Democrats Near House and Senate Majorities as Mississippi and Alaska Senate Races Remain Unsettled
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Democrats have secured at least 253 House seats and 54 Senate seats, but the outcomes in Mississippi and Alaska Senate contests are still pending amid close vote counts and legal challenges.
Democrats have clinched a minimum of 253 seats in the House of Representatives and 54 seats in the Senate, positioning the party for majorities in both chambers, while dozens of other races remain too close to call.
In Mississippi, Democratic Senate nominee Scott Colom trails incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by roughly 1,800 votes, prompting both campaigns to file letters with state officials over the handling of provisional and affidavit ballots. The NAACP has deployed attorneys to the state, with its president, Derrick Johnson, saying the organization is “working around the clock in Mississippi to make sure voters who used provisional ballots are counted.”
Alaska’s Senate race shows former Democratic Representative Mary Peltola holding a narrow lead over Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan, a margin that The New York Times’ analysis suggests is likely to hold, though final results may depend on pending mail-in ballots and a possible ranked-choice tabulation scheduled for Nov. 18.
President Donald J. Trump posted on social media that the party’s losses were tied to his absence from the ballot, while Utah Republican Senator John Curtis attributed the defeat to voters’ concerns about the economy and the president’s policies.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied rumors of his departure from the Trump administration but declined to discuss his political future.
The election also saw Democratic socialist candidates winning mayoral races in several major cities, and a national poll by YouGov indicating that 56 % of American adults support electing the president by popular vote rather than the Electoral College. Legal scholars note that any interstate compact to replace the Electoral College would still require congressional and presidential approval and could face extensive court challenges.