Two days after a midterm election that delivered sweeping Democratic gains, Senate contests in Mississippi and Alaska remained too close to call on Thursday morning, with Democratic challengers holding thin leads over Republican incumbents, according to The New York Times. In Mississippi, Democratic prosecutor Scott Colom was ahead of Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by slightly more than 1,100 votes. In Alaska, former Representative Mary Peltola led Senator Dan S. Sullivan by an even narrower margin.
Roughly forty House races were also unresolved as of Thursday morning, the Times reported, along with the two Senate seats.
Why it matters
The uncalled races sit on top of an election result that has already reshaped the balance of power. Democrats are on track to hold at least a 50-seat majority in the House, the Times reported, and the party hopes to add to that total as remaining ballots are counted. A Democratic Senate gain in either state would tighten the party's grip on Congress as it prepares to serve as a check on President Trump in his final two years in office.
The results have also opened visible fractures inside the Republican Party. According to The Guardian, Republicans have been blaming their own party's midterm losses on the war in Iran and on cost-of-living pressures facing voters.
Trump presses on Alaska as ranked-choice count looms
President Trump returned to the Alaska race on social media Thursday morning, arguing that the only "fair solution" was for the votes cast for two other candidates to be transferred to Sullivan, the Times reported. One of those candidates shares both a first and last name with the incumbent and was recruited by Democrats, a tactic the Times has detailed previously. A federal judge had earlier rejected an attempt by the Trump administration to block certification of the results in advance in the event the incumbent lost narrowly.
Most of the outstanding ballots in Alaska were expected to be mail-in votes, which typically favor Democrats, according to the Times. If no candidate clears 50 percent, the race moves to a ranked-choice tabulation on November 18.
In Mississippi, the secretary of state said Wednesday that about 3,600 absentee mail ballots were still due to arrive in the coming days, along with an unspecified number of affidavit ballots, the Times reported.
Republican recriminations and a leadership vacuum
Vice President JD Vance attributed the party's losses to the conflict in Iran, which he said had driven up gasoline prices. "The reason we lost is the war," he wrote on social media, according to the Times. President Trump called that assessment "largely true" but said that given the same circumstances he would act the same way again.
Speaker Mike Johnson told Republican aides on Wednesday that he would not seek to lead the House Republican conference when the new Congress convenes with his party in the minority, the Times reported. Representatives Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio both quickly announced bids for minority leader.
Maine's five-term Republican senator, Susan Collins, said she was swept out by what she described as a "Trump tsunami" that unseated many in her party, according to the Times.
In Tennessee, The Associated Press had not called three House races, but State Representative Justin J. Pearson conceded his narrow loss in one Memphis-area district redrawn earlier this year after the weakening of the Voting Rights Act. Pearson said he accepted the outcome while refusing to concede to "rigged maps," according to the Times.
Democratic surrogates claim credit
Prominent Democrats who campaigned for others moved quickly to share in the wins. Former transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg posted more than 30 photographs of himself on the trail with victorious candidates, and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear each posted about a dozen, the Times reported. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the party's leading fundraisers, endorsed Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan's Senate race and transferred $1 million to an account supporting his campaign, according to the Times.
Voters also decided a range of statewide ballot measures, including questions on abortion, election administration and how votes are counted. Washington state voters approved a measure barring transgender girls from girls' sports, the Times reported.
What to watch: Alaska's ranked-choice tabulation on November 18 and the arrival of outstanding absentee and affidavit ballots in Mississippi, which will determine whether Democrats expand their Senate footprint beyond the House majority they have already secured.
