policy
WASHINGTON (AP) — Control of Congress is at stake Tuesday, with increasingly tight races for the House and Senate that can determine which party has the bulk and the facility to advance or defeat a president's agenda block, or whether the White House faces a divide on Capitol Hill.
The most vital election battles are going down alongside the primary presidential election because the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, but additionally in unexpected corners of the country after one of the vital chaotic congressional sessions in modern times.
In the top, only a handful of seats, and even only one, could tip the balance in each chambers.
The economy, border security, reproductive rights and even the long run of US democracy itself were at the middle of the controversy.
In the Senate, where Democrats currently have a narrow majority of 51 to 49, West Virginia is predicted to see an early boost for Republicans. The resignation of independent Senator Joe Manchin opens a possibility that Republican Jim Justice, now the state's governor, is most certainly to win. A surge there would go away the chamber deadlocked at 50-50 as Republicans attempt to seize control.
The top House races are centered in New York and California, where Democrats, in a politically unusual twist, try to win back a number of the 10 or so seats where Republicans have made surprise gains lately with star lawmakers contributing to bring the party to power.
Other House races are scattered across the country, an indication of how narrow the sphere has change into, with only just a few dozen seats under serious challenge, a number of the most contested in Maine, the “blue dot” around Omaha, Nebraska and elsewhere Alaska.
Vote counting could extend well beyond Tuesday in some races.
“We are within striking distance of taking back the House,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who will make history as the primary Black speaker if his party wins control, told The Associated Press during a recent campaign trail Southern California.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson is moving closer to Trump, predicting that Republicans will retain and expand their majority. He took over after Kevin McCarthy was fired from the speaker's office.
Capitol Hill could determine the priorities of a brand new White House, making Trump or Harris potential allies or adversaries within the House and Senate, or resulting in a divided Congress that might force a period of compromise or stalemate.
Congress may also play a task in upholding the American tradition of peaceful transfer of presidential power. Four years ago, Trump sent his supporters to “fight like hell” on the Capitol, and plenty of Republicans in Congress voted to dam the election of Joe Biden. Congress will again be asked to certify the outcomes of the 2025 presidential election.
What began as a lackluster race for control of Congress modified sharply when Harris stepped in for Biden at the highest of the ticket and galvanized Democrats with massive fundraising and volunteer efforts that lawmakers said reminded them of Obama's enthusiasm era within the 2008 elections.
In the tight battleground over the 435-member House of Representatives and the 100-member Senate, the parties and out of doors groups have spent billions of dollars.
Democrats have to win a handful of seats within the House of Representatives to wrest party control from Republicans. In the Senate, the vp is the deciding think about a split that will hand control of that chamber to the winner of the White House.
Senate Republicans have rolled out a sweeping map of opportunity, recruiting wealthy newcomers to defend Democratic incumbents in nearly 10 states across the country.
In Ohio, Trump-backed Republican Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland businessman, is attempting to unseat three-term Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. Around $400 million was spent on the race.
One of the most-watched Senate races in Montana could also be one in every of the last to be decided. Democrat Jon Tester, a preferred three-term senator and “dirt farmer,” is fighting for his political profession against Trump-backed Tim Sheehy, a wealthy former NAVY Seal who has made disparaging comments about Native Americans, a key voting group within the western state.
And within the “blue wall” battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Republicans are counting on Trump as they struggle to unseat a trio of incumbent Democratic senators.
Outgoing Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has spent his profession focused on winning and maintaining majority power, but other opportunities for Republicans are faltering.
In the Southwest states, fiery Republican Kari Lake of Arizona battled Democrat Ruben Gallego for the seat left vacant by the resignation of Sen. Krysten Sinema. In Nevada, Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen prevailed against newcomer Sam Brown.
Democrats stepped up their challenges to 2 Republican senators – Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida – in states where reproductive rights have been the main focus following the Supreme Court's decision restricting access to abortion. Cruz faces Democrat Colin Allred, the Dallas-area congressman, while Scott has poured $10 million of his own fortune into the race against Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former House member.
Congress has the chance to realize several history-making milestones because it is reshaped by the American electorate and becomes more representative of a various nation.
Not one, but possibly two black women could possibly be headed to the Senate, something that will never be seen within the United States
Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware is the favourite within the Senate race against Republican Eric Hansen.
And in Maryland, Harris ally Angela Alsobrooks is in a closely contested race against the state's popular former governor, Republican Larry Hogan.
Americans have elected two black women, including Harris, as senators because the nation's founding, but never at the identical time.
House candidate Sarah McBride, a Delaware state representative who’s near the Biden family, is poised to change into the primary openly transgender person in Congress.
The fallout from redistricting, through which states are redrawing their congressional district maps, can also be changing the balance of power within the House of Representatives – Republicans are expected to win several seats from Democrats in North Carolina, and Democrats will gain a second black-majority seat in Republican-dominated Alabama voting districts.
Representatives within the House of Representatives face voters every two years, while senators serve longer than six years.
If the 2 chambers actually flipped party control, which is feasible, it might be rare.
Records show it might be the primary time that each chambers of Congress could be split between opposing political parties if Democrats took the House and Republicans took the Senate.
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