Democrats keep control of the Senate in midterms as Nevada stays blue

The Democrats have kept control of the US Senate, after Catherine Cortez Masto won her Nevada senatorial race in a nailbighting finish.

Senator Cortez Masto beat her Republican opponent Adam Laxalt by just 6,600 votes to give the Democrats 50 of 100 seats in the upper house, which gives the party a working majority as Vice President Kamala Harris can cast tie breaking votes as Senate speaker.

The Republicans are on track to narrowly win control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats, which will likely lead to two years of gridlock in Congress.

The Democrats’ efforts in keeping control of the Senate will mean they have the power to approve Joe Biden’s judicial appointments and set the legislative agenda.

The President said last night that he was “incredibly pleased”, after the Democrats performed better than expected in the midterm elections.

“I feel good, and I’m looking forward to the next couple of years,” Biden said.

New York senator Chuck Schumer said: “The American people rejected the anti-democratic extremist Maga Republicans.”

The failure of a so-called “red wave” to materialise has been blamed by many senior Republicans on Donald Trump, who is expected to announce his candidacy for the 2024 Presidential election on Tuesday.

Many of Trump’s handpicked Senate candidates lost what were considered to be very winnable Senate seats in the election, after Democratic candidates and Biden framed the race as a fight for democracy.

All of Trump’s endorsed candidates for governor, state-level leaders who oversee the verification of Presidential election results, also lost in their contests.

Some senior Republicans are now urging the party to move away from the ex-President amid fears that his false claims about election fraud in 2020 are turning people away from the party.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who won his gubernatorial election by 20 points, is now being hailed as the next defacto leader of the Republican party.

DeSantis, a Yale-trained lawyer turned raging populist, is expected to run for the Republican nomination for the 2024 election.

Trump has begun calling the governor “Ron DeSanctimonious” as he launches a series of attacks on his rival.