Republicans gain Senate majority, Democrats play defense

WASHINGTON — Republicans lost one Senate seat Tuesday and were deadlocked, while the House race unfolded in a slog from state to state and polls closed in key states that could determine control of Congress.

Early in the evening, West Virginia Republican Jim Justice won the Senate seat left open by the retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin III, and Republicans quickly launched a belated challenge to Democrats in Florida as Republican Sen. Rick Scott headed to re-election with millions of dollars of his own wealth invested in him to the campaign.

In Ohio and the Democratic blue-wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Democrats fought to salvage what was left of their tenuous hold in the Senate.

The Ohio race between Sen. Sherrod Brown and wealthy Trump-backed Bernie Moreno is the most expensive of the cycle at about $400 million.

And in Nebraska, attention has suddenly turned to a state that has become important thanks to competitive races in both the House and Senate, where independent newcomer Dan Osborne is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Deb Fischer.

With control of Congress at stake, the ever-tight battle for the House and Senate will determine which party will have the majority and power to support or block the president’s agenda, or whether the White House will face a divided Capitol Hill.

In the end, a few seats, or even just one, could tip the scales in any chamber. In a 50-50 Senate, the party in the White House will determine the majority since the vice president is the tiebreaker.

Several states will already send history makers to the Senate.

Voters elected two black women to the Senate for the first time in history: Democrats Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland.

Blunt Rochester won her state’s open seat, and Alsobrooks defeated popular former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. Only three black women have served in the Senate, and never before have two served at the same time.

And in New Jersey, Andy Kim became the first Korean American elected to the Senate, defeating Republican businessman Curtis Bashaw. The seat opened when Democrat Robert Menendez resigned this year after being convicted federally on bribery charges.

Elsewhere, House candidate Sarah McBride, a Democratic Delaware lawmaker close to President Biden’s family, won her race, becoming the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.

Key competitions will be held in parallel with the first ones. presidential elections following the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, but also in unexpected corners of the country following one of the most chaotic congressional sessions in modern times.

Voters said the economy and immigration were the top issues facing the country, but the future of democracy was also a major motivator for many Americans voting in the presidential election.

AP VoteCast, an extensive poll of more than 110,000 voters nationwide, found the country mired in negativity as Americans faced a stark choice between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Congress plays a role in maintaining the American tradition of the peaceful transfer of presidential power. Four years ago, Trump sent a mob of his supporters to “fight like hell” at the Capitol, and many congressional Republicans voted to block Biden’s election. Congress will again be called upon to certify the results of the presidential election in 2025.

Billions of dollars have been spent by parties and outside groups in the narrow battlegrounds of both the 435-member House and the 100-member Senate.

The upper chamber races are centered in New York and California, where Democrats are trying to retake some of the 10 or so seats where Republicans have made surprising gains in recent years thanks to star lawmakers who helped propel the party into power.

The House’s other races are scattered across the country, a testament to how narrow the field has become. Only a couple dozen places are seriously contested, with some of the most contentious in Maine; in Nebraska, a “blue dot” around Omaha; and in Alaska.

Vote counting in some races could extend well beyond Tuesday.

“We’re within striking distance in terms of taking back the House,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who could make history as the first black speaker if his party wins control, told The Associated Press. The election campaign is taking place in Southern California.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson, moving closer to Trump, predicts Republicans will “increase” their majority. He took over after Bakersfield’s Kevin McCarthy was kicked out of the speaker’s office.

One of Montana’s hottest Senate races may be one of the last to be decided. Democrat Jon Tester, a popular three-term senator and “farmer of the soil,” is fighting for his political career against Trump-backed Republican Tim Sheehy, a wealthy former Navy man who has made derogatory comments about Native Americans, a key constituency in the West. state.

Outgoing Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has focused his entire career on capturing and maintaining majority power, but other opportunities for Republicans are slipping by the wayside.

In southwestern states, staunch Arizona Republican Kari Lake was battling Democrat Ruben Gallego in a seat opened by the retirement of independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. In Nevada, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is facing off against Republican newcomer Sam Brown.

Democrats have stepped up their challenges to a pair of Republican senators—Ted Cruz of Texas and Scott of Florida—in states where reproductive rights have been a focus since Supreme Court decision to overturn access to abortion. Cruz is meeting with Democrat Colin Allred, a congressman from Dallas. Scott defeated Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former member of Congress.

What began as a lackluster race for control of Congress transformed overnight as Harris replaced Biden at the top of the ticket, buoying Democrats with massive fundraising and volunteers that lawmakers said reminded them of the enthusiasm of the Obama era in 2008.

The effects of redistricting, in which states redraw their congressional district maps, are also shifting the balance of power within the House, with Republicans set to pick up several seats from Democrats in North Carolina and Democrats set to gain a second black-majority seat in the Republican-majority House. Alabama.

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives meet with voters every two years, and senators are elected to six-year terms.

If Democrats take the House of Representatives and Republicans take the Senate, it will be the first time that both chambers of Congress have switched to opposing political parties.

Mascaro and Jalonick write for The Associated Press. AP writers Stephen Groves, Kevin Freking and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.