Senate Republicans and Democrats Trade Losses as Battle for Senate Rages

Republican Senator Cory Gardner was defeated on Tuesday in Colorado by former Governor John Hickenlooper, giving the Democrats their first victory of an election battle in which they are attempting to win control of the U.S. Senate.

However, that win was quickly offset by the loss of Democratic Senator Doug Jones in Alabama, while veteran Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn fended off Democratic challenges in South Carolina and Texas.

Control of the Senate may not become clear for some time. Final results from at least five of the contests may not be available for days, and in some cases, months.

Voters are also deciding whether to end the political career of moderate Susan Collins of Maine, among other embattled Republican senators.

In total, 12 Republican-held seats and two Democratic-held seats have been in play, based on a Reuters analysis of three nonpartisan U.S. elections forecasters – the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, the Cook Political Report and Inside Elections.

Gardner, a first-term Republican long seen as his party’s most vulnerable Senate incumbent, lost to Hickenlooper in a formerly Republican state where demographic changes have increasingly favored Democrats in recent years, according to projections by television networks and Edison Research.

Jones, the most vulnerable Democrat, lost as expected to challenger Tommy Tuberville in the Republican stronghold of Alabama.

To win the majority in the Senate, Democrats need to pick up only three Republican seats if Joe Biden is elected president and Senator Kamala Harris wields the tie-breaking vote as vice president. Republicans now hold a 53-47 seat majority.

Graham, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman who was massively out-fundraised by Democrat Jaime Harrison, rode to victory after presiding over the Senate confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Cornyn was declared the winner against challenger M.J. Hegar in a state that had appeared to be drifting toward Democrats. Republican Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won re-election in Kentucky, as expected.