Arizona Senator John Kelly builds his lead to 51-46
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Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly has built up a lead of five percentage points over Republican Blake Masters in a key lingering contest as Democrats try to seize two of three remaining tossup races in order to maintain control of the Senate.
The race could still go either way, with more than 600,000 votes yet to be counted, according to the Secretary of State, although Kelly’s lead has reached 100,000 votes.
His race is one of four Senate contests still to be decided.
In Nevada, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto trails Republican Adam Laxalt 50-47, with a gap of less than 20,000 votes.
Ballots postmarked by Election Day that come in by Saturday can still get counted, and Cortez Masto was narrowing her deficit with a batch of votes that came in late Wednesday. She was getting about 60 per cent of the votes coming in from Washoe County, which includes Reno.
Leading: Sen. Mark Kelly is up 5 points over Republican Blake Masters, in one of the outstanding races that will determine Senate control
But Democrats are counting on mail-in ballots still being processed to make up the difference.
In Arizona, more than half of the outstanding votes, or about 340,000, come from Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.
Early votes were coming in favoring Kelly, while ballots cast on Election Day were closer, AZCentral reported.
Arizona election official Karen Hobbs was in a tighter race with TV anchor Kari Lake, with lead of just 13,000 votes as of Wednesday night. In that race, Hobbs has been leading in Maricopa by 4 percentage points.
Democrats or Republicans could win control of the Senate by winning two of the remaining four outstanding races.
The Georgia Senate race is going to a runoff, with Sen. Raphael Warnock leading Herschel Walker but falling just short of 50 per cent. He led walker 49.4 to 48.5, or 35,000 votes, with 95 per cent of the vote it.
Kelly leads Republican venture capitalist Blake Masters by about 100,000 votes
Arizona election official Karen Hobbs was in a tighter race with TV anchor Kari Lake (pictured), who has been bashing the pace of the count
Kelly (D-AZ) is married to former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), who was a victim of gun violence while serving in the House
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto trails Republican Adam Laxalt 50-47. She was considered one of her party’s most vulnerable incumbents
Adam Laxalt, a former Attorney General of Nevada, will have to make it through thousands of mail ballots still coming in to prevail
Depending on what happens in Nevada and Arizona, Georgia could once again determine control of the Senate as it did in special elections in 2020 that sent Warnock and Democrat Jon Ossoff to the Senate.
Alaska, with three candidates on the ballot and its ranked choice voting, was still being counted as well.
Republican Senator Ron Johnson officially won re-election in Wisconsin over the state’s Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes on Wednesday morning in the last race called so far, and kept the GOP’s hopes of taking the majority alive.
The race was called by the Associated Press at 11:46 a.m. CST Wednesday morning. Johnson had 50.5 percent of the vote to Barnes’ 49.5 percent with 95 percent of the vote reporting.
His victory meant the Republicans had 49 seats and the Democrats had 48 as of Wednesday morning, with votes still being counted in Arizona and Nevada and Georgia heading to a run-off election on December 6.
It means the majority is still up for grabs, but Democrats had the momentum after the GOP capped off a disappointing night that fell short of their predicted red wave.
Earlier in the morning, Johnson had lashed out at the media for not calling his race yet, claiming victory and saying the Democrat had ‘no path mathematically’ for a win.
‘The corporate media is refusing to call a race that is over. The votes are in,’ the pro-Trump senator said. ‘There is no path mathematically for Lt. Gov. Barnes to overcome his 27,374 vote deficit. This race is over. Truth has prevailed over lies and the politics of personal destruction.’
Barnes called Johnson to concede and then spoke to supporters in Milwaukee.
The Republicans lost one seat to Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman, whose race over Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz was called around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Wisconsin’s Republican Sen. Ron Johnson officially won his bid for reelection over Democratic opponent, the state’s Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes
Remaining Senate races to be called are Georgia, which will likely head to a run-off, Arizona and Nevada
The race was called by the Associated Press for Republican Sen. Ron Johnson at 11:46 a.m. CST Wednesday morning. He appeared in front of supporters in Neenah, Wisconsin overnight, before leaving the venue of his election night party
The fate of three Democratic incumbents is still up in the air: Sens. Mark Kelly in Arizona, Raphael Warnock in Georgia and Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada
Supporters of Republican Sen. Ron Johnson hold up signs at his election night party in Neenah, Wisconsin
In a series of tweets, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson lashed out at the ‘corporate media’ for refusing to call his race
Wisconsin Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes conceded to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in Milwaukee on Wednesday
Wisconsin Democratic Senate hopeful Mandela Barnes (left) hugs a supporter after conceding the race to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson on Wednesday
Democrat Mandela Barnes is photographed at a canvass launch event on Tuesday in Glendale, Wisconsin
Signs for Sen. Ron Johnson’s Democratic opponent Mandela Barnes are strewn about his election night headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Oz called Fetterman at 9:30am Wednesday to concede, Fetterman’s spokesman said.
Oz said in a statement after the fact, ‘This morning I called John Fetterman and congratulated him. I wish him and his family all the best, both personally and as our next United States Senator. Campaigning throughout our great Commonwealth was the honor of a lifetime, and I will cherish the memories.’
It’s a massive pickup for Democrats, who are taking over the seat from retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey.
Both parties, as well as outside groups, invested millions of dollars in the race, and both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump campaigned in the state as it went down to the wire.
Fetterman’s win put the Democrats in position to potentially control the chamber by a narrow margin – but the jury’s still out.
In order to flip the Senate Republicans will need to win at least two of three outstanding races.
Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman defeated Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, wrapping up one of the most closely watched races of the midterms just before 1 a.m. Wednesday morning
As he walked onstage, Fetterman admitted surprise – as the count was expected to take several days
In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock was leading Republican Herschel Walker by less than a percentage point, but at less than the threshold to avoid a run-off.
On Wednesday, the Associated Press called that the race would head to a run-off at 2:24 p.m. EST.
That election would be held in early December.
Per the Peach State’s election rules, a winner must get 50 percent plus one vote to avoid facing their opponent on the ballot again.
That same runoff process had the state send two Democratic senators to Washington two years ago – and giving the Democrats control of the upper chamber.
The vote counts barely moved overnight in two western battlegrounds: Nevada, where Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto was trailing Adam Laxalt, and Arizona, where Sen. Mark Kelly was leading Blake Masters.
The fifth race, Alaska’s showdown between warring factions of the GOP, is guaranteed to send a Republican to the Senate.
But whether it’s Trump-backed Kelly Tshibaka or Mitch McConnell-endorsed Senator Lisa Murkowski remains to be seen after the state’s ranked-choice votes are all tallied.