Senate control hangs in balance with a few races undecided

Control of the Senate hangs in the balance, a cliffhanger after Republicans trounce Democratic challengers in crucial states but fail to lock down the seats needed to retain their tenuous majority.

At least one race in Georgia is headed to a January runoff. Contests in three other states remain undecided, leaving the chamber now deadlocked 48-48. An outcome may not be known until the new year.

With the presidential race between US President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden also undecided, the Senate is in limbo because the vice president of the eventual winner’s party would serve as a tie-breaker in a split chamber.

“We’re waiting — whether I’m going to be the majority leader or not,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday.

That was still the case Thursday.

The counting continues in Georgia, where GOP Sen. David Perdue was trying to hold off Democrat Jon Ossoff in a multi-candidate race that could also go to a runoff if neither candidate clears the 50% threshold to win.

There already is a Jan. 5 runoff in the state’s other Senate race. GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler will face Democrat Raphael Warnock, a Black pastor at the church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached, after they emerged as top vote-getters, but failed to clear the majority threshold.

In North Carolina, GOP Sen. Thom Tillis hoped to prevail over Democrat Cal Cunningham, whose sexting affair with a public relations specialist has clouded the race.

— AP