GOP takes election victory lap in U.S. Senate

WASHINGTON — Republicans are moving toward unified control of Congress as more House races are being called in their favor and GOP candidates flipped Democratic seats in the Senate.

Democratic leaders were still holding out hope that they would secure a narrow majority in the House once there’s a clear outcome in more than 50 uncalled races, though that seems somewhat unlikely.

“House Republicans have been successful in securing critical flips in swing states including Pennsylvania and Michigan, while our battle-tested incumbents have secured re-election from coast to coast,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., wrote in a statement released by his campaign. “The latest data and trends indicate that when all the votes are tabulated, Republicans will have held our majority.”

When combined with Donald Trump winning the presidential race, Republicans appeared close to unlocking a complicated legislative process that could allow the GOP to make sweeping changes to policy as long as it has a significant impact on federal revenue, spending or the debt.

While there will be many hurdles for Republican lawmakers to jump through, assuming they do control the House, that budget reconciliation process would allow the GOP to overhaul the country’s tax code and the Affordable Care Act.

It might also provide a way for them to change some aspects of immigration law, though that’s a longer shot than the other two given the process’ strict rules.

Republicans focused much of their campaign for Congress on immigration and border security, likely making it one of the major issues they’ll address in the years ahead.

Trump, who ran on the campaign promise of mass deportations, is unlikely to support any pathways to citizenship, and instead push for lawmakers to approve the spending necessary to carry out his pledge of removing more than 13 million people in the country without authorization.

That type of plan would require Congress to approve funding for additional detention beds, thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and charter flights. It would also strain an already backlogged U.S. immigration court.

The American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration group, estimated the cost of deporting 13 million people would be $968 billion over a decade.

The closest Congress came to immigration reform in decades was earlier in the year, when Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford and Arizona independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema negotiated a bipartisan border security and immigration bill.

The trio of senators spent months working through the particulars of the deal only to have it scuttled after Trump told GOP members he didn’t want the legislation to pass.

Instead, Trump threw his support behind a House GOP bill that reinstated the former president’s immigration policies, including “Remain in Mexico,” which required asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while their cases were processed.

Last year, the GOP-controlled House passed the bill, but it was never taken up in the Democratic-controlled Senate. California Rep. John S. Duarte and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie were the only Republicans to vote against the bill. No Democrats voted in favor of passage.

That likely means any immigration bills the GOP tries to pass through the regular legislative process would need at least some Democratic support to move through the Senate.

GOP candidates flipped Montana, Ohio and West Virginia seats occupied by Jon Tester, Sherrod Brown and Joe Manchin III, respectively.

The AP hadn’t projected a win in six Senate campaigns, though Pennsylvania and Nevada were trending toward Republican pickups.

That would give the GOP at least 54 seats in the Senate and would likely erode the negotiating power of moderates like Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins.

Arizona was trending toward electing Democrat Ruben Gallego over Republican Kari Lake on Wednesday afternoon, though only 60% of the votes in that state had been counted.

In Michigan, Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin had amassed more votes than former Rep. Mike Rogers with 99% of the votes counted, giving Slotkin 48.6% and Rogers 48.3%.

Wisconsin voters appeared on track to re-elect incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin over Republican Eric Hovde in a neck-and-neck race. With 99% of votes counted, Baldwin held a 49.4% lead over Hovde’s 48.5%.

While the Senate holds 100 lawmakers, they’re elected to six-year terms, meaning about one-third of the chamber is up for re-election or retirement during a given election year. This year, a total of 34 Senate seats were up.

Republicans have maintained control of the House since January 2023, but hold a slim majority that Speaker Johnson has had to cautiously navigate.

He repeatedly had to strike a deal with Democrats in order to approve must-pass legislation to avoid a government shutdown while keeping members of his party’s right flank happy with the general direction of the chamber.

Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Susan Wild conceded her race to Republican challenger Ryan Mackenzie on Wednesday morning in a statement, calling it a “bitterly disappointing outcome.”

“This election may not have gone the way we hoped, but the fight continues on,” Wild said. “Let us dust ourselves off and get right back up.”

Republicans also regained Michigan’s 7th Congressional District after Republican Tom Barrett defeated Democrat Curtis Hertel in the seat left open when Slotkin ran for the state’s Senate seat.

New York Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres wrote on his personal social media account that his party should have been more realistic about this year’s election.

“The signs of a decisive defeat were staring us in the face all along. We were simply in denial about them or willfully blind to them, substituting magical thinking for actual analysis,” Torres wrote. “In recent history, there’s no precedent for an incumbent party winning a presidential election when the percentage of Americans who think the country is on the wrong track or headed in the wrong direction is in the 20s. The structural challenge was simply insurmountable.”

Special Photo