US Senate Still in Hands as Republicans Eye on House Majority – Nationwide

Republicans came close to securing a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, two days after Democrats stave off an expected “red wave” of Republican victory in the midterm elections.

Edison Research estimates that Republicans are winning at least 210 seats, eight seats short of the 218 needed to effectively block President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda, separating the House from Democrats.

Republicans are still in favor, but 33 House elections are yet to be decided, including 21 of the 53 most competitive races, based on a Reuters analysis of leading independent forecasters. and the final outcome is likely to remain undetermined for some time.

The fate of the Senate was far more uncertain. Either party could seize the lead with victory in close contests that are counting thousands of uncounted votes in both Nevada and Arizona.

The parties in power have historically suffered heavy casualties in the president’s first midterm elections, and Tuesday’s results suggest voters are punishing Biden with the steepest inflation in 40 years. is doing.

But the Democrats were able to avoid the crushing defeat Republicans expected and endured in close contests in the Nevada and Arizona Senate.

Tuesday’s results also suggested voters were vehemently opposed to Republican efforts to ban abortion and call into question the country’s vote-counting process.

When hundreds of Republican candidates accepted former President Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, Biden framed the election as a test of American democracy.

A split in the Senate would mean a runoff election for the first time in two years in Georgia.

Neither Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock nor Republican challenger Herschel Walker failed to reach 50% on Tuesday, forcing them to go one-on-one on Dec. 6.

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Even with a narrow majority in the House, Republicans could shape the rest of Mr. Biden’s term, block priorities like abortion rights, and launch investigations into his administration and family. increase.

Biden, who travels to Egypt on Thursday for the COP27 UN climate change summit, acknowledged that reality on Wednesday and said he was ready to work with Republicans.

A White House official said Biden spoke by phone with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who said he would run for Speaker of the House if Republicans dominated the floor.

“I think the American people have made it clear that they expect Republicans to be willing to work with me,” Biden said at a news conference.

If McCarthy is the next Speaker of the House, he may find it difficult to keep his nasty caucuses together, a far-right wing with little interest in compromise.

Republicans are expected to demand spending cuts next year in exchange for raising the nation’s borrowing limit, which could disrupt financial markets.

Controlling the Senate, on the other hand, would give Republicans the power to block Mr. Biden’s judicial and executive appointments.

Two closely contested states, Arizona and Nevada, have thousands of votes yet to be counted. Election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county, said it could take until at least Friday to count all the votes.

Many “election deniers” who backed Trump’s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him won Tuesday, but many who sought positions to oversee the election at the state level lost. did.

“I think it’s been a good day for democracy,” Biden said.

Trump’s active role in recruiting Republican candidates has had mixed results.

He won Ohio, and JD Vance, author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” won the Senate seat in the hands of the Republican Party. But several other Trump-backed candidates lost, including former celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz, who lost to Democrat John Fetterman in the crucial Senate election in Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who could challenge Trump in 2024, won re-election by nearly 20 percent, boosting his national profile.