Republicans, Democrats Fight For Control Of US Congress As Counting Continues In Midterm Elections
Following the midterm elections, Republicans and Democrats are in a close struggle for control of the US Congress.
The House of Representatives is expected to go Republican, but the race for the Senate is extremely close.
Democrats won a crucial Senate seat in Pennsylvania, and the verdicts in a number of other tight contests are still pending.
According to exit polls, voters’ top worries were the economy and inflation.
Republicans were supposed to benefit from this, but they have not experienced the “red wave” of victories they had hoped for.
The US Congress is made up of two parts – the House of Representatives and the Senate.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate were up for grabs. Members of the House represent their local populations and Senators represent the interests of their states.
Although President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is not on the ballot, the midterms will shape the fate of his agenda. If Democrats lose control of either the House or the Senate, Republicans will be able to block his plans.
Former president Donald Trump, who is expected to announce he will run for president in 2024, has also seen some of his endorsed candidates fail.
In one of the most closely watched Senate races, left-wing Democrat John Fetterman – who has been recovering from a stroke – beat Trump-backed celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania.
Another critical Senate race, between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker in Georgia, could end up in a run-off in four weeks if neither candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, a possibility which is looking likely.
The results of other key Senate races in Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada were also still in play, BBC reports.
It means that the verdict on which party holds power in the upper chamber of Congress may not be known for days or even weeks.
Elections for state governors also took place in several states. Republicans have held on to the governors’ mansions in the key states of Texas, Florida and Georgia.
Meanwhile, the Democratic candidate in Georgia, Stacey Abrams, conceded the race to the Republican Governor Brian Kemp.
The elections ran smoothly across the country, with few hiccups. According to exit polls by the BBC’s US partner CBS News, abortion was the top concern for Democratic voters, while Republicans and independents rated inflation as their top issue.
Traditionally, the party of the president does badly in US midterms. Despite lowering prescription drug prices, expanding clean energy and revamping US infrastructure, Mr Biden’s popularity has taken a pummelling amid the worst inflation in four decades.
But Republicans had their own political vulnerability on the issue of abortion following the conservative-dominated Supreme Court’s decision this year to roll back a US constitutional right to the procedure.
