No Change In Control Of Senate Or House Day After Election

ACROSS AMERICA — Control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives appears unchanged following unofficial results from Tuesday’s election. But both the Democratic majority in the House and the Republican majority in the Senate appear to have narrowed.

Democrats needed to gain at least three seats to flip control of the Senate, but projections indicate they are likely only able to pick up a net of one.

Senate seats in Colorado and Arizona are set to go from red to blue, according to Associated Press projections, while the Senate seat up for election in Alabama went the opposite way.

The Senate race hasn’t been called in Republican-held North Carolina between incumbent Republican Thom Tillis and Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham, but Tillis clung to a lead of 1.8 percentage points as of 3 p.m. ET Wednesday. The Senate race in Maine, between GOP incumbent Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Sara Gideon, was called in Collins' favor earlier Wednesday afternoon.

Well-funded Democratic challengers in South Carolina and Kentucky, among others, were unable to pull off upset victories over Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, respectively.

As things stood Wednesday afternoon, Democrats won’t control the chamber even if former Vice President Joe Biden wins the presidential race and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, serves as presiding officer of the Senate as vice president.

In the House, Republicans had a net gain of five seats, according to vote totals from the New York Times as of 1 p.m. Wednesday. Republicans flipped seven seats while Democrats turned over two, unofficial tallies show.

With 218 seats needed for control of the House, the New York Times numbers show 196 are safely Democratic and 185 are safely held by Republicans. Fifty-three seats remain unclaimed as votes continue to be counted well into Wednesday in several states.

Some seats that aren’t changing party affiliations look to bring a significant change in ideology, however.

Those include Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District, which will go from Democrat Dan Lipinski to Democrat Marie Newman, after Newman defeated Lipinski in the primary and her Republican opponent in the general election.

Lipinski is a pro-life Democrat who is considered among the more moderates in the party. That’s a sharp contrast to Newman, who takes a progressive stance on the bulk of issues such as abortion, health care and education.

The Democratic Party’s progressive wing held on to their congressional seats, with all four members of “The Squad” — Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — declared Tuesday night winners.