Skip to content

Down to the Wire: 16 House Races, 2 Senate Races Yet to Be Called

Democrats look to expand their majority in the House, as GOP looks for Senate gains in Arizona, Florida

Martha McSally, R-Ariz., is leading narrowly in the Arizona Senate race, which as of Wednesday afternoon had not been called. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Martha McSally, R-Ariz., is leading narrowly in the Arizona Senate race, which as of Wednesday afternoon had not been called. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

Two Senate races and 16 House races remain uncalled as of 9 p.m. Wednesday on the East Coast.

House Democrats have already passed the threshold for a majority by winning 220 seats so far, wresting control of a chamber they haven’t held since 2010. Based on current projections, they could obtain as many as 234 seats — good for a 33-seat majority — though it is more likely they’ll land somewhere around 228 seats for a still-significant 21-seat lead over the Republicans.

In the Senate, the GOP not only held the line, but managed to flip Indiana, North Dakota and Missouri, each states that President Donald Trump won by double digits in 2016.

Here are the outstanding races that will determine the size of the Republicans’ majority in the Senate and the Democrats’ majority in the House:

Senate

Florida

Republican Gov. Rick Scott declared victory over Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson on Tuesday night. As of 12:30 p.m., Wednesday, Scott led Nelson by less than 35,000 votes with all precincts reporting. State officials still need to count or verify straggling absentee and provisional ballots. Nelson held a slight edge in the RealClearPolitics polling average heading into the night — though his lead was well within the margin of error, making Florida one of the night’s bigger upsets.

Arizona

GOP Rep. Martha McSally held a narrow lead of less than 15,000 votes over Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema early Wednesday morning as the secretary of state there waits on just 11 more precincts out of 1,489 to report their results. Absentee and provisional ballots will also add to the vote totals in Arizona over the next few days.

Mississippi

The race for Mississippi’s junior Senate seat has been called, but there will not be a declared winner until a Nov. 27 runoff election.

GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and former Democratic Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy advanced to the runoff after Hyde-Smith failed to reach the 50 percent threshold for an outright victory. Republican Chris McDaniel siphoned off 16.4 percent of the vote from Hyde-Smith.

House

Republican incumbents

Four incumbent California Republicans are locked in close battles that The Associated Press had not called by Wednesday night. California’s 10th, 25th, 45th and 48th Districts were all either too close to call or had not received complete reports from their precincts.

Reps. Steve Knight and Dana Rohrabacher of the 25th and 48th Districts, respectively, trailed their Democratic challengers early Wednesday. Reps. Jeff Denham and Mimi Walters paced the Democrats in their uncalled races.

In Georgia, the adjacent 6th and 7th Districts could both still swing either way.

Democratic activist Lucy McBath led Rep. Karen Handel by roughly 2,100 votes with every precinct reporting in a potential upset bid in the 6th District, where Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff in the most expensive special election in House history in 2017. In the 7th District, GOP Rep. Rob Woodall led Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux by 3,694 votes with all the precincts in.

Utah Rep. Mia Love, who spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention and is the GOP’s only black woman in the House, trailed by 2.6 percent to Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams with 68 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday in the 4th District.

With just absentee and provisional ballots left to count, Democratic challenger Anthony Brindisi led Rep. Claudia Tenney by 1,422 votes in New York’s 22nd District. Tenney, a fierce defender of the president, ran one of the most pro-Trump campaigns of any vulnerable Republican this cycle.

Republican incumbents in Maine’s 2nd District (Bruce Poliquin), New Jersey’s 3rd District (Tom MacArthur), New York’s 27th (Chris Collins), Texas’ 23rd (Will Hurd) and Washington’s 3rd District (Jaime Herrera Beutler) each held narrow edges in their respective races at noon on the East Coast, but remained uncalled.

Open seats

Three open seats remain uncalled, with a pickup opportunity for Democrats still on the table.

In Washington’s 8th District, rated a Toss-up by Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales, Democrat Kim Schrier paced Republican Dino Rossi by 5.8 percent with 64 percent of precincts in for a seat held by retiring GOP Rep. Dave Reichert.

By 9 p.m., Republicans were still holding on to narrow leads in California’s 39th District and North Carolina’s 9th District for open seats previously held by the GOP.

Watch: Now That That’s Over (Mostly) Roll Call Looks Ahead to 2020

[jwp-video n=”1″]

Correction Friday, 2:02 p.m. | An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the Florida Sen. Bill Nelson initially conceded his Senate race. 

Recent Stories

Justices agree to hear dispute over California emissions rules

Farewell tours — Congressional Hits and Misses

Trump signals foreign policy will run through him despite nominee noise

Photos of the week ending December 13, 2024

Walberg gets Republican panel nod for House Education chair

Trump risks legal clashes in plans to not spend appropriations