U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
It appeared on Tuesday night, with some U.S. Senate race results still preliminary with less than 100% of the precincts being tallied, that Republicans would remain the majority party there.
But only by a few seats.
They did flip Sen. Doug Jones' Senate seat from Alabama. The Democrat fell to former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville.
Tuberville was named the winner almost as soon as polls closed. He had been a heavy favorite in polling. In the closing days of the race, Jones lashed out at both Tuberville and pollsters who said he'd lose.
At the same time, the Democrats also claimed their first flip: Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, apparently ousted Republican Sen. Cory Gardner.
Hickenlooper's reputation was tainted when he was found to have engaged in unethical behavior while governor of the Rocky Mountain State.
He was ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines for gifts he took for himself – in violation of state rules – while governor.
He also was cited for contempt for refusing to appear before the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission, but faced no additional fine for that.
The state body found Hickenlooper allowed large corporations to pay for private jet trips to Italy – in one televised clip of his trial he said he couldn't remember how many times he accepted those – as well as a Maserati limousine ride and plush dinners.
Gardner had challenged Hickenlooper to "do the right thing: take full responsibility for violating the Colorado Constitution and pay back Colorado taxpayers over $127,000 for his taxpayer-funded attorney feeds that came from a 9/11 economic recovery fund."
Hickenlooper also is a failed presidential candidate, having told reporters during that brief and unsuccessful effort that being a senator would be boring for him. Still, more than 1.2 million Colorado voters chose Hickenlooper over Gardner, who has successfully worked across the aisle with Democrats and has had more legislation successful than most members of the Senate.
For the Democrats to take control of the Senate they needed to flip about four seats, depending upon how two independents line up. In fact, the actual control of the body may not be final for some time, as one open seat will require a runoff election weeks from now.
Otherwise, multiple incumbents will return to their seats.
Democrat incumbents Chris Coons in Delaware, Richard Durbin in Illinois, Edward Markey in Massachusetts, Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, Cory Booker in New Jersey, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, John Reed in Rhode Island and Mark Warner in Virginia were victorious.
In Arizona, Democrat Mark Kelly upset incumbent Republican Sen. Martha McSally.
On the Republican side, incumbents Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Bill Cassidy in Louisiana, Cynthia Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Jim Risch in Idaho, Roger Marshall in Kansas, Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, Jim Inhofe in Oklahoma, Tom Cotton in Arkansas, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina were winners. Republican Bill Hagerty in Tennessee won an open seat.
Graham promised to find "common ground" where he can.
He also said he got a call from President Trump.
"He's gonna win," he said. "All the liberals in California and New York, you're wasting a lot of money. This is the worst return on investment in the history of American politics."
McConnell, the majority leader for Senate Republicans, had been specifically targeted by Democrats, but was declared the winner. He has played a key role in President Trump's effort to appoint Constitution-oriented judges to federal court benches, including three appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court.
There were races for 35 Senate seats, 33 that normally would be up for re-election as part of a rotation in the Senate that has about one-third of the seats re-elected every two years. There were two special elections.
One of those races, where Republican Sen. Sen. Kelly Loeffler had been appointed to a seat representing Georgia, had about 20 hopefuls, but early returns gave none of them the required percentage of 50% plus one. She and the top Democrat in the race, Raphael Warnock, are expected to face each other in a runoff later.
The other special election was Arizona's McSally-Kelly race.
The split in the Senate has been 53 seats held by Republicans and 45 by Democrats, with two independents who align with Democrats.
With the races that had been called, it gave the GOP a 46-45 margin in the Senate.
Given the Loeffler-Warnock race is heading for a runoff, that left eight outstanding races.
They included Alaska, where Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan was the incumbent, one seat in Georgia where incumbent Sen. David Perdue, a Republican, held a lead, Republican Sen. Susan Collins' race in Maine, where she was leading, Republican challenger John James in Michigan, who was leading incumbent Democrat Gary Peters, incumbent Sen. Tina Smith in Minnesota, where she was leading, Republican Sen. Steve Daines' race in Montana, where he was leading, Sen. Thom Tillis in North Carolina, where he was leading, and Democrat Ben Ray Lujan's lead in his open Senate race in New Mexico.
If those GOP candidates who held leads ultimately win, in Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Montana, and North Carolina, it would give the GOP a total of 51 votes, with a possible 52nd in Loeffler's race.
There would even be the possibility of No. 53, should incumbent GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan win in Alaska, a race not yet tabulated late Tuesday.
Republicans were defending 23 seats while the Democrats are defending 12.
In the 2014 election, the last time these same seats were up for election, Republicans won nine seats from Democrats and took over the majority in the Senate. They maintained their hold in 2016 and 2018.
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