Control of Senate Still Up for Grabs as Key Races Undecided
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Election analysts have long been pointing to a possible Republican takeover of the House, but in the last few days before the election, some started saying the Senate had also shifted to the “up for grabs” category. On the morning after Election Day, a few of the key races are still too close to call.
Before the vote, the Senate was divided 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaker giving control of the body to Democrats. With most of the votes counted, the Senate still appears to be deadlocked at 48-48 with a few races still to be decided. Democrats have one takeaway in Pennsylvania, while Republicans have yet to take a seat from the Democrats.
It’s possible that for the second election in a row, control of the Senate may not be decided until December. That’s because Georgia law requires a candidate to have over 50 percent of the vote to win outright in November. Failure to do that results in a Dec. 6 runoff.
Democrat Raphael Warnock, who tipped control of the Senate to the Democrats in 2020, holds a razor-thin lead of just under 35,000 votes over Republican Herschel Walker, with 98% of the vote counted. Warnock is still below 50%.
In the event of a runoff, Chase Oliver, the Libertarian candidate would drop out. He won more than 80,000 votes, which exceeds Warnock’s margin over Walker.
Early in the evening, winners were quickly declared in races where the incumbent wasn’t at risk. For example, in Kentucky, Sen. Rand Paul (R) won reelection. In South Carolina, Sen. Tim Scott (R) is heading back to DC for another term. And in Vermont, Peter Welch (D) is being called the winner, winning the seat long-held by retiring Sen. Patrick Leahy (D).
Other big-name incumbents like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have also been declared winners. No surprises there. In an Oklahoma special election to replace retiring Senator Jim Inhofe, Republican ‘Markwayne’ Mullin easily won.
The Big Races to Watch
Aside from Georgia, two of the competitive races that could still determine control of the Senate are in Nevada and Arizona.
In Nevada, Democrat incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto started out with an early lead, but with 72.3% of the vote counted, Republican Adam Laxalt has passed her. He now has a 2 percentage point lead.
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