Control Of Senate Hangs In Balance, Could Come Down To Georgia Runoff

ACROSS AMERICA — Americans awoke Wednesday without knowing if Democrats or Republicans will control the U.S. Senate, with each party in control of 48 seats, according to unofficial results of the pivotal midterm elections.

And, depending on how a few critical races shake out, it could be December before Senate control is decided because the Georgia Senate race is headed toward a runoff election. Races still to be called Wednesday at midday were in Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona.

Democrats held back a predicted "red wave" and, in the most heartening news for the party currently in control in Washington, flipped Pennsylvania's Republican-controlled Senate seat. That seat had been a key in Democrats' hopes of maintaining control of the chamber.

The Democrat, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman had faced questions about his fitness for office after suffering a stroke just days before the state’s primary. But he nonetheless bested Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz in a major rebuke to former President Donald Trump, whose endorsement helped the celebrity doctor win the GOP's hard-fought primary.

“I’m so humbled,” Fetterman, wearing his signature hoodie, told his supporters early Wednesday morning. “This campaign has always been about fighting for everyone who's ever been knocked down that ever got back up.”

Democrats also held a crucial Senate seat in New Hampshire, where Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan defeated Republican Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who had initially promoted Trump’s lies about the 2020 election but tried to shift away from some of the more extreme positions he took during the GOP primary. Republicans held Senate seats in Ohio and North Carolina.

The Georgia runoff election is a kind of political déjà vu. Neither incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock nor Republican challenger Herschel Walker had 50 percent of the vote . If the trend continues, the race would be decided in a runoff campaign, a four-week blitz that, depending on the outcomes in other Senate contests, could reprise the 2020 election cycle, when two Senate runoffs in Georgia doubled as a national winner-take-all battle for Senate control.

The victories then from Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff left the chamber divided 50-50 between the two major parties, with Vice President Kamala Harris giving Democrats the tie-breaking vote.

• Related: Warnock Vs. Walker: Georgia U.S. Senate 2022 Election Results

Tuesday's midterm elections unfolded against a backdrop of high inflation of economic turmoil, the elimination of federal abortion rights and broad concerns about the future of democracy.

The stakes are high for President Joe Biden, who would be dealt a major setback in his ability to make progress on key priorities in the last two years of his term if Republicans win the Senate majority. Republicans are widely favored to win control of the House after Tuesday’s elections.

Democrats were facing historic headwinds. The party in power almost always suffers losses in the president’s first midterm elections, but Democrats had been hoping that anger from the Supreme Court’s decision to gut abortion rights might energize their voters to buck historical trends.

“If we don’t win, they’re going to wipe out everything we’ve done,” Biden said in an interview Monday on the Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show.

Key races still to be decided:

Arizona

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, who won the right to fill the late Sen. John McCain’s seat in 2020, is challenged by Republican Blake Masters. Arizona is historically a right-leaning state, but Biden won it by a fraction of a percentage point in 2020.

• Related: Arizona U.S. Senate Race 2022 Results: Mark Kelly Vs. Blake Masters

Kelly, a retired astronaut and the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, is seen as a moderate who can appeal to middle-of-the-road Republicans and independents. Masters, a venture capitalist who won his primary after embracing Trump’s 2020 election lies, supports a national abortion ban and has called the gender pay gap a “left-wing narrative.”

A polling average on RealClear Politics puts Kelly up by 1 percentage point, well within the margin of error.

Nevada

Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto, the first Latina elected to the Senate, is defending her term against Republican state Attorney General Adam Laxalt, who led his party’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

RealClear Politics’ polling average puts Laxalt up by 2.8 percentage points. Nevada is 30 percent Latino, according to the U.S. Census, and political analysts view the race as a bellwether on whether Democrats can reverse the number of Latinos leaving the party to vote for Republicans.

Wisconsin

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is challenged by the state’s Democratic lieutenant governor, Mandela Barnes. Wisconsin has a nearly even party split, adding suspense to the race.
RealClear Politics’ polling average shows Johnson ahead by 2.8 percentage points, but that’s within the margin of error of the polls used to come up with the aggregate.

Johnson is seen as vulnerable due to his controversial statements about COVID-19 vaccines causing AIDS, which he later said had been taken out of context. Johnson also has been criticized for his involvement in attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Conservatives argue Barnes is too radical for Wisconsin because he supported Medicare for All. He also has been criticized as soft on immigration after he was photographed in 2018 wearing a shirt that read, “Abolish ICE.”

The Associated Press has called the following races based on unofficial vote totals:

• Pennsylvania: John Fetterman (Democrat)
• Utah: Sen. Mike Lee (Republican)
• Washington: Sen. Patty Murray (Democrat)
• Hawaii: Sen. Brian Schatz (Democrat)
• North Carolina: Ted Budd (Republican)
• Oregon: Sen. Ron Wyden (Democrat)
• New Hampshire: Sen. Maggie Hassan (Democrat)
• California: Alex Padilla (Democrat), special general
• Ohio: J.D. Vance (Republican)
• Iowa: Sen. Chuck Grassley (Republican)
• Idaho: Sen. Mike Crapo (Republican)
• Louisiana: Sen. John Kennedy (Republican), open primary
• Missouri: Eric Schmitt (Republican)
• Colorado: Sen. Michael Bennet (Democrat)
• New York: Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat)
• North Dakota: Sen. John Hoeven (Republican)
• South Dakota: Sen. John Thune (Republican)
• Kansas: Sen. Jerry Moran (Republican)
• Arkansas: Sen. John Boozman (Republican)
• Indiana: Sen. Todd Young (Republican)
• Florida: Sen. Marco Rubio (Republican)
• Alabama: Katie Britt (Republican)
• Oklahoma: Sen. James Lankford (Republican)
• Oklahoma: Markwayne Mullin for unexpired term (Republican)
• Illinois: Sen. Tammy Duckworth (Democrat)
• Connecticut: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Democrat)
• Maryland: Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Democrat)
• Kentucky: Sen. Rand Paul (Republican)
• Vermont: Peter Welch (Democrat)
• South Carolina: Sen. Tim Scott (Republican)

The Associated Press contributed reporting.