action committee Democracy for America, said: “The flip of the US House to Democratic control is a direct repudiation of Donald Trump’s white nationalist agenda, a clear mandate for multiracial inclusive populism, and a testament to the leadership of the new American majority of black, brown and progressive white voters who made it possible.”

Democrats have picked themselves up off the canvas and given Trump a bloody nose. But, taking the election as a whole, there is no denying it was a split decision.

In recent months, expectations beyond the House had been set so high that many will still feel a sting of disappointment. Three marquee races have garnered huge media attention and Democrats lost at least two of them: Beto O’Rourke fell to Senator Ted Cruz in Texas and Andrew Gillum, lost his bid to become the first African American governor of Florida.

Play Video 2:17 Andrew Gillum concedes Florida governor race to Ron DeSantis on Tuesday night – video

There were other painful blows for female senators, such as Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota and Claire McCaskill in Missouri. Retaining the Senate, where the map had always favoured Republicans this time, enabled Trump to declare victory in a tweet: “Tremendous success tonight. Thank you to all!”

The reality, however, is that the House will now be a thorn in the president’s side. It can block his legislative agenda and bombard the White House with investigations and subpoenas and demands for Trump’s tax returns. It can also dig into the mystery of Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia in the 2016 presidential election.

The Politico website noted: “White House staffers can expect to work past midnight battling congressional committees, wage exhausting fights over redactions to internal documents, suffer through mind-numbing meetings with government lawyers about the nuances of executive privilege and see their memos and emails leaked to the media by freshly empowered Democratic investigators.”

All this may yet play to Trump’s advantage for the 2020 presidential election, with Pelosi giving him a foil to run against, a scapegoat to blame for not getting his border wall built. For now, Democrats can take heart that 2016 was rock bottom and they are on the way back.