With the Senate knotted at 50-50 for every party, Republican control is simply one seat away. But this election season has been filled with surprises.
For much of the campaign season, Democrats appeared able to grab a Republican seat in Pennsylvania, meaning Republicans would want to flip two Democratic seats to earn a majority. That now not seems so difficult, with races tightening in states that Democrats had hoped to place away, like Recent Hampshire and Arizona, and Herschel Walker in some way righting his campaign in Georgia despite a series of shocks over abortion, domestic violence, extramarital affairs and undeclared children.
Still, Election Day approaches with anything possible. Democratic candidates are holding tough in North Carolina and Ohio, and sleeper contests could develop into necessary in Colorado and Washington. Listed here are the seats where each party is vulnerable, in response to the Cook Political Report Race Rankings.
Rankings for Current Senate Seats
Republicans
Currently hold 50 seats, need 51 for majority
Democrats
Currently hold majority with 50 seats (vice chairman casts tie-breaking vote)
Republicans not up for re-election
Solid R
Likely R
Lean R
Tossup
Democrats not up for re-election
Solid D
Likely D
Lean D
Tossup
PA
NC
OH
WI
FL
IA
UT
AK
AL
AR
ID
IN
KS
KY
LA
MO
ND
OK
OK
SC
SD
AK
AL
AR
FL
IA
ID
IN
KS
KY
LA
ME
MO
MS
MS
MT
NC
ND
NE
NE
SC
SD
TN
TN
TX
TX
UT
WV
WY
WY
AZ
GA
NV
CO
NH
WA
CA
CT
HI
IL
MD
NY
OR
VT
AZ
CA
CO
CT
DE
DE
GA
HI
IL
MA
MA
MD
ME
MI
MI
MN
MN
MT
NH
NJ
NJ
NM
NM
NV
NY
OH
OR
PA
RI
RI
VA
VA
VT
WA
WI
WV
Republicans not up for re-election
Democrats not up for re-election
Cook Political Report still rates the competition a tossup, and if neither candidate can secure 50 percent on Tuesday, it would go to a runoff in December.
A Democratic seat in Arizona once seen as fairly secure for the favored incumbent, Mark Kelly, seems less in order Republicans within the state coalesce late around his challenger, Blake Masters.
Her Republican challenger, Adam Laxalt, the state’s former attorney general, lost his run for governor in 2018 and has yet to open a transparent lead, but he has run a clean race and is in position to win.
His opponent, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, had a life-threatening stroke that gave Dr. Oz a gap. The evident effects of the stroke, laid bare in a recent, televised debate, and the Republican’s attacks on Mr. Fetterman as a criminal-coddling liberal have narrowed the race.
Since then, Mr. Johnson has develop into the Senate’s leading peddler of conspiracy theories and Covid-19 misinformation, yet with an onslaught of negative promoting financed by wealthy donors, he’s once more in position to ward off a challenge, this time from Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor, Mandela Barnes, who comes from the Democrats’ liberal wing and has proven vulnerable to attack, especially on crime.
Cheri Beasley, a former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, is running as a judge above the political fray. North Carolina is a state that has broken Democrats’ hearts, and it could well achieve this again. But Mr. Budd and Ms. Beasley are consistently polling at a tie.
Despite the challenges ahead, Republicans still have plenty of how to win Senate control. They may beat Senator Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada and push Senator Raphael Warnock to a runoff in Georgia. They may overwhelm the Georgia race with money to rescue Mr. Warnock’s opponent, Herschel Walker. They may also pull off come-from-behind wins in Pennsylvania, Arizona or Recent Hampshire.
But Democrats have options as well. In the event that they can seal a victory in Pennsylvania and defeat Senator Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, it’s hard to see a way for Republicans to take three Democratic seats to compensate. If Democrats find any upside surprises, they’d be in North Carolina or Ohio, where strong candidates proceed to hold tough.