US 2020 Election: Democrats keep US House of Representatives, but Trump, GOP favourites to keep the Senate

Donald Trump and the Republicans fail to win back the House of Representatives, but look set to maintain control of the Senate.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s majority is expected to expand. Picture: Getty Images/AFP

US President Donald Trump and the Republicans have failed to win back the House of Representatives, but look set to maintain control of the Senate.

Fox News projected on Wednesday (Australian eastern time) that Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi would keep her majority, setting more conflict if Mr Trump is re-elected.

But the Republicans are ahead in key Senate races in Iowa, North Carolina and Maine, which would severely cap the ambitions of former vice-president Joe Biden if he ends up winning the electoral college.

Ms Pelosi said her majority — which will include re-elected New York congresswoman and hard left leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — was one of the biggest the Democrats had ever had in America’s lower house of Congress.

“Tonight, House Democrats are poised to further strengthen our majority — the biggest, most diverse, most dynamic, women-led House majority in history,” Ms Pelosi said. “We’re well positioned to have a good night.”

Yet early in the night, there were signs that Democrats may have been overconfident.

In South Florida, two first-term Democratic incumbents who were projected to win re-election, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Donna Shalala, trailed their GOP opponents. In Texas, several competitive districts that Democrats had hoped to flip landed solidly in Republican control. And in Indiana, a top target for Democrats, the suburban seat of retiring Republican Susan Brooks appeared to be falling out of reach. The Democratic candidate there, Christina Hale, was falling behind Republican Victoria Spartz — though, again, the race had not been called.

In the Senate, Republican Senators Thom Tillis, Joni Ernst and Susan Collins are currently on track to retain their upper house seats in North Carolina, Iowa and Maine respectively. The GOP has also won a spot in Alabama with former football coach Tommy Tuberville unseating Democrat Doug Jones.

In good news for Democrats, former astronaut Mike Kelly is projected to beat GOP senator Martha McSally in Arizona, and former government John Hickenlooper has unseated Colorado Republican Cory Gardner.

Nevada Democrat Catherine Cortez Mastro, the chairwoman of the Democrat’s Senate campaign, said her party still had a shot at winning the upper house despite several setbacks.

“Because of the strong competitive races that are going on, and in really some tough states, we have multiple pathways to the Senate,” she said. “And that’s a good position to be in.”

Heading into election day, Democrats had believed they had an edge over Senators Gardner, Tillis, McSally and Collins.

Democrats needed to gain four seats for a majority, or three seats for a 50-50 tie in the Senate, which would give them control of the chamber if Mr Biden won the presidency.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was easily re-elected in Kentucky despite a multi-million-dollar campaign to unseat him. And Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsay Graham — who recently secured the election of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court in the Senate – won his South Carolina seat despite a concerted Democratic effort to oust him.