11 Senate races will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the chamber after midterm electionsWith just under nine weeks to go until November’s midterm elections, the top non-partisan political handicappers point to a toss-up between the Democrats and Republicans in the battle for the Senate majority.
The Senate is currently split 50/50 between the two major parties, but the Democrats control the majority thanks to the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris. That means the GOP needs a net gain of just one seat to regain the majority they lost when they were swept in the Jan. 5, 2021, twin Senate runoffs in Georgia.
The Republicans are defending 21 of the 35 seats up for grabs in November, including five seats held by retiring Republicans. And three of those open seats are in the general election battlegrounds of Pennsylvania and North Carolina and the competitive state of Ohio.
At the start of the summer, Republicans were energized as they pushed to regain the House and Senate majorities, enjoying historical headwinds (the party that wins the White House traditionally suffers setbacks in the ensuing midterm elections) as well as a favorable political climate fueled by skyrocketing gas prices, record inflation, soaring crime, and parents discontent with their children’s schools following pandemic shutdowns.
But Democrats seem to have regained momentum, following a string of ballot box successes this summer in the wake of the blockbuster move by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority to upend the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling and send the combustible issue of legalized abortion back to the states. And the summer-long easing of gas prices, a string of major legislative victories for Democrats in Congress, and President Biden’s rising (but still underwater) approval ratings have inflated Democrats’ optimism.
Also distracting Republicans from keeping the spotlight on what they see as the Democrats failure in handling the economy, crime, border security and other top issues is former President Donald Trump, who has dominated political headlines thanks to the House select committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by right wing extremists and other Trump supporters amid congressional certification of Biden’s 2020 Electoral College victory, and courtesy of the FBI search last month of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida for classified materials. .................
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/11-senate-races-will-determine-whether-democrats-republicans-control-chamber-after-midterm-elections
