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The Republican Party has reportedly reclaimed control of the US Senate after picking up seats in Ohio and West Virginia, and fending off challenges to their candidates in Texas and Nebraska.
The Guardian website reports that the Republicans (GOP) will control Congress’s upper chamber for the first time in four years as counting continues in the US presidential elections.
Should Donald Trump win, they will be in a position to confirm his supreme court justices, federal judges and appointees to cabinet posts. If Kamala Harris wins the White House, they can hold up her appointees, or block them outright.
Trump ally Lauren Boebert reportedly won a third term in Congress after moving to a new, more solidly conservative district in Colorado.
The 37-year-old Republican, known for her love of guns, her anti-LGBTQ+ views and her repeated Islamophobic remarks, won over new right-wing voters in Colorado’s fourth district, despite behaviour that even some Republicans have criticised.
Reports indicate that Kamala Harris won Virginia and Hawaii after previously picking up New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington DC and Maine’s first congressional district.
Trump has won Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, Kansas, Idaho, Iowa and the third congressional district in Nebraska.
ABORTION RIGHTS
Americans in 10 US states also voted on whether to enshrine the right to abortion into their state constitutions.
Missouri has voted to amend its state constitution to protect abortion rights – a move that sets the state up to become the first since the fall of Roe v Wade to overturn its near-total abortion ban.
Colorado, New York and Maryland also all passed measures to amend their state constitutions to protect abortion rights and cement the blue states’ status as abortion havens.
However, in Florida, an effort to roll back a six-week ban fell short.
Before Tuesday, seven states had held abortion-related ballot referendums, and abortion rights supporters won all of them before Florida broke their streak.
The results of Tuesday’s measures will not be the final word; states that vote to overturn bans will see litigation or legislation before those bans are repealed.
But taken together, the results will indicate how potent the issue remains after two years without Roe.
