Wednesday morning’s contest for control of Congress will continue. The Senate will be down to four uncalled toss-up candidates — with the possibility of a Georgia runoff to decide the majority.
While Republicans have the inside track to retake Congress, many of the most competitive House seats are still uncalled after the GOP failed in its attempt to win numerous swing seats that the party had hoped to flip on Tuesday.
These are the top contests and some of the remaining ballots.
Four key swing states make up the Senate.
Democrat John Fetterman won Pennsylvania early Wednesday morning, giving his party 48 seat. This means that Democrats can retain the Senate by winning two of the remaining four battlegrounds: Arizona and Nevada, Nevada, Wisconsin.
The biggest questions are Arizona and Nevada, where significant numbers of votes remain to be counted in both state.
Republican Adam Laxalt of Nevada is taking on Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. Laxalt is leading with more than 70% of the expected vote counted. However, the state’s two largest counties, the Democratic-leaning Clark County (home to Las Vegas) and the battleground Washoe County (home of Reno), won’t begin counting mail ballots received on Election Day before Wednesday, . These two counties account for nearly 90 percent state population.
Also, ballots with a USPS postmark by Election Day but not delivered by Saturday Nov. 12 to election officials will be counted.
Arizona too has many unresolved votes. Although Democratic Senator Mark Kelly holds the lead, his lead over Republican Blake Master will likely shrink. About 60 percent of votes had been counted as of Wednesday morning.
This has been the prediction of election officials for years. Maricopa County is the largest county in the state. Mail ballots returned before Election Day will not count until Wednesday. Also, any ballots not read by tabulation machines ( ) must be counted at central voting locations. Officials stated that 99 percent of the ballots would be tabulated by Friday.
In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock leads Republican Herschel Walker narrowly. Problem for Democrats and Warnock is that the incumbent appears to be below a majority, which could trigger a Dec. 6, runoff between Walker and Warnock.
The Associated Press is still waiting to announce the outcome of the race. Most in the state believe it will go in this direction. “While county officials are still working on the details of counting the votes, it is safe to assume there will be an election for the U.S. Senate here, Georgia, scheduled for December 6,,” Gabriel Sterling, a senior official at the secretary-state’s office, tweeted Wednesday morning.
If the parties split Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia, Senate control would again be decided by that runoff — provided there’s no surprise in the other battleground state.
Wisconsin has almost all its votes counted. GOP Sen. Ron Johnson holds a narrow lead over Democratic Lieutenant Governor. Mandela Barnes.
GOP ahead in House battle — but winning smaller-than-expected gains
The race for the House majority is still being led by Republicans, but the uncalled races show how close the fight for the chamber has been.
Only nine of the 26 House races POLITICO predicted would be “toss ups” were actually called as of Wednesday morning. Uncalled are 22 other races that POLITICO rated “Lean Democrat” and “Lean Republican”. That includes nine races in California — which is slow-counting and one of many reasons why the House battle could take a while to resolve.
New York’s bellwether races (one on Long Island and one in New York) are not called. This includes Sean Patrick Maloney, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman, and two upstate seats, where the GOP leads.
Three Pennsylvania toss-up seats remain uncalled, but Democratic Reps. Susan Wild, Matt Cartwright, and open-seat Democratic Candidate Chris Deluzio have leads. The Democratic incumbents hold narrow leads in all the other uncalled tossup races scattered across the country, including those in Connecticut, Maine, and Washington. New Mexico’s Democratic challenger Gabe Vasquez seeks to overthrow Republican incumbent Yvette Sherrell.
California and Nevada, where the process of counting is slow and postal ballots can arrive late and still count, have many uncalled House battleground races.
Western Governor Races still Big Question Marks
The gubernatorial elections in Arizona and Nevada are both uncalled for similar reasons as their Senate counterparts.
Republican Joe Lombardo leads Democratic Gov. Steve Sisloak is leading in Nevada while Democratic Katie Hobbs is ahead in Arizona for open seat race. As more votes are added, these races will likely tighten or flip like the Senate races.
Noting that both Democratic candidates are slightly behind their respective Senate incumbents means these contests will likely get closer. The secretary of state races in these same states are uncalled. Democrats have a slightly larger lead.
The open seat race for Oregon governor is another big uncalled race. With roughly two-thirds vote counted in, Tina Kotek, Democrat, leads Republican Christine Drazan by a small margin. Betsy Johnson, an independent candidate, trails in the low single digits.
In the past, it took a long time for this predominantly vote-by mail state to count all its ballots. It took until Friday after the election to count 90 percent of the ballots. Oregon has also implemented a postmarked by Election Day law this year. This means that ballots received up to one week after the election can still be counted as long as they are marked by postal officials by Nov. 8.
The Kansas gubernatorial race remains uncalled with Democrat Gov. With nearly all ballots tabulated, Laura Kelly is in a slight lead over Republican Derek Schmidt.
