WASHINGTON, Nov 4 — Republican Senator Cory Gardner was defeated yesterday in Colorado by former Governor John Hickenlooper, giving the Democrats their first victory of an election battle in which they are attempting to win control of the US Senate.
That win was quickly offset, however, by the loss of Democratic Senator Doug Jones in Alabama, while veteran Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn fended off Democratic challenges in South Carolina and Texas.
Republicans also held onto an open seat in Kansas, where Republican Roger Marshall was declared the winner over Democrat Barbara Bollier.
Control of the Senate may not become clear for some time. Final results from multiple contests may not be available for days, and in at least one case, months. One of two Georgia Senate races was projected to go to a January runoff between Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock.
Voters are also deciding whether to end the political career of moderate Susan Collins of Maine, among other embattled Republican senators.
In total, 12 Republican-held seats and two Democratic-held seat had been in play, based on a Reuters analysis of three nonpartisan US elections forecasters — the Centre for Politics at the University of Virginia, the Cook Political Report and Inside Elections.
Gardner, a first-term Republican long seen as his party's most vulnerable Senate incumbent, lost to Hickenlooper in a formerly Republican state where demographic changes have increasingly favoured Democrats in recent years, according to projections by television networks and Edison Research.
Jones, the most vulnerable Democrat, lost as expected to challenger Tommy Tuberville in the Republican stronghold of Alabama.
To win the majority in the Senate, Democrats need to pick up only three Republican seats if Joe Biden is elected president and Senator Kamala Harris wields the tie-breaking vote as vice president. Republicans now hold a 53-47 majority.
Graham, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman who was massively out-fundraised by Democrat Jaime Harrison, rode to victory after presiding over the Senate confirmation of US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Cornyn was declared the winner against challenger MJ Hegar in a state that had appeared to be drifting toward Democrats. Republican Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell won re-election in Kentucky, as expected.
All told, 35 of the Senate's 100 seats were up for election.
Democrats are hoping to usher in a new political era in Washington if Biden also wins.
Although likely to fall short of a 60-vote filibuster-proof majority, Democratic Senate control would also help stymie a second Trump term.
Gardner was among more than half a dozen first-term party incumbents in states also including Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Montana and North Carolina. Democrat Gary Peters is on the defensive in Michigan. — Reuters
