Biden hails Democratic victories even as Congress control remains in limbo – as it happened

Nevada is the other state where Democratic incumbents are trying to hang on to both a Senate seat and the governor’s mansion, but comments from a top voting official in its most-populous county indicate the wait for results could be lengthy.

Here’s what Clark County registrar Joe Gloria told reporters at a press conference:

The most crucial race in Nevada is Democratic senator Catherine Cortez Masto’s bid for reelection. She’s currently trailing her Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, and a victory for him could mean control of the chamber comes down to the results of the run-off election in Georgia’s Senate race next month.

The Guardian’s Maanvi Singh has the latest from Arizona, where its crucial Senate race still has not been decided:

In Arizona, Democratic senator Mark Kelly has maintained a lead over far-right Republican challenger Blake Masters. The race is one of three key races that could determine which party controls the Senate.

Kelly, a former astronaut and husband of former representative Gabby Giffords, was elected to office in a 2020 special election that delivered both of Arizona’s senate seats to Democrats for the first time in 70 years. This year, he has a sizable edge among early votes cast in Maricopa and Pima counties, but is likely to see his lead narrow as more votes are tallied. Once a Republican bastion, Arizona has recently become a closely-watched swing state where close races can take weeks to tabulate. State law gives officials until 28 November to tally ballots.

Currently Kelly is leading 51% to 46%, with many mail-in votes still uncounted. While Democrats tend to have an advantage among mail-ins in general, in Arizona, where the majority of voters cast mail ballots – it’s hard to predict much about how those will break down.

Masters, a venture capitalist who was endorsed by Donald Trump, struggled throughout his campaign as he waffled between professing far-right ideologies and dialing back his most extreme views. But he could ultimately benefit from voters’ enthusiasm for Kari Lake, the state’s Republican candidate for governor – who is currently trailing her Democratic rival by a smaller margin.

Voters were expected to weigh economic concerns above most other issues. Phoenix, fastest growing US cities, also has the highest inflation rate in the country. Kelly tried to distance himself from Joe Biden, whom 6 in 10 Arizona voters blame for inflation, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,200 voters in Arizona.

In about 45 minutes, Joe Biden will speak at the White House and take questions from reporters.

Expect the president to strike an optimistic note after his Democrats did better than expected in several crucial races nationwide, though it’s still possible they will lose their majorities in the House, Senate or both.

Ahead of his appearance, the White House released this video of him congratulating winners last night:

The Republican party’s US House whip on Wednesday officially launched his bid to become the chamber’s majority leader having cruised to re-election after Tuesday’s midterms.

Steve Scalise, who decisively repelled two challengers to win a ninth terms as the representative for Louisiana’s first congressional district, had long been tapped as a favorite to serve as the House’s majority party leader if Republicans retook the numerical advantage in the chamber after the midterms.

But his announcement both confirmed he would indeed seek that position and signaled his confidence that the Republicans would win the House majority, even if some unexpected victories from vulnerable Democratic incumbents fueled liberal hopes that their party could retain the chamber or at least minimize conservative gains much more than initially projected.

Scalise’s stated intent to become the House majority leader also seemingly poured cold water on the idea that he may pursue the chamber’s speakership if Republican gains are so underwhelming that they deny that position to their current party leader on the floor, Kevin McCarthy of California.

“It’s time for us to focus on delivering for the American people who have trusted us,” Scalise’s announcement Wednesday said. “I will work relentlessly to usher our vision through the House and show the country how conservative ideas can solve the problems that families are facing.”

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Hailing from the New Orleans suburb of Jefferson, Scalise’s move for the majority party leader spot comes a little more than five years after he survived being shot in an assassination attempt that unfolded during an attack on a congressional baseball game practice in 2017.

He would be the highest-ranking congressmember for Louisiana in 50 years, when New Orleans Democrat Hale Boggs ruled as the US House majority party leader before he and his plane disappeared over Alaska during a trip in 1972.

With many key races still undecided as of Wednesday afternoon, neither party had officially clinched control of either congressional chamber.

On the opposite end of the political spectrum, progressive Senator Bernie Sanders is cheering several like-minded lawmakers who will be heading to the House next year:

Wondering what Donald Trump makes of all this?

The New York Times reports that the former president is furious about the loss of Mehmet Oz in the Pennsylvania Senate race. Trump is also hearing from some parties who want him to delay his widely expected announcement next week of another bid for the White House:

Neither Raphael Warnock nor Herschel Walker won the 50% support necessary to decide the race for Georgia’s Senate seat, necessitating a run-off election under the state’s election law.

Top voting official Gabriel Sterling said early this morning that the polls will be held on December 6:

While not all Senate races have been called, there’s a possibility that the outcome of the run-off in Georgia will determine whether Democrats are able to hold the the chamber for another two years, or cede control to the Republicans.

If this all sounds familiar, it’s because it is: just last year, Warnock’s victory in a special election for Georgia’s Senate seat was crucial to establishing the Democrats’ current 50-50 majority in the chamber.

Georgia will hold a run-off election to decide the tight race between incumbent Democratic senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker, the Associated Press confirms.

9 Nov 202214.21 EST

Joanna Walters

Election Day unfolded without major or widespread voting snags, yet former US president Donald Trump and some other Republicans are twisting minor voting problems in the midterm elections into conspiracy theories and false claims – as they make more efforts to sow doubt about Democratic victories.

This continues moves underway since 2020 to undermine Americans’ confidence in voting, the Associated Press reports.

Despite the lack of major voting snags on Tuesday, some GOP candidates sought to distort the severity of the few hitches that occurred, such as voting machines temporarily malfunctioning in Arizona’s largest county and some Detroit voters wrongly being told they had already cast ballots.

The most concerning thing is the way those isolated incidents are being used to spread mis- and disinformation and lies around the election in an attempt to undermine people’s confidence and faith in the election,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections for the nonpartisan group Common Cause.

In 2020, conspiracies about a rigged election were fueled by bogus reports of suitcases stuffed with fraudulent ballots at a Georgia vote-counting operation and '‘ballot mules” loading up drop boxes with fraudulent ballots.

The GOP has kept up the rhetoric since then and laid the groundwork for contesting this year’s midterm elections. More than 100 lawsuits were filed across the country before Election Day, targeting mail-in voting rules, voting machine security and access for partisan poll watchers.

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9 Nov 202214.07 EST

Joanna Walters

Republicans need to flip two seats in the US Senate to gain control of the upper chamber of Congress and shut down not just Joe Biden’s legislative agenda but major acts such as confirming federal judges and, if it came to it, judges for the US Supreme Court.

Going into last night they needed one flip, but after John Fetterman beat Dr Oz to win the open seat in Pennsylvania, which had been held by retiring Republican Patrick Toomey, that rose to two.

Right now, with all eyes on Georgia and Nevada – and indeed Arizona – a quick note about Alaska.

Readers who like to pick ‘n’ mix may have noticed that the Guardian and the New York Times currently have the Senate decided 48 to 48, Democrats vs Republicans in the 100-seat chamber, but CNN on screen and online is showing the GOP at 49 seats.

That’s down to Alaska, where ranked choice voting is used. There isn’t a winner projected yet by the Associated Press, on which the Guardian relies, but the AP acknowledges the race is tight and is now between two Republicans, incumbent Lisa Murkowski and Trump-backed challenger Kelly Tshibaka.

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AP itself notes: “Exactly who’ll win Alaska’s US Senate contest isn’t clear, but it will be a Republican.”

So the GOP do have 49 Senate seats nailed down, but we’ll wait for AP to name a winner in Alaska before we recalculate our AP-driven special live results tracker.

What about the P-word? Mary Peltola is ahead of Sarah Palin in the Alaska House race.

These two.

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