(Headline USA) Republicans regained control of the U.S. Senate and were on pace to keep their majority in the U.S. House with modest pickups for their razor-thin margin, resulting in a full sweep of GOP power in Congress to accompany President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
As of Wednesday morning, with Senate races in five of the so-called battleground states still too close to call, the GOP was expected to pick up three additional Senate seats in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana. Likewise, based on the already-declared races, NBC News projected a net gain of three in the House, after Republicans flipped five seats to Democrats’ two.
Trump, speaking early Wednesday at his election night party in Florida, said the results delivered an “unprecedented and powerful mandate” for Republicans.
He called the Senate rout “incredible.” And he praised House Speaker Mike Johnson, who dashed from his own party in Louisiana to join Trump. “He’s doing a terrific job,” Trump said.
The rally for Republicans started early on election night in West Virginia, when Jim Justice, the state’s popular governor, flipped the seat held by retiring Sen. Joe Manchin. From there, the Republicans marched alongside Trump across the Senate map.
Republicans toppled Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, the first incumbent senator to fall, with GOP luxury car dealer and blockchain entrepreneur Bernie Moreno.
They continued chasing Democrats in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where Vice President Kamala Harris strained to carry her party forward. However, with voting likely to extend for days to come, Democrats may use some of the same election tactics used against Trump in the 2020 election to block additional GOP congressional gains.
Democratic efforts to oust firebrand Republicans Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida collapsed. In Nebraska, incumbent GOP Sen. Deb Fischer brushed back a surprisingly strong challenge from challenger Dan Osborn, an independent.
One of the most-watched Senate races, in Montana, was decided early Wednesday. Three-term Democrat Jon Tester lost to Trump-backed Tim Sheehy, a retired NAVY Seal.
All told, Senate Republicans have a chance to scoop up more seats, potentially delivering their most robust majority in years as the party prepares also for a change of leadership to replace outgoing GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Despite his uneasy relationship with Trump in the past, McConnell aided the effort by recruiting high-wealth Republicans aligned with Trump. The Senate races that topped $2 billion.
The fight for control of the House became a state-by-state slog, much of which unfolded far from the presidential race.
House races are focused in New York and California, where Democrats were trying to claw back some of the 10 or so seats where Republicans have made surprising gains in recent years, even as Trump’s coattail effect likely delivered an advantage for down-ballot Republicans.
Other House races were scattered around the country, with some of the most contentious in Maine, the “blue dot” around Omaha, Nebraska, and in Alaska.
To gain control of the House, Democrats needed to flip four seats from Republicans, while holding all of their own, a tall task especially in congressional districts where Trump has won.
Voters said the economy and immigration were the top issues facing the country, but the future of democracy was also a leading motivator for many Americans casting ballots in the presidential election.
Democrats have repeatedly flouted democratic norms during their reign of terror in Washington, weaponizing many of the institutions use as checks and balances against authoritarianism and partisanship. They were roundly rebuked on Tuesday for their failed lawfare campaigns against Trump—which, at one point, saw the now-president-elect facing more than 90 felony convictions.
AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide, found a country mired in negativity and desperate for change as Americans faced a stark choice between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The election followed one of the most chaotic congressional sessions in modern times as the Republican-led House kicked out its speaker, Kevin McCarthy and threatened government shutdowns over the Democrats’ unmitigated spending on foreign wars.
Johnson has said Republicans in the House and Senate have been working on an “ambitious” 100 day-agenda—cutting taxes, securing the U.S. border and taking a ”blowtorch” to federal regulations—if they sweep the White House and Congress.
Trump himself has promised mass deportations and accountability for the corrupt leftists and deep-state bureaucrats who made him enemy No. 1 through years of relentless political persecution. Republicans want to push federal agencies out of Washington and restaff the government workforce, Johnson said, to bring the federal government “to heel.”
Trump is “thinking big” about his legacy, Johnson said.
The night was not a total loss for Democrats, who made minor advances in their identify politics agenda, even as voters appeared to reject their approach to segmenting American society by race and gender.
Voters elected two black women to the Senate, Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Democrat Angela Alsobrooks. Despite a serious scandal surrounding her failure to pay property taxes on several personal holdings, Alsobrooks defeated NeverTrump Republican Larry Hogan, the former governor, in Maryland.
And in New Jersey, Andy Kim became the first Korean American elected to the Senate. The seat opened when fellow Democrat Bob Menendez resigned this year after his federal conviction on bribery charges.
In the House, candidate Sarah McBride, a Democratic state lawmaker from Delaware who is close to the Biden family, became the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.
What’s still unclear is who will lead the new Republican Senate, as longtime leader McConnell prepares to step down from the post.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Republican, and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who previously held that post, were considered the front-runners to replace McConnell in a secret-ballot election scheduled for when senators arrive in Washington next week. However, both have been criticized as “RINOs” for their overly centrist legislative records, and Republicans may instead opt to go with a Trump ally who could work closely with the new president.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
