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Democrats retain control of US Senate after Nevada win

Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto wins re-election in Nevada state, Edison Research projects, in a victory that guarantees the Senate will be controlled by Democrats in 2023.

AFP Archive

Cortez Masto defeated Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, a former state attorney general who was endorsed by former president Donald Trump.

President Joe Biden's Democrats have retained control of the US Senate, according to Edison Research projections, a remarkable midterms election result that defied predictions of a Republican "red wave" over both houses of Congress.

US networks late on Saturday called the key Senate race in Nevada for Democrat incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto, who defeated Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, giving the party the 50 seats they need for an effective majority with one race still undecided.

With Democratic Senator Mark Kelly’s victory in Arizona on Friday, Democrats now hold a 50-49 edge in the Senate.

The party will retain control of the chamber, no matter how next month's Georgia runoff plays out, by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris' tiebreaking vote.

Blow to Republicans

Democrats' hold on the Senate is a blow to Republicans' high hopes of wresting away control of Congress in a midterm elections that typically favours the party out of power.

It was still unclear which party would control the House of Representatives as counting continued in razor-tight races in California and a smattering of other states.

Cortez Masto, the first Latina in the Senate, was considered the most vulnerable Democratic senator in the midterm elections, and the Republican Party had high hopes of flipping the seat.

But despite an influx of spending on attack ads from national GOP groups, Cortez Masto managed to secure her reelection bid.

Nevada's vote count took several days partly because of the mail voting system created by the state Legislature in 2020 that requires counties to accept ballots postmarked by Election Day if they arrive up to four days later.

Laxalt had an early lead that dwindled after late-counted ballots came in from the state's population centres in Las Vegas and Reno.