By Violet Wang | Staff Writer
Despite most election forecasts’ predictions that a “red wave” would overtake Congress, Democrats have kept control of the Senate after Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto won the Nevada senatorship against Republican candidate Adam Laxalt by less than one percent. As of Sunday, whether or not Democrats will keep control of the House remains uncertain as votes continue to be counted in states such as California, Colorado, and Arizona.
In the weeks leading up to the midterm election, numerous forecasting sites such as fivethirtyeight.com and politico.com reported that the Senate would be a toss-up, meaning that both major parties had a nearly equal chance of winning the Senate majority. This has largely occurred with many seats having been won by slim margins, such as North Carolina and Wisconsin’s Republican senators both winning with margins of less than five percent.
Democrats gained a senator in Pennsylvania with a win by John Fetterman but were initially projected to lose this lead in Nevada, as Laxalt led the polls when votes first began to be counted. This would have left Georgia as the tiebreaker due to the fact that their senatorship remains the only one still unknown. No candidate managed to receive more than 50 percent of the vote, so Georgia will have a runoff election on Dec. 6 to decide.
The House’s prediction was much more skewed, with fivethirtyeight.com forecasting odds as high as 84 to 100 in favor of Republicans. Although Republicans gained many representatives, they are far from the predicted nearly guaranteed win. With Democrats at 203 seats, Republicans at 212, and 20 seats still up in the air, both parties could take the lead.
Upsets such as Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez’s win over incumbent Republican Joe Kent continue to leave the projected Republican win over the House in question. Some have argued for recounts or have accused elections of being rigged or otherwise biased.
Kent stated on social media site Twitter that “what the media says is irrelevant, its [sic] another narrative designed to stop voters from ballot curing & to force me to concede – not gonna happen.”
Races in California, Colorado, Arizona, Alaska, and New York are neck and neck. Trump-backed Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert may face an unexpected potential loss with a lead of less than half a percent, while Arizona candidates Democrat Jevin Hodge and Republican David Schweikert have a difference in votes of less than one thousand people.
These narrow clashes have led to slow and precise ballot counting to ensure correct results.
Minnesota House Representative Republican Tom Emmer told reporters that “there’s a lot of votes that are still outstanding, so we actually expect to be counting ballots in a number of races for a few days and, in a case or two, maybe potentially for weeks.”
Although the majority of the House and Congress may still be a mystery, it is certain that this year’s election broke new ground for minorities in Congress. Maryland elected their first black governor, Democrat Wes Moore, while Vermont Democrat Becca Balint’s win for House Representative means that every state has sent a woman to Congress. More LGBT+ candidates have won office than in any midterm ever as well, Balint herself being lesbian.
As Generation Z begins to reach the voting age, the first ever Gen Z Congressperson has been elected, Florida Democrat Maxwell Frost, born on Jan. 17, 1997.