Critical U.S. Senate races still have days of vote counting left

Republicans have inched closer to a narrow House majority while control of the Senate hinged on a few tight races in a midterm election that will determine the type of Congress that U.S. President Joe Biden will have to deal with over the next two years, while setting the table for the 2024 presidential election cycle.

Either party could secure a Senate majority with wins in both Nevada and Arizona — where the races were too early to call.

But there was also a strong possibility that, as in early 2021, the Senate majority could come down to a run-off in Georgia. Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock led Herschel Walker but each failed to hit the 50 per cent threshold to win outright due to alternative candidates that will drop off the run-off ballot on Dec. 6.

In the current congressional session, the Senate is 50-50, but Vice-President Kamala Harris casts any tiebreaking votes for the Democrats.

Republicans are projected as holding a 49-48 lead for the next session. While the Alaska race is still too close to call, it is a battle of two Republican candidates, incumbent Lisa Murkowski and Donald Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka.

So all eyes will turn to Nevada and Arizona before a Georgia run-off occurs.

Republican Blake Masters, an investment executive, trails Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly in Arizona by five percentage points, while a Nevada contest between Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican Adam Laxalt has not yet been called, with Laxalt currently in the lead by over two percentage points.

It could take several days before it's clear who won those Senate races, as well as in several House districts, owing in part to rules on counting ballots.

Control of Congress will affect the Biden agenda. House Republicans would be likely to launch a spate of investigations into Biden, his family and his administration if they take power, while a Republican takeover of the Senate could see the president's picks for the federal judiciary run into stiff resistance.

In the House, Republicans were within a dozen seats of the 218 total needed to take control, while Democrats kept seats in districts from Virginia to Pennsylvania to Kansas.

In a particularly symbolic victory for the Republican Party, Quebec-born Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, the House Democratic campaign chief, lost his bid for a sixth term. On the flip side, Democrats were hoping for a pickup over hard-right gun enthusiast Lauren Boebert in Colorado, though the race is currently so close that it would trigger an automatic recount.

With millions of votes still uncounted Wednesday across the nation's most populous state, California, uncertainty remained for about a dozen of the state's 52 House contests.

A small majority in the House would pose a great challenge for the Republicans and especially California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who is in line to be House Speaker and would have little room for error in navigating a chamber of members eager to leverage their votes to advance their own agenda.

"Look, we were told we were going to have an incredible, incredible wave," said Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, a leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, in an online streaming show.