Republicans regained control of the U.S. Senate on Election Night to end a four-year stretch in the minority.
It’s a big bounce-back for the GOP after it lost a pair of runoff elections in Georgia to forfeit the Republican majority in 2020 and flopped again in 2022, relegating them to spend the final two years of Joe Biden’s term frustratingly in the minority with 49 senators.
The flip was brought by a pair of big Election Day wins. The first came in Ohio, which elected Bernie Moreno, a Republican, to replace Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). The second saw Jim Justice, a Republican governor, win in his native West Virginia to take the seat left by the retiring Sen. Joe Manchin III (I-WV).
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This election was always going to be an uphill battle for the Democrats to keep their slim majority. Democrats entered the night having to defend 23 seats while Republicans only had to worry about 11—all in states that voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
Some Senate races out west weren’t called by midnight on election night. However, Republicans have already clinched their majority regardless of whether Democrat Ruben Gallego can best Kari Lake in Arizona or if Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) can hold off a push by the Republican Navy Seal veteran Tim Sheehy.
Other Senate races that garnered attention Tuesday included challenges in Texas and Florida for the seats of Ted Cruz and Rick Scott, both of which went comfortably to the Republicans. The closest challenge of a Republican in races called on election night came in Nebraska ,where Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE) held off a challenge from the independent Dan Osborn.
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