Democrats clinch control of US Senate with narrow win over Trump candidate in Nevada

PHOENIX, Arizona – Democrats will stay in control of the US Senate in 2023 after Senator Catherine Cortez Masto won re-election in Nevada, handing a major victory to President Joe Biden.

Two networks, MSNBC and CNN, called the race for the incumbent after she opened a 0.5 percentage-point lead in the vote count on Saturday. Interim results showed her leading by 48.7 per cent to 48.2 per cent over her Republican rival, Mr Adam Laxalt, a former state attorney-general who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump.

With Ms Cortez Masto’s victory on the heels of Democratic Senator Mark Kelly winning re-election in Arizona late on Friday, Democrats now control 50 Senate seats. That is enough to cement their control of the Senate in 2023-24, as Vice-President Kamala Harris can break ties in the 100-member chamber, securing victories for President Joe Biden.

If Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock were to win the Dec 6 Georgia runoff election against Republican challenger Herschel Walker, that would expand the Democratic Party’s majority to 51-49.

That, in turn, would give Democrats an additional edge in passing a limited number of controversial Bills that are allowed to advance with a simple majority of votes, instead of the 60 needed for most legislation.

Currently, Democratic Senators Joe Manchin in West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona are “swing” votes who have blocked or delayed some of Mr Biden’s major initiatives, including expansions of some social programmes.

But with 51 Democratic seats in Congress that convenes in 2023, Mr Manchin’s and Ms Sinema’s influence could be slightly diluted.

Race is still on

Mr Biden said he was incredibly pleased with the turnout in the US election and said the Republican Party would now need to decide “who they are”.

Speaking to reporters in Cambodia ahead of an East Asia Summit, Mr Biden said his focus was on the Georgia Senate race.

Republicans continue to have an edge in the race for control of the House of Representatives. But returns were still flowing in for several races, including many in liberal-leaning California.

Democrats scored a significant upset on Saturday with a projected victory in Washington’s 3rd congressional district, where Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez defeated Trump-endorsed Joe Kent.

It could take several days or more before the outcome of enough House races are known to determine party control of that 435-seat chamber.

Nevada, a battleground state where voters have strongly supported abortion rights but face some of the country’s most severe housing and energy inflation, was considered a bellwether in an election year dominated by those issues.

Mr Biden was en route to the Group of 20 summit when the results came in.

It was a win over Trump

Ms Cortez Masto, a first-term senator who, like Mr Laxalt, has served as state attorney-general, tarred her opponent on several fronts: over his disdain of the Roe v Wade decision that was overturned in 2022 by the Supreme Court; efforts to overturn Mr Trump’s 2020 election defeat; and the support he’s received from oil and drug companies.

Ms Cortez Masto, who enjoyed a fund-raising edge, had the advantage of a party machine built by her predecessor, the late Democratic leader Harry Reid, including the 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union known for its door-knocking muscle.

Mr Laxalt, a son and grandson of New Mexico and Nevada senators who early on unified the Trump and establishment wings of his state’s Republican Party, had attacked the incumbent for spending bills and regulations he said encouraged inflation and higher gasoline prices – as well as over security at the US border with Mexico.

He sought to undermine the advantages Ms Cortez Masto had as the first Latina elected to the Senate with the state’s growing Hispanic population by appealing to them on economic issues and crime.

The two candidates never debated, and Mr Laxalt eschewed interviews with most major media organisations in favour of appearances on Fox News and other conservative news outlets.

Mr Trump and Republican senators travelled to the state for rallies and stump speeches.

Mr Laxalt, 44, walked a tightrope on abortion rights after he was caught on tape calling Roe v. Wade “a joke”. He wrote a newspaper column saying Nevada’s abortion rights law would only be changed by Nevada voters, though he generally saw the issue as a distraction from what he said voters were most focused on: high prices.

Ms Cortez Masto, 58, had been buoyed by an appearance with former president Barack Obama rather than Mr Biden or Vice-President Kamala Harris, both of whom have low approval ratings. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS