WASHINGTON (AP) — Control of Congress is at stake Tuesday, with increasingly tight races for the House and Senate that will determine which party has the majority and the power 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 taking place alongside the first presidential election since the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, but also in unexpected corners of the country after one of the most messy congressional sessions in newfangled times.
In the end, just a handful of seats, or even just one, could tip the balance in both chambers.
The economy, border security, reproductive rights and even the future of US democracy itself were at the center of the debate.
In the Senate, where Democrats currently have a narrow majority of 51 to 49, West Virginia is expected to see an early boost for Republicans. The resignation of independent Senator Joe Manchin opens an opportunity that Republican Jim Justice, now the state’s governor, is expected to win. A surge there would leave the chamber deadlocked at 50-50 as Republicans try to seize control.
The top House races are centered in New York and California, where Democrats, in a politically unusual twist, are trying to win back some of the 10 or so seats where Republicans have made surprise gains in recent years with star lawmakers contributing to bring the party to power.
Other House races are scattered across the country, a sign of how narrow the field has become, with only a few dozen seats under sedate challenge, some 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 first 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 decide the priorities of a recent White House, making Trump or Harris potential allies or adversaries in the House and Senate, or leading to a divided Congress that could force a period of compromise or stalemate.
Congress can also play a role in upholding the American tradition of peaceful transfer of presidential power. Four years ago, Trump sent his supporters to “fight like hell” at the Capitol, and many Republicans in Congress voted to block the election of Joe Biden. Congress will again be asked to certify the results of the 2025 presidential election.
What began as a lackluster race for control of Congress changed sharply when Harris stepped in for Biden at the top of the ticket and galvanized Democrats with massive fundraising and volunteer efforts that lawmakers said reminded them of Obama’s enthusiasm era in the 2008 elections.
In the tight battleground over the 435-member House of Representatives and the 100-member Senate, the parties and outside groups have spent billions of dollars.
Democrats need to win a handful of seats in the House of Representatives to wrest party control from Republicans. In the Senate, the vice president is the deciding factor in a split that would 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 trying 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 may be one of the last to be decided. Democrat Jon Tester, a popular three-term senator and “dirt farmer,” is fighting for his political career against Trump-backed Tim Sheehy, a wealthy former NAVY Seal who has made disparaging comments about Native Americans, a key voting group in the western state.
And in the “blue wall” battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Republicans are relying on Trump as they try to unseat a trio of incumbent Democratic senators.
Outgoing Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has spent his career 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 two Republican senators – Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida – in states where reproductive rights have been a focus after the Supreme Court’s decision circumscribed 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 opportunity to achieve several history-making milestones as it is reshaped by the American electorate and becomes more representative of a diverse nation.
Not one, but possibly two black women could be headed to the Senate, something that would never be seen in the United States
Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware is the favorite in 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 since the nation’s founding, but never at the same time.
House candidate Sarah McBride, a Delaware state representative who is close to the Biden family, is poised to become the first openly transgender person in Congress.
The fallout from redistricting, in which states are redrawing their congressional district maps, is also changing the balance of power in 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 in the House of Representatives face voters every two years, while senators serve longer than six years.
If the two chambers actually flipped party control, which is possible, it would be uncommon.
Records show it would be the first time that both chambers of Congress would be split between opposing political parties if Democrats took the House and Republicans took the Senate.
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Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Kevin Freking and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.
