Midterm Elections: Democrats Hold 54 Senate Seats in the AP Count, Colom's Mississippi Lead Widens to 2,087, and Two Races Are Still Out
Three days after Election Day, the shape of the new Congress is set and only its margins are moving. The AP tally puts the incoming Senate at 54 Democrats to 44 Republicans with Alaska and Mississippi still uncalled — and in Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colom's lead over Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith widened overnight from 1,138 votes to 2,087.
WASHINGTON — The midterm elections are decided; the counting is not quite finished. The incoming Senate stands at 54 seats for Democrats, including the independents who caucus with them, and 44 for Republicans, according to the Associated Press tally in the Friday morning files read by this desk. Two races remain uncalled — Alaska and Mississippi — and neither can change which party controls the chamber in January. They set only the size of the majority Texas's senators will govern, or oppose, inside.
Mississippi is where the count moved. Decision Desk HQ results updated at 3:29 a.m. Eastern on Friday counted 467,233 votes for Democrat Scott Colom, 465,146 for Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and 20,013 for Ty Pinkins — a Colom lead of 2,087 votes, replacing the 1,138-vote lead the AP reported on Thursday, with more than 95 percent of the estimated vote counted. The AP has not called the race. Secretary of State Michael Watson said on Wednesday that about 3,600 absentee-by-mail ballots remained outstanding, along with an unknown number of affidavit ballots; affidavit voters have until Nov. 10 to present identification, and counties have until Nov. 13 to submit certified results. In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola leads Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan by 637 votes — 102,962 to 102,325 — with an estimated 74 percent of ballots counted, according to AP results reported Friday; the AP has not called that race either, and if no candidate passes 50 percent of first-choice votes, the ranked-choice tabulation is scheduled for Nov. 18, the Alaska Division of Elections says.
In the House, the AP count checked Friday morning listed 249 seats called for Democrats and 156 for Republicans; 218 make a majority, and the AP called control of the House for Democrats early Wednesday. Neither chamber meets today. The Senate returns Monday, Nov. 9, at 3 p.m. Eastern to resume the motion to proceed to H.R. 2347 — the Survivor Justice Tax Prevention Act serving as the legislative vehicle for the permitting reform bill — with a cloture vote expected about 5:30 p.m. Eastern. For Dallas–Fort Worth readers, that Monday vote is the first concrete business of the post-election Congress, and this desk's Politics file follows it.
