Democrats Win Senate Majority, House Picture Still Unclear

The uncertainty over the shape of the 118^th Congress has cleared greatly, though not completely, after Associated Press projections on Nov. 11 and 12 showed Democrats had won two more Senate seats—in Arizona and Nevada.

That gave the party at least 50—the same number Democrats currently hold. With Vice President Kamala Harris’s ability to cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate, that is enough to give Democrats legislative control in the chamber.

Republicans were projected to hold at least 49 Senate seats. Both parties await the outcome of a Dec. 6 runoff in a Georgia race between incumbent and Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. That runoff will settle which party claims the last Senate seat.

But control of the House remained up in the air as of Nov. 14. According to the AP, Republicans had a slim edge—they were projected to have won 212 seats, six short of the 218 needed for a majority.

Democrats still had a mathematical chance of holding the House, with the party's winning 204 seats and victors yet to be determined in 19 House races.

In the Senate, Democrats’ current total of 50 leaves the chamber’s situation status quo. The party will retain the chairs of all Senate committees and, barring any defections, also will be able to clear most of President Joe Biden’s nominees for administration and judicial positions.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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