Republicans are projected to have won the majority in the US Senate, after flipping Senate seats in West Virginia and Ohio.
Jim Justice, West Virginia’s current governor, is projected to win the seat vacated by the former Democrat Joe Manchin, while Bernie Moreno in Ohio unseated Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown.
The projected results move the Senate to a 51-49 split in favour of the Republicans. Results in other seats are pending, however.
Republicans so far are leading in the House of Representatives though several races are still undecided. Winning the Senate will give the party greater leverage to enact its agenda.
If the Republican Party controls the House, Senate and the White House, it would have broad power to pass laws and enact the president’s partisan agenda.
In Ohio, Brown was projected to lose to Moreno, a Colombian immigrant and former car sales magnate who portrayed the veteran politician as “too liberal for Ohio”.
The contest was called the most expensive Senate race in US history.
Brown told supporters that the result was a “disappointment but not a failure”, adding: “I’m not giving up on our fight for workers and I know you won’t either”.
The seat in West Virginia is projected to flip Republican. It was contested after the retirement of Manchin, who frequently clashed with members of his own party before turning independent.
Justice, had himself been a Democrat before switching parties to Republican at a Trump rally in 2017.
A total of 34 Senate seats were being contested on Tuesday.
In Texas, Trump ally Ted Cruz fended off a robust challenge from former NFL player Colin Allred to win a third term.
Democrats had launched a concerted effort to beat Cruz but the party has not won a state-wide election in the state for more than 30 years.
Rick Scott, a Republican incumbent in Florida, was projected to retain his seat despite a challenge by former Miami-area Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Democrat who migrated from Ecuador as a child.
Speaking at a victory rally, Scott predicted that Republicans would seize the majority in the Senate, and that he would be selected as Senate Majority Leader.
“Florida is the centre of the Republican party of this country,” he told the crowd. “Washington can learn a hell of a lot from what we’ve done right here in this great state.”
