They also pointed to the weaknesses of Republican candidates who were endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump, some of whom amplified lies of a 2020 stolen election and took absolutist stances on abortion, both of which Democrats attacked as extremist.
Who Will Control Congress? Here’s When We’ll Know.
Much remains uncertain. For the second Election Day in a row, election night ended without a clear winner. Nate Cohn, The Times’s chief political analyst, takes a look at the state of the races for the House and Senate, and when we might know the outcome:
Republicans countered that they had, in effect, defeated the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents even before the midterm campaign began.
“We spent the early part of the cycle aggressively coaxing Democrats into retirement,” said Calvin Moore, a spokesman for the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC devoted to electing House Republicans. “So a huge number of the competitive seats were open seats. If their candidates are so strong, why did they all run for the hills?”
The full picture is more complex, and it remains fluid.
In Nevada, where election officials have not finished counting ballots, Ms. Cortez Masto, a Democrat, has been locked in a fierce contest with her Republican challenger, Adam Laxalt, a former state attorney general.
On Friday evening, The Associated Press reported that three of Nevada’s Democratic incumbents in the House beat their Republican opponents. But the state’s Democratic governor, Steve Sisolak, conceded his race to Joseph Lombardo, the Trump-backed Clark County sheriff who ran as a law-and-order Republican.
Several tight races in competitive districts across the country have not yet been called, including those of a House Democratic incumbent in Maine and four in California.
In Alaska, Senator Lisa Murkowski, a centrist Republican seeking a fourth full term in Washington, and her Trump-backed Republican rival, Kelly Tshibaka, are headed toward a ranked-choice finale under the state’s new election system. In Georgia, Mr. Warnock, the Democratic incumbent, and his Republican opponent, Herschel Walker, are headed to a December runoff election.