Who will win the Senate remains a head-to-head proposition even as Republicans struggled to retain their majority.
Control of the Senate was a tight-knit proposition in Tuesday’s U.S. election as Republicans struggled to retain their majority against a wave of Democrats challenging President Donald Trump’s allies on a vast political map.
Both parties saw paths to victory, although the outcome may not be known on election night.
From New England to the Deep South and the Midwest to the Western Mountains, Republicans are defending seats in states that were once considered slow chances for Democrats. The Trump administration’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, its economic fallout, and the nation’s uneasy mood seemed to be on the ballot.
Trump featured prominently in the Senate elections, as did Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. His campaigns reached into key states, including Iowa, Georgia and Michigan, in the final days of the race. Voters ranked the pandemic and the economy as top concerns, according to the AP VoteCast, a national poll of the electorate.
In South Carolina, where one of the country’s best-known senators, Republican Lindsey Graham, was campaigning for his career against Democrat Jamie Harrison, more than 13,000 votes in a county will have to be counted by hand before the deadline of the Friday to certify returns.
In North Carolina, where Republican Senator Thom Tillis was fighting to defend himself against Democrat Cal Cunningham, the state Board of Elections voted Tuesday to keep four polling places open longer (45 minutes max) because they opened late, and that was expected. delay reporting results statewide.
Securing a majority in the Senate will be vital to the winner of the presidency. Senators confirm the administration’s candidates, including the Cabinet, and can push or stop the White House agenda. With Republicans now controlling the chamber, 53-47, three or four seats will determine control of the party, depending on who wins the presidency because the vice president can break a tie.
“Let’s go over the tape,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, making a final campaign twist Monday in Kentucky. His opponent was Democrat Amy McGrath, a former fighter pilot.
McConnell said he hoped to remain the majority leader alongside Trump, but acknowledged that tough Senate races could transfer control to Democrats.
Campaigns competed on an expansive map as Democrats put Republicans on defense in Trump’s country.
Stuck in Washington to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett a week before Election Day, senators quickly fanned out, some alongside the president, for late-night, often socially estranged, tours of the the pandemic, to prop up the votes.
Tillis joined Trump’s rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Monday as Tillis battled Cunningham despite the challenger’s sexting scandal married to a public relations strategist.
In South Carolina, Graham acknowledged fierce competition after Harrison raised a whopping $ 100 million in October, a sum unheard of for the state. The senator, who made television appeals for cash, said he, too, reached the $ 100 million mark over the weekend.
Democrats have more than one route to secure the three or four seats needed to capture a majority, and Republican strategists privately acknowledged that rulers are almost certain to suffer defeat in some races.
Younger and more minority voters are pushing some states toward Democrats. In Colorado, parties have essentially stopped spending money for or against Republican Senator Cory Gardner because it appears he was headed for defeat against Democrat John Hickenlooper, a former governor.
Arizona could see two Democratic senators for the first time since the last century if former astronaut Mark Kelly maintains his lead over Republican Sen. Martha McSally for the seat once held by the late Republican John McCain.
Even the open seat in Kansas, which has not elected a Senate Democrat since 1932, was being challenged.
The biggest risks for Democrats were in Alabama and Michigan.
Republicans hoped to regain the seat in Alabama, where Democrat Doug Jones scored a rare victory in the 2017 special election in Trump’s stronghold. Now, however, he was on an uphill campaign against Republican Tommy Tuberville, a former Auburn football coach.
On the Michigan presidential battlefield, Republicans have made an aggressive push for John James, a black Republican businessman, against Democratic Senator Gary Peters.
“We think the numbers are moving,” said Senate Leadership Fund Chairman Steven Law.
Still, voter turnout during the COVID-19 crisis remains key and volatile as more Americans than ever are voting.
Both Biden and Trump landed in Georgia, where the state was experiencing a surge in new voters. Georgia’s two Senate seats were up for grabs and they could reach a runoff on January 5 if no candidate exceeds the 50 percent threshold.
Republican Senator David Perdue, the former business executive Trump calls his favorite senator, tried to defend himself against Democrat Jon Ossoff, another candidate who has benefited from the “green wave” of campaign donations.
Separately, Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler faced Republican Representative Doug Collins, as well as Democrat Raphael Warnock, in a special election for the position she was appointed to fill after the retirement of Republican Senator Johnny Isakson.
The Maine race between Republican Senator Susan Collins and Democrat Sara Gideon was another contest that could get through on Election Day if no candidate passes the 50 percent threshold. Collins has generally garnered support as a centrist with an independent streak, but the close race shows how difficult it is for Republican senators to attract the most ardent Trump supporters while retaining the support of more moderate voters.
The political landscape has been changing rapidly from six years ago, when most of these senators last faced voters. It’s a reminder of how dramatically the political climate has changed in the Trump era.
In Montana, Republican Senator Steve Daines was trying to keep Democrat Steve Bullock, the governor, at bay in a state where Trump was popular. Democrats created an opening by working hard to recruit a well-known candidate in Bullock, who also ran in the party’s primary for president.
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst was fighting for a second term against Democrat Theresa Greenfield. Texas Senator John Cornyn took on an upstart Democrat, MJ Hegar, in what was once a solidly Republican state.
And in Alaska, newcomer Al Gross, a doctor, broke state fundraising records in part with viral campaign ads when he took on Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.
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