Democrats retain control of Senate as Donald Trump declares he is a ‘stable genius’

The Democrats have retained control of the Senate, while Donald Trump has rubbished claims he is angry over MAGA candidates flopping in the US midterm elections.

Democrats retained control of the Senate after Senator Catherine Cortez Masto won a tight race in Nevada over Republican Adam Laxalt, giving the party the 50 seats it needs for a majority, regardless of the result of a runoff election in Georgia next month.

Ms Cortez Masto had 48.7% of the votes with 97% counted when the Associated Press called the race, compared with 48.2% for Mr Laxalt, a former state attorney general.

Her win gives Democrats control of 50 seats, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking ties, even without a result yet from the December 6 Senate runoff in Georgia.

The clearest consequence of the Democrats’ win will be to give Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) the power to confirm President Biden’s nominees without help from the GOP, extending a string of judicial confirmations that he pushed through over the past two years.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 03: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Picture: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP

Senate control also will allow Democrats to more easily confirm any new executive-branch appointees, including cabinet officials, who may have faced long odds if Republicans took control.

It also marks a major disappointment for Republicans, who had banked on a late breaking “red wave” to catapult them to a majority of at least a few seats in the Senate, which has stood at 50-50 for the past two years.

Ahead of Election Day, nonpartisan analysts had favored Republicans to win back the House, while considering Senate control a toss-up.

The Georgia race between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, meanwhile, will be decided in next month’s runoff.

In the House of Representatives, the GOP remained on track toward winning a narrow majority, outside analysts said, but the final outcome hinged on races that were too close to call as of Saturday, and both parties were girding for results that might not be known for days. Democrats clung to the possibility of keeping the majority, particularly with the latest results going their way in Washington’s 3rd District.

US Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV). Picture: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images North America / AFP

There on Saturday, the AP declared Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez the winner over Republican Joe Kent in a race that became more competitive when incumbent GOP Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who had voted to impeach former President Donald Trump, was defeated in the primary.

Heading into the midterms, nonpartisan analysts had favored Republicans to hold that seat, where voters had picked Mr Trump over President Biden in the 2020 presidential election by four percentage points.

Several races in Arizona remained too close to call, including the gubernatorial race between Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs. Ms Hobbs was ahead Saturday evening by over one percentage point, with thousands more ballots expected to be counted. Several House races were also still being tallied in the state.

In a victory speech, Mr Kelly said, “I will always be honest with you, I will always put our state ahead of politics, and I will always work to find common ground that delivers results to move Arizona forward.”

Mr Masters said Saturday on Twitter he wouldn’t concede until all ballots were tallied, adding that “voters decide, not the media; let’s count the votes.”

In Nevada, Republican Joe Lombardo won the gubernatorial race. Three incumbent House Democrats – Reps. Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford – beat their Republican rivals in contests that were highly competitive, according to Associated Press race calls. Republicans had spent heavily in Nevada, hoping to win those seats that became more favourable to them in redistricting.

Nevada Republican gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo. Picture: Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP

Republicans officially have 211 House seats and Democrats have 202, according to Associated Press calls. Democrats are expected to prevail in several more seats, but the odds appear slim that they can hold on to the 218 needed for the majority.

Dave Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report said Saturday he saw about six genuine toss-up House races where the expected winner was unclear. Democrats need to win all of those, as well as several races where he sees them having an advantage to keep the majority. Republicans could end up close to Democrats’ current margin in the House, which stands at 220-212, with three absences.

Mr Wasserman identified 11 seats in California that were unresolved. Of those, Cook Political Report rated the GOP as favored in four, Democrats favored in three, and four as toss-ups.

Democrats have picked up more seats this year in the midterms when they were expected to do poorly. Democrats are currently ahead in an Arizona seat where Jevin Hodge is leading Rep. David Schweikert, who has served in Congress since 2011.

In Oregon, former Happy Valley Mayor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a Republican, is ahead of Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner in a seat Democrats have held for years after the incumbent there, Rep. Kurt Schrader, was defeated in a primary.

Over the past two years, the narrow House majority and evenly divided Senate made it difficult, but not impossible, for Democrats to pass parts of President Biden’s agenda. In a Republican House or Senate, it would be even more challenging. House Republicans have promised to repeal parts of bills that Democrats passed during the past two years, and could use the majority to push for their own priorities on taxes, spending and immigration, among other issues.

Even without control of the chambers called, ambitious lawmakers are already jockeying for leadership spots or weighing in on who might lead their conference.

Republicans frustrated by the party’s weaker-than-expected performance in the midterm elections have been critical of their leadership. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) declared his intent to run for House speaker, before the majority has been called for his party, and some conservative members of his conference have voiced concern about whether he is the right person to keep leading the GOP conference.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Picture: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images/AFP

House Republicans plan to hold leadership elections next Tuesday and newly elected House members from both parties will come to orientation in Washington, D.C. If their races aren’t yet called, the candidates are often invited to come anyway.

In the Senate, a group of Republicans is asking for a delay in GOP leadership elections that are expected to occur next week, saying that “we are all disappointed that a Red Wave failed to materialise” and “need to have serious discussions within our conference as to why and what we can do to improve our chances in 2024.”

The lawmakers want the election delayed until after the Georgia runoff. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), the longest-serving Republican Senate leader, has in the past been approved as the leader on a routine basis, with the internal elections occurring shortly after Election Day.

Among Democrats, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), the current majority leader, is expected to hold his position as leader of his party in the majority or minority. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) hasn’t announced her plans for the future, and several Democrats have declared intentions to run for lower-leadership positions such as caucus chair and vice-caucus chair.

‘I AM A STABLE GENIUS’: TRUMP’S ELECTION MELTDOWN

Donald Trump has denied he is angry about the results of the US midterm elections in a social media meltdown in which he sought to remind the world he was a “stable genius”.

Senior Republicans are urging the former president to delay announcing his third White House – which he planned to do next week – until after another election to be held in Georgia next month that will determine control of the Senate.

Mr Trump has copped much of the blame for the failure of the Republicans to deliver a “red wave” in the midterm elections, with the party only expected to claim a narrow majority in the House of Representatives.

Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump after voting in the US midterm elections. Picture: AFP

Several of Mr Trump’s chosen candidates in crucial battleground races were defeated, with the Republicans now having on scandal-plagued football star Herschel Walker to win the Georgia run-off election and flip the Senate from the Democrats.

But in a series of posts on his Truth Social site, Mr Trump said his candidates won 219 state and local races in the midterms and lost only 16, as he accused the “Fake News Media” of publishing “unrecognisable junk”.

He hit back at reports he was privately angry and “screaming at everyone” about the election results, particularly the failure of his candidate Mehmet Oz in the key Pennsylvania Senate race which he reportedly blamed on his wife Melania.

The Republicans are relying on Trump-backed candidate Herschel Walker to determine control of the Senate. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump said she had “NOTHING to do with it” and he was “not at all ANGRY”.

“For those many people that are being fed the fake narrative from the corrupt media that I am ANGRY about the Midterms, don’t believe it,” the former president posted.

“I am not at all angry, did a great job (I wasn’t the one running!), and am very busy looking into the future. Remember, I am a ‘Stable Genius’.”

It was a term he first used in 2018 when questions were raised about his fitness to hold the world’s most powerful office.

In an interview with Fox News Digital after the midterms, Mr Trump said he had “tremendous success” and questioned “why would anything change” about his plans to announce a 2024 run.

But his former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said he needed to “put it on pause” until after the Georgia run-off election, held because neither candidate received more than 50 per cent of the vote.

Her call was backed by Mr Trump’s former senior adviser Jason Miller, who said Georgia needed to “be the focus of every Republican in the country right now”.

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who had been a long-term friend of the former president, told The Associated Press there was “only one person to blame” for a series of poor election performances by the Republicans and that was Mr Trump.

Originally published as Democrats retain control of Senate as Donald Trump declares he is a ‘stable genius’