Republicans retain control of U.S. Senate

WASHINGTON – Republicans have retained Senate control for two more years.

The result was all but assured when Republican Kevin Cramer ousted North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp and when Republican businessman Mike Braun ousted Sen. Joe Donnelly in Indiana.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz fended off a spirited challenge from Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke, and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn triumphed in Tennessee.

The GOP’s gains come even as the results in Nevada and Arizona have yet to be determined.

Some other early results:

• Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., has survived in a state that Trump won by more than 40 points, the Associated Press projects.

Manchin defeated Republican Patrick Morrisey, the state’s attorney general. Manchin, who voted with Republicans to confirm Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, attacked Morrisey’s past lobbying ties to the pharmaceutical industry in a state battered by the opioid crisis.

• In Florida, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson was trailing his challenger, current Republican Gov. Rick Scott, with most of the vote in.

• Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has handily won a U.S. Senate seat in his adopted home state of Utah after a campaign where he backed off his once-fierce criticism of Donald Trump.

Romney clinched the win Tuesday as he defeated Democrat Jenny Wilson, a member of the Salt Lake County council.

• Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has been elected to a third term.

Brown handily defeated fourth-term Rep. Jim Renacci, who dropped a governor’s bid to run for Senate at Trump’s urging.

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a potential 2020 White House contender, is among a group of five Democratic lawmakers who have easily won re-election to the Senate. Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Tom Carper of Delaware and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island also won. They were heavy favorites in their races.

• Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine has dispatched a die-hard supporter of President Trump to win re-election to the U.S. Senate.

Kaine defeated Republican Corey Stewart on Tuesday.

• Vermont’s Bernie Sanders has cruised to re-election for his third term in the Senate, easily outpacing eight candidates.

Sanders, the independent who has long been one of the state’s most popular politicians, spent little time campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s election.

• Democrats re-elected embattled New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, who, less than a year ago, stood trial for federal corruption charges. The Justice Department dropped the charges after his trial ended in an hung jury.

• U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, considered a potential Democratic candidate for the White House in 2020, defeated Republican challenger Chele Farley Tuesday to win re-election to a second full term in New York.

Democrats’ longshot prospects for capturing a Senate majority were pinned on hopes of their supporters surging to the polls. Party stalwarts and some independents have been roused by revulsion toward Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric and policies and his efforts to dismantle health care protections enacted under President Obama, and by the #MeToo movement’s fury over sexual harassment.

“I think he’s trying to divide this country. I think he’s preying upon people’s fears,” said Jay Hutchins, 49, a Democrat voting in Silver Spring, Maryland, said of Trump.

The Democrats also had history on their side: 2002 was the only midterm election in the past three decades when the party holding the White House gained Senate seats.

Yet while Republicans command the Senate only narrowly, 51-49, Democrats faced daunting political math: They and their two independent allies were defending 26 of the 35 seats in play.

Around a dozen races from New Jersey to Nevada were seen as coin flips or at least competitive, prompting each side to spend hundreds of millions of dollars. It was widely expected that if the Republicans padded its current two-seat majority, it would do so only modestly.

With Democrats considered a good bet to grab House control from Republicans, keeping the Senate was seen as crucial for the Republicans’ goals of tax and spending cuts, trade, immigration restrictions, curbs on Obama’s health care law and judicial nominations. With so much at stake, Trump campaigned in over a dozen states with Senate elections since Labor Day, visiting some multiple times.

Democrats needed to gain two Senate seats to win a majority, assuming all their incumbents were re-elected, an unlikely outcome. But going into Election Day, their target list was limited: They had a plausible chance of winning Republicans-held seats only in Arizona, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas.

The 26 seats Democrats were protecting included 10 in states that Trump won in the 2016 presidential race, five of those by an enormous 19 percentage points or more.

In those 10 Trump-won states, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota seemed at greatest peril of losing. Other Democrats fighting for political survival included Missouri’s Claire McCaskill, Indiana’s Joe Donnelly and Bill Nelson of Florida. Nelson, 76, faced outgoing Republicans Gov. Rick Scott, who poured over $50 million of his own fortune into his campaign, the most in the U.S.

In a sign that Trump dominance two years ago isn’t necessarily fatal for Democrats, their incumbents were expected to win re-election in six other states that he carried. Montana Sen. Jon Tester faced the toughest battle of that group, while moderate Joe Manchin, a former governor and brand name in West Virginia, was increasingly seen as safe in a state Trump took by 42 percentage points.

Trump’s racially tinged anti-immigrant appeals could hurt Republican candidates in swing states like Arizona and Nevada where college-educated voters could be decisive, but his rhetoric could help in deeply conservative areas.

“The ‘resistance,’ they call it,” Richard Milner, 66, a boat inspector from Norfolk, Virginia, said of Trump’s opponents. Milner, who said he backed Republican congressional candidates, added, “It’s like, ‘OK, no matter what Trump wants to do, we’re not going to vote for it.’ I don’t like that.”

Amid the recent rash of letter bombs and the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre, Trump issued alarming and often unfounded warnings about caravans of migrants crossing Mexico toward the U.S., blaming Democrats, without evidence, for the threat he claimed they pose.

Republicans said the caravans provided a visual image that helped motivate voters, as did the Senate’s stormy confirmation fight over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

In battlegrounds where Democrats were thought to have chances to gain seats, first-term Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen was in a close contest with Nevada Sen. Dean Heller, the only Republican seeking re-election in a state Democrat Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 presidential race. Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a darling of progressives from coast to coast, raised record contributions but faced long odds of ousting tea party Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas.

Democrats also had opportunities because of the retirements of Republican Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Tennessee’s Bob Corker, both leaving Congress after accusing Trump of dishonesty and questioning his competence.

Republicans had another pickup opportunity in New Jersey, where Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, who saw federal prosecutors drop bribery charges against him in January after a mistrial, faced wealthy pharmaceutical executive Bob Hugin.

Defeated Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was poised to win a Senate seat from Utah. Potential 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls who seemed certain to win included Vermont independent Bernie Sanders and New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand.

At least one Senate race may not be decided Tuesday.

There was a strong chance Mississippi’s special election to complete the unexpired term of retired Republican Sen. Thad Cochran would go to a late November runoff. Republicans who dominate the state would probably prevail, but waiting for the outcome could extend the uncertainty about the Senate’s party breakdown – and perhaps which side has control.