GOP inches closer to House win, Senate hinges on Georgia run-off

Republicans edged closer on Thursday to securing a majority in the US House of Representatives while control of the Senate hinged on a few tight races, two days after Democrats staved off an anticipated “red wave” of Republican gains in midterm elections.

Republicans have captured at least 210 House seats, Edison Research projected, eight short of the 218 needed to wrest the House away from Democrats and effectively halt President Joe Biden's legislative agenda.

President Joe Biden said he intends to run for a second term, and that he’ll be talking with his wife Jill Biden over the holidays about it. Biden expects to officially decide whether to run for reelection “early next year,” he told reporters Wednesday. Asked if exit polling showing two thirds of voters don’t want him to run again will impact his decision, Biden quickly said, “It doesn’t.” His message to those Americans? “Watch me.”

Biden said he intends to run for re-election and would likely make a final decision by early next year.

While Republicans remain favored, there were 33 House contests yet to be decided — including 21 of the 53 most competitive races, based on a Reuters analysis of the leading nonpartisan forecasters — likely ensuring the final outcome will not be determined for some time.

The fate of the Senate was far less certain. Either party could seize control by winning too-close-to-call races in Nevada and Arizona, where officials are tallying thousands of uncounted ballots.

The party in power historically suffers heavy casualties in a president’s first midterm election and Tuesday's results suggested voters were punishing Biden for the steepest inflation in 40 years.

But Democrats were able to avoid the major defeat that Republicans had anticipated and were holding on in the close Senate battles in Nevada and Arizona.

Tuesday’s results also suggested voters were lashing out against Republican efforts to ban abortion and to cast doubt on the nation’s vote-counting process.

Biden had framed the election as a test of US democracy at a time when hundreds of Republican candidates embraced former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

A split in the Senate vote would mean the majority would come down to a runoff election in Georgia for the second time in two years.

Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker both failed to reach 50 per cent on Tuesday, forcing them into a one-on-one battle on Dec. 6.

Even a slim House majority would allow Republicans to shape the rest of Biden's term, blocking priorities such as abortion rights and launching investigations into his administration and family.

Control of the Senate, meanwhile, would give Republicans the power to block Biden's nominees for judicial and administrative posts.

Senate a toss-up

Thousands of votes still remained uncounted in the two closely competitive states of Arizona and Nevada. Election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona's most populous, said it could take until at least Friday to tally all votes there.

Control of the US Senate could once again come down to the state of Georgia, where a close race has forced a second round election.

Neither the incumbent Democrat, Raphael Warnock, or his Republican challenger Herschel Walker, won an outright majority of votes on Tuesday.

In Georgia, that requires them to advance to a contest known as a "run-off" to decide the victor.

The run-off election will be held on 6 December.

A number of “election deniers” —those who support Trump’s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him — won on Tuesday but many who sought positions to oversee elections at the state level were defeated.

“It was a good day, I think, for democracy,” Biden said.

Trump, who took an active role in recruiting Republican candidates, had mixed results.

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who could challenge Trump in 2024, won re-election by nearly 20 percentage points, adding to his growing national profile.

Trump urged to delay 2024 launch It was supposed to be a red wave that former President Donald Trump could triumphantly ride to the Republican nomination as he prepares to launch another White House run.

Instead, Tuesday night’s disappointing results for the GOP are raising new questions about Trump’s appeal and the future of a party that has fully embraced him, seemingly at its peril, while at the same time giving new momentum to his most potent potential rival.

“Will work with Republicans, but without compromise” Biden said on Wednesday he is eager to work with congressional Republicans after the midterm elections, but stressed he would not compromise on issues like abortion rights and Social Security.

“On this election season the American people made it clear: They don’t want every day moving forward to be a constant political battle. There’s too much of that going on, and there’s too much we have to do,” Biden said at the White House. “The future of America is too promising to be trapped in an endless political warfare.”

“I’m open to any good ideas. I want to be very clear: I’m not going to support any Republican proposal that’s going to make inflation worse,” Biden said, raising the example of removing the prescription drug price cap for Americans on Medicare passed by his party. “And I’m not going to walk away from the historic commitments we just made to take on the climate crisis. They’re not compromise-able issues to me and I won’t let it happen.”

“The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well," Biden told a news conference.

Republicans are expected to demand spending cuts in exchange for raising the nation's borrowing limit next year, a showdown that could spook financial markets.