Chris Lange, FISM News
Republicans inched closer to retaking the House Wednesday evening after several key midterm races were called, though it may take weeks before voters know which party will ultimately take control of either chamber of Congress.
A symbolic victory for the GOP came in the form of a surprising upset in New York, where Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, lost his seat to his Republican rival, state Rep. Michael Lawler.
Republicans have so far racked up 207 House seats out of the 218 needed to take the majority. Fifteen races that have yet to be called are projected as likely or leaning in favor of GOP pickups, with 10 listed in the toss-up category.
Meanwhile, three key Senate races remain undecided.
Arizona Democrats have maintained small but diminishing leads over their Republican rivals in the races for U.S. Senate and governor, both too early to call two days after the election. Roughly 600,000 ballots have yet to be counted, which represents a quarter of the total cast.
Incumbent Mark Kelly (D) leads challenger Blake Masters (R) by 5%. Masters, along with Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake and the RNC, have sued Maricopa County over voter tabulation machine issues that affected 17,000 ballots. Lake and Democrat incumbent Katie Hobbs remain locked in a dead heat.
In Nevada, challenger Adam Laxalt (R) has a narrow 1.79% lead over incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto (D), with 17% of the vote yet to be counted as of 8:40 a.m. eastern time. Masto was considered to be one of the most vulnerable Democratic senators leading into the midterm elections. State officials have indicated that it could take days for a final result as election officials continue to process mail-in ballots.
If either party pulls off wins in both Arizona and Nevada, it will control the Senate. However, if results are split, control of Congress’s upper chamber will come down to a December 6 runoff election in Georgia, where Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock (D) edged out GOP challenger Herschel Walker by a razor-thin 1% but failed to achieve the 50% threshold required to avoid an extended contest as Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver pulled in 2.07% of the vote. Warnock won his seat in a runoff election in 2021.
Meanwhile, voters in Nebraska, Nevada, and Washington, D.C., approved measures to increase the minimum wage, while Maryland and Missouri voters approved measures to legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older in their respective states.
A ballot proposition that would require life-saving medical care be provided to infants born alive, including after a botched abortion, looks to be on the verge of failing in Montana. Currently, 52.6% of voters have rejected the measure while 47.4% approved, with 93% of the vote counted.
FISM reported on Wednesday that voters in four other states with abortion on the ballot voted to either support abortion rights or reject pro-life initiatives, including California, Kentucky, Michigan, and Vermont.
For real-time updates on state ballot initiatives, click here.
This article was partially informed by 1440, The Associated Press, Inc., and Townhall reports.