US Midterm Elections: Democrats retain Senate seat in Arizona

In the US, incumbent Democrat Kelly defeated a Republican challenger to win a seat in the US Senate. Kelly’s victory ties the Senate race 49-49 for Democrats.

US President Joe Biden’s Democrats are more likely to retain their slim majority in the Senate after the midterm elections. After days counted, Democrat Mark Kelly managed to secure his hard-fought Senate seat in Arizona. Former astronaut Kelly defeated Republican challenger Blake Masters. That leaves Democrats one seat away from a possible Senate majority.

Contests for two seats in the Congress chamber are still open. Elections to Congress already took place on Tuesday. In the “midterm elections” midway through Biden’s four-year term, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate were up for election.

36 governorships and other key offices in the states were also filled. Counting votes in Arizona took a particularly long time because of the close race between two local rivals and the state’s electoral features.

Doubts about Trump’s leadership role in the party

Masters, 36, a tech investor with very conservative views, supported former Republican President Donald Trump during the election campaign. Masters’ defeat in Arizona joins the defeats of several Republican candidates who have supported Trump. Their poor performance reflects on the former president and has cast doubt on Republican leadership.

Before the election, it was predicted that the Republican Party would win and the Democratic Party would lose. But neither happened. Democrats fared significantly better than expected — and it’s still unclear who will speak in Congress in the future.

Nevada and Georgia still competed

In the Senate, Democrats and Republicans each have 49 votes. Two seats are still up for grabs: the states of Nevada and Georgia. Georgia has a Dec. 6 runoff between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican counterpart, Herschel Walker, after neither opponent received more than 50 percent of the vote in the first attempt.

In Nevada, there is a close race between Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Adam Laxalt. Republicans hope to wrest the Senate seat from Democrats.

But by Friday evening (local time), Laxalt was leading by only 800 votes. If Democrats secure that seat, they will secure their Senate majority. The background is that Senate President Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is deadlocked on the vote.

If the Republicans win in Nevada, the Democrats will have another chance to win in Georgia. Mathematically, you only need one of the two open Senate seats to control the chamber because of Harris’ vote.

A closer match than expected

It is also not yet clear who will dominate the House of Representatives in the future. 218 seats are required for majority. With votes counted so far, Republicans had 211 seats and Democrats 203 as of Friday evening. There, the race is much closer than predicted before the election.

Republicans still have a high chance of winning a majority in the chamber. But the fact that Democrats are so close and within a possible majority for themselves in the House of Representatives is something that many did not think before the election. In mid-term elections, the ruling party usually wins and loses seats in both houses of Congress.