by Susan Crabtree
Voters handed control of the U.S. Senate to Republicans on Tuesday, although Donald Trump’s contests in several states were too close to call on Wednesday morning.
The Democrats’ loss of control in the upper house was not unexpected. Republicans only defended 10 seats, while Democrats had to protect 23, several of them in states that Trump carried yesterday.
However, the importance cannot be overstated.
President-elect Trump is now assured of at least a 51-seat majority in the Senate, which will lend a hand him assemble a Cabinet and likely lend a hand advance many of his top priorities, including stemming the flow of migrants across the southern border and enacting more tariffs on foreign imports.
During his election night remarks, Trump was astonished by the shift in the balance of power.
“We regained control of the Senate – wow!” he said. “I mean, the number of victories in the Senate was absolutely amazing.”
Just after midnight, Republicans secured victory in Ohio, where Bernie Moreno, a car dealership owner, defeated Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has served in Congress since 1993, including 14 years in the House of Representatives.
“We have a red-white-blue wave in this country tonight,” Moreno told supporters after the race was decided in his favor. “We need leaders who put our interests above their own. We are tired of leaders who think we are “garbage.” We are tired of being treated like garbage.”
Taking a cue from Trump, whose coattails likely gave him the advantage, Moreno (pictured above) took a shot at Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“Thanks for helping me in the primary, but you’re fired, buddy,” Moreno added, referring to Democratic-linked groups that spent large to defeat him. “With Donald Trump and JD Vance in the White House, we will have a new agenda. We will support immigration, not invasion. We will be an energy dominant nation.”
The GOP Senate victories also likely preserved the Senate filibuster, the 60-vote threshold that Democrats had been striving for throughout the campaign. The filibuster was seen as a barrier to miniature Democratic Party issues ranging from codifying abortion in federal law to expanding the Supreme Court.
“About ten minutes ago the ‘end the filibuster’ movement suddenly went silent,” commentator Jonathan Turley said in a post on X.com. “In the morning, minority rights will suddenly become a major cause in Washington.”
After Trump’s victory Tuesday night, Georgetown law professor Randy Barnett posted a succinct moment of celebration that the filibuster will likely remain intact as long as Republicans retain control of the upper chamber.
“We will make the filibuster great again,” he declared.
From the start, West Virginia’s Senate seat flip was a fait accompli as popular Republican Gov. Jim Justice won the race to replace retiring independent Sen. Joe Manchin in the deep red state. Justice won 68.9 percent of the vote, with 27.6 percent going to Glenn Elliot, a Democrat and former mayor of Wheeling.
The next domino to fall – and this was no surprise either – occurred in Montana, where incumbent Democrat Jon Tester, who has served in the Senate since 2007, lost to former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy. The sparsely populated state saw about $250 million worth of advertising, most of which came from outside money. In the end, it didn’t matter much: Trump won Montana by more than 100,000 votes out of just 500,000 votes cast — more than enough votes.
Meanwhile, Sen. Deb Fisher, a Republican, also easily defeated Dan Osborn, a former union leader and Navy veteran, in Nebraska, fending off a last-minute panic from independents. Early Wednesday morning, Fisher appeared poised to win 53.6% of the vote to Osborn’s 46.4%, with 95% of the state’s total votes.
As of early Wednesday morning, a number of key races that could strengthen the GOP majority were still too close to call.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s loss was a fatal blow to Kamala Harris’ White House hopes, and Trump’s victory in the Keystone State could have helped Republican David McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO, to victory over one of the state’s most popular scions, Sen. Bob Casey, whose father, a centrist pro- life, was governor from 1987 to 1995.
McCormick led Wednesday morning, 49.2% to Casey’s 48.2%, but the remaining votes were mostly in mighty Democratic areas like Philadelphia, with Democrats expressing optimism that Casey would overtake McCormick in the final tally – although both sides this fortress will be close.
Wisconsin
At the end of Election Day, Republican Tammy Baldwin and Republican Eric Hovde were tied. Baldwin had a narrow lead Wednesday morning, defeating Kamala Harris by about 50,000 votes, making victory much more likely even though Trump was declared the winner in the Wolverine State early Wednesday morning.
Michigan
Republican candidate Mike Rogers, a former House member who was chairman of the Intelligence Committee, was neck-and-neck with Democratic Republican Elissa Slotkin as votes thinned on Wednesday. Polls before Election Day showed Rogers had a complex path to victory, predicting Slotkin had a 2.3% lead over Rogers. And although he performed better in the polls, he was behind Slotkin by about 4,500 votes – out of 5.3 million cast. This race is still too close to call.
Nevada
The biggest upset of the night may have happened to Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen. Rosen comes face to face with Sam Brown, an Afghanistan veteran who was severely burned by an improvised explosive device and almost died.
As of early Wednesday, the race was virtually dead, with Brown winning 47.3% and Rosen 47.2%. In RealClearPolitics’ average of polls heading into Election Day, Brown was ahead of Rosen by 4.9%.
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Susan Crabtree is a national political correspondent for RealClearPolitics.
Photo “Bernie Moreno” by Gage Skidmore CC2.0.
