Senate control still undecided as Dems, GOP locked at 48-all
WASHINGTON — Control of the Senate hung in the balance Thursday, a cliffhanger after Republicans trounced Democratic challengers in crucial states but failed to lock down the seats needed to retain their tenuous majority.
One race in Georgia is headed to a January runoff. Asecond contest inGeorgia and races inNorth Carolina and Alaska remain undecided, leaving the chamber now deadlocked 48-48. An outcomemaynot beknown until the new year.
With the presidential race between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden also undecided, theSenate is in limbo because the vice president of the eventual winner’s party would serve as a tiebreaker in a split chamber.
“We’re waiting — whether I’m going to be the majority leader or not,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., saidWednesday.
That was still the case Thursday.
The counting continued inGeorgia, whereGOPSen. David Perdue was trying to hold off Democrat Jon Ossoff in a multi-candidate race that could also go to a runoff if neither candidate clears the 50% threshold to win.
There already is a Jan. 5 runoff in the state’s other Senate race.
GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler will face Democrat Raphael Warnock, a Black pastor at the church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached, after they emerged as top vote-getters, but failed to clear the majority threshold.
In North Carolina, GOP Sen. Thom Tillis hoped to prevail over Democrat Cal Cunningham, whose sexting affair with a public relations specialist has
clouded the race.
Republicans were confident they would keep Alaska, where GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan was challenged by newcomer Al Gross, a doctor and Democraticindependent.
Democrats faced long but not fully impossible odds to take a slimmajority after a disappointing election night when Republicans defeated multiple challengers.
In Michigan, Democrats were spared a loss when Sen. Gary Peters withstood a strong challenge from Republican John James, a BlackRepublican businessman. But Republicans held on to Susan Collins in Maine and other key seats.
McConnell, who secured a seventh term for himself in a costly campaign against Democrat Amy McGrath, a former fighter pilot, has said he he felt “pretty good” about the remaining contests.
But Democrats remained hopeful.
Strategist Zac Petkanas said the 2020 election “was going to be an awful, ugly, dirty slog until the bitter end.”
Election night jarred Democrats and enthusiastic backers whowere eager to counter Trump and his party’s grip on the Senate.
While Democrats picked up must-win seats in Colorado and Arizona, they
suffered a setback in Alabama, and Republicans held their own in one race after another — in South Carolina, Iowa, Texas, Kansas andMontana. That limited Democrats’ hopes to make inroads.
In Maine, Sen. Susan Collins’ victory overDemocrat Sara Gideon was especially important for Republicans, holding a seat in a state whereTrumpwas not expected to win.
Many races attracted an unprecedented outpouring of small-dollar donations for Democrats.
“You wasted a lot of money,” said White House ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., after defeating JaimeHarrison, despite the Democrat’s stunning $100 million haul for his upstart campaign.
But Harrison energized voters, amongseveral Black Democratic candidates for Senate includingWarnock, drawing an outpouring of national support ina year of racial reckoning, enthusiasm that will be tested again in 2021.
“This is the most important race in the country right now,” Warnock said.
The Democrats’ gains were in Colorado, where former Gov. John Hickenlooper defeated Sen. Cory Gardner, and Arizona, where former astronaut Mark Kelly beat Martha McSally.