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  • Republicans flip the US Senate, ending three years of Democrat control | US Election 2024 News

    Republicans flip the US Senate, ending three years of Democrat control | US Election 2024 News

    The Republican Party has reclaimed control of the United States Senate, ending two years of Democratic leadership.

    Tuesday’s general election saw a third of the upper chamber in Congress — or 34 seats — hit the ballot, of which approximately nine were competitive.

    The Democrats were vulnerable to losing their grip on the chamber, given their narrow majority. A coalition of four independent senators and 47 Democrats gave the party its 51-person majority, out of a total of 100 possible seats.

    The party needed to defend every seat possible to retain control.

    But on Tuesday, two key defeats decisively put the power over the Senate back in Republican hands.

    Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown lost his bid for re-election in the midwestern state of Ohio. Meanwhile, in West Virginia, Republicans picked up a seat formerly held by retiring independent Senator Joe Manchin.

    The Republican Party also successfully defended a vulnerable seat in Texas, held by Senator Ted Cruz. Tuesday was Cruz’s second time beating back a Democratic contender angling to take his seat.

    Meanwhile, in Nebraska, another Republican incumbent Deb Fischer fended off an upstart challenge from independent candidate Dan Osborn, who made the race a nailbiter in its final weeks.

    The shift in control over the Senate could pave the way for Republicans to hold both chambers in Congress, which would give the party power over the legislative agenda for at least the next two years.

    It also grants Republicans significant sway over nominations for the Supreme Court, the presidential cabinet, ambassadorships and other federal positions that the president nominates.

    Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump remarked on the chamber’s flip in his election night remarks from West Palm Beach, Florida, in the early hours of Wednesday.

    “We have taken back control of the Senate. Wow,” Trump said. “I mean, the number of victories in the Senate was absolutely incredible.”

    “Nobody expected that. Nobody. So I just wanted to thank you very much for that. You have some great senators and some great new senators.”

    What happened?

    Tuesday’s race to maintain the Senate was always an uphill battle for Democrats.

    Under the US Constitution, the Senate has a staggered process for shaking up its ranks: Only a third of the chamber is up for re-election at any given point.

    Senators serve a six-year term — much longer than the two years awarded to their counterparts in the House of Representatives. That makes each seat all the more precious.

    In 2021, two run-off elections in Georgia gave Democrats their first lead in the chamber since 2011.

    Then, in 2022, the midterm elections resulted in a surprise yet again. While Republicans were expected to grab the lead in the Senate, they fell short when a predicted “red wave” failed to materialise.

    Fast forward to 2024, and the Democrats were on the defensive. Seven of the nine toss-up races for the Senate were held by Democrats. By contrast, only two Republicans — Cruz and Fischer — were considered vulnerable.

    In short, the Democrats had more to lose.

    West Virginia, the first to fall

    West Virginia has long been a Republican stronghold, which made the retiring Senator Manchin something of a unicorn.

    Since 2000, the Appalachian state has consistently voted Republican in presidential races by healthy margins.

    But Manchin — a moderate Democrat before switching to his present independent status — had been a unifying figure in the state.

    The announcement in November 2023 that he would retire opened up a tantalising fight for Republicans.

    Governor Jim Justice, a Democrat turned Republican, quickly threw his hat into the ring. He won the governor’s mansion in West Virginia in 2016, the same year Republican Donald Trump took the White House, leading a wave of “outsider” candidates.

    On Tuesday night, Justice — known for campaigning with a pudgy bulldog named Baby Dog — handily defeated Glenn Elliott, the Democratic mayor of the city of Wheeling.

    A mighty tumble in Ohio

    The defeat of three-term Democratic Senator Brown in Ohio was much more unexpected.

    Ohio had, until recent years, been perceived as a swing state in the industrial Rust Belt region of the US. But as the state leaned rightwards, Democratic leaders like Brown faced increasing threats to their positions.

    By 2024, Brown was the only Democrat left holding a statewide position in Ohio.

    On Tuesday, he tried to win a fourth term over Republican car dealer Bernie Moreno, a Colombian immigrant who gained Trump’s endorsement.

    Brown played up his progressive bona fides and hammered Moreno over abortion policy. He also framed himself as a politician willing to stand up to power, no matter the party.

    “I’ve stood up to presidents in both parties,” he told local media on the campaign trail.

    Moreno, meanwhile, bashed Brown as a “radical Democrat” who was lax on immigration.

    In his Election Night victory speech, Moreno played up his patriotism — and echoed Trump’s call for “America First” policies.

    “Today starts a new wave. We talked about wanting a red wave. I think what we have tonight is a red, white and blue wave in this country,” Moreno said.

    “Because what we need in the United States of America is leaders in Washington, DC, that actually put the interests of American citizens above all else. We’re tired of being treated like second-class citizens in our own country.”

    Al Jazeera correspondent Kristen Saloomey underscored how big of a loss Ohio was for Democrats in the Senate.

    “Ohio is the big flip here. This is the one that really hurt the Democrats,” she said on Election Night. “It was a really expensive race.”

    Nebraska, less of a surprise

    Located in the central prairies of the US, Nebraska has a reputation for electing Republican leaders. While it splits its Electoral College votes among its districts, not since 1964 has a majority of its Electoral College votes gone to a Democrat for president.

    That Republican incumbent Fischer won re-election on Tuesday was expected. What was less anticipated was the close race she faced in the final weeks of her campaign.

    A former school board member, Fischer had already served two terms in the Senate when she announced her re-election bid. But the entry of Osborn, a navy veteran and union leader, into the race upended her cruise to victory.

    Osborn rejected an offered endorsement from the Democratic Party during his campaign and pledged to remain staunchly independent in his politics if elected.

    He even declined to say whether he would caucus with the Republicans or Democrats if he reached the Senate.

    That made him a cipher in the race — one that disillusioned Republicans could rally behind. He surged in the polls, trailing Fischer by mere percentage points in the waning weeks of the race.

    But Fischer sought to portray Osborn as the “same old Democrat BS” and “just a different DC puppet”, as one campaign advertisement put it. She also accused him of being soft on immigration, a common rallying cry for Republicans this election cycle.

    “Nebraska wasn’t really surprising,” Saloomey said of the race, though she acknowledged Osborn “made it close”.

    Cruz survives in Texas

    Texas has long been stubbornly Republican, and just as stubborn in holding onto his Senate seat is right-wing firebrand Ted Cruz.

    First elected to the Senate in 2012, Cruz became the first Latino from Texas in Congress’s upper chamber. He was also a prominent member of the far-right Tea Party movement.

    Democrats have failed to win a statewide vote in Texas since 1994. But that does not mean the party has not tried — and Cruz has often been in its crosshairs.

    During his first re-election bid in 2018, Cruz faced a well-funded charismatic Democratic challenger in former US Representative Beto O’Rourke. Despite a backlash against the far right in the midst of Trump’s first term in office, Cruz squeaked out a victory over O’Rourke.

    In 2024, Cruz was in the hunt for a third term, and once again, Democrats sought to rattle him.

    This time, they put forward US Representative Colin Allred, a civil rights lawyer and former American football player for the Tennessee Titans. Once again, they fell short.

    “God be the glory,” Cruz said in his victory speech on Tuesday. “Tonight is an incredible night, a huge victory here in Texas.”

    He also thanked “all the Democrats across Texas who crossed over and supported my campaign”.

    “To all of those who didn’t support me, you have my word that I will fight for you, for your jobs, for your safety and for your constitutional rights.”

  • Republican wins in Ohio and West Virginia hand party Senate control | US elections 2024

    Republicans have seized majority control of the Senate.

    The Trump-backed auto magnate Bernie Moreno has ousted three-term Democratic senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Republican Ted Cruz has defeated Democratic challenger Colin Allred in Texas, according to the Associated Press.

    With the re-election of Republican Deb Fisher in Nebraska, Republicans now have at least 51 seats in the Senate, as well as the chance to pick up a few remaining wins in battleground states, according to the Associated Press.

    Democrats have held the Senate majority for the past four years. Republican control of the Senate gives the party crucial power in confirming the next president’s cabinet members and future supreme court justices, providing a check on Kamala Harris if she is elected, or boosting Donald Trump’s power.

    Earlier, Trump loyalist Jim Justice won the US Senate seat in West Virginia previously held by Joe Manchin, giving Republicans two additional seats, according to the Associated Press.

    Several hotly contested Senate seats remain to be called, including a race between Democratic incumbent Jon Tester and Republican challenger Tim Sheehy in Montana.

    Ahead of election night, the most vulnerable incumbent Democrat was widely deemed to be the three-term Montana senator Jon Tester, who – if polls are accurate – faces likely defeat at the hands of a Republican challenger, Tim Sheehy, an ex-navy Seal endorsed by Trump.

    A win for Sheehy, whose campaign has faced allegations that he made racist comments about the state’s Indigenous community, would tip the Senate further into Republican hands.

    The race between Sherrod and Moreno was the most expensive in Senate history, with about $500m has been ploughed into ad spending.

    Thirty-four seats in the US Senate – one-third of the 100-member chamber – were up for grabs on Tuesday in contests that could influence the makeup of the new administration, impact the balance on the supreme court and shape policy on areas ranging from foreign affairs to abortion.

    Democrats made some historic wins in safe districts: Andy Kim of New Jersey will become the first Korean American elected to the US Senate, while Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware will be the first two Black women to serve in the Senate at the same time.

    In other early races to be called, the independent Bernie Sanders won re-election in Vermont, and the Republican congressman Jim Banks of Indiana won his first Senate challenge comfortably.

    The victory for Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, was called by the AP with less than 10% of the vote in. It will be the 83-year-old’s fourth Senate term.

    Democrats were trying to cling to a one-seat majority with the knowledge that the odds appeared stacked against them, given Manchin’s retirement and the fall of his seat to a Republican.

    Elsewhere, the party faced uphill struggles, with incumbents trying to hold 23 seats, often in states that have become increasingly pro-GOP as Trump has strengthened his grip over the party.

    By contrast, only 11 Republican senatorswere up for re-election, all in solidly GOP states, thus giving the Democrats much less scope for making gains.

    Facing off against a Trump-backed candidate in an increasingly Republican state, Brown had tried to emphasise shared policy goals with Trump – including supporting anti-fentanyl legislation – in a one-time battleground state that the Republican presidential nomineeheld on comfortably.

    Key races that remain up in the air are those in the Democrats’ three blue wall states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, the closeness of which mirror the knife-edge presidential contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

    In Pennsylvania, the Democratic incumbent Bob Casey – a senator for 18 years – is seeking a fourth term against a challenge from the Republican Dave McCormick. McCormick, who has funded his own campaign, has sought to tie Casey to the same policies that Trump has attacked Harris for, namely immigration and a past support for a fracking ban.

    The race has been designated a toss-up by the Cook Political Report, as has that in Wisconsin between another incumbent Democrat, the two-term senator Tammy Baldwin, and her GOP challenger, Eric Hovde, a wealthy banker and property developer who is another campaign self-funder.

    Democrats are also on the defensive in Michigan where Elissa Slotkin, a member of the House of Representatives, is running to fill the seat left vacant by the retirement of a fellow Democrat, Debbie Stabenow. Her Republican opponent is Mike Rogers, a former GOP House member and ex-FBI agent, who was once a critic of Trump but has now received his endorsement.

    Another Democratic soft spot is Nevada, where the party’s sitting senator, Jacky Rosen, is in a tight race with Sam Brown, a decorated army veteran who was badly wounded in Afghanistan. Brown has tried to fend off Rosen’s attacks on his abortion stance by saying he would not support a nationwide ban and acknowledging that his wife once underwent the procedure.

    In Arizona, Ruben Gallego, a US Marine Corps veteran, is trying to keep a seat in the Democratic camp following the retirement of the independent senator, Kyrsten Sinema, who voted with the party in the chamber. Up against him is Kari Lake, a Trump ally who baselessly claimed that her failed 2022 bid for the state’s governorship had been derailed by Democratic cheating.

    Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage

    Chris Stein contributed reporting

  • Republicans retake control of US Senate after Democrats lose majority | US elections 2024

    Republicans have recaptured the US Senate, achieving what was billed in advance as the most attainable goal for the party in this year’s elections.

    The GOP regained control after it became clear that the Democrats had lost their one-seat majority in Congress’s 100-member upper chamber.

    Republicans gained two Senate seats, as Trump-backed businessperson Bernie Moreno defeated three-term Democratic senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio, and Trump loyalist Jim Justice won the seat once held by Joe Manchin in West Virginia.

    Republican incumbents also fought off Democratic challengers in Texas, where Ted Cruz defeated Colin Allred, and in Florida, where Rick Scott won out over Debbie Mucarsel-Powell.

    In Nebraska, union organizer Dan Osborn launched a surprisingly successful independent campaign to oust the Republican incumbent, Deb Fisher. But Fisher ultimately held on to her seat.

    Shortly after midnight ET, several competitive Senate races still had not been called, giving Republicans a chance to grow the margin of their majority by a few more seats.

    The result puts the Republican party in pole position in the confirmation process for senior officials appointed by the new incoming administration, and for potential new justices to the US supreme court if and when vacancies open up.

    At least two veteran conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, are expected to retire in the next few years, while speculation has surrounded the health and intentions of a third, Sonia Sotomayor, one of the court’s three liberal justices.

    The transfer of Senate control back to the Republicans will also lend greater piquancy to the race to succeed Mitch McConnell, the GOP leader in the chamber, who had announced that he would retire after the election.

    Leading contenders to replace him are John Thune of South Dakota, Texas senator John Cornyn and Rick Scott of Florida, with the winner primed to assume the powerful position of Senate majority leader.

    Cornyn launched his bid for the leadership just moments after Republicans won their Senate majority, according to the Associated Press, with a statement touting his experience working with Republican members, and serving as the GOP vote-counter during the first Trump administration.

    “As I’ve said, this election is not about us but rather what is best for the conference and the nation,” the Texas Republican said. “I look forward to working with President Trump and our new conservative majority to make America great again by making the Senate work again.”

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    The leadership election is due to take place at the end of November by secret ballot.

    The Republicans’ win had been widely anticipated. The Democrats faced an unfavourable electoral map, with several incumbents either retiring or up for re-election in Republican stronghold states – meaning loss of Senate control was highly likely even in the event of Kamala Harris being elected president.

    The retirement of the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, a formerly centrist Democrat who had lately become an independent, was the clearest signal that the Republicans were on a winning path. As expected, the seat he vacated was won by the state’s Republican governor, Jim Justice, who triumphed over his Democratic opponent, Glenn Elliott, the mayor of Wheeling.

    Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage

  • Democratic-backed justices look to defend control of Michigan’s Supreme Court

    Democratic-backed justices look to defend control of Michigan’s Supreme Court

    DETROIT (AP) — Michigan Democrats and their allies were defending their majority on the state’s Supreme Court on Tuesday after a campaign marked by exorbitant spending.

    Court races are nonpartisan but candidates are nominated at party conventions. Democratic-backed justices currently hold a 4-3 edge, and Republicans have sought to flip it to regain a margin of control in a state dominated by Democrats for the past two years. They need to win both seats up for election to do so.

    The four candidates largely spent their official campaign resources on touting their career experiences and qualifications, leaving state parties and outside spending groups to define the issues.

    Republican-backed Judge Patrick O’Grady is seeking election to the seat held by Justice Kyra Harris Bolden, who unsuccessfully ran for the court before she was appointed to a vacancy in 2022 by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

    She’s the first Black woman on the bench and would be the first to be elected justice if she wins the race. O’Grady has campaigned on his experience as a state trooper, prosecutor and longtime circuit judge in southern Michigan. The winner will serve the last four years of the eight-year term vacated in 2022 by former Justice Bridget McCormick.

    Republican nominee state Rep. Andrew Fink and Democratic nominee law professor Kimberly Anne Thomas are competing for a full-term seat being vacated by Justice David Viviano, a Republican-backed justice. Thomas and Bolden have campaigned arm and arm since they were officially nominated by the Democratic party in August.

    Fink, like O’Grady, has said his election would restore balance to a court accused of “legislating from the bench” in favor of liberal causes and Democratic policy in recent years.

    Abortion access was enshrined in the state constitution by voters in 2022. Democratic allies have framed the race through the lens of reproductive rights, saying the court has the potential to rule on abortion in the future. Republicans have rejected this idea, saying the amendment finalized abortion protections that cannot be undone.

  • Control of Congress is at stake and with it a president’s agenda

    Control of Congress is at stake and with it a president’s agenda

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Control of Congress is at stake Tuesday, with ever-tight races for the House and Senate that will determine which party holds the majority and the power to boost or block a president’s agenda, or if the White House confronts a divided Capitol Hill.

    The key contests are playing out alongside the first presidential election since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but also in unexpected corners of the country after what has been one of the most chaotic congressional sessions in modern times.

    In the end, just a handful of seats, or as little as one, could tip the balance in either chamber.

    The economy, border security, reproductive rights and even the future of U.S. democracy itself have all punctuated the debate.

    In the Senate, where Democrats now have a slim 51-49 majority, an early boost for Republicans is expected in West Virginia. Independent Sen. Joe Manchin’s retirement creates an opening that Republican Jim Justice, now the state’s governor, is favored to win. A pickup there would deadlock the chamber, 50-50, as Republicans try to wrest control.

    Top House races are focused in New York and California, where in a politically unusual twist, Democrats are trying to claw back some of the 10 or so seats where Republicans have made surprising gains in recent years with star lawmakers who helped deliver the party to power.

    Other House races are scattered around the country in a sign of how narrow the field has become, with just a couple of dozen seats being seriously challenged, some of the most contentious in Maine, the “blue dot” around Omaha, Nebraska, and in Alaska.

    Vote counting in some races could extend well past Tuesday.

    “We’re in striking distance in terms of taking back the House,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is in line to make history as the first Black speaker if his party wins control, told The Associated Press during a recent campaign swing through Southern California.

    But House Speaker Mike Johnson, drawing closer to Trump, predicts Republicans will keep “and grow” the majority. He took over after Kevin McCarthy was booted from the speaker’s office.

    Capitol Hill can make or break a new White House’s priorities, giving Trump or Harris potential allies or adversaries in the House and Senate, or a divided Congress that could force a season of compromise or stalemate.

    Congress can also play a role in upholding the American tradition of peacefully transferring presidential power. Four years ago, Trump sent his mob of supporters to “fight like hell” at the Capitol, and many Republicans in Congress voted to block Joe Biden’s election. Congress will again be called upon to certify the results of the presidential election in 2025.

    What started as a lackluster race for control of Congress was instantly transformed once Harris stepped in for Biden at the top of the ticket, energizing Democrats with massive fundraising and volunteers that lawmakers said reminded them of the Obama-era enthusiasm of the 2008 election.

    Billions of dollars have been spent by the parties, and outside groups, on the narrow battleground for both the 435-member House and 100-member Senate.

    Democrats need to win a handful of House seats to pluck party control from Republicans. In the Senate, the vice president becomes the tie-breaker in a split, which would leave control of that chamber up to the winner of the White House.

    The 2024 election is here. This is what to know:

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    Senate Republicans launched a wide-open map of opportunities, recruiting wealthy newcomers to put Democratic incumbents on defense in almost 10 states across the country.

    In Ohio, Trump-backed Republican Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland businessman, is seeking to unseat three-term Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. Some $400 million has been spent on the race.

    One of the most-watched Senate races, in Montana, may be among the last to be decided. Democrat Jon Tester, a popular three-term senator and “dirt farmer” is in the fight of his political career against Trump-backed Tim Sheehy, a wealthy former NAVY Seal, who made derogatory comments about Native Americans, a key constituency in the Western state.

    And across the “blue wall” battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Republicans are depending on Trump as they try to unseat a trio of incumbent Democratic senators.

    Outgoing Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has spent a career focused on seizing and keeping majority power, but other opportunities for Republicans are slipping into long shots.

    In the Southwestern states, Arizona firebrand Republican Kari Lake has struggled against Democrat Ruben Gallego in the seat opened by Sen. Krysten Sinema’s retirement. In Nevada, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen has been holding out against newcomer Sam Brown.

    Democrats intensified their challenges to a pair of Republican senators — Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott in Florida — in states where reproductive rights have been a focus in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision rolling back abortion access. Cruz faces Democrat Colin Allred, the Dallas-area congressman, while Scott has poured $10 millions of his own fortune into the race against Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former House lawmaker.

    Congress has a chance to reach several history-making milestones as it is reshaped by the American electorate and becomes more representative of a diverse nation.

    Not one, but possibly two Black women could be on their way to the Senate, which would be something never seen in the U.S.

    Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware is favored in the Senate race against Republican Eric Hansen.

    And in Maryland, Harris-ally Angela Alsobrooks is in a highly competitive race against the state’s popular former governor, Republican Larry Hogan.

    Americans have elected two Black women, including Harris, as senators since the nation’s founding, but never at the same time.

    House candidate Sarah McBride, a state lawmaker from Delaware who is close to the Biden family, is poised to become the first openly transgender person in Congress.

    Fallout from redistricting, when states redraw their maps for congressional districts, is also shifting the balance of power within the House — with Republicans set to gain several seats from Democrats in North Carolina and Democrats picking up a second Black-majority seat in Republican-heavy Alabama.

    Lawmakers in the House face voters every two years, while senators serve longer six-year terms.

    If the two chambers do in fact flip party control, as is possible, it would be rare.

    Records show that if Democrats take the House and Republicans take the Senate, it would be the first time that the chambers of Congress have both flipped to opposing political parties.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Kevin Freking and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.